Atomic Habits (James Clear) Chapterwise Summary and Exercises.
Chapter 1
The Surprising Power of Tiny Habits
Increase one percent to make a big change in the long run. It always starts little, and little by little it piles up. If you get one percent better each day you will be 37 percent better at the end of the year, but if you decline 1% everyday, you will almost go to zero at the end of the year. A small good habit done repetitively turns out something big. Atomic changes aren’t noticeable at the start, it’s when you break the plateau of latent potential the change becomes visible. Don’t focus on goals, instead focus on systems. Because winners and losers have same goals but they don’t have the same plan to fulfill their goals.
Chapter 2
How Your Habits Shape Your Identity (and Vice Versa)
There are three layers of behavioral change, and they are outcome, progress, identity. Outcome is what you get, progress is what you do and get better doing it, identity is what you believe. Your identity emerges out of your habits and every action is a vote to the type of person you want to be.Most people fail to quit their old habits because they stay at their old self. People need to move forward with a new mindset and have firm belief on themselves. So always choose to create over consuming and prioritize growth over comfort. You can’t change your habits until you make yourself uncomfortable and work towards your goals. Everything is changeable, it just requires effort, becoming the best version of yourself requires you continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity. The real reason habits matter is not because they can get you better results but because they can change your beliefs about yourself.
Chapter 3
How to Build Better Habits in 4 Simple Steps
If things seem hard to master at first just keep trying it, if you get yourself to do it for once then it will be easy for you in the future. It will require effort at first but later it will be automatic. When you have your habits dialed in, your basic stuffs are handled by the habits so you have time to think about other things. Ways to create a good habit
- Make it obvious
- Make it attractive
- Make it easy
- Make it satisfying
Ways to break a bad habit
- make it invisible
- Make it unattractive
- Make it difficult
- Make it unsatisfying
These are the 4 laws of behavioral change and it could be used in any field
Chapter 4
The Man Who Didn’t Look Right
Saying our things loud will help you minimize mistakes. Practice can make everyone perfect, so we need to practice our habits enough for our brain to pick up and it becomes automatic. When habits become automatic we don’t need to pay attention to them, it then comes naturally. The process of behavior always starts with awareness. You need to be aware of your habits before you change them.pointing and calling raises your level of awareness from a non conscious habit to more conscious level by verbalizing your actions. You can use habits score cards to become more aware of your habits and behavior.
Chapter 5
The Best Way to Start a New Habit
We don’t lack motivation, what we lack is clarity, we don’t have a clear picture, and that’s why we can’t stick to something good or don’t leave something bad. Each action is a cue that triggers the next behavior, so chose your actions wisely. The best way to build a next habit is to connect your old habit with the new one, which is keep doing what you’re doing just add in the next habit on top of it, this method is called habit slacking.
Chapter 6
Motivation is Overrated; Environment Often Matters More
We feel like we are in control of everything, but the truth is we are not, our actions are based on our vision and habits. What we see can lead to what we do because the most powerful of all human sensory ability is vision. Habits are easier to change in better environment. Do things a bit differently and see the change, Do things in their designated spaces, if you want behavior that are stable and predictable, you need an environment that’s stable and predictable.
Chapter 7
The Secret to Self-Control
Often times addicts are told that they are the problem but it’s not true it’s the environment and lack of discipline which causes them to become addicts. Perseverance, grit and will power are essential for success . You can’t have positive habits in negative environments. Make the cues for good habits obvious and the cues for bad habits invisible. It is easier to avoid temptations than resisting them.
Chapter 8
How to Make a Habit Irresistible
The more attractive something is the more we try to do that. To make a habit irresistible you have to make that attractive. Dopamine is a huge driver of habits without dopamine, there would be no actions and no actions would mean to no habits. Dopamine is realized in anticipation not when you already have the experience. Every action is taken because of the anticipation.You need to bundle the thing you want to do (attractive) with the things you need to do(essential).
