How it works

A pattern, or just a good week?

Track enough things and gaps appear everywhere. Most are luck or timing. This is how Lomba checks a pattern before it tells you about it, shown on two habits from one example record.

Example data: one made-up person, 98 days.

01The gap

It starts with a gap.

Lomba lines up the mornings after a habit against all your other mornings. Here are two habits, each against recovery the next morning.

After sauna+6 pts64% after · 58% otherwise · 28 mornings after, 70 otherwise
After cold plunge+8 pts66% after · 58% otherwise · 32 mornings after, 66 otherwise

Cold plunge has the bigger gap. A gap alone isn’t an answer yet.

02Luck

First, could it be luck?

Enough days each wayA first look needs 5 days with the habit and 5 without. Until then no gap is shown.Still collectingEvening run and sleep that night · 3 of 5 nights
Rarer than chanceLomba shuffles which mornings count as “after”, keeping neighbouring days together, and counts how often a gap that large turns up anyway. In 2,000 shuffles of this record, the sauna gap turned up 2 times, the cold plunge gap never.
Judged togetherThis record was asked 24 questions, and 9 had enough days to test. Ask enough questions and one will look good by luck, so the bar rises with every question asked.No clear gapLate coffee and sleep. Enough days, no clear difference.

Both gaps clear this bar. Luck isn’t the only thing that makes a gap.

03The checks

Then it tries to break it.

Each check measures the gap again another way. The gap passes a check when at least half of it is still there.

The gap

After sauna+6 ptsbefore any check

After cold plunge+8 ptsbefore any check

One good stretch?A good month can look like a pattern. The gap is measured again inside the same weeks.

+6.1 ptsSimilar within the same weeks

+1.7 ptsMostly gone within the same weeks

The morning before?A habit can follow mornings that were already good. The morning before is counted.

+5.2 ptsSimilar once the morning before is counted

+0.8 ptsMostly gone once the morning before is counted

Both halves?The first half of the record and the second have to point the same way.

Same direction in both halves of your record

A one-off?It has to come back over at least 6 separate runs of days.

28 separate runs of days

12 separate runs of days

The answer

Held up

Set asideMost of the gap goes away within the same weeks. Logged 30 Jun – 28 Sep, so the stretch of time may be what differs.

Example data. When two habits travel together, one more check compares the days where they come apart. With too few of those, Lomba says it can’t tell them apart yet.

Cold plunge started with the bigger gap, and it was the rarer one by luck. Within the same weeks most of it was gone, so Lomba set it aside and said why.

04The answer

Four answers. One of them is “not yet”.

Held upThe gap cleared the luck bar and passed every check. Still an association, not a cause.
Set asideA gap at first, then it failed a check. Lomba says which one.
Still collectingNot enough days yet. No gap is shown.
No clear gapEnough days, no clear difference. That isn’t proof of no effect.

It needs ordinary days with and without something. Don’t change your day to feed it.

Lomba will never

Tell you one thing caused another
Set targets you didn’t set, or grade you as a person
Tell you what a result means medically

Start with a few weeks of ordinary days.

We invite a small group at a time and set each person up ourselves.

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