Research published in the American Journal of Physiology identifies a “tipping point” for speech disfluency. Occasional fillers (approximately 1.28 per 100 words, or roughly one per minute) do not significantly harm credibility and may even enhance the perception of authenticity.^[2] Speech that is entirely devoid of disfluency can be perceived as scripted or robotic.

However, once usage exceeds this threshold, the negative correlation with perceived competence accelerates. High frequencies of “um” and “uh” are statistically correlated with lower ratings of preparedness, authority, and intelligence in professional evaluations.^[3]

The goal isn’t to eliminate these behaviors entirely—that would make your speech sound overly rehearsed. Instead, the goal is to reduce them to the point where they no longer distract from your message or signal a lack of confidence.

The primary driver of speech disfluency is the fundamental mismatch between thought speed and speech speed. Research shows that the average person speaks at approximately 125–150 words per minute, yet the brain processes thoughts at rates ranging from 400 to 1,500 words per minute.^[4] This dramatic disparity creates a “buffer management” problem where your brain generates ideas faster than your mouth can execute them, or conversely, your mouth exhausts the buffered speech plan before your brain has formulated the next linguistic chunk.

When the articulatory buffer empties, the brain instinctively inserts fillers or continues talking to bridge the gap. This reflects a learned response to what linguists call Horror Vacui—the fear of silence.^[5] Research from JSTOR Daily shows that in many conversational contexts, silence is interpreted as yielding your turn to speak, so you use sound to signal “I am not done.”^[6]

Contrary to popular belief, filler words aren’t simply bad habits—they’re complex cognitive signals embedded in the architecture of language production. Research from Columbia University shows that speakers unconsciously select “uh” to signal a minor delay in speech planning, while “um” signals a major delay requiring deeper cognitive processing.^[7]

Electrocorticography (EcoG) studies published in PubMed Central demonstrate that during the utterance of filled pauses, the brain’s association cortex and visual processing areas remain highly active.^[8] This indicates the brain isn’t “idling” during an “um”—it’s engaging in intense computational work to retrieve obscure vocabulary or organize complex syntax. The filler word acts as a “busy signal,” informing the listener that the channel is active despite the lack of informational output.^[9]

BrainFacts research further confirms that filled pauses are functional elements of speech production, not errors to be entirely eliminated.^[10]

Speech production is a high-bandwidth activity requiring simultaneous coordination of conceptualization (what to say), formulation (syntax and word choice), and articulation (motor execution). Research published by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association shows that cognitive load affects speech motor performance differently under pressure, with divided attention dramatically increasing disfluency rates.^[11]

In high-stakes environments like job interviews or client presentations, you’re burdened with secondary cognitive tasks:

1. Self-Monitoring: Regulating body language, tone, and pacing
2. Audience Monitoring: Reading facial expressions and engagement levels
3. Anxiety Management: Suppressing the physiological “fight or flight” response

This cognitive taxation reduces the resources available for lexical retrieval, leading to increased hesitancy and reliance on automatic filler habits as a fallback mechanism.^[12]

The most common cause of excessive fillers is speaking before you’ve fully formed your thought. Speaking requires your brain to simultaneously manage multiple complex tasks: formulating ideas, selecting precise words, organizing sentence structure, and coordinating the physical act of speech. When any of these processes lags even slightly, your mouth arrives at a gap before your brain has finished preparing the next segment. Filler words emerge automatically to bridge that gap, buying your brain the fraction of a second it needs to catch up.

This represents what psycholinguists call a failure of pre-articulatory planning. The speaker begins the utterance before the syntactic frame is complete, forcing them to construct the sentence linearly in real-time.^[9] This is why filler words increase when you’re discussing complex topics or thinking through ideas as you speak.

Humans are deeply uncomfortable with silence in conversation. From a young age, we internalize the expectation that speech should flow continuously without awkward pauses.^[5] When you sense a gap forming in your speech, you instinctively fill it with sound rather than allowing silence.

The irony is that silence feels much longer to you as the speaker than it does to your listener. A one-second pause that feels painfully awkward to you registers as a natural, even confident pause to your audience. Your discomfort with silence drives you to say “um” when saying nothing would actually serve you better.

High-pressure situations increase disfluency for many people. When you’re nervous during an interview, presentation, or difficult conversation, anxiety consumes cognitive resources that would normally manage speech planning and monitoring.^[11] You lose the executive function that would typically signal “you’ve made your point, stop talking,” so you continue rambling past the useful endpoint.

