A Best-Selling Masterclass on Habits
Actionable insights from “Atomic Habits”.
Actionable insights from “Atomic Habits”.
Note: I’m not sponsored by or affiliated with James Clear or anybody else involved with this book in any way (I wish).
Recently, I re-read the fantastic Atomic Habits by the even more fantastic James Clear (read some of his articles here) and found it even more insightful than the first time around.
The book is a mine of actionable advice for habit formation and consistency.
This is a fleshed-out version of the notes I took while reading the book.
Introductory Notes
1% increase
I’m sure most of you have heard of this idea by now, but it’s so important I couldn’t leave it out.
A 1% increase in ability every day for a year ends up making you 37x better than you were the year before. A 1% decrease in ability daily for a year leaves you at 3% of the ability you were at the year before.
The best way to get better at something over the long run is almost always consistent and thoughtful repetition.
This is what makes habits so powerful. Consistent improvement will compound over time.
This compounding also means that the trajectory you’re on is a better KPI of your life than where you are currently.
A millionaire who spends more than he makes is on a downward trajectory, while a broke college student who saves more than he spends is on the way up.
The problem with goals
There’s lots of advice on setting good goals on the internet, but there are a few fundamental problems that most goals face.
Winners and losers typically both have the same goals. Everybody wants to be the best at their sport and get straight As. Only some of them achieve it.
You inherently say that you can only be satisfied once your goal is achieved.
A goal is usually an end-state or an accomplishment. Setting a goal encourages you to stop once you’ve reached it.
It’s better to put in place a good system and fall in love with that instead of the goal.
For an athlete, their system is how they practice, implement feedback, pre-game and post-game rituals, etc.
Let’s say there are 2 players: Player A and Player B.
Player A sets a goal to be the best basketball player but doesn’t have a good system.
Player B doesn’t set an explicit goal but has the best system out of all the players.
Who’s going to be better?
In essence, your goals are achieved through your systems. Your systems are made up of your daily habits. Good habits are the building blocks of success. Bad habits are the building blocks of failure.
Identity change
Conscious identity change is a sneakily helpful way to change your habits.
If you think about it, most of the habits you currently have are a by-product of an identity you’ve gradually adopted.
People who identify as gamers have the habits that you would associate with that. People who identify as readers have the habits you would associate with reading. The reason you (hopefully) brush your teeth is because you’ve developed the identity of someone who brushes their teeth.
We aren’t born with a certain identity, but we all have hundreds, if not thousands of small identities that influence our day-to-day actions.
If you want to establish a certain identity:
Decide who you want to be.
Prove it to yourself with small wins.
If you want to pick up reading, don’t set a 30-book goal for the year and hope that motivates you.
Develop the identity of a reader by reading for 20 minutes every day. Once you prove to yourself that you’re a reader, the habits associated with reading will come much more naturally.
Understanding habits
Habits are developed and reinforced by a feedback loop.
Cue: information that predicts a reward
Craving: a desire for change
Response: What you do
Reward: The satisfaction of the craving
Let’s go through the habit of eating a tub of ice cream.
Cue: You see a tub of ice cream as soon as you open the fridge.
Craving: You desire sugar and want to feel better.
Response: You eat the tub of ice cream.
Reward: You feel good afterward, which makes it more likely you’ll begin the process again next time.
Based on this feedback loop, the book discusses 4 Laws of Behavior Change that can help build a good habit or destroy a bad one at every step in the loop.
Cue: Make it obvious/invisible
2. Craving: Make it attractive/unattractive
3. Response: Make it easy/difficult
4. Reward: Make it satisfying/unsatisfying
Make it obvious/invisible
Many habits fail because there simply isn’t an obvious cue to start the habit.
Here are 3 solutions to this problem:
Set an implementation intention: “I will [Behavior] at [Time] in [Location]”. This makes a specific time and place the cue for your habit.
2. Habit stacking: Connect a tough habit with an existing habit that happens during a similar time in the same place. For example, you could stack flossing on top of brushing.
3. Environmental Redesign: Make cues that will lead to good habits visible and cues that will lead to bad habits invisible. Don’t leave chocolate out on your desk if you’re trying to lower your sugar intake.
Make it attractive/unattractive
Difficult habits are often simply not attractive enough to spark the craving part of the feedback loop.
There are 2 strategies to solve this:
Use temptation bundling: Connect a difficult habit with something you like and only do them together. For example, listen to your favorite artist only at the gym.
Join communities: Try to join communities where your desired identity is normal. We all want to fit in with the pack, and this will make unattractive habits more attractive. If you want to become a reader, join a serious book club.
Make it easy/difficult
2-minute
The problem with difficult tasks and habits is that we often end up procrastinating on them by preparing more than we need to. James Clear calls this being in motion vs. taking action.
For example, writing a book is a massive task, and it’s easy to fall into continuous research and planning (motion) instead of writing (action).
It can be easy to feel like you’re making good progress without actually getting closer to your goal.
Of course, a little bit of motion can be necessary to prepare you for the big action, but you want to switch as soon as possible.
Making a 2-minute version of your desired task/habit can help you feel less daunted by big tasks and help you switch sooner.
Here are some examples of what a 2-minute habit looks like
Writing a book -> write a sentence
Going to the gym -> prepping your bag and clothes
Practicing guitar -> taking the guitar out and strumming a few chords
Focus on just doing the 2-minute version, and the momentum will often carry you further.
Environmental Design
Environmental design is just as helpful for the response step of the habit cycle as it is for the cue step.
You should design your environment not only to provide the right cues but also to make doing good habits take less effort than doing bad habits.
If you find yourself playing too many video games, put the console away in the closet after every use. If you want to pick up night-time journaling, leave a journal on your pillow every morning.
Commitment devices
A commitment device is something that takes the choice of a bad habit away from you.
If you use Instagram too often, have somebody else control the password to your account.
Make it satisfying/unsatisfying
Habit tracking can be a fun way to gamify your habits. Once you build an initial streak, the fact that you have that streak will become a form of motivation itself.
However, life will get in the way, and your streak will eventually end. When it does, it’s important to remember this great quote:
“Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit.”
You don’t need to beat yourself up over missing once. Just stay consistent and do your absolute best not to miss twice in a row.
That’s all from me. If you enjoyed this post, I would appreciate a clap, a comment, or maybe even a follow.