Prioritize systems over goals, in other words, how you’re going to achieve the goal Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress Atomic habits are small routines or behaviors that accumulate to produce incremental positive outcomes over time What really matters are the little decisions and actions we take Just as atoms are the building blocks of molecules, atomic habits are the building blocks of remarkable results 3 layers to behavioral change:
- Outcomes: what you get
- Process: what you do
- Identity: what you believe, how you think about yourself and others Focus more on the person that you want to become instead of the results that you want Analogy: The goal isn’t to learn an instrument, it’s to be some a musician, the goal isn’t to run a marathon, it’s to become a runner When something in your life becomes a part of your identity, that’s when your behaviors will start to change. Eg: when you tell yourself and others “I’m a runner”, you want to live up to that identity, to your and others’ expectations The habit loop: Habit is formed and reinforced by means of a continuous feedback loop:
- Cue (Phone buzz)
- Craving (Want to know who texted)
- Response (Pick up the phone)
- Reward (Solve the problem)
Sometimes rewards are chained to cues: Eg: checking FB is the cue to checking YT to Instagram and so on, 20 mins have passed. The more you repeat these habit loops, the stronger and more automatic they become
try to think of any cues in your daily life that are initiating your good or bad habit loops How can we influence the habit loop to work for us?
Most of your current habits are so automatic that you don’t realize them. You must first realize your habits before you can change them You can achieve this with a habit scorecard:
- List down all your daily habits from morning to night (eg: wake up, brush teeth, eat, shower, social media)
- Observe your habits. categorize each habit as +, -, or neutral Quite often, the reason people fail to stick to a habit is not because of a lack of motivation, but because a lack of clarity For clarity, you will need:
- Time and space: I will (behavior) at (time) in (this location) Bad example: I will read more this month Good example: I will read a book for 15 mins daily at 6am in this spare bedroom
- Stacking habits: After (current habit), I will (new habit) Eg: After I brush my teeth, I will stretch for 5 minutes A chain of habits is more likely to be sustained if you practice this consistently, you need a trigger cue Trigger should be something you do automatically every day, such as waking up or brushing your teeth
- Environment vs motivation You can better shape your behavior by designing your environment Creating a habit requires you to redesign the space around you to make it easier to see the cues for the desired habits and avert bad habits by making them invisible. If you want to read a book, leave it somewhere visible in your room. If you want to stop watching your phone, leave it out of the room
The more rewarding an action is, the more likely we are to repeat it until it becomes a habit We are more motivated to act when our dopamine levels rise Dopamine spikes Before going to vacation, sometimes the thinking and anticipation is better than the actual vacation. It’s the anticipations that surges dopamine. The craving is what causes us to take action in the first place Strategy, Temptation bundling: Combine an action we need to do with an action we want to do (Bundle Netflix w/ working out) Group influence: Find groups to join where the habit you desire is the norm Reprogram your brain to enjoy hard habits: You can make hard habits attractive if you can learn to associate them with a positive experience By highlighting the benefits of a habit rather than its downsides, you can make it seem more appealing Eg: cleaning up the house = peace of mind, not wasted time Breaking a bad habit: make it UNattractive: Highlight the benefits of NOT doing the habit to make it as unattractive to keep doing as possible.
How long does it take to form a habit? A habit becomes increasingly automatic as it is repeated As you repeat an activity, your brain changes to become more efficient at doing it Law of least effort: The more energy required, the less likely it is to happen Reduce friction associated w/ our good habits and increase friction associated w/ our bad habits Prime the environment for use: Eg: To cook something, gather the ingredients and the tools the night before so that the next day you’re good to go 2 minute rule to stop procrastinating Find a simple 2 minute version of your desired habit, scale down your desired outcome. Running a marathon becomes putting on your shoes & stretching for 2 minutes Reading an hour per day becomes reading 1 page get the routine anchored in place and slowly build up the difficulty Breaking a bad habit: make it difficult
The most important rule What is immediately rewarded is repeated What is immediately punished is avoided This last law increases the chances of repeating the habit next time Don’t break the streak Breaking a bad habit: make it unsatisfying Get someone to monitor you Habit contract