Chapter 9
The Role of Family and Friends in Shaping Your Habits
You do something when it’s attractive, otherwise you don’t, so why not make the thing you need to do attractive? Our desire is to belong. Behavior are attractive when they help us to fit in. We imitate three groups in particular
- The close
- The many
- The powerful
It’s kind of like peer pressure, we imitate our peers, but we need to be careful to surround yourself with the good ones. Join groups in which you want to see yourself In. Another thing is that we want to be the best and stand out, it’s in our nature. Most days we would 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.
Chapter 10
How to Find and Fix The Cause of Your Bad Habits
To give up bad habits, you have to make them unattractive, people have their ways to reduce stress, some smoke cigarettes, binge eat and some go for a run. When you binge eat or smoke cigarettes you don’t do it because it’s needed, you do it because you want to feel different. When a habit successfully address a motive you crave to do it again, Habits are attractive when we associate positive feelings with it. You simply chance ‘I have to ‘I get to’. See things as opportunities not burden. Highlight the benefits of avoiding bad habit to make it seem unattractive. If you can reprogram your prediction you can transform a hard habit into an attractive one.
Chapter 11
Walk Slowly, But Never Backward
We need to take action more and more that’s how we learn. We need to turn motion into action. Motion never produce outcome for itself, action does. Motion makes us feel like we are progressing but actually we are not, we are just having the short term feeling of avoiding failure. If you want to master a habit the key is repetition not perfection. The best way to Stick to a habit is by repetition. When we perform new things at first it feels difficult because the channels through which the sensation pass has not established yet but frequent repetition cuts the pathway and the difficulty vanishes. There is a process know automaticity where your habits become automatic that you don’t even need to think about it you do it automatically. Habits are based on frequency not time. You need to cross the habit line to be in automaticity
Chapter 12
The Law of Least Effort
Our motivation is not to be motivated, our motivation is to be lazy. We are motivated to do what’s easy. We stick to things that don’t require a lot of effort. We need to try to make your habits easy, we certainly can do hard things but we don’t feel like to do them everyday so to keep things in our favor, try to make things easy. To achieve more with less effort we have to be smart on how we do things. The goal is to reduce friction, because only then we will get more with less effort. Increase the friction associated with bad behavior, because when friction is high, habits are difficult. Prime your environment for make future actions easy, it will help you in the long run.
Chapter 13
How to Stop Procrastinating by Using the Two-Minute Rule
Our habits follow one another. We are required to make few decisive good choices not all. Once we make the first choice the rest happens automatically. Follow the two minute rule no matter what the habit is just start it. The habit must be established before it can be improved. You have to hack your brain, if you want to achieve something big start small, and make your way up. In the beginning think of small steps because thinking of the big picture would make you anxious and you are less likely to start. The more you ritualize the beginning process, the more likely you slip into the state of deep focus that is required to do great things. Standardize before you optimize, you cannot improve a habit that doesn’t exist.
Chapter 14
How to Make Good Habits Inevitable and Bad Habits Impossible
Sometimes success is about making bad habits hard. Have a commitment when you do something, it will increase the chances of you actually doing that. There are things that need one time effort but it sets you up for your whole life. By using technology carefully we can benefit a lot, we can move from one task to another real quick, the goal is to make the beneficial tasks easy to do so that we can do that even when we’re demotivated. When things are hard, you find yourself slipping easily. Use technology to automate your habits in the most reliable and effective way to guarantee the right behavior.
Chapter 15
The Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change
We have to make good things satisfying so that we don’t feel like it’s burden to us. We have to have satisfaction to repeat an activity. Positive emotions cultivate habit and negative emotions destroy them. We value present more than the future, we want instant gratification we don’t want to wait. We don’t care about bad habits if it gives instant gratification, we don’t realize that is is bad for the long run, we value present. The cardinal rule of behavioral change is what’s immediately rewarded is repeated and what’s immediately punished is avoided. With bad habits the immediate outcome usually feels good but the ultimate outcome feels bad, and it’s the opposite with good habits, initially it’s feels like hard work but in the long run it pays off. Instead of instant gratification wait a bit long, there is a saying that says, “the last mile is always the least crowded. The more a habit become a part of your life, the less you need outside encouragements to follow through. A habit need to enjoyable at last not first.
