Atomic Habits
“Atomic Habits” by James Clear
My Notes
Intro
- small choices/habits compound in their effectiveness over long periods of time
- many give up on goals because they cannot break through the “plateau of late-end potential”
- thus you shouldn’t focus on goals, you should focus on the systems that will lead you there
- goals are good for setting direction, but systems are what are actually good for making radical progress
- all Olympic athletes have the same goal of a gold medal, so obviously the goal isn’t the differentiator
Don’t focus on outcomes, change your identity
- true behavior change is identity change
- every time you choose to do something like “play the guitar” it is like a vote for the identity “I’m a musician”, overtime the votes build and your identity becomes a manifestation of what you do; it’s always evolving
- shift the question of “what outcomes do you what?” to “what kind of person could get the outcomes that I want?” and then with that focus on identity you can start making the small steps to become that person
Habits, the loop, the laws
- habits are the “design patterns” (for you programmers) of daily life; solutions for reoccurring problems
- the habit loop: cue, craving (linked to desire), response (the habit), reward
- what habit loops are you currently following? take inventory of this
- for training new habits: how can I make it obvious (cue), how can I make it attractive (craving), how can I make it easy (response), how can I make it satisfying (reward)
- for dismantling bad habits: how can I make it invisible (cue), how can I make it unattractive (craving), how can I make it difficult (response), how can I make it unrewarding (reward)
The first law: make is obvious
- until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate
- habit scorecard: make a list of your daily habits, look at each habit and mark +, -, or = (neutral)
- when grading the habits you must look far into the future and consider its effect overtime; “does the habit help me become the person I want to be?”
The best way to start a new habit
- implementation intentions: time and location of when you’ll do something; set this for the habits you want to form
- habit stacking: chain habits on top of existing ones to help ensure adoption; “when I do X (existing habit), then I’ll do Y (new habit)”; “when I purchase an item, I’ll give another item away”; be very specific an obvious on the WHEN
Motivation is overrated, environment matters more
- wow, the body has something like 11 million sensory preceptors and 10 million of those are for vision
- design your environment with obvious visual queues of what you want to drive; “put apples on the counter not down in the crisper”
- using a new environment can be really helpful for a new habit since it won’t have any previous associated queues
The secret to self-control
- Structure your environment to remove the bad cues
- It’s easier to avoid a cue all together than try to ignore it.
The second law: make it attractive
- the more attractive the outcome, the more likely you can build a habit around it
- it’s more about the anticipation of something attractive than the reality; the anticipation is what drives behavior
- combine something you want with something you need to do for the new habit; ex: guy wants to watch Netflix but needs to get in better shape — guy rigs stationary bike to only play Netflix when he is peddling fast enough
Role of family and friends
- we imitate the behaviors of the close, the many, and the powerful
- join the tribe who has the behaviors you want to imitate, and ideally, has something already in common with you
- be careful of following the crowd; most often, we would rather be wrong with the crowd than be right with just ourselves
How to find and fix the causes of your bad habits
- highlight the benefits of avoiding a bad habit
- turn your burdens into opportunities by how you view them
The third law: make it easy
- get your reps in! it’s easy to be in motion since you don’t risk failure, instead keep acting, keeping trying, the frequency of doing something is much more important than the amount of time you’ve been doing it
- make your habits so easy that it doesn’t feel like it requires a ton of effort to do it — remember we are wired to be lazy!
- prime your environment to make the good habits easier: if you wanted to start writing more letters, go buy a box full of letters with printed from (already addressed) and to labels for all occasions so that it is as easy as pulling out a letter and writing it
- prime your environment to make bad habits harder: if you want to watch less TV, unplug the TV and put it in the closet after each use
- when you start a new habit, it should take two minutes to complete; get hype about it! read one page if you want to start reading more
- start the habit, but always stop at the moment it feels like too much; I know this is counterintuitive, but it’s more important to consistently do the habit even if it is only for 2 minutes; eventually once you master the 2 minutes, do the “next level of the habit” and keep scaling up
How to make good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible
- use a commitment device to shut off the bad habits; the outlet timer which turns off power to the router at 10pm to eliminate late night internet use
- one-time actions that lock-in habits: remove TV from bedroom, uninstall social apps, get a flip phone, buy small plates, taking a small percentage out of your paycheck for 401k
- utilize technology: have someone change all your social media passwords each week and send them to you on Friday if you want them
The fourth law: make it satisfying
- getting this law right helps lock in the habit for repeat!
- a rule that generally holds true: the sweeter the first fruits, the more bitter the later fruits
- ^ use this to your benefit by trying to make bad habits really un-enjoyable
- by making something instantly gratifying, we can lock it in, even if the reward is late returning (drink the yummy protein smoothie after the gym)
- the ending of the habit needs to be satisfying
- ex: if you want to be more frugal, when you don’t spend money on the things you’d normally spend money on, deposit that money into a separate bank account labeled “trip to Paris” and watch the money pile up!
Track your habits for quick wins
- track your habits using a habit tracker (checkboxes, calendar with x’s, paperclips that get moved one-by-one) because the visual feedback is rewarding and addictive; don’t break the chain!
- don’t fail twice; keeping the chain going is super important even on your bad day
- ensure what you are tracking is actually useful (don’t get focused on the wrong number or obsessed with a number that doesn’t show some sort of progress)
Get accountable
- make bad habits immediately costly/painful; the cost must outweigh the temporary benefit of the bad habit (i.e. a small fine won’t make a dent if your super wealthy)
- use an accountability partner or contract to make those bad habits harder; we don’t want to let others down; make it public if you have to; fine yourself if you have to; make a contract that spells out what you have to give up if you miss a day of your new habit, etc
Closing sections: the truth about talent
- select the area that excites you and matches your natural skills
- work with what you’ve got!
- what comes natural to me?
- combine your skills to find the game that you are good at
- don’t compare yourself to others
- remember that high achievement comes from hard work; don’t forget everything the beginning of this book said about making daily progress (system/habit) that will ultimately help you hit your goal
How to stay motivated
- work on tasks of “just manageable” difficulty
- goldilocks rule: not too hard, not too easy, but just right amount of difficult
- ^ with just the right amount of easy wins to keep you moving along while still be challenging
- really successful habits — people find a way to push through or even fall in love with the boredom; variable rewards
- professionals stick with the habit even on hard days; amateurs do not
- greatest threat to success is boredom
The downside to habits
- when you can do it good enough on autopilot, then it is easy to stop trying to improve
- habits + deliberate practice = mastery
- keep challenging yourself; right when you feel like you have mastery, make it more difficult
- review your performance to make sure your habits improve
- don’t deny your weak spots
- keep your identity small so that you don’t hold on to your past successes or accomplishments; make your identity flexible and general
- do an annual review and integrity report (see the templates on the website)
- tiny changes… remarkable results!