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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
James Clear
Read between
August 18 - September 5, 2025
French philosopher Michel de Montaigne wrote, “The customs and practices of life in society sweep us along.”
The close. The many. The powerful.
We pick up habits from the people around us. We copy the way our parents handle arguments, the way our peers flirt with one another, the way our coworkers get results. When your friends smoke pot, you give it a try, too. When your wife has a habit of double-checking that the door is locked before going to bed, you pick it up as well.
“a person’s chances of becoming obese increased by 57 percent if he or she had a friend who became obese.”
Surround yourself with people who have the habits you want to have yourself. You’ll rise together.
We check reviews on Amazon or Yelp or TripAdvisor because we want to imitate the “best” buying, eating, and travel habits.
The culture we live in determines which behaviors are attractive to us.
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).
If a behavior can get us approval, respect, and praise, we find it attractive.
How to Find and Fix the Causes of Your Bad Habits
You think you are quitting something, but you’re not quitting anything because cigarettes do nothing for you.
Instead of telling yourself “I need to go run in the morning,” say “It’s time to build endurance and get fast.”
limitation if you realize one simple truth: living below your current means increases your future means.
“I am nervous” to “I am excited and I’m getting an adrenaline rush to help me concentrate.”
Fill out the Habits Scorecard. Write down your current habits to become aware of them. 1.2: Use implementation intentions: “I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].” 1.3: Use habit stacking: “After I [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].” 1.4: Design your environment. Make the cues of good habits obvious and visible.
Reduce exposure. Remove the cues of your bad habits from your environment. Inversion of the 2nd Law:
It is easy to get bogged down trying to find the optimal plan for change: the fastest way to lose weight, the best program to build muscle, the perfect idea for a side hustle. We are so focused on figuring out the best approach that we never get around to taking action.
“The best is the enemy of the good.”
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 you want to master a habit, the key is to start with repetition, not perfection.
Automaticity is the ability to perform a behavior without thinking about each step, which occurs when the nonconscious mind takes over.
The most effective form of learning is practice, not planning.
Habit formation is the process by which a behavior becomes progressively more automatic through repetition.
On the tough days, it’s crucial to have as many things working in your favor as possible so that you can overcome the challenges life naturally throws your way.
addition by subtraction.*
Want to exercise? Set out your workout clothes, shoes, gym bag, and water bottle ahead of time.
Only plug it back in if you can say out loud the name of the show you want to watch. This setup creates just enough friction to prevent mindless viewing.
The greater the friction, the less likely the habit.
Create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible.
Prime your environment to make future actions easier.
DECISIVE MOMENTS
“When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.”
“Read before bed each night” becomes “Read one page.”
“Fold the laundry” becomes “Fold one pair of socks.”
Very easy Easy Moderate Hard Very hard Put on your running shoes Walk ten minutes Walk ten thousand steps Run a 5K Run a marathon Write one sentence Write one paragraph Write one thousand words Write a five-thousand-word article Write a book Open your notes Study for ten minutes Study for three hours Get straight A’s Earn a PhD
The truth is, a habit must be established before it can be improved.
We rarely think about change this way because everyone is consumed by the end goal. But one push-up is better than not exercising.
One minute of reading is better than never picking up a book.
Becoming an Early Riser Phase 1: Be home by 10 p.m. every night. Phase 2: Have all devices (TV, phone, etc.) turned off by 10 p.m. every night. Phase 3: Be in bed by 10 p.m. every night (reading a book, talking with your partner). Phase 4: Lights off by 10 p.m. every night. Phase 5: Wake up at 6 a.m. every day.
Habits can be completed in a few seconds but continue to impact your behavior for minutes or hours afterward.
Standardize before you optimize. You can’t improve a habit that doesn’t exist.
A commitment device is a choice you make in the present that controls your actions in the future.
“Civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them.”
A commitment device is a choice you make in the present that locks in better behavior in the future.
Onetime choices—like buying a better mattress or enrolling in an automatic savings plan—are single actions that automate your future habits and deliver increasing returns over time.
What is rewarded is repeated. What is punished is avoided.
The first three laws of behavior change—make it obvious, make it attractive, and make it easy—increase
THE MISMATCH BETWEEN IMMEDIATE AND DELAYED REWARDS
The more a habit becomes part of your life, the less you need outside encouragement to follow through. Incentives can start a habit. Identity sustains a habit. That said, it takes time for the evidence to accumulate and a new identity to emerge.
The 4th Law of Behavior Change is make it satisfying.
