Top Highlights from Atomic Habits
I recently re-read Atomic Habits by James Clear and really enjoyed it. Here are my top nine highlights from the book.
Highlight 1: Forget About Goals. Focus on Systems
James Clear advocates for forgetting entirely about goals. Instead he advocates for thinking about the type of person you want to be and then creating tiny, frequent habits that act as votes for that identity.
As an example, suppose I wanted to run a five minute mile. Clear, would not focus on that goal, but instead recommend the following framing —
- I want to be the type of person that is an excellent runner.
- People who are excellent runners go for daily runs.
- Starting to go for a run everyday is a big habit that requires a lot of motivation. So instead I am going to create an atomic habit to put on my running shoes at 7:00am every morning and go for a two minute walk outside.
- Each time this small habit is done, I am making a vote for the type of person I want to be — the type of person that is an excellent runner.
- Once the habit is established I can expand on it. For example instead of walking I can jog, or I can push the two minutes to ten minutes.
- Eventually I will be automatically running every morning and have a kick ass mile time.
The focus is on self-identity and small, frequent, systematic habits that act as votes for that identity. According to Clear, results are just a lagging indicator of these habits and self-identity.
Highlight 2: Four Steps of Habit Formation
In Atomic Habits there are four steps to habit creation that are laid out — Cue, Craving, Response, Reward.
Cue: The trigger for your brain to initiate a behavior.
Craving: The motivational force behind every habit.
Response: The actual habit you preform.
Reward: The end goal of doing a habit.
In order to understand these, consider the habit of drinking a 2:00pm cup of coffee —
Cue: I feel tired
Craving: I want to not feel tired
Response: I drink a cup of coffee
Reward: I get an energy boost
Throughout the whole book, Clear dives into these four steps of habit creation, to talk about how to build good habits and break bad habits. Lets briefly touch on each of these —
Cue — Make it Obvious
When cues are obvious a habit is more likely to be repeated. Therefore you should update your systems to make cues to good habits obvious and cues to bad habits invisible. Lets consider an example of each —
Bad Habit: If you have a bad habit of watching TV after work, then put the remote in a different room after each use. When you enter the room with the TV you won’t see the remote, thereby removing the cue.
Good Habit: If you want to build a good habit of reading before bed each night, leave a book on your pillow — this book acts as the cue to form this new habit.
Craving — Make it Attractive
After the cue comes a craving. A craving is not the habit itself but it’s a desire to change some state. Therefore you should update your systems to make good habits attractive and bad habits unattractive. Lets consider an example of each —
Bad Habit: If you have a bad habit of watching TV after work, then after each time you watch TV, take the batteries out of the remote. Then in order to watch TV you have to find batteries and put them in the remote. This is an unattractive task and therefore you interrupt the habit loop.
Good Habit: If you want to form a good habit of working out after work, but you don’t like working out, then make it attractive by finding a friend you like spending time with that can join you in the gym. By making going to the gym an attractive action you increase the changes a habit forms.
Response — Make it Easy
Only after the cue and craving does the habit actually take a place. The habit is the response to the craving in order to effect some state change. In order to form a good habit the response should be easy to do and in order to break a bad habit the response should be hard to do. Lets consider an example of each —
Bad Habit: If you have a bad habit of watching TV after work, then after each use unplug the TV. By doing this you make the resonse of turning on the TV harder and therefore interrupt the habit loop.
Good Habit: Lets say you want to form a good habit of eating more vegetables, you can make it easy by keeping the vegetables on the counter. By making the vegetables one of the easiest foods to access in your kitchen you make eating them easier and increase the changes of a habit forming.
Reward — Make it Satisfying
An action will only turn into a habit if doing it is rewarding. Therefore in order to form a good habit you need to make it satisfying and in order to break a bad habit you need to make it unsatisfying. Lets consider an example of each
Bad Habit: Lets say you have a bad habit of biting your finger nails, you can make this unsatisfying by putting a bad tasting cream on your nails. By making the habit unsatisfying you interrupt the habit loop.
