Atomic Habits
These are chapter notes from the book Atomic Habits1 by James Clear.
Summary
- Small changes compound to big improvements/declines
- It is easier to lose a good habit than gain it.
- It is harder to break a bad habit than form a good one.
- Processes and trajectory are more important than goals
- Winners and Losers have the same goals
- Good processes determine the outcomes regardless of the goals
- Focusing on goals creates an "either-or" problem
- Results from good habits lag behind our expectations.
- Habits embody our identity
- Decide who we want to be and then prove it through small wins.
- Focus on who we want to be.
- Focusing on outcomes without changing how we see ourselves is a recipe for failure.
- Getting good about habits frees you to focus on the important stuff.
- Four stages of habit forming:
- Cue, a trigger to start a behavior
- Craving, provides the motivation
- Response, the behavior itself
- Reward, reinforces the habit
- Consistency reinforces the habit.
- Break consistency and a habit will either not form or we will cease to be.
- Habits occur unconsciously. If we are not aware of them, they can control our
lives. We gain control over them by making them visible
- Habit Inventory
- Naming and calling makes them conscious
- Verbalize the habit and it's consequence
- Implementation Intention. Make a plan: When X, I will Y or I Will X at Y in Z location.
- Habit Stacking. Stack a new habit after a current one.
- Select good cues
- Fit new habits into existing routines.
- Environments are filled with relationships
- Build an environment that cues good habits, hides bad ones.
- Don't mix contexts in spaces
- Self control is about limiting temptations; reduce exposure
- Reduce friction to cue good habits.
- Modern world is full of supernormal stimulus (junk food, porn, social media)
- Pair unpleasant habits with pleasant habits to build a positive association
- Reframe habits from "have to" to "get to"
- Replace bad habits with good habits that fulfill the same desires
- Quantity > Quality when it comes to practice
- Deliberate practice. Always push slightly beyond your current limits
- There is a threshold of repetition in which a behavior becomes automatic
- Commit to a practice even when not in the mood; a bad day at the gym beats not going at all.
- Use the 2 minute rule to build new rituals for habits.
- Every good/bad decision you make in a day determines your future options
- Habituated choices lead us towards having many good or bad days
- Use Ulysses pacts to break bad habits
- Before temptation arises, create a situation in which you cannot give into temptation or will be punished for giving into temptation
- Create commitments that will cost you in time or effort to undo
- What is rewarded is repeated / what is punished is avoided
- Immediate-Return Environment vs Delayed Return Environment
- Rewards and punishments must immediately follow the behavior.
- Create visible means of tracking habits
- Move marbles between containers
- Logging and journaling
- Automatic logging is best (e.g. fitbit, online banking, etc.)
- Tracking is it's own reward and keeps us honest.
- Don't break the chain. Don't skip a habit more than twice.
Chapter 1
- Small changes compound to big improvements/waning
- e.g. switching to black coffee reduces my calories 150 a day or roughly a candy bar. But on the scale of a week that's 1,050 calories! Half a day's calories. In thirty days that's 4,500 calories or over two days of just cream and sugar.
- Your trajectory is more important that immediate goals
- Winners and Losers have the same goals
- The difference is their processes
- Good processes will lead to good outcomes, regardless of the goals
- Fix the input and the output wil follow.
- Focusing on goals is an anti-pattern
- Creates an "either-or" situation. Either you met your goal, or you did not.
- If you did not, you are disappointed. Decrease morale to try again.
- If you met your goal, your give yourself moral permission to slouch
- "Valley of Disappointment"
- Improvements compound, expectations are linear
- Results are lagging measurement and are delayed until a critical threshold is met, and then success is sudden.
Chapter 2
- Habits are the embodiment of our identity
- Decide who you want to be; and then prove it through small wins.
- Focus on what you do, not what you get
- Identity leads to pride.
- Become the person who does the thing.
- Focus on who we wish to be and the outcomes will follow.
- Focus on the outcomes without changing who we see ourselves as is a recipe for
failure.
- e.g. Someone trying to quit smoking saying "I am trying to quit" vs. "I am not a smoker"
Chapter 3
- A habit is an automatic shortcut that occurs through an unconscious process.
- It is a memory of steps to solve a problem. A pattern.
- Once a habit forms, consciousness of the habit itself decreases.
- Getting better about your habits frees you to focus on the important stuff.
- Four stages to habit forming
- Cue, a trigger to start a behavior
- Craving, provides the motivation for the behavior
- Response, the behavior itself
- Reward, received upon completing the behavior. Reinforces the habit creating a cycle.
- If any of the four steps is not consistent, a habit will not form. Conversely
we can break a habit by removing any of the four stages.
- Make it obvious
- Make it attractive
- Make it easy
- Make it satisfying
Chapter 4
- If we don't think about our habits, they remain unconscious and control our lives.
- We gain control of our habits by becoming aware of them
- We can do this through pointing and calling. Forcefully engage our mind by verbalizing the habit and the consequences that we want from it.
