Atomic Habits
Tiny changes, Remarkable Results
by James Clear
summarized by Adrie Kuil
Brief summary
Small changes often don't seem to matter much, because it can take a long time before you notice any results. But improving yourself by one percent every day for a year makes you thirty-seven times better. A decline of one percent every day for one year takes you to almost zero. Adopt daily habits that put you on the road toward success. Focus first on the type of person you want to become so you can build lasting, identity-based habits.
Full summary
This summary is an informal write-up of my understanding of the key messages from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear.
Small changes often don't seem to matter much, because it can take a long time before you notice any results. But improving yourself by one percent every day for a year makes you thirty-seven times better. A decline of one percent every day for one year takes you to almost zero. Adopt daily habits that put you on the road toward success. That road is not a straight, linear line of progress. You often only notice much difference when you cross a critical threshold. You need to persist long enough to pass this threshold.
Your results have more to do with your processes than with your goals. Goals set the direction, executing the processes delivers progress. Achieving a goal improves your life momentarily, changing your processes improves your life for good. Enjoy the process instead of waiting to enjoy yourself until after you have reached your goal. Focus on your processes instead of your goals to get better results.
There are three layers of behavior change: The level of outcomes is about changing your results. The level of processes is about changing your behavior. The level of identity is about changing your beliefs about yourself, others and the world.
Focus first on the type of person you want to become so you can build lasting, identity-based habits. First change how you view yourself, so that your old identity can’t sabotage your change efforts. A habit will only last if it becomes part of your identity. Your behaviors usually reflect the type of person you believe that you are. You fail to stick with habits because your self-image gets in the way. Don’t get too attached to only one version of your identity.
The more your repeat a behavior, the more you reinforce the identity associated with that behavior. Change who you are by changing what you do. Changing your identity is a simple two-step process: first decide the type of person you want to be, and then take small steps to reinforce that identity.
What do you want to stand for? What are your principles and values? Work backwards from the results you want to the type of person who can achieve those results. Ask yourself: “Who is the type of person that can get the results I want?” Focus on becoming that type of person, not on getting the specific result.
Once you have decided what type of person you want to be, take small steps to reinforce that identity. Ask yourself continuously: “What would this type of person do?” Habits are about becoming the type of person you wish to be.
A habit is a behavior that has become automatic through repetition. The formation of a habit begins with trial and error. You tend to repeat behaviors with satisfying consequences, and tend to avoid behaviors with unpleasant consequences. The brain remembers the past to better predict what will work in the future.
All habits proceed through a feedback loop of four steps in the same order: cue, craving, response, reward. This cycle is known as the habit loop.
The cue triggers the behavior (you notice a reward). The craving is your desire to change your internal state. It is the motivational force behind your behavior (you want the reward). The response is the habit you perform, which can be a thought or an action (you obtain the reward). The reward is the outcome of the response. It satisfies your craving, and teaches you which actions are worth repeating.
If a behavior fails in any of the four steps it will not become a habit. Without the clue the behavior won’t start. Without the craving you won’t respond. If you’re not capable to do the behavior, there can be no response. Without a satisfying reward, you won’t repeat the behavior.
The Four Laws of Behavior Change are simple rules for creating good habits and breaking bad ones.
To create a good habit you need to make it obvious (cue), make it attractive (craving), make it easy (response), or make it satisfying (reward).
To break a bad habit you need to make it invisible (cue), make it unattractive (craving), make it difficult (response), or make it unsatisfying (reward).
Habits are useful because they enable you to act without conscious attention. This is also why they are dangerous as you can get stuck in adverse patterns. The process of behavior change begins with awareness of your current habits.
Create a list of your daily habits. Good habits are habits that will benefit you in the long run. Mark the good habits in your list with a “+”, the bad ones with a “-“, and the neutral ones with a “=”. A good habit helps you to become the type of person you want to be. Observe your current habits as if you are watching someone else.
The first law: make it obvious. There are several ways to increase the likelihood that you’ll stick with a new habit. Use implementation intentions: create explicit plans about where and when you will execute the new habits. Stack a new habit on top of a habit you already have. Or insert a new habit into the middle of two current habits.
Environment shapes human behavior. You are more likely to choose products that are obviously visible. A small change in what you see can lead to a large change in what you do. Redesign your environment to make cues for good habits more obvious. Habits can be easier to change in a new environment. One space, one use.
The inversion of the first law: make it invisible. Bad habits foster the difficult feelings they try to numb. Because you feel bad, you drink too much alcohol. Because you drink too much alcohol, you feel bad. Eliminate a bad habit by reducing your exposure to the cue that triggers the habit.
The second law: make it attractive. The more attractive something is, the more likely it is to produce a habit. Examples: social media likes, online porn, junk food, and video games. The expectation of a reward spurs us into action. The craving leads to the response.
Link an action that you need to do with an action that you like to do. The more attractive behavior will reinforce the less attractive behavior.
Behaviors are attractive when they help us bond with others. We have a strong desire to belong to a tribe. The closer we are to others, the more likely we are to imitate their habits. Join a culture where the members show your desired behavior.
