Book: Atomic Habits
Synopsis – Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving–every day. James Clear, one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.
If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you’ll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.
Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.
Learn how to:
• make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);
• overcome a lack of motivation and willpower;
• design your environment to make success easier;
• get back on track when you fall off course;
…and much more.
Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits–whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.
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Notes:
The Fundamentals -Why Tiny Changes Make a Big Difference
Chapter 1 – The Surprising Power of Atomic Habits
Complaining about not achieving success despite working hard is like complaining about an ice cube not melting when you heated it from twenty-five to thirty-one degrees. Your work was not wasted; it was just being stored. All the action happens at thirty-two degrees.
Systems to achieve Goals are more important than the goals themselves.
Chapter 2 – How Your Habits Shape Your Identity (and Vice Versa)
When you’re trying to create behavior change, establishing new identities or what you identify as helps you shift your old behaviors to reflect your new identity. For example, if you were a smoker for many years but you want to quit, if someone were to ask you if you wanted a cigarette, your reply could be “No thanks I’m not a smoker vs. No thanks I’m trying to quit.”
The more often that you repeat behaviors the more likely you identify yourself as a particular type of person. If you write every day you’ll eventually see yourself as a writer. If you eat healthy meals and train frequently, you’ll see yourself as a health-conscious person.
The most practical way to change who you are is to change what you do.
Determine the type of person you want to be and then determine the habits that person takes on. That’s why self-affirmations are toted so often. If you tell yourself you’re a successful businessman, you’ll become a successful businessman. However, just saying positive affirmations won’t get you the results you want. You have to pair those positive affirmations with actions/habits that create the positive affirmations you seek.
Chapter 3 – How to Build Better Habits in 4 Simple Steps
“Habits reduce cognitive load and free up mental capacity, so you can allocate your attention to other tasks”
- Habits are formed through:
- Cue
- Craving
- Response
- Reward
- To form good habits:
- Cue (Make it obvious)
- Craving (Make it attractive)
- Response (Make it easy)
- Reward (Make it satisfying)
- To break bad habits:
- Cue (Make it invisible)
- Craving (Make it unattractive)
- Response (Make it difficult)
- Reward (Make it unsatisfying)
The 1st Law – Make it Obvious
Chapter 4 – The Man Who Didn’t Look Right
Chapter 5 – The Best Way to Start a New Habit
Implementation Intention is when we set a time and location to complete a task. It increases the likelihood that we will commit to a task we want to do.
Habit stacking – Pair a new habit with an existing habit. Once you do this habit, you follow by doing the new habit. It’s a cue. Old habit with new.
Chapter 6 – Motivation is Overrated; Environment Often Matters More
Your environment dictates a lot of your behavior. if you want to change your behaviors structure your environment that makes it easier to build better habits.
Visual cues and accessibility make it easier for us to initiate an action we want to make it into a habit.
One space, one use. By creating spaces in your environment that serve one function we are more likely to associate certain actions with that space. A bedroom for sleep. Kitchen for eating. Living room for TV.
It also works the same with technology. Using your computer just for work. Your tablet for just reading and your phone for texting and social media.
Chapter 7 – The Secret to Self-Control
Your environment greatly affects your ability for self-control. Most people that have great self-control just control their environment so they are not triggered to engage in habits they don’t want.
Control your environment. Want to stop eating bad? Don’t have unhealthy food laying around. Too much TV. Get rid of it.
The 2nd Law – Make it Attractive
Chapter 8 – How to Make a Habit Irresistible
Temptation bundling – Pair a habit that you want to create with someone that you love to do. I.e. If you watch Netflix you have to ride your stationary bike.
Premack’s Principle – More probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors
Chapter 9 – The Role of Family and Friends in Shaping Your Habits
- The culture we live in determines which behaviors are attractive to use.
- We tend to adopt habits that are praised and approved of by our culture because we have a strong desire to fit in and belong to the tribe.
- We tend to imitate the habits of three social groups: the close (family and friends), the many*the tribe), and the powerful (those with status and prestige).
