atomic-habits.md

Atmoic Habits Notes

Chapter 1

• Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.Getting 1 percent better every day counts for a lot in the long run.
• Habits are a double-edged sword. They can work for you or against you, which is why understanding the details is essential.
• Small changes ofthen appear to make no difference until you cross a critical treshhold. The most powerful outcomes of any compounding process are delayed. You need to be patient.
• If you want better results, then foget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.
• You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.

Chapter 2

• There are three levels of change: outcome change, process change, and identity change
• The most efective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve but on who you wish to become
• Your identity emerges out of your habits. Every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.
• Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continiously edit your beliefes, and to upgrade and expand your identity.
• The real reason habits matter is not because they can get you better results (altoguh they can do that) but because they can change your beliefs about yourself.

Chapter 3

• Rewards are the endgoal of every habit. The cue is about noticing the rewards. The raving is about wanting the rewards. The response is about obtaining the reward. We chase rewards because they serve two purposes: (1) they satisfy us and (2) they teach us.
• If a behaviour is insufficent in any of the four stages it will not become a habit. Eliminate the cue and your habit will never start. Reduce the craving and you wont experiencec enough motivation to act. Make the behaviour difficult and you wont be able to do it. And if the reward fails to satisfy your desire, then you will have no reason to do it again in the future. Without the first three steps, a behaviour will not occur. Without all four, a behaviourw will not be repeated.
• Whenever you want to change your behaviour you can simply ask yourself:
  • 1 - how can i make it obvious?
  • 2 - how can i make it attractive?
  • 3 - how can i make it easy?
  • 4 - how can i make it satisfying?
• A habit is a behaviour that has been repeated enough ties to become automatic.
• The ultimate purpose of habits is to solve the problems of life with as little energy and effort as possible.
• Any habit can be broken down into a feedback loop that involves four steps: cue, craving, response, rewards.

Chapter 4

• Over time the cues that spark our habits become so common that they are essentially invisible: the treats on the kichen counter, the remote control ext to the couch, the phone in our pocket.
• Before we can effectively build new habits, we need to get a handle on our current ones.
• If you are still having trouble determining how to rate a particular habit, here is a question I like to use: Does this behaviour help me become the type of person I wish to be? Does this habit cast a vote for or against my desired identitty? Habits that reinforce your desired identity are usually good. Habits that conflict with your desired identity are usually bad.
• Once our habits become atomatic, we stop paying attention to what we are doing.
• The process of behaviour change always starts with awareness. you need to be aware of your habits before you can change them.

Chapter 5

• The 1st law of behaviour change is make it obvious
• The two most common cues are time and location
• Habit stacking is a strategy you can use to pair a new habit with a current habit.
• The implementation intention formula is: I will BEHAVIOUR at TIME in LOCATION
• The habit stacking formula is: After CURRENT HABIT I will NEW HABBIT

Chapter 6

• play multiple roles fair enough if your space is limited, divide your room into activity zones: a chair for reading, a desk for writing, a table for eating. You can do the same with your digital spaces. I know a writer who uses his computer only for writing, his tablet only for reading, and his phone only for social media and texting. Every habit should have a home.
• Small changes in context can lead to large changes in behaviour over time.
• Every habit is intiated by a cue. We are more likely to notice cues that stand out.
• It is easier to bild new habits in a new environment because you are not fighting against old cues.

Chapter 7

• Bad habits are autocatalytic: the proccess feeds itself. They foster the feelings they try to numb. You feel bad, so you eat junk food. Because you eat junk food, you feel bad. Watching television makes you feel sluggish, so you watch more television because you dont have the energy to do anything else. Worrying about your health makes you feel anxious, which causes you to smoke to ease your anxiety, which makes your health even worse and soon you are feeling more anxious. It is a downward spiral, a runaway train of bad habits.
• Researchers refer to this phenomenon as cue-induced wanting: an external trigger causes a compulsive craving to repeat a bad habit.
• A more realiable approach is to cut bad habits off at the source. One of the most practical ways to eliminate a bad habit is to reduce exposure to the cue that causes it.
  • If you cant seem to get any work done, leave your phone in a other room for a few hours.
  • If you are continually feeling like you are not enough, stop following social media accounts that trigger jelousy and envy.
  • If you are wasting too much time watching television, move TV out of the bedroom
  • If you are playing too many video games, unplug the console and put it in a closet after each use.
• Once a habit is formed, it is unlikely to be forgotten.
• People with high self-control tend to spend less time in tempting situations. It is easier to avoid temptation than resist it.
• One of the most practical ways to eliminate a bad habit is to reduce exposure to the cue that causes it.
• Self-control is a short term strategy not a long term one.