- Create a habit score card. Record all of your habits through the day then return to them and mark them with a +, -, or = to denote if they are a bad, good or neutral habit.
Chapter 5
- Implementation Intention. By making a plan, you bring about it's success
- When X, I will Y
- I will X at Y Time in Z Location
- Habit stacking
- After a current habit, I will now do the new habit
- The trick is selecting cues to trigger the habits that are specific and actionable.
- Cues should align with the interval we will perform the habit, e.g. daily, weekly, monthly, etc.
Chapter 6
- Your environment plays a part in building good habits
- Your environment is not filled with objects, but relationships
- Build good relationships to the space, leads towards good habits forming
- Avoid mixing contexts between spaces, e.g. a space to work, a spajce to relax, a space to sleep.
- This includes virtual spaces. Phone. Work desktops. Consumer electronics
- Sometimes changing spaces can help build new habits.
- Make it obvious: make it easy to form good habits in your space.
- Arrange items to bring out cues for practices you want, e.g. place books in visible locations. Put food that is about to expire out on the counter to be used.
- Arrange cues for vices to be invisible or hard to get to. Places liquor in the liquor cabinet. Put snacks in the cupboards. Removed distractions (e.g. social media) from work spaces.
Chapter 7
- Self control is about creating a space with few temptations
- Once a habit is encoded the cue will always encourage you to act upon it.
- "cue induced wanting" is an external trigger that produces a craving.
- To get rid of bad habits. Reduce exposure to the cues that cause them.
Chapter 8
- The modern world is full of supernormal stimulus
- Junk food is more calorie dense than anything we find in the wild
- Pornography offers a wider sexual selection than we would find in our tribe.
- The internet gives us access to an infinite array of entertaining experts on any subject we can imagine. Athens has nothing on the Internet.
- Dopamine spikes when you anticipate pleasure. This creates our motivation to act.
- We can bundle unpleasant habits with pleasant habits to create a positive association.
Chapter 9
A load of bullshit.
Chapter 10
- Habits solve base desires
- We can change the success of adopting new habits through our attitudes about
them
- Instead of "have to" we "get to"
- Associate new habits with positive experiences to make them stick.
- Try to replace bad habits this good habits that fulfill the same desires.
Chapter 11
- Quantity > Quality when it comes to learning new habits.
- Habits come from practice. It's not how long to build up a new habit, but rather how many times will it take to build it.
- There is a threshold of repetition in which a behavior becomes automatic.
Chapter 12
- Create less friction in order to do your habits. With less friction, it becomes easier to maintain habits even during a low spoon day.
- Fit habits into your existing routines.
- Don't start new habits in environments filled with distractions, e.g. don't start a diet on a vacation.
- Prime your environment to encourage good habits and discourage bad ones.
- If you are picking up a new practice, put out your tools so they are visible and inviting.
- If you are trying to break a habit, put the distractions away, e.g. hide your put your TV in a less used room, put booze in the back of the cabinet.
Chapter 13
- Create rituals for good habits.
- Use the 2 minute rule to create new rituals
- Identify a "gateway habit" for a larger habit you want to build
- Complete this gateway habit in less than two minutes
- By doing this gateway habit, you consistently build up an identity as someone who is committed to doing the larger habit.
- Every good/bad decision you make in a day determines your future options
- Decisive moments in the day lead towards good or bad days
- Habituated choices lead us down the same path each day.
Chapter 14
- Use Ulysses Pacts to break bad habits
- Before the temptation arises, create a situation in which you cannot give into that temptation even if you chose to.
- Create commitments that might cost you or require effort to undo, e.g. buy those plane tickets; schedule a meeting before you can back out, etc.
- Use automation to create Ulysses Pacts.
- Automate contributions to savings funds, payments, etc.
Chapter 15
- Feeling of pleasure no matter how small, instructs us to repeat habits
- What is rewarded is repeated / what is punished is avoided
- Immediate-Return Environment vs Delayed-Return Environment
- We value a present rewards more than a future return
- "One in the hand is worth two in the bush"
- Delayed Gratification
- Make a habit feel successful even in a small way reinforces the behavior.
- Habits of avoidance are hard to reinforce Make successful avoidance more visible.
Chapter 16
- Create visible means of tracking habits
- Novel ideas like moving marbles from one jar to another
- Logging and journaling
- Automated logging is best, e.g. fitbit, banking, etc.
- Tracking becomes the reward
- Tracking keeps you honest
- Don't Break the Chain. Don't Miss a Habit More than Twice
- It is better to try poorly than not at all
- Keeping it up reaffirms your identity
- It is easier to lose a habit than it is to gain one
Chapter 17
- Accountability partners and contracts
Chapter 18+
- Nothing worth writing down.
External References
Linked References
- book-notes
- habits
Building on top of [[atomic habits]]. Each pythefnos we select five daily habits and two vices to track.
- personal-productivity-practices