Every craving is a specific manifestation of an underlying need, like relieving anxiety or winning social approval. There are many possible behaviors to satisfy the same underlying need. Our behavior is preceded by predictions that arouse feelings. We respond to our interpretation of events, not to their objective reality. A craving is a desire to change your internal state. You want to feel different. Make difficult habits more attractive by associating them with something you enjoy. Shift your mindset from “have to” to “get to”. “I get to go to the gym.” instead of “I have to go to the gym”. Reframe difficult habits by highlighting their benefits rather than disadvantages.
The inversion of the second law: make it unattractive. Reformulate bad habits by emphasizing the benefits of avoiding the bad habit.
The third law: make it easy. You build a new habit by practicing until it becomes automatic. Each habit can be viewed as an obstacle: you’re not interested in the habit, you want the result of the habit. The less effort a habit needs, the more likely it is to happen. Ask yourself: How can I make it as easy as possible to do what is beneficial in the long run?
Optimize your environment to make actions easier. Organize each space for its intended use.
Decisive moments are moments of choice that have a big impact on what follows. Make productive and healthy habitual choices. Order takeout or cook dinner? Go to the gym or play video games?
The Two-Minute Rule: When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do. Make it as easy as possible to start by scaling down your new habit until it can be done in two minutes or less. Write one sentence, read one page, meditate for one minute. The scaled down habit is a “gateway habit” that eventually leads to your desired outcome. Executing the scaled down habit reinforces the type of person you want to be.
Automate your habits. For example, automatically save a certain amount every month.
The inversion of the third law: make it difficult. Ask yourself: How can I make it as difficult as possible to perform this bad habit?
Redesign your environment to make it harder to perform bad habits. For instance leave your phone in a different room.
Use commitment devices. Make a choice in the present that restricts your choices in the future to the desired ones. For instance leave your wallet at home so you can’t buy anything when you go out.
The fourth law: make it satisfying. We tend to repeat behavior that is immediately satisfying, and tend to avoid behavior that is not immediately satisfying. Many of our good habits don’t reward us immediately, but only in the long run. We value the present more than the future.
Add some immediate satisfaction at the end of good habits. Use reinforcement: make habits feel successful by adding a reward immediately at the end of the behavior. Also use reinforcement after avoiding a bad habit, by adding a reward immediately after not performing the bad habit. Select rewards that reinforce your identity.
Visually measuring progress is satisfying and motivating, and it reinforces your behavior. A habit tracker is a simple way to measure whether you executed a habit. Immediately after you have performed a habit put for that day a cross on a calendar. A tracker helps you to focus on the process rather than the result. People who track their progress are more likely to improve than those who don’t. Make it your goal to not break the chain of crosses. Perfection is impossible. It’s about being the type of person who doesn’t miss twice.
The inversion of the fourth law: make it unsatisfying. Many of our bad habits reward us immediately, but are harmful in the long run. Add some immediate pain to bad habits to make them unsatisfying.
Conclude a habit contract. This is an agreement between you and one or two accountability partners. In the contract you state your commitment to stick to a habit, and you define the punishment for not following through on your commitment.
Habits are easier to perform when they align with your natural abilities. Your genes determine your areas of opportunity. Your personality is the set of characteristics that is consistent in all situations. The Big Five personality traits are: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. Build habits that work for your personality.
How do you pick the right habit? When starting a new habit begin with a period of experimentation. Try out many possibilities and research a broad range of ideas. After this period exploit the best solution you’ve found, and experiment occasionally.
Ask yourself the following questions to find the areas that will be most satisfying to you: What feels fun to me, but feels like work to others? What makes me lose track of time? Where do I get greater returns than the average person? What comes naturally to me?
The more you master a specific skill, the harder it becomes for others to compete with you. Work hard on the things that come easy to you.
The way to maintain motivation is to work on tasks that are on the edge of your abilities. Not too hard or too easy.
Mastery requires a lot of practice. At some point you will get bored by doing the same things over and over again. To become successful you need to persevere despite your feelings of boredom. Professionals take action regardless of how they feel, amateurs let their feelings get in the way.
Regularly reflect on your habits to continuously improve and fine-tune them. Become aware of your mistakes and consider how you can correct them. Reflect on whether you are spending your time on the right things, and correct your course when necessary. Periodically reflect on your identity and on how you can become the type of person you want to be. Review your core values and consider how much you live in harmony with them.
The tighter you hold on to your identity, the harder it is to grow beyond it. The more you identify yourself with a single belief, the less you can adapt to changing circumstances. That single belief can be “I’m a soldier.”, “I’m the CEO.”, or “I’m an athlete.”. When you define yourself in one way and that one way disappears, who are you then? Define yourself in a more flexible way through the type of person you are or want to become. “I’m the type of person who is disciplined, reliable, and cooperative”.
Life is constantly changing so check periodically whether your old habits and beliefs are still serving you.
Success is not a goal to reach, it is an endless process of making improvements.
The four-step habit model reveals some interesting insights about human behavior. Happiness is the absence of desire. Inner peace occurs when you don’t turn your observations into problems. With a big enough why you can overcome any how. Emotions drive behavior. Suffering drives progress. Your actions reveal how badly you want something. Self-control is difficult because it is not satisfying. Our expectations determine our satisfaction. Desire initiates, pleasure sustains.