Chapter 8

• 2nd law of behaviour change: make it attractive the more attractive an opportunity is the more likely it is to be come habit-forming.
• Thoughout our discussion of the 2nd law, our hoal is to learn how to make our habits irresistible. While it is not possible to transform every habit a supernormal stimulus, we can make any habit more enticing.
• Habits are dopamine driven feedback loop. When dopamine rises, so does our motivation to act.
• It is the anticipation of a reward - not the fullfillment of it - that gets us to take action. The greater the anticipation the greater the dopamine spike.
• Temptation bundling is one way to make your habits more attractive. The strategy is to pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do.

Chapter 9

• The culture we live in determines which ehaviours are attractive to us
• We tend to adopt habits that are praised and approved of by our culture because we have a strong desire to fit in and belong to the tribe.
• We tend to imitate the habits of three social groups: the close(family and friends), the many (the tribe), and the powerful(those with status and prestige)
• The normal behaviour of the tribe often overpowers the desired behaviour of the individual. Most days wed rather be wrong with crowd than be right by ourselves.
• If a behaviour can get us approval, respect and praise we find it attractive.

Chapter 10

• Whenever a habit sccesfully addresses a motive you develop a craving to do it again. In time, you learn to predict that checking social media will help you feel loved or that watching youtube will allow you to forget your fears. Habits are attractive when we associate them with positive feelings and we can use this insight to our adntage rather tan to our detirment.
• You can make hard habits more attractive if you can learn to associate them with a positive experience. Sometimes, all you need is a slight mind-set shift. For instance, we often talk about everything we have to do in a given day. You have to wake up early for work. You have to make another sales call for your business. You have to cook dinner for your family. Now imageine changing just one word: You dont have to, you "get" to. You get to wake up early for work. You get to make another sales call for your business. You et to cook dinner for your family. By simply changing one word, you shift the way you view each event. You transition from seeing these behaviours as burdens and turn them into opportunities. The key point is that both versions of reality are true. You have to do those things, and you also get to do them. We can find evidence for whatever mindset we choose.
• The inversion of the 2nd law of behaviour change is make it untrractive.
• Your habits are modern-day solutions to ancient desires.
• Highlight the benefits of avoiding a bad habit to make it seem unattractive.
• Habits are attracive when we associate them with positive feelings and unattractive when we associate them with negative feelings. Create a motiviation ritual by doing something you enjoy immediately before a difficult habit.

Chapter 11

• When you are in motion,you are planning and startegizing and learning. Those are all good things, but they dont produce a result. Action, on the other hand is the type of behavior that will deliver an outcome.
• If I search for a better diet plan and read a few books on the topic, that is motion. If I actually eat a healthy meal, that is action. Sometimes motion is useful, but it will never produce an outcome by itself.
• If motion doesn't lead to results, why do we do it? Sometimes we do it because we actually need to plan or learn more. But more often than not, we do it because motion allows us to feel like we are making progress without running the risk of failure. Most of us are experts at avoiding criticism.
• The 3rd law of behaviour change is make it easy.
• The most effective form of learning is practice, not planning
• Focus on taking action, not bein in motion
• Habit formation is the process by which a behavior becomes progressively more automatic through repetition.
• The amount of time you have been performing a habit is not as important as the number of times you have performed it.

Chapter 12

• Conventional wisdom holds that motivation is the key to habit change. Maybe if you really wanted it, you'd actually do it. But the truth is, our real motivation is to be lazy and to do what is convenient. And despite what the latest productivity best seller will tell you, this is a smart strategy, not a dumb one.
• Look at any behaviour that fills up much of your life and you will see that it can be performed with very low levels of motivation. Habits like scrolling on phones, checking email and watching television steal so much of our time because they can be performed almost without effort. They are remarkably convenient.
• This is why it is curicial to make your habits so easy that you wil do them even when you dont feel like it.
• Habits are easier to build when they fit into the flow of your life. You are more likely to go to the gym if it is on your way to work because stopping doesnt add much friction to your lifestyle.
• We try to write book in a chatoic household. We try to concentrate while using smartphone filled with distactions. It doesnt have to be this way. We can remove the points of frictionthat holds us back.
• The central idea is to create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible much of the battle of bilding better habits comes down to finding ways to reduce the friction associated with our good habits and increase the friction associated with our bad ones.
• Human behavior gollows the law of least effort. we will naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work.
• Create an enviornment where oding the right thing is as easy as possible.
• Reduce he friction associated with good behaviours. When firciton is low habits are easy.
• Increases the fiction associated with bad behaviors. When fiction is high, habits are difficult.
• Prime your environment to make future actions easier.

