29 December 2022

Atomic Habits by James Clear

As the name suggests, this book talks about how small changes can have a big effect on habit formation—and subsequently your life. It describes various systems you can use to form and maintain healthy habits while getting rid of those that don’t serve you.

I first “encountered” this book in audio format (Audible). I remember doing my lunchtime walks at the height of pandemic lockdowns in 2021. I was so fascinated with the takeaways that when I get home, I would replay some bits and type them up in my Notes app.

This year I finally got my own copy. I dog-eared portions (yes I dog ear my pages, now sue me) especially about the science and systems around habit formation and how to use them to your advantage.

Specifically, the book discusses four laws of behavior change to reinforce good habits—make it obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying.

The inversion of these four—make it invisible, unattractive, difficult, an unsatisfying—helps get rid of bad habits.

My favorite quote:

• You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
  • 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.

Quotes I dog-eared:

• The first law of behavior change: make it obvious (for good habits). And the inversion is to make it invisible (for bad habits).
• Habit stacking is a special form of an implementation intention. Rather than pairing your new habit with a particular time and location, you pair it with a current habit.
  • The habit stacking formula is: “After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].”
• One of our greatest challenges in changing habits is maintaining awareness of what we are actually doing. This helps explain why the consequences of bad habits can sneak up on us. We need a “point-and-call” system for our personal lives.
• The second law of behavior change: make it attractive. And the inversion is to make it unattractive.
• Temptation bundling is one way to make your habits more attractive. The strategy is to pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do.
• 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.
• You can get rid of bad habits by making it unattractive. Habits are attractive when we associate them with positive feelings and unattractive when we associate them with negative feelings. Create a motivation ritual by doing something you enjoy immediately before a difficult habit.
• The third law of behavior change: make it easy.
• Habit formation is the process by which a behavior becomes progressively more automatic through repetition. The more you repeat an activity, the more the structure of your brain changes to become efficient at that activity. Neuroscientists call this long-term potentiation, which refers to the strengthening of connections between neurons in the brain based on recent patterns of activity.
  • One of the most common questions I hear is, “How long does it take to build a new habit?” But what people really should be asking is, “How many does it take to form a new habit?” That is, how many repetitions are required to make a habit automatic?
  • The amount of time you have been performing a habit is not as important as the number of times you have performed it.
• Human behavior follows the Law of Least Effort. We will naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work.
  • Create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible. Reduce the friction associated with good behaviors. When friction is low, habits are easy.
  • Increase the friction associated with bad behaviors. When friction is high, habits are difficult.
  • Prime your environment to make future actions easier.