Anxiety also makes silence feel more uncomfortable, compounding the fear-of-brevity issue. A pause that would feel fine in a relaxed conversation becomes unbearable when you’re nervous, driving you to fill every moment with words.

Filler words spike when you’re uncertain about what you want to say or how to say it. If you haven’t fully formed your thought before speaking, you end up thinking out loud, and filler words proliferate as you search for direction. This happens frequently when answering unexpected questions, explaining unfamiliar topics, or speaking without preparation.

When you know exactly what point you want to make and have mentally rehearsed the structure (even briefly), filler words decrease naturally because your brain isn’t scrambling to generate content in real time.

Filler words often appear alongside another speech issue: rambling. While filler words are individual sounds like “um” and “like,” rambling is when you continue talking past the point where you’ve made your point clear, circling around ideas without a clear endpoint.

If you struggle with both filler words and rambling, they’re likely connected—both stem from thinking out loud without proper planning. For detailed strategies on reducing rambling specifically, see our guide on how to stop rambling.

You cannot fix what you don’t notice. Most people significantly underestimate how often they use filler words until they hear themselves recorded. Research on speech perception shows that speakers have difficulty monitoring their own output in real-time due to the suppression of auditory feedback during speech production.^[9]

Start by recording yourself answering common questions for 60 to 90 seconds. Listen back specifically for filler words and count them. This creates concrete awareness of your baseline patterns.

Pay attention to when fillers cluster. Do they appear most when you’re starting sentences? When transitioning between ideas? When you’re uncertain about an answer? Identifying these patterns tells you where to focus your practice. Many people discover they have one dominant filler word (“like” or “um”) that accounts for 80% of their fillers, making improvement more manageable because you can target that specific habit.

Filler words spike during moments of uncertainty. Reduce uncertainty by preparing common responses in advance. For job interviews, rehearse answers to predictable questions until your opening sentences are automatic. For presentations, memorize your transitions between sections. For meetings, prepare your main point before speaking.

This doesn’t mean scripting everything word-for-word, which sounds robotic. Instead, have a clear mental structure: “I’m going to make this point, support it with this example, and conclude with this takeaway.” When you know where you’re going, you don’t need fillers to buy thinking time.

The most effective technique for reducing filler words is learning to pause instead of filling silence. When you feel the impulse to say “um,” consciously choose silence instead. This feels uncomfortable initially because the pause seems to stretch forever from your perspective. In reality, a one to two second pause sounds confident and thoughtful to listeners.

Research published in the American Journal of Physiology shows that pauses serve a dual function. For the speaker, pausing provides the necessary processing time (typically 200–500 milliseconds) to plan the next syntactic unit without the cognitive cost of vocalization. For the listener, it aids comprehension by providing “chunking” breaks to process the information.^[2]

The strategy of consciously replacing “um” with silence is scientifically sound, leveraging the brain’s ability to inhibit automatic motor responses. Studies on neuroplasticity from Toastmasters District 84 confirm that this inhibition control is trainable through repeated practice.^[13]

Practice this deliberately: answer a question and force yourself to pause for a full second between sentences. Count “one-Mississippi” silently in your head. The physical discomfort you feel is your brain’s addiction to filling silence. The more you practice pausing, the more comfortable silence becomes, and the less you’ll automatically reach for filler words.

Pauses also give your brain the processing time it needs, which reduces the cognitive pressure that generates fillers in the first place. Speaking slightly slower with intentional pauses is far more effective than speaking quickly while peppering your speech with “ums.”

Set a timer for 60 seconds and answer a prompt without stopping. Your only rule: no filler words. If you use one, start over. This creates immediate consequences that train your brain to pause instead of filling. The artificial pressure of the timer simulates real speaking conditions.

Initially, you might restart multiple times within 60 seconds. That’s expected. Over days of practice, you’ll notice you can speak for longer stretches without fillers. This builds the neural pathways for filler-free speech that transfer to real situations.

Apps like Oompf automate this process by tracking your filler words through Leo’s AI analysis and providing immediate feedback on each practice session, helping you see improvement over time without manual counting.

Before you start speaking, silently complete your sentence in your head. This brief mental rehearsal (taking less than a second with practice) ensures you know where your sentence is going before you begin it. Many filler words appear mid-sentence when you’ve started talking without knowing how you’ll finish the thought.