Chapter 16
How to Stick with Good Habits Every Day
To stick to a good habit we must make it satisfying with visual measures. Have a habit tracker. Do things even if you’re not motivated at that moment be accountable to yourself. Don’t break the chain of what needs to be done and it will make consistent. Track your progress to improve. Tracking keeps you accountable and shows you a clear path. Habit tracking would motivate you especially on the bad days it will push you to do better because you are going to see how far you came and you don’t want to lose it. Habit tracking is very satisfying, it feels so good to see that you’re improving. Everyone can benefit from tracking. If you don’t feel like tracking everything track one habit at a time and do it consistently. If you break a habit get back as quickly as possible never break it twice, because missing one is an accident but missing more is a new habit. Sluggish days reshapes you more than good days. If you don’t feel like doing it still do it a little bit, don’t put up a zero. Showing up when it’s fun is easy, but showing up when you don’t feel like is crucial. We focus on long work rather than meaningful work.
Chapter 17
How an Accountability Partner Changes Everything
Failure is a teacher, it makes us better, the more severe the failure is the more one tries to improve. We tend to fear punishment and our behavior begins to change, but if we just rely on punishment to change behavior then the strength of the punishment must match the relative strength of the behavior it is trying to correct. There is an immediate cost to any bad habit, it’s by creating habit contract. The habit contract is that we do things for fear of something, for example we wear seat beats so that we don’t get hurt, we don’t speed so that we don’t get a speeding ticket. Your job is to make things so hard that you have no options what so ever. When we are accountable we are too scared to make ourselves embarrassed, because we want to be the best and be perfect. So knowing that someone else is watching can be a powerful motivator.
Chapter 18
The Truth About Talent (When Genes Matter and When They Don’t)
We want to play a game where the odds are in your favor. Select the field that you want to be great in, you alone cannot do everything, focus on your strengths. Do things that excites you and match your natural skills, and Gradually be better at it. The big five which breaks down into five spectrums of behavior. If you pack in something don’t be guilty about them, rather keep doing them and be better than them. Shape your habits around your personality, if something works for you go with it even if no one is doing it . Do something that you feel easier and comes to you with a little effort and be better at it will help you save time and effort. If you can’t win by being better win by being different. The more you are better at a specific skill the harder it becomes for others to compete with you. Play a game that favors your strength. Being better at something naturally doesn’t mean you don’t have to put in the work, because if you don’t you won’t excel.
Chapter 19
The Goldilocks Rule—How to Stay Motivated in Life and Work
No matter what you have to stick to your habits in the long run. It important that we gradually move forward one step at a time, otherwise we will lose motivation really easily. The Goldilocks rule states that humans experience peak motivation when tasks are right at the edge of their abilities, not too hard not too easy just right. You have to start small and then gradually go forward. The successful people are the ones who can handle the boredom of everyday consistency, following the same routine everyday. The greatest threat to success is boredom. If you are interested in a habit try to push it a little bit to the edge of manageable difficulty to keep things interesting. You can never live up to your full potential only if you do something when you feel like doing it, you gotta show up on the difficult days as well. But this is the difference between professional and an amateurs. You don’t want to slack, if you believe something is truly important to you you have to stop making excuses and show up. You won’t ever regret showing up to something that is important to you.
Chapter 20
The Downside of Creating Good Habits
Once our habits becomes automatic, we become less sensitive to feedback. When you can do it good enough you don’t want to do it any better. Never get too comfortable with anything always reflect and review. You need to get slightly better each day. You need to do self assessments to see if your habits are actually helping you or not and what corrections do you need to make to your habits. You have to continue to expand if you are too comfortable and stay at the same place for a long time you will soon fall behind. Don’t just have one identity, get into broaden yourself and your identity, explore and experience more. If something is not serving you don’t waste time doing that.
Habits+deliberate practice= Mastery.