Health & Wellness

Tired of ‘Starting Monday’? Violet Benson’s 4-Step Habit Hack Actually Works

November 7, 2025

If you’ve ever sworn you’d “start Monday” and then watched Monday sprint past, Violet Benson gets it. On Almost Adulting, the internet’s favorite big sis takes habit-building out of the clouds and plants it firmly in real life—the one with work, weird schedules, and a brain that would rather scroll.

In this episode, Benson breaks down what she calls the “holy grail of habit hacks”—a framework borrowed from Atomic Habits by James Clear that includes four simple steps: cue, craving, response, and reward. Each step forms part of what psychologists call a “habit loop,” a feedback cycle your brain runs through constantly.

1. The cue

Every habit starts with a cue—a little signal that tells your brain, “Hey, something good might be coming.” To build better habits, you just have to put the right cues in your line of sight. Set your environment up like a breadcrumb trail toward the habit you want. Leave your running shoes by the door. Put your journal on your pillow. Set an alarm labeled “Drink water, not vibes.”

Benson explains that this is how you stack the deck in your favor. You’re designing your environment so that the cue is impossible to ignore.

2. The craving

You don’t crave the habit itself. You crave what it gives you. You don’t crave a morning run, you crave the calm after it. You don’t crave doing dishes, you crave walking into a clean kitchen. The craving is the emotional driver behind every habit loop.

To make that craving work for you, find the state change you actually want and connect it to the habit. Benson suggests pairing something you need to do with something you want to do. Listen to your favorite podcast while cleaning, or watch your comfort show while meal-prepping. And if all else fails? Bribe yourself. Benson admits she rewards long editing sessions with ice cream and Netflix. “Each craving is linked to a desire to change your internal state,” she says.

3. The response

“If a particular action requires more physical or mental effort than you’re willing to expend, then you won’t do it,” Benson says. That’s why the key is to make your response—the action itself—so easy it’s almost laughable.

Consider something called the “Two-Minute Rule.” Scale the habit down until it takes less than two minutes to start. Want to read more? Open the book. Want to journal? Write one sentence. Want to work out? Just put on the leggings.

4. The reward

This is the part where your brain throws a tiny party. Rewards are what tell your mind, “Hey, that was worth doing,” and remembering it for next time. “Rewards close the feedback loop and complete the habit cycle,” Benson says.

Your brain loves instant feedback, so give it some. Check off your habit tracker. Text your friend “done.” Smile and actually feel the relief, pride, or peace that comes after the action. That satisfaction is the glue that makes a habit stick. You’re not tricking yourself—you’re training yourself. The more satisfying the result, the more likely your brain is to hit repeat.

Pocket checklist (screenshot this for when your motivation goes MIA)

Cue: Can I see exactly what reminds me to start?
Craving: What feeling am I hoping to create?
Response: What’s the two-minute version I can do right now?
Reward: How can I make finishing feel instantly good?

Every habit you build is proof that small choices really can shift the bigger picture. Keep stacking those wins—you’ll notice the difference faster than you think.