When changing a habit (usually substituting is with a better habit, see post ) we need to check our progress. In other words as engineers say, "to sample" the flowing reality, with a particular frequency. E.g. every day, or every few hours etc. This is the frequency of the sampler. The collected sample in the conscious helps us to assess our doing and progress. The higher the frequency of the sampler the better the control. But it cannot be very high frequency is as this consumes effort and distracts us from the rest pf our normal life. So a compensations is required. For example one of the gurus of personal development reported that in order to quite smoking he simply used a sampling with frequency equal to the number of cigarettes: Each time he wanted to light a cigarette he wrote on the cigarette packet with a pencil the time. This simple "accounting" action, made him have conscious awareness and resulted in to gradual reduction of the number of cigarettes, and finally completely quitting smoking. There are similar techniques in weight loss, where, someone is simply recording in a appropriate software or online-site what he ate, and the software automatically calculated calories profile , of fats, proteins and carbohydrates.