Chapter 13

• I begin each day of my life with a ritual" she writes. "I wake up at 5:30 am put on my workout clothes, my lef warmers, my sweat shirt and my hat. I walk outside my manhattan home, hail a taxi, and tell the driver to take me to the pumping iron gym at 91st street and first avenue where I work out for two hours. The ritual is not streching and weight training I put my body thorugh. The ritual is the cab. The moment I tell the driver where to go I have completed the ritual.
• Researchers estimate that 40 to 50 percent of our actions on any given day are done out of habit.
• You check your phone for just a second and soon you have spent twenty minutes staring at the screen.
• Habits arae entry points not end points. They are the cab not the gym.
• You have to standardize before you can optimize.
• As you master the art of showing up, the first two minutes simply become a ritual at begning of a larger routine.
• Habits can be completed in gew seconds but continue to impact your behaviour for minutes or hours afterwards.
• Many abits occur at decisive moments - choices that are like a fork in the road - and either send ou inthe direction of a producctive day or an unproductive one.
• The two-minute rule states, when you start a new habit, it should take less than two mintues to do.
• The more you ritualize the begining of a process he more likely it bcomes that you can slip into the state of deep focus that is required to do great things.
• Standardize before you optimize. You can't improve a habit that doesnt exist.

Chapter 14

• The inversion of the 3rd lawof behaviour change is make it difficult
• the ultimate way to lock in future behavior is to autmate your habits
• onetime choices - like buying a better mattress or enrolling in an automatic savings plan are single actions that automate your future habits and eliver increasing returns over time.
• using technology to automate your habits is the most realiable and effective way to gurantee the right behavior.

Chapter 15

• Cardinal Rule of ehavior change: What is rewarded is repeated. What is punished is avoided.
• Positive emotions cultivate habits. Negative emotions destroy them.
• Compared to the age of the brain modern society is brand new in the last one hundred years, we have seen the rise of the car, the airplane the television, the personal computer, the internet, the smartphone, and Beyonce. The world has changed much in recent years but human nature has changed little. Similar to other animals on the african svannah, our ancestors spent their days responding to grave threats securing the next meal and taking shelter from a storm. It madesense to place a high value on instant gratification. The distant future was less of a concern.
• With a fuller understanding of what causes our brain to repeat some behaviors and avoid others lets update the crdinal rule of behavior change. What is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided.
• Our preference for instant fratification reveals an important truth about succcess: because of how we are wired, most people will spend all day chasing hits of satisfaction. The road less traveled is the road face less competition and often get a bigger payoff. As the saying goes the last mile is always the least crowded.
• Thankfully it is possible to train ourself to delay gratification. But you need to work with the grain of human nature, not against it. The best way to do this is to add a little bit of immediate pleasure to the habits that pay off in the long run and a little bit of immediate pain to ones that dont.
• The 4th law of behavior change is make it satisfiyng
• We are more liekly to repeat a behavior when the experience is satisfiyng.
• The human brain evolved to prioritize immediate rewards over delayed rewards.
• The cardinal rule of behavior change: what is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided.
• To get a habit to stick you need to feel immediately successful-even if it is in a small way.

Chapter 16

• One of the most satisfiyng feelings is the feeling of making progress.
• A habit tracker is a simple way to measure wheather you did a habit like marking an X on a calendar
• Habit trackers and other visual forms of measurement can make your habits satisfiyng by providing clear evidence of your progress.
• Dont break the chain. Try to keep your habit streak alive.
• Never miss twice. If you miss one day, try to get back on track as quickly as possible.