Good Habit: Lets say you want to form a habit of flossing every night, you can make it satisfying by buying a water flosser which is much more enjoyable to use than string floss. By making the habit enjoyable, you increase the reward and therefore you increase the probably a habit forms.
Highlight 3: Habit Stacking
One of the best ways to build habits is to link them together with existing habits. If you are good at getting out of bed on time every morning but you are bad at remembering to feed the dog, consider feeding the dog directly after you wake up. By linking these habits together into a stack you create a clear cue for the new habit you are trying to add — getting out of bed becomes a cue to feed to feed the dog.
Hightlight 4: Be Specific
Habits should be framed to be highly specific. Both the context of the habit and the habit itself should be highly specific. The context should take one of two forms —
- Habit Stacking: “Directly after doing X, I will do Y”
- Time/Location Based: “At X time in Y location I will Z”
In addition to being specific with the context the habit should also be highly specific. A bad habit is, “I will meditate daily.” This habit lacks specific context and the habit itself is not specific. A better version is “Every morning after I wake up I will meditate in the living room.” This is better because it provides specific context by means of habit stacking. The best version of this habit is, “Every morning after I wake up I will meditate in the living for two minutes by using the Headspace app.” This final version is specific both in terms of context and in terms of the exact habit.
Hightlight 5: Temptation Bundling
Temptation bundling is the process of coupling something you want to do with something that you need to do. For example if you want to watch Netflix, but you need to work out then try working out during the show. Or if you want to drink coffee but you need to drink more water try pouring yourself a glass of water every time after you get a coffee.
Highlight 6: Ritualize
Having a ritual at the start of a larger habit can help make the larger habit more automatic. For example I employee this method before doing a long coding session. The habit for me is not the long coding session but it is instead how I get ready for the long coding session. Before a long coding session I do the following
- Prep a pot of tea
- Fill my water bottle
- Turn off notifications on my computer
- Set a timer for 90 to 180 minutes
- Start the timer
That ritual is very easy to do and I can repeat it the exact same way every time. The actual habit is the extremely simple, repeatable ritual and the deep coding session that ensues just naturally follows. After a while I link this simple ritual with having a highly productive coding session.
Hightlight 7: Reduce Friction
One of the best ways to make a habit more automatic is to make it seamless to do. For example if you want to stretch for five minutes each morning but every time before you stretch you need to look for your phone so you can set a timer than there is friction around finding your phone that reduces the probability this will turn into a habit. Instead keep a five minute sand timer or a stop watch near where you stretch, so you reduce the friction of doing this habit. As you try to form habits look for the micro points of friction and think about how you can change the system or environment to reduce those friction points.
Highlight 8: Don’t Make Metrics the Goal
Habit tracking apps and other methods of tracking habits are great. They can be motivational for people and it can be a useful way to keep honest with yourself about how you are doing on your habit. Where these trackers can go wrong, and where I have certainly misused them in the past, is when the metric becomes the goal. The goal is not to get a bunch of stars on some app, the goal is ultimately to develop a habit that aligns with the identity of the type of person you want to be.
Keep the goal, the goal — not the metric.
Highlight 9: Establish Before You Expand
You cannot expand on a habit until it’s established. If you do not run at all now, then don’t start a habit to run three miles everyday, instead start a habit to put on your running shoes everyday and step outside. It’s too big and daunting of a habit to go from zero to running everyday. This larger habit needs to be worked up to. Only once a habit is established and has become automatic can it be expanded on. So first focus on establishing the minimal viable first step of a habit and then expand from there. Only expand once the smaller version of the habit has become automatic.
A great rule of thumb Clear uses here, is that when you are starting a new habit it should take less than two minutes to complete. So even if your habit is go the gym everyday. Your starting habit should just be put on gym clothes and get in the car. Once you do that, you consider the habit successful no matter what follows.
