"Atomic Habits" | Part 1 of 3
According to Wikipedia, a habit is a routine of behaviour that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously. You can have good and bad habits, and most of us have a combination of both. But these small behaviours that we have tend to shape our lives, so I think this is a very good book to read. The author’s name is James Clear and the book’s cover says it would show an easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones. So let’s look at the ideas inside.
The Fundamentals
Small changes will compound into remarkable results if you're willing to stick with them for years. With better habits, anything is possible.
It is easy to think that results are sudden, but we tend to forget the effect of small daily improvements. But these types of changes are the most meaningful in the long run. I’m sure you’re aware of the stat that a 1% improvement every day gets you 37 times better after a year and a 1% decline every day gets you closer to 0 in the same span of time.
Habits don’t show results until you reach a certain threshold. In order to see a difference, habits need to be persisted long enough with, a limit the author calls the “Plateau of Latent Potential”.
Goals are given all the attention while systems are not given much, but it should be the opposite. But there are a few problems with goals, for example, winners are losers have the same goals. So how do some people succeed and others fail? One word: systems. Goals are about the results while systems are about processes. Your processes define your journey.
You can have outcome-based habits (where you take action only to achieve a certain goal) or identity-based habits (where you focus on who you become). Behaviours that do not match your identity would not stay. But when something becomes part of your identity, it’ll stay with you until you change as a person.
The more a behaviour is repeated, the more it is reinforced into your identity. And this works for good and bad habits both, so pay attention to what you are conditioning yourself to. A simple new habit would affect your life down the line, so it is important to consider what side of the good and bad scale that habit lies on.
For a new habit to form, you need to make it obvious, attractive, easy and satisfying. Conversely, to break a bad habit, make it invisible, unattractive, difficult and unsatisfying. We’ll talk about all of these in later sections.
The 1st Law: Make it Obvious
You need to be able to be aware of your habits. That is the first step to changing them.
Your brain continuously looks for cues that lead to certain outcomes. After a behaviour is repeated enough, your brain picks up on these cues without you being aware.
So you need to pick up on cues that lead to certain behaviours. For example, if your phone buzzes while you’re working and that makes you look into it, that cue (the buzzing) is creating a habit of you taking unscheduled breaks from work.
You can pair a new habit with specifics, meaning you can say to yourself, “I will [Behaviour] at [Time] in [Location].”
You can also stack habits, meaning, you can say “After I [Habit 1], I will [Habit 2].”
Make the cues for good habits stand out in your mind, so that they can be focused on.
Keep in mind that your environment matters, because at some point the environment becomes part of the cue, and it is even more difficult to change now. Changing the environment/context can help when you’re trying to build a new habit.
That’s it for this part, I’ll be back with more from the book tomorrow (you can read that here). Meanwhile, you can read more from me here. And do let me know if you want a specific topic covered! Subscribe for free to receive more posts like this every day!