Atomic Habits

 Atomic Habits -James Clear

“We are what we repeatedly do!”

 

Our habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. : if you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done. Conversely, if you get 1 percent worse each day for one year, you’ll decline nearly down to zero. What starts as a small win or a minor setback accumulates into something much more.

1% worse every day for one year. 0.99³⁶⁵ = 00.03

1% better every day for one year. 1.01³⁶⁵ = 37.78

Each time you repeat an action, you are activating a particular neural circuit associated with that habit. First described by neuropsychologist Donald Hebb in 1949, this phenomenon is commonly known as Hebb’s Law: “Neurons that fire together wire together.”

Forget about Goals, Focus on system instead 

Focusing on the overall system, rather than a single goal, is one of the core themes of this book. Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results. For an entrepreneur, goal might be to build a million dollar business. Here a system is how the person test product ideas, hire employees, and run marketing campaigns. Now for the interesting question: If you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your system, would you still succeed? The answer is Yes!

The goal in any sport is to finish with the best score, but it would be ridiculous to spend the whole game staring at the scoreboard. Goal is a scoreboard that needs to be seen in between. So achieving a goal is only a momentary change. Incidentally Winners and losers have the same goals. System is a long term achievement and goal isn’t. Your goal can be to become good at Math. By focusing on the system you become not just good at math but also become a problem solver.

Identity crisis:

When you have repeated a story to yourself for years, it is easy to slide into these mental grooves and accept them as a fact. For eg. “I’m terrible with directions.” “I’m not a morning person.” “I’m horrible at math.”

It is a simple two-step process to change your identity:

1.       Decide the type of person you want to be. 2. Prove it to yourself with small wins.

For eg. 1. “I want to be the kind of teacher who is creative.”

2.       Making efforts in sessions to be creative.

THREE LAYERS OF BEHAVIOR CHANGE

               

 With outcome-based habits, the focus is on what you want to achieve. With identity-based habits, the focus is on who you wish to become. The most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, but on who you wish to become. Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity.

 Importance of Habits:

Researchers estimate that 40 to 50 percent of our actions on any given day are done out of habit. If habits are so important it needs to be understood categorically. Any habit can be broken down into a feedback loop that involves four steps: cue, craving, response, and reward.

The four stages of habit are best described as a feedback loop. They form an endless cycle that is running every moment you are alive. This “habit loop” is continually scanning the environment, predicting what will happen next, trying out different responses, and learning from the results.

How to Create a Good Habit?

 The 1st law (Cue): Make it obvious.

The 2nd law (Craving): Make it attractive.

The 3rd law (Response): Make it easy.

The 4th law (Reward): Make it satisfying.

We can invert these laws to learn how to break a bad habit.

 Inversion of the 1st law (Cue): Make it invisible.

Inversion of the 2nd law (Craving): Make it unattractive.

Inversion of the 3rd law (Response): Make it difficult.

Inversion of the 4th law (Reward): Make it unsatisfying.

 One of our greatest challenges in changing habits is maintaining awareness of what we are actually doing. This helps explain why the consequences of bad habits can sneak up on us. We need a “point-and call” system. P and C system is the Japanese railway system and is regarded as one of the best in the world. If you ever find yourself riding a train in Tokyo, you’ll notice that the conductors have a P and C habit. Every detail is identified, pointed at, and named aloud.

To make personal changes just list out the routine activities and use the symbols to check out the habits

Wake up at 5:30am (+ )   Check my phone  (-)  Jogging (+) Strength Exercise (+)

Tea (=)     Laptop work (+)  Tea  (-)

 Habit Stacking:

When it comes to building new habits, you can use the connectedness of behavior to your advantage. One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behavior on top. This is called habit stacking.

The habit stacking formula is: “After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].”

For eg. After I sit down to dinner, I will say one thing I’m grateful for that happened today.

 Habit Cues: Every habit is initiated by a cue. We are more likely to notice cues that stand out. For eg. keep cucumber on dining table or books beside the TV remote. Gradually, your habits become associated not with a single trigger but with the entire context surrounding the behavior. The context becomes the cue.