Chapter 17

• To make bad habits unsatisfiyng your best option is to make them painful in the moment. Creating a habit contract is straightforwards way to do exactly that.
• The inversion of the 4rth law of ehavior change is make it unsatisfying
• We are less liely to repeat a bad habit if it is painful or unsatisfiyng.
• An accountability partner can create an immediate cost to inction. We care deeply about what others think of us, and we do not want others to have a lesser opinion of us.
• A habit contract can be used to add a social cost to any behavior. it makes the cost of violating your promises public and painful.
• knowing that someone else is watching you can be powerful motivator.

Chapter 18

• the most proven scientific analysis of personality traits is know as the big five which breaks them downinto five spectrums of behaviors:
  • 1 - openness to experience: from curious and inventive on one end to cautious and consistent on the other.
  • 2 - Conscientiousness: orginzied and efficent to easygoing and spontaneous
  • 3 - Extroversion: outgoing and energetic to solitary and reserved (you likely know them as extroverts vs introverts)
  • 4 - Agreeblness: Friendsly and compassionate to challenging and detached.
  • 5 - Neuroticsm: anxious and sensitive to confident, calm and stable
• In the begining of a new activity there should be a period of exploration. In relationships its called dating, in college its called the liberal arts, in business its called split testing, the goal is try out many possibilities, research a broad range of ideas and cast a wide net. After this initial period of exploration shift your focus to the best solution you ve found but keep experimenting occasioanlly.
• The secret to maximizing your odds of success is to choose the right field of competition
• Pick the right habit and progress easy. Pick the wrong habbit and life is a struggle.
• Genes cannot be easily changed, which means they provide a powerful advantage in faborable circumstances and serious disadvantage in unfacorable circumstances.
• Habits are easier whent hey alighn with your natural abilities. Choose the habits that best suit you.
• Play a game that favors your strengths. If you cant find a game that favors you, create one.
• Genes do not eliminate the need for hard work. They clarify it they tell us what to work hard on

Chapter 19

• The greates threat to success is not failure but boredom.
• Jumping from one workout to the next, one diet to the next, one business idea to the next. As soon as we experience the slightest dip in motivation,, we begin seeking a new strategy - even if the old one was still working.
• Variable rewards or not, no habit will stay interesting forever. At some point, everyone aces the same challenge on the journey of self improbvement: you have to fall in love with boredom.
• The only way to become excelletnt is to be endlessly fascianted by doing the same thing over and over. You have to fall in love with boredom.
• The goldilocks rule states that humans expereine peak motivation when working ont asks that are right on the edge of their current abilities.
• The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom.
• As habits become ruoutine, they become less interesting and less satisfiyng. We get bored.
• Anyone can work hard when they feel motivated. Its the ability to keep going when work isnt exciting that makes the difference.
• professionals stick to the schedule; amateurs let life fet in the way.

Chapter 20

• However the benefits of habits come at a cost. At first each repetition develops fluencey, speed and skill. But then as a habit becomes automatic, you become less sensitiev to feedback. You fall into mindless repetition. It becomes easier to let mistakes slide. When you can do it good enough on autopilot, you stop thinking about how to do it better.
• "I'm an athlete" becomes "im the type of person who is mentally tough and loves a physical challenge'
• 'im a great soldier' becomes 'im the type of person who is disciplined, reliable, and great on a team'
• 'im the ceo' translates to 'im the type of person who builds and creates things'
• The upside of habits is that we can do things without thinking, the downside is that we stop payin attention to little errors.
• Habits + delibirate practice = mastery
• Reflection and review is process that allow you to remain conscious of your performance over time.
• the tigher we cling to an identity the harder it becomes to grow beyond it.

Conclusion

• Eforrtless behaviors:
  • obvious, attractive, easy, satisfying
• Difficult behaviors
  • invisible, unattractive, hard, unsatisfiyng
• this is a continous process. There is no finish line. There is no permanent solution. Wherever you are looking to improve you can rotate through the four laws of behavior change until you find the next bottleneck. make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, make it satisfying.
• The secret to getting results that last is to never stop making improvements. it is remarkable what you can build if you just dont stop. Its remarkable the busines you can build if you dont stop working it is remarkable the body you can build if you dont stop training it is remarkable the knowledge you ca build if you dont sotp learning. it is rmarkble the fortune you can build if you dont stop saving. IT is remarable the friendships you can build if you dont stop caring. Small habits dont add up. They compound.