LOOP: - Cue: Evening boredom after work, especially when the user is alone at home - Routine: Drinks 2 to 3 beers while scrolling or watching something - Likely reward: Reduced boredom, mild comfort, and a clearer shift out of “empty evening” mode EVIDENCE: - Directly stated: The habit happens in the evening, boredom is part of the trigger, beer is the current routine - Strongly likely: The habit also helps mark the transition from the day into downtime - Assumptions: The user is not mainly seeking intoxication, but relief from dull unstructured time MAIN FUNCTION: - what the habit is most likely doing for the user: filling empty time and creating a quick reward loop - what need it is most likely serving: stimulation plus emotional decompression RISK LEVEL: - MODERATE - why: alcohol is involved, but the pattern appears routine-based rather than fully uncontrolled - what this changes in the plan: the plan should reduce automatic drinking first, not rely on willpower alone REPLACEMENT: - the replacement routine: open a cold non-alcoholic drink immediately, then do a 10-minute preselected activity before deciding anything else - why it preserves the reward better: it keeps the “evening switch” and hand-to-mouth reward while interrupting the alcohol routine - why it is realistic enough to repeat: it is short, concrete, and does not require the user to feel motivated ENVIRONMENT SHIFT: - what to remove: visible beer storage in the main evening area - what to add: cold sparkling water or non-alcoholic beer, one prewritten list of 10-minute evening resets - what to make easier: grabbing the replacement drink and starting one low-effort activity - what to make harder: needing to leave the room or take an extra step before getting beer KEY LEVER: - Replace the first drink, not the whole evening PLAN: 1. Put all alcoholic drinks out of immediate reach before the evening starts. 2. Keep one replacement drink cold and ready every day. 3. Choose one default 10-minute activity for the first part of the evening. 4. Delay any alcohol decision until after the 10-minute reset. 5. Track only one thing: how many evenings started with the replacement instead of beer. FAILURE POINTS: - coming home depleted and skipping setup - keeping alcohol visible and easy to grab - treating one drink as harmless and sliding back into autopilot RESET AFTER A SLIP: - do this: identify what happened before the first drink and reset the environment the same day - do not do this: call the day ruined or turn one slip into a full evening relapse - first step back: put the next replacement drink in place before tomorrow evening FIRST TEST: - the first experiment to run: for 3 evenings, replace only the first beer with a cold non-alcoholic drink and one 10-minute activity - what success looks like: at least 2 of 3 evenings start differently - what failure likely means: the trigger is stronger than expected or the replacement is too weak or inconvenient FINAL RULE: - Do not fight the whole habit. Interrupt the first 10 minutes.