Have you ever found yourself to the point where you want to build good habits and break bad ones, but you fail to keep up with your promise? Then this summary of the book “Atomic Habits” which will give you action points on how to build systems for your goals and help you get better a little bit everyday
TLDR:
To build good habits and break bad ones, focus on creating systems rather than setting goals. Implement the four laws of behavior change: make it obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying for good habits; make it invisible, unattractive, difficult, and unsatisfying for bad habits. Use techniques like habit stacking, transforming your environment, the two-minute rule, and the Goldilocks rule to reinforce your habits.
The main focus of James in this book is that to achieve your goals, you need to have systems. Hence the famous quote
You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your sytems
So, instead of focusing on your goals, focus on building systems which will ensure you will reach your goal one day
But I myself think having and making goals is very important, as they give you a sense of direction where you are going. And you feel accomplished when you achieve one and then the intrinsic motivation kicks in to help you keep moving forward
Then, change your identity and beliefs to mirror the habits you want to build. For example, if you want to quit smoking, stop calling your self a smoker who is trying to quit, instead think yourself as a non smoker
Or similarly, if you’re trying to build a habit of writing, then call yourself a writer to make your mind belief that you are one.
The Habit Loop
The process of building a habit can be divided into 4 steps
The cue is about noticing the reward, craving is about wanting the the reward, response is about obtaining the reward.
All of your habits — good and bad — all lie on this loop. First you notice a cue, for example, sees someone else smoking, you feel a craving in your mind to also experience that feeling of nicotine in your brain, and then you automatically take out a cigarette from your pocket and you know the rest
Now if you want to break free from this loop, you need to act on the 4 Laws of behavior change
| Build good habits | |
|---|---|
| Law 1 (Cue) | Make it obvious |
| Law 2 (Craving) | Make it attractive |
| Law 3 (Response) | Make it easy |
| Law 4 (Reward) | Make it satisfying |
| Break bad habits | |
|---|---|
| Inversion of Law 1 (Cue) | Make it invisble |
| Inversion of Law 2 (Craving) | Make it unattractive |
| Inversion of Law 3 (Response) | Make it difficult |
| Inversion of Law 4 (Reward) | Make it unsatisfying |
So whenever you want to break a bad habit or make a good one, apply those 4 laws
Now let’s see all four of the laws in action by first building a habit and then breaking a habit
Some techniques advised in the book
- When you already have a habit, attach a habit that you want to build after that habit, it’s called habit stacking. For example, after I make my coffee in the morning, I will meditate for 5 minutes
- Transform your environment according to the habit you want to build or break. For example, if you want to start playing guitar, then put it somewhere in your house where you can easily see it, and if you want to stop playing your console, hide it in your cupboard where you can’t see it
- When you start building habits, they should take no more time than 2 minutes. Hence the two minute rule. Your habit should not be to write 1500 words daily, instead write a single sentence
Building a good habit: Reading books
- Make it Obvious
- place your books in your living room where you can constantly see them
- Make it attractive
- tie a reward to when you read the specified amount of pages. For example, watching your favorite show afterwards
- Make it easy
- Tell yourself you’ll read only for 2 minutes or only 1 page. And when you start reading you’ll see that you’ll want to keep reading as our brains always want to do the easy thing and since you have already started reading then its the easiest to do instead of doing something else
- Make it satisfying
- track your progress in a journal or write it somewhere like I do
Breaking a bad habit: Smoking
- Make it invisible
- stop hanging around with friends who smoke so you don’t get any triggers/cues for smoking
- Make it unattractive
- place a penalty on yourself that if you smoke then you will pay for instance $50 to any charity
- Make it difficult
- Don’t have a cigarette at your home or anytime with you, so the next time you crave them, you’ll have to go to the store and get them. Which is a hard thing
- Make it unsatisfying
- Keep a journal of negative effects of smoking or have a friend or family member account you
How to keep yourself motivated
Goldilocks Rule
Your new habit should not be too challenging nor too easy. As the goldilocks rule says that to keep you engaged your work should be slightly challenging, then your motivation will keep you moving.
The habit should be about 4% more challenging than your current skill level, a little less would make it boring and more than this would make you frustrated and you’d quit
Track your habits
There are many benefits of tracking habits:
- It is obvious: Research has shown that people who track their progress on goals like losing weight are more likely to improve from those who don’t. When the evidence is in front of you, you’re more likely to lie to yourself
- It is attractive: The most effective form of motivation is progress. When we cross a task on our todo list, we instantly feel more motivated to do more tasks. Plus you’d not want to lose your progress so you’re more likely to break the streak
How to track habits
There are many ways to track habits, both analog and digital.
In my experience analog tracking has never worked for me. Twice I have tried bullet journaling but have failed
Now I track my habits in an app called Proddy.
You can’t just copy someone else’s system, you have to find out what works for you and what does not
It might be possible that you’d enjoy on paper tracking more, but to find that out you need to experiment with yourself and gather data
How to get up again when your streak breaks
It can get very sad when you miss one day and your whole progress is lost. Most people quit at this point. But James gives a moto to tell yourself when you miss one day: “Never miss twice”
I am also trying to make this my moto as I have always struggled doing exercise, and one I miss a day then I never resume it for months
Now I want everyone reading this post to make a list of habits that you want to break and the ones you want to build, and start applying the laws of behavior change, and the techniques discussed to make systems which will help you level up in your life, one step at a time.
See you another time! 😊