Make a commitment to finishing complete thoughts. If you do lose your place mid-sentence, pause, acknowledge it simply (“Let me restate that”), and begin again. This is far more effective than trying to salvage a tangled sentence with multiple fillers.

Many people use filler words because they speak faster than they can think. If you’re constantly outpacing your own thought process, your brain will insert fillers to buy time while it catches up. Deliberately slowing your speaking pace by 10 to 20% creates more processing room and naturally reduces fillers.

Practice speaking at what feels uncomfortably slow to you. Record it and listen back. You’ll likely discover that your “too slow” pace actually sounds clear, confident, and perfectly natural to listeners.

Some filler words will always slip through, especially in spontaneous conversations or stressful moments. That’s normal and acceptable. The goal is reducing fillers to the point where they no longer distract from your message, not achieving robotic perfection.

Give yourself credit for progress. If you used to average 15 filler words per minute and now average 3, that’s a massive improvement even though you’re not at zero. Perfectionism about filler words can actually increase them by raising your anxiety, which taxes cognitive resources and generates more processing delays.

If you use multiple filler words, don’t try to eliminate them all simultaneously. Choose your most frequent one (usually “um,” “like,” or “uh”) and focus exclusively on that for one to two weeks. Once you’ve significantly reduced it, move to the next one.

This focused approach is more effective than diffusing your attention across multiple habits. Your brain can successfully rewire one automatic pattern at a time more easily than overhauling your entire speech pattern at once.

Don’t wait for high-pressure moments to practice. Use everyday conversations as training grounds. Set a small goal like “I’ll answer this one question without using ‘um’” or “I’ll pause instead of saying ‘like’ during this story.”

Low-stakes practice allows you to experiment without fear of consequences. As you build competence in casual settings, the new habits transfer naturally to higher-pressure situations.

Research from the NIH on making health habitual shows that most people notice initial improvement within 7 to 10 days of focused practice.^[15] You’ll start catching yourself before using a filler word or successfully pausing instead.

Significant reduction (going from 15+ fillers per minute to 3-5) typically takes 3 to 4 weeks of daily 10 to 15 minute practice sessions. Studies on neuroplasticity show that neural pathways are strengthened through repeated use, with structural changes visible after consistent practice periods.^[13]

After 2 to 3 months, speaking with minimal fillers becomes your new default habit requiring less conscious effort. The key is consistency. Five practice sessions per week will produce more lasting change than one intensive session, because you’re building new automatic behaviors that need regular reinforcement to stick.

Filler words spike dramatically when you’re caught off guard by a question you didn’t anticipate. Your brain needs time to formulate a response from scratch, and in that moment of mental scrambling, “um” and “uh” rush in to fill the void. This happens frequently in job interviews when interviewers ask unusual behavioral questions, in meetings when colleagues request your opinion on topics you haven’t considered, or in conversations when someone asks something personal or complex.

What helps: Buy yourself legitimate thinking time by acknowledging the question first. Say “That’s a good question” or “Let me think about that for a moment” before launching into your answer. This creates a natural pause that doesn’t sound like hesitation, giving your brain the few seconds it needs to organize a coherent response without using fillers.

The first few words of any answer are particularly vulnerable to filler words. You’re transitioning from listening to speaking, your thoughts aren’t yet organized, and the pressure of beginning creates hesitation. Many people open with “So, um...” or “Well, like...” before finding their stride.

What helps: Prepare and practice strong opening phrases for common scenarios. In interviews: “In my previous role at X...” or “The key factor was...” In meetings: “My recommendation is...” or “Based on the data...” These prepared launchers give you a clean entry point that requires no thinking.

When you’re translating complicated ideas into clear language, your brain works harder to find precise words and check whether your explanation makes sense. This increased cognitive load creates more processing delays, which fill with “ums,” “likes,” and tangential details.

What helps: Simplify your mental model before speaking. Commit to one main point with one supporting example. Develop analogies and simplified frameworks in advance so you’re not generating them in real time. Practice explaining your complex topics to non-experts in casual settings.

Sometimes you start a sentence heading in one direction, realize mid-way that it’s not working, and attempt to redirect without restarting. This moment of mental recalibration generates clusters of filler words as your brain tries to salvage the sentence: “We should, um, like, basically what I mean is...” The more you try to fix a broken sentence without pausing, the more fillers accumulate.