- One of the most effective things you can do to build better habits is to join a culture where (1) your desired behavior is the normal behavior and (2) you already have something in common with the group.
- The normal behavior of the tribe often overpowers the desired behavior of the individual. Most days, we’d rather be wrong with the crowd than be right by ourselves.
- If a behavior can get us approval, respect, and praise, we find it attractive.
Imitating the close: We tend to pick up habits with people that are closest to us. If we want to adopt better habits, it helps to surround yourself with people that have the traits you want.
Imitating the many: We confirm to social norms. Join a community that favors the habits you want to adopt.
Imitating the powerful: We want to imitate powerful people because of the benefits it comes with prestige and power.
Chapter 10 – How to Find and Fix Causes of Your Bad Habits
Specific cravings you feel and habits you perform are really an attempt to address your fundamental underlying motives.
Reprogram your brain to say you don’t “have” to do something but “get” to do something. Get in the habit of reframing negatives situations into positive situations.
Every behavior has a surface level craving and a deeper underlying motive.
The 3rd Law – Make it Easy
Chapter 11 – Walk Slowly, but Never Backward
Habits form based on frequency not time.
What matters in building a new habit is the rate at which you perform the behavior. The faster you want to build a habit, the more repetitions you should get in.
The most effective form of learning is practice, not planning.
Chapter 12 – The Law of Least Effort
Make habits you want to form as easy as possible. Reduce the amount of friction to doing the habit you want to create.
Practice environment design. Make your environment work for you.
Practice the opposite to untrain a habit. Make things more difficult to do the things you don’t want to do.
Human behavior follows the Law of Least Effort. We will naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work.
Chapter 13 – How to Stop Procrastinating by Using the Two-Minute Rule
Chunk down the habit you want to create into something that can be done in two minutes. Instead of forcing yourself to go the gym and work out for an hour start with two. Just show up every day and just work out for two minutes. Get in the habit of going to the gym consistently. Eventually, you’ll build the habit muscle of going to the gym every day. Once it becomes normal for you, gradually you can increase what you do.
Chapter 14 – How to Make Good Habits Inevitable and Bad Habits Impossible
Create a commitment device that forces you to do the habit you want to do.
Automate habits so that you don’t have to think about them again. Use technology to make your life easier.
The 4th Law – Make it Satisfying
Chapter 15 – The Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change
Make a habit enjoyable to do. Soap smells good and provides a positive feedback when you wash your hands so you want to do it more.
What is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided
Immediate feedback and satisfaction of a habit reinforces the habit.
Chapter 16 – How to Stick with Good Habits Every Day
Make your habit visual. If you’re doing sales, start with a jar of 100 marbles and you move one over every time you make a sales call.
Track your habits. When you track something, you get the satisfaction of seeing that your making progress. Aim to not break the chain. If it’s going to the gym, even on bad days, even just a quick workout is better than no workout. It gets you in the habit of becoming the person that doesn’t miss the gym.
Chapter 17 – How an Accountability Partner Can Change Everything
Make a habit have negative consequences if you don’t do it.
Have an accountability partner.
Advanced Tactics
Chapter 18 – The Truth About Talent (When Genes Matter and When They Don’t)
**Great chapter on genetics and finding your competitive edge
- Genes do determine a lot of who you are. If you’re short it’s probably going to be pretty hard making it into the NBA on average. If you have short arms you might not be the best swimmer.
- If you’re super tall but have short legs, you might not be the best long-distance runner.
- The same applies to how our minds work. We’re all wired differently but it just takes more work to figure out how you can maximize your potential.
- Combining different strengths of your could give a narrow competitive advantage because it’s the make up of your different interests that make you effective.
- Pick habits that are in align with the thin you do best because you’ll naturally be more motivated to stick with them.
- Genes don’t eliminate the need for hard work. You can have a better genetic disposition to gaining muscle but you aren’t going to the gym, you’re not going to be better off than the guy with worse genes.