 2^nd Law : Make habits obvious:

Habits are a dopamine-driven feedback loop. When dopamine rises, so does our motivation to act. For some people they get tempted to have tea whenever they meet friends. That’s because of the dopamine. It is the anticipation of a reward that gets us to take action. The greater the anticipation, the greater the dopamine spike.

Temptation bundling: It 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. For eg. After I get back from my lunch break, I will call three potential clients (need).

We imitate the habits of three groups in particular:

1. The close.

2. The many.

3. The powerful.

 For quality, quantity matters:

Experiment:

Two groups were made. Group A, was told to collect photos of a particular theme in maximum quantity. They were asked to ignore the quality. With equal number of participants in the goup B, they were told to pick only one photo. It should be the best quality. They were asked to ignore the quantity.

The best quality photo was found in group A.

 Action vs motion

Action, is the type of behavior that will deliver an outcome. If I outline twenty ideas for articles I want to write, that’s motion. If I actually sit down and write an article, that’s action. If I search for a better diet plan and read a few books on the topic, that’s motion. If I actually eat a healthy meal, that’s action.

 The 3rd Law of Behavior Change is make it easy.

The most effective form of learning is practice, not planning. The amount of time you have been performing a habit is not as important as the number of times you have performed it.

 The Law of Least Effort:

Why has been farming easier to expand successful in continents like Asia and Europe compared to America and Africa?

The X-axis of Asia and Europe is longer. By this the farming gets stretched as the climate on the X-axis does not change drastically.

The spread of agriculture provides an example of the 3rd Law of Behavior Change on a global scale. 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. Walking down to office is in a way an attempt to exercise with least efforts.

The Japanese lean management also covers the same point. It actually does addition by subtraction. Reduce the friction associated with good behaviors. When friction is low, habits are easy.

 Decisive Moments:

Every day, there are a handful of moments that deliver an outsized impact. James refers to these little choices as decisive moments. The moment you decide between ordering takeout or cooking dinner. The moment you choose between driving your car or riding your bike. The moment you decide between starting your homework or grabbing the video game controller. These choices are a fork in the road.

 The Two-Minute Rule:

It states, “When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.” You’ll find that nearly any habit can be scaled down into a twominute version:

“Read before bed each night” becomes “Read one page.”

“Do thirty minutes of yoga” becomes “Take out my yoga mat.”

“Study for class” becomes “Open my notes.”

“Fold the laundry” becomes “Fold one pair of socks.”

“Run three miles” becomes “Tie my running shoes.”

 Standardize before you optimize. You can’t improve a habit that doesn’t exist.

 Fourth and final Law of Behavior Change: make it satisfying:

Karachi, which was one of the worst city in terms of hygiene had people in that state not because of lack of knowledge but because of habits. P & G distributed free hand wash bottles that had very satisfying experience. This changed the state of Karachi. We are more likely to repeat a behavior when the experience is satisfying.

 THE MISMATCH BETWEEN IMMEDIATE AND DELAYED REWARDS

Animals live in what scientists call an immediate-return environment because their actions instantly deliver clear and immediate outcomes. In modern society, many of the choices you make today will not benefit you immediately. If you do a good job at work, you’ll get a paycheck in a few weeks. If you exercise today, perhaps you won’t be overweight next year. If you save money now, maybe you’ll have enough for retirement decades from now. You live in what scientists call a delayed-return environment because you can work for years before your actions deliver the intended payoff. The human brain did not evolve for life in a delayed-return environment.

We need to understand how the brain prioritizes rewards, the answers become clear: the consequences of bad habits are delayed while the rewards are immediate. Smoking might kill you in ten years, but it reduces stress and eases your nicotine cravings now. Overeating is harmful in the long run but appetizing in the moment. Disease and infection won’t show up for days or weeks, even years. The road less traveled is the road of delayed gratification. If you’re willing to wait for the rewards, you’ll face less competition and often get a bigger payoff. As the saying goes, the last mile is always the least crowded. This is precisely what research has shown. People who are better at delaying gratification have higher SAT scores, lower levels of substance abuse, lower likelihood of obesity, better responses to stress, and superior social skills.

The Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change: What is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided.

 HOW TO KEEP YOUR HABITS ON TRACK

The most basic format is to get a calendar and cross off each day you stick with your routine. For example, if you meditate on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, each of those dates gets an X. As time rolls by, the calendar becomes a record of your habit streak.

Don’t 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

 In the beginning of a new activity, there should be a period of exploration. In relationships, it’s called dating. In college, it’s called the liberal arts. In business, it’s called split testing. The goal is to try out many possibilities, research a broad range of ideas, and cast a wide net. Extroversion, for instance, can be tracked from birth. If scientists play a loud noise in the nursing ward, some babies turn toward it while others turn away.

 When the researchers tracked these children through life, they found that the babies who turned toward the noise were more likely to grow up to be extroverts. Those who turned away were more likely to become introverts.

 What feels like fun to me, but work to others?

The mark of whether you are made for a task is not whether you love it but whether you can handle the pain of the task easier than most people. When are you enjoying yourself while other people are complaining? The work that hurts you less than it hurts others is the work you were made to do.

 Selecting  right field:

Hichman El Guerrouj, a world class athlete  is five feet, nine inches tall. Michael Phelps, worlds best swimmer is six feet, four inches tall. Despite this seven-inch difference in height, the two men are identical in one respect: Michael Phelps and Hicham El Guerrouj wear the same length inseam on their pants. How is this possible? Phelps has relatively short legs for his height and a very long torso, the perfect build for swimming. El Guerrouj has incredibly long legs and a short upper body, an ideal frame for distance running. Their body structures were best made for the sport they chose. Pick the right habit and progress is easy. Pick the wrong habit and life is a struggle.

 The Goldilocks Rule:

It states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right.

 The human brain loves a challenge, but only if it is within an optimal zone of difficulty. If you love tennis and try to play a serious match against a four-year-old, you will quickly become bored. It’s too easy. You’ll win every point. In contrast, if you play a professional tennis player like Roger Federer or Serena Williams, you will quickly lose motivation because the match is too difficult. Now consider playing tennis against someone who is your equal. As the game progresses, you win a few points and you lose a few. You have a good chance of winning, but only if you really try. Your focus narrows, distractions fade away, and you find yourself fully invested in the task at hand. This is a challenge of just manageable difficulty and it is a prime example of the Goldilocks Rule.

 HOW TO STAY FOCUSED WHEN YOU GET BORED WORKING ON YOUR GOALS:

“What’s the difference between the best athletes and everyone else?” I asked. “What do the really successful people do that most don’t?” He mentioned the factors you might expect: genetics, luck, talent. But then he said something I wasn’t expecting: “At some point it comes down to who can handle the boredom of training every day, doing the same lifts over and over and over.” “It all comes down to passion.” Or, “You have to really want it.” The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom.

 Of course, not all habits have a variable reward component, and you wouldn’t want them to. If Google only delivered a useful search result some of the time, I would switch to a competitor pretty quickly. If Uber only picked up half of my trips, I doubt I’d be using that service much longer.

 The Downside of Creating Good Habits:

The upside of habits is that we can do things without thinking. The downside of habits is that you get used to doing things a certain way and stop paying attention to little errors. You assume you’re getting better because you’re gaining experience. In reality, you are merely reinforcing your current habits—not improving them. In fact, some research has shown that once a skill has been mastered there is usually a slight decline in performance over time.        

However, when you want to maximize your potential and achieve elite levels of performance, you need a more nuanced approach. You can’t repeat the same things blindly and expect to become exceptional. Habits are necessary, but not sufficient for mastery. What you need is a combination of automatic habits and deliberate practice.

Habits + Deliberate Practice = Mastery

Although habits are powerful, what you need is a way to remain conscious of your performance over time, so you can continue to refine and improve.

Reflection and review is a process that allows you to remain conscious of your performance over time.

 

 Disclaimer :

The summary written by me is just an attempt to preserve the good points stated by .James Clear.

In this article I have mixed my experiences, observations, foresights and my perceptions to land on a point.

 

Vinay Wagh