What helps: Give yourself permission to restart. If you lose your thread mid-sentence, stop cleanly, pause, and begin a new sentence. Say “Let me rephrase that” if you need to acknowledge the reset. This is far more professional than padding a dying sentence with multiple fillers. Practice the discipline of one idea per sentence, which reduces the cognitive juggling that causes mid-sentence derailments.

Moving from one point to the next creates brief uncertainty about how to bridge the gap smoothly. Your brain finishes expressing one thought and needs a moment to access and frame the next one. These transitions often fill with “so,” “um,” or “basically” as verbal placeholders.

What helps: Use transitional phrases deliberately: “The second factor is...” or “This connects to...” or “Building on that point...” Having a repertoire of clean transitions eliminates the need for filler words during these vulnerable moments. In prepared presentations, rehearse your transitions explicitly so they’re automatic.

When you need time to think but feel pressure to keep talking, filler words multiply as your mouth continues moving while your brain searches for content. This happens when someone asks a thoughtful question that deserves consideration, when you’re working through a problem out loud, or when you simply haven’t finished formulating your thought.

What helps: Normalize thinking pauses in your speech. Practice saying nothing for 2 to 3 seconds while you collect your thoughts, recognizing that this pause signals thoughtfulness rather than incompetence to listeners. In professional settings, you can verbally claim thinking time: “Give me a moment to consider that” or “Let me think through the best way to explain this.” This transforms awkward silence into legitimate processing time that doesn’t require filler words.

Job interviews, important presentations, difficult conversations, and moments when authority figures or large audiences are watching all increase filler word frequency. The stress response diverts cognitive resources away from smooth speech production, creating more processing delays that manifest as fillers. Ironically, the more you want to perform well, the more likely you are to produce the very fillers that undermine your performance.

What helps: Reduce pressure through preparation and simulation. Practice the specific scenario repeatedly before the actual event so your brain recognizes it as familiar rather than threatening. Research on motor sequential learning shows that distributed practice is more effective than massed practice.^[16] Use physical anxiety management techniques (deep breathing, grounding exercises) before speaking to lower your baseline stress level. Accept that some nervousness is normal and doesn’t have to derail your speech if you’ve built strong habits through practice.

When discussing personal matters, delivering difficult feedback, or navigating emotional conversations, the cognitive load of managing your emotions while selecting careful words creates more hesitation and fillers. You’re simultaneously processing feelings and monitoring how your words might land, which divides your mental resources.

What helps: For planned difficult conversations, outline your main points in advance so you’re not generating content in real time while emotionally activated. Slow your pace deliberately in these conversations, which reduces fillers and also conveys thoughtfulness and care. Allow yourself pauses to manage emotion without filling them with “ums.” If you need a moment to compose yourself, that pause is more powerful than a filler-laden ramble.

Once you identify which situations trigger your filler words most frequently, you can create situation-specific strategies rather than trying to eliminate fillers everywhere all at once. If you notice 80% of your fillers appear when starting responses, focus your practice on strong openings. If transitions are your weak point, rehearse transitional phrases until they’re automatic. This targeted approach produces faster, more sustainable improvement than generic “stop saying um” advice.

Interviews are among the highest-pressure speaking situations, which naturally increases filler words. Interviewers often interpret excessive fillers as lack of preparation, uncertainty, or weak communication skills, making this context particularly important to address.

Strategy: Master the strategic pause. When asked a question, give yourself permission to pause for 2 to 3 seconds before responding. This pause signals thoughtfulness rather than hesitation and gives your brain time to organize a structured response. Practice answering common interview questions using frameworks like STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) until the structure becomes automatic. When you know exactly where your answer is headed, fillers naturally decrease.

Prepare and rehearse your opening sentences for predictable questions. “Tell me about yourself” and “Why this role?” appear in nearly every interview. If these openings are automatic, you start strong without fillers, which builds momentum and confidence for the rest of the conversation. Record yourself answering interview questions and count your fillers, then practice the same questions focusing specifically on pausing instead of filling silence. Set a goal: reduce from 10 fillers per answer to 3, then to 1.

In meetings, colleagues value concise, clear contributions over quick ones. Many people use filler words because they feel pressure to respond immediately when called on or to maintain continuous sound when presenting an idea. This rush creates the cognitive overload that generates fillers.

