ATOMIC HABITS

Want to learn the process of changing your bad habits and developing good ones, that too by following few simple steps? So let's starts our journey towards inculcating good habits, through the summary of Book - 'Atomic Habits' (James clear). 

About Habits 

•Habit is a behaviour repeated enough times so that it becomes automatic.

•When we face a problem for the first time, the neurological activity in brain is very high . But if faced with same problem repeatedly, it's solved automatically without any conscious thoughts(as it has now become our habit).

•Habits reduce cognitive load and free up mental capacity so that you can allocate your conscious attention to new challenging tasks. 

Surprising powers of atomic habits 

•We convince ourselves that massive success requires massive actions and feels that small changes are unimportant. But that's not entirely true. 

•Habits are compound interest of self improvement. Getting 1% better each day for 1 year will make you 37 times better whereas if you get 1% worse each day for one year, you will decline to zero. 

•Actually effect of habits multiply as you repeat them and become more meaningful in long run.

•Breakthrough moments are often result of many previous actions and not just of one massive action  Eg Bamboo can barely be seen for first 5 years as it builds it's extensive root system before exploding 90 feet into air within 6 weeks. 

• Habits won't make difference until you cross critical limit called as 'Plateau of Latent Potential'. To taste success, stick with habit long enough to survive it's 'Plateau of Latent Potential'. 

•It doesn't matter how successful you are right now, what matters is whether your habits are putting you on path towards success. Focus on the system (processes) not the goal (use goals only to define you trajectory). 

•Like atoms are building blocks of molecules, atomic habits are building blocks of remarkable results. 

How habits shapes your identity 

•There are three layers of behaviour change - change in 'outcome', change in 'processes', change in 'identity'. 

•Its difficult to change habits when we focus on 'what we want to achieve' known as outcome based habit. Instead we should focus on 'who we wish to become' known as identity based habit. For eg if someone asks you to smoke but you don't want to then, 

Outcome based reply : No thanks, I'm trying to quit

Identity based reply : No thanks, I'm not a smoker.

•We are more motivated to stick to a habit once it become part of our identity. 

•But there are many negative beliefs that you might have of yourself (like i am not good at maths etc). Don't get attach to one identity, unlearn to progess in life. You can use habits to change your identity. Just decide what type of person you want to be(identity) and prove it to yourself with small wins (by following habit). 

•Your habits shape your identity and your identity shapes your habits. 

How habits works 

• Process of building habit is divided into 4 steps : cue, craving, response, reward 

i)Cue - It is something that 'triggers' your brain to take action, for eg when phone buzzes with new message. 

ii)Craving - It is the motivational force behind every habit eg You want to know the message content. 

iii)Response- response is the actual habit you perform eg you grab your phone and read the text.

iv)Reward - Response deliver reward eg feeling of satisfaction after reading message. 

•These stages of habit are described as feedback loop - This loop allow you to create automatic habits. 

LAWS OF BEHAVIOUR CHANGE 

How to make a good habit 

First law - to make it 'obvious'

•Write down your current habits without judging yourself, to just become aware of them.

•Make a specific plan of when and where to perform a new habit.  Use: "I will [Behaviour] at [time] in [Location].

•Follow 'habit stacking' - identify a current habit that you do everyday and then stack your new behaviour after that. Use : "After [current habit], I will perform [new habit]. 

•Design your environment such that cues for good habits are obvious and visible. For eg if you want to develop habit of reading, keep the book on table and not somewhere hidden in the bookshelf. 

Second law - make it 'attractive'

•Use temptation bundling. This means link an action 'you want to do' with an action 'you need to do'. Follow : after [habit I need to do], I will [do habit I want to do]

•We don't choose our earliest habits, we imitate them from (3 groups) - the close ones, the many and the powerful ones. Join a culture where your desired behaviour is their normal behaviour. 

• Create motivation ritual - Do something you enjoy immediately before a difficult(new) habit. 

Third law - make it 'easy'

•Biggest reason for not taking action is because either we want to delay failure or we are so focused to do best that we never get around to take action. But habit doesn't start with perfection, it starts with repetition and soon with enough practice, it will become easy. 

•Make habits easy so that you do them even when you don't feel like doing it. Idea is to make it easy in the moment so that it pays off later. 

•Create low friction environment. For eg if you want to exercise, set out your workout clothes, shoes, gym bag, bottle ahead of time, like in the night itself so that you have no friction to hold you back for doing exercise in morning. 

•Stop procastination using 2 minute rule - start every habit by employing 2 minutes towards it. For eg read one page everyday to develop habit of reading

•Secret is to always stay below the point where it feels like work.

•Standardise before you optimize. You can't improve a habit that doesn't exist.

Fourth law - make it 'satisfying'

•What is rewarded is repeated. First 3 laws, increase the odds that a behaviour will be performed this time whereas 4th law ensures that it will be repeated next time. It completes the habit loop. 

•The consequences of good habits are always delayed for eg if you start exercising today, results would come only after 3-4 months. Thus it becomes difficult to keep our motivation high. 

•To stick to good habit, you will have to create your own immediate rewards. For eg a couple wanted to improve their eating habits, they labelled a box named 'trip to Europe', now whenever they skip going out they transfer $50 in that box. This gives them immediate pleasure. 

•Another way to stick to good habit is by using habit tracker - Most basic format is to get calender and cross off each day you stick with routine. Habit tracking has addictive effects on motivation. Tracking becomes its own reward. 

•Recover quickly if your habits break down. Just have a simple rule - 'never miss twice'. First mistake never ruins you, it's the spiral of repeated mistakes that follows.  

How to break a bad habit 

• It's the opposite of what we have learnt for making a good habit. 

First law - make it invisible 

• Controlling oneself for doing bad habit is a short run solution. For eg most people become re-addicted once they return home from rehab. 

•Permanent solution is to make the cues of bad habits invisible from the environment. 

Second law - make it unattractive 

•Reframe your mindset - One person wants to reduce stress by smoking, another ease it by going for run. Highlight the benefits of avoiding bad habits before performing them, this will help you choose wisely. 

Third law - make it difficult 

•Sometimes success is less about making good habits easy and more about making bad habits hard. 

•Increase friction - by creating an environment which is difficult to perform a bad habit. 

•Use commitment device - it's a choice you make in present that control your actions in future. 

•Key is to change the task such that it require more work to get out of good habit than to get started on it.

Fourth law - make it unsatisfying 

•Make your habit accountable - ask someone to watch yout behaviour. This will make you more responsible towards performing good habits.

•Create a habit contract to add immediate cost to any habit - Habit contract is a verbal or written agreement in which you state your commitment to particular habit and punishment that occur if you don't follow it. 

Favourite quotes 

• A genius is not born, but is educated and trained. 

•We adopt habits that are praised and approved by culture to fit in.

•You don't rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.

•The only difference between winners and losers is that winners also fail but they rebound quickly.

•We are so focused in figuring out best approach that we never get around to taking action.

#If you found the information useful, please share it with your loved ones to help them learn the importance of atomic habits. Please visit www.booktreasurer.blogpost.com to read more such interesting book summaries.