Atomic Habits

Good book, solid, well written, easy to remember, with examples in every chapter and a four-rule framework that offers little gems even to me, and I’ve read similar books. I see why it’s considered one of the best books on productivity. I enjoyed reading it and it motivated me to pick back up a couple of habits I was neglecting.

Notes

• Small habits make the difference. It’s the same idea as compound interest; the result grows exponentially over time. They are the atoms.
• Ice cube example… from -6 to 0 nothing happens, then it melts. At the beginning people stay in the valley of disappointment and think they’re not making progress.
• If you want better results, don’t waste time setting goals. Focus on the system.
• 3 levels of change: outcomes, process, and identity. We should focus on identity. Writing one line makes us a writer. Going to the gym makes us an athlete. Identity emerges from habits.
• 4 laws of behavior change from Duhigg. 1. Make it obvious 2. Make it attractive 3. Make it easy 4. Make it satisfying
• Awareness. Do point and call on your behaviors.
• Rule 2, make it attractive. The trick is to place something I have to do between the craving and the reward. For example, after coffee (trigger) I write in Notion and then I read the newspaper (craving).
• Habit stacking. The rule is: after [current habit] I [new habit].
• If you want a habit to become an important part of your life, make the cue part of the environment. Example: a basket of apples in plain sight.
• It’s easier to build a new habit in a new environment. If you want to change, go somewhere else.
• Inversion of the first law: make it invisible. If you want to avoid something, remove it from sight. Habits link to cues, and we need to break that chain.
• We imitate the close, the many, and the powerful.
• To build a habit the key is not time but repetitions. Accumulate, accumulate, accumulate. Example: photography class quantity vs. quality.
• The two-minute rule: start doing something for two minutes to associate it with a habit. Example: want to go to the gym? Start by putting on your workout clothes. Then go for a walk. Then 5 minutes at the gym, then 3 times a week.
• You need a commitment device, a decision in the present that will control future actions. Example: Hugo having his clothes locked up, or Ulysses.
• Why do people make poor choices? Because the brain is still that of primates; we want instant gratification.
• But to encourage ourselves to do unsatisfying things now that will have a future impact, we need to give them a bit of pleasure. You cannot set generic goals like “I want to stay in shape”; rather, “after I go to the gym I allow myself xxx”.
• It’s also crucial to have a habit ledger. For example, a checklist or a visual method like the salesman with the paperclips.
• Never skip a habit twice in a row.
• Inversion of the fourth law: make slipping up extremely unpleasant. A habit contract with strong penalties, for example.
• Phelps example: genetics helps; choose to focus where you have the most opportunity. You won’t know right away, but progress should feel easy.
• But the only way to excel is to stay consistently fascinated by repeating the same things endlessly. You have to fall in love with boredom.