Strategy: Prioritize clarity over speed. When you have something to say, take a brief moment to mentally complete your main sentence before speaking. Set micro-goals for each meeting: “I’ll contribute once with zero filler words” or “I’ll pause before speaking instead of saying “um” to start.” These small wins build confidence and new habits.

Practice speaking more slowly than feels natural. What seems slow to you sounds confident and authoritative to listeners, and the reduced pace gives your brain processing space that prevents fillers. If you notice yourself starting to fill with “ums,” pause and collect your thought rather than pushing through with more fillers.

Presentations create sustained pressure over several minutes rather than brief responses. Many presenters script everything word-for-word to reduce anxiety, but this backfires when you inevitably deviate from the script and your brain scrambles to get back on track, generating fillers in the process.

Strategy: Focus your rehearsal on transitions between sections rather than every word. Know your opening sentence cold. Know how you’ll move from introduction to first main point, from first point to second point, and so on. Know your closing sentence. These structural anchors prevent you from getting lost, which is when fillers proliferate.

Practice your presentation multiple times out loud, not just mentally reviewing slides. Each rehearsal reduces cognitive load during the actual delivery, freeing mental resources that would otherwise create processing delays and fillers. Record one full rehearsal and note where fillers cluster, then target those specific sections in your next practice.

Build in intentional pauses. After making an important point, pause for 2 to 3 seconds. After asking a rhetorical question, pause. After showing a new slide, pause briefly before speaking. These planned pauses create natural rhythm, give your audience time to absorb information, and eliminate the need for filler words during transitions.

If you do use a filler word during your presentation, dont mentally spiral or apologize. Simply continue with confidence. One or two fillers in a 10-minute presentation barely registers to listeners, but your visible anxiety about them does.

Non-native speakers often experience heightened filler word usage because they’re managing language translation, vocabulary selection, and grammar simultaneously. The temptation is to focus on speaking “perfectly,” which actually increases fillers by raising cognitive load and self-consciousness.

Strategy: Prioritize continuous speaking over perfect speaking. Practice answering prompts for 60 to 90 seconds without stopping, even if you make small grammar mistakes or can’t find the perfect word. This builds fluency momentum. When you reduce the number of times you pause to search for the “correct” word, you naturally reduce filler words because you’re not creating as many hesitation moments.

Build a library of reliable phrases and sentence structures in English that you can deploy automatically. “In my experience...” “The main factor is...” “This connects to...” When you have these frameworks ready, you’re not constructing sentences from scratch in real time, which significantly reduces cognitive load and associated fillers.

Accept that your accent or occasional grammatical imperfection matters far less than clear, confident delivery. Many non-native speakers communicate more effectively than native speakers because they practice deliberately. Focus on reducing fillers specifically during your opening and closing statements, which have the strongest impact on how listeners perceive your overall communication ability.

Practice with native speakers in low-stakes settings when possible. The more you speak English conversationally without the pressure of perfection, the more automatic it becomes, and the fewer fillers you’ll need as processing aids.

In social situations, filler words often stem from overthinking what you “should say” or worrying about how you’re being perceived. You monitor your own speech so intensely that you create the very hesitation and uncertainty that generates fillers. The goal isn’t just cleaner speech but more natural, present conversation.

Strategy: Practice speaking without planning your next sentence while the other person is still talking. This sounds counterintuitive, but over-preparation in casual conversation makes you sound rehearsed and actually increases fillers because your planned sentence doesn’t quite fit the moment, forcing awkward adjustments.

Instead, practice responding spontaneously to random conversation prompts. Set a timer for 30 seconds and answer questions like “What surprised you this week?” or “What are you looking forward to?” without any preparation. This builds comfort with unscripted speaking and reduces the overthinking that generates fillers in social settings.

Focus on being interested rather than interesting. When you’re genuinely engaged in what someone else is saying and responding to their ideas rather than performing for them, fillers naturally decrease because you’re not in your head monitoring your own performance.

Set a goal of having one conversation per day where you don’t criticize yourself for any filler words. Notice them if they happen, but release the self-judgment. This reduces the anxiety-filler cycle where worrying about saying “um” makes you more likely to say it. Social confidence comes from accepting imperfect speech as normal human communication, not from achieving flawless delivery.

Across all contexts, the most effective filler word reduction comes from addressing the underlying cause rather than just suppressing the symptom. Interviews require preparation and structure. Meetings require slowing down and organizing thoughts first. Presentations require rehearsing frameworks. Non-native speakers need fluency practice. Social situations need less self-monitoring. Identify which context matters most to you and apply the specific strategy that addresses that situation’s unique pressures.

Research from the NIH published in PubMed Central on the multiple effects of practice demonstrates that skill acquisition follows predictable neuroplasticity patterns. Distributed practice (e.g., 5 minutes daily) is superior to massed practice (e.g., 1 hour weekly) for retention and neural consolidation—a principle known as the spacing effect from Ebbinghaus’s research.^[14]

Studies on motor sequential learning show that frequency of repetition is the primary driver of habit formation.^[16] For speech habits specifically, research from Toastmasters District 84 confirms that repeated, structured practice physically rewires neural pathways, making concise communication patterns automatic over time.^[13]

Oompf’s core value proposition is “The Duolingo for Speaking”—leveraging high-frequency, low-friction practice to build habits.

Scientific Support: This approach is strongly supported by research on neuroplasticity and the spacing effect. Skill acquisition research indicates that distributed practice is superior to massed practice for retention and neural consolidation.^[14] Studies on gamification in education, including research published in The Open Psychology Journal, show that gamification enhances motivation and engagement by providing immediate dopamine rewards (scores, streaks).^[17]

For anxiety-prone speakers, research indicates that the “game” frame reduces the perceived threat of the activity, lowering the affective filter that blocks performance. Research on gamified speech therapy shows significant benefits for skill development when practice feels accessible rather than clinical.^[18]

The Safe Space Advantage: Oompf focuses on asynchronous, offline practice. This provides a “psychologically safe” environment to fail and iterate without the cognitive load of real-time monitoring during actual high-stakes conversations. Research confirms that reducing performance anxiety during initial skill acquisition accelerates learning.

The Community Component: While solo practice builds foundational skills, research shows that social evaluation is the key trigger for authentic speech anxiety.^[5] Oompf’s community sharing feature bridges the gap between solo practice and real-world performance by introducing graduated social pressure.

Research on habit formation suggests the most effective approach depends on your current stage:

• Building foundational habits (first 4-6 weeks): Use Oompf or similar habit-building platforms for daily 10-15 minute timed practice with structural feedback. Research shows time constraints and frameworks directly train concise thinking.
• Preparing for specific presentations: Supplement daily practice with Yoodli or Speeko for detailed analysis of your particular speech. Use the analytics to identify which sections need tightening.
• Chronic rambling in work meetings: Practice common meeting scenarios (project updates, recommendations, status reports) with timed exercises that simulate real meeting pressure.
• Public speaking focus: Join Toastmasters after building baseline conciseness through app-based practice. Research confirms that live audience experience helps transfer skills to realistic pressure situations.
• Budget-conscious approach: Start with timer + recording DIY method for awareness, then invest in affordable daily practice tools ($10-15/month).

Tools for reducing filler words fall into distinct categories based on their fundamental approach to the problem.

Analysis and Metrics Tools (Speeko, Yoodli, Orai): These apps analyze recorded practice sessions and provide detailed data on filler word frequency, location, and patterns. They treat filler word reduction as a technical problem requiring precise measurement. Best used when you’re preparing for a specific high-stakes event and want to analyze a particular presentation or pitch in detail.

Habit-Building Practice Platforms (Oompf): These apps focus on creating consistent practice habits through engaging, frequent exercises. They track filler words as one element of overall communication improvement. Best used when you want to build a sustainable daily practice that reduces filler words while improving overall communication skills.

Community and Live Feedback (Toastmasters, Coaches): Traditional methods provide human feedback in real-world speaking contexts. Toastmasters assigns an “ah counter” who literally counts every filler word you use during speeches. Best used when you’ve built baseline skills through daily practice and want periodic live feedback.

Filler word reduction happens through volume of practice, not just quality of analysis. Tools that encourage daily speaking practice (even with simpler feedback) typically produce faster, more sustainable improvement than tools with sophisticated analysis that you only use occasionally.

Research from the NIH on habit formation shows that consistency matters more than intensity.^[15] The best tool is the one that encourages daily practice, because filler word habits are deeply ingrained and only change through repetition and regular feedback. Choose based on what you’ll actually use every day, not what has the most impressive features.