Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

by James Clear

The more you ritualize the beginning of a process, the more likely it becomes that you can slip into the state of deep focus that is required to do great things.

14 How to Make Good Habits Inevitable and Bad Habits Impossible

HOW TO AUTOMATE A HABIT AND NEVER THINK ABOUT IT AGAIN

These onetime actions are a straightforward way to employ the 3rd Law of Behavior Change.

They make it easier to sleep well, eat healthy, be productive, save money, and generally live better.

ONETIME ACTIONS THAT LOCK IN GOOD HABITS

Nutrition Buy a water filter to clean your drinking water. Use smaller plates to reduce caloric intake.

Sleep Buy a good mattress. Get blackout curtains.

Productivity Unsubscribe from emails. Turn off notifications and mute group chats. Set your phone to silent. Use email filters to clear up your inbox. Delete games and social media apps on your phone.

Happiness Get a dog. Move to a friendly, social neighborhood.

General Health Get vaccinated. Buy good shoes to avoid back pain. Buy a supportive chair or standing desk.

Finance Enroll in an automatic savings plan. Set up automatic bill pay. Cut cable service. Ask service providers to lower your bills.

Productivity: Social media browsing can be cut off with a website blocker.

The inversion of the 3rd Law of Behavior Change is make it difficult.

A commitment device is a choice you make in the present that locks in better behavior in the future.

The ultimate way to lock in future behavior is to aut...

Onetime choices—like buying a better mattress or enrolling in an automatic savings plan—are single actions that automate your future habits a...

Using technology to automate your habits is the most reliable and effective way to gua...

HOW TO CREATE A GOOD HABIT

The 1st Law: Make It Obvious 1.1: 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.

The 2nd Law: Make It Attractive 2.1: Use temptation bundling. Pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do. 2.2: Join a culture where your desired behavior is the normal behavior. 2.3: Create a motivation ritual. Do something you enjoy immediately before a difficult habit.

The 3rd Law: Make It Easy 3.1: Reduce friction. Decrease the number of steps between you and your good habits. 3.2: Prime the environment. Prepare your environment to make future actions easier. 3.3: Master the decisive moment. Optimize the small choices that deliver outsized impact. 3.4: Use the Two-Minute Rule. Downscale your habits until they can be done in two minutes or less. 3.5: Automate your habits. Invest in technology and onetime purchases that lock in future behavior.

The 4th Law: Make It Satisfying

HOW TO BREAK A BAD HABIT

Inversion of the 1st Law: Make It Invisible 1.5: Reduce exposure. Remove the cues of your bad habits from your environment.

Inversion of the 2nd Law: Make It Unattractive 2.4: Reframe your mind-set. Highlight the benefits of avoiding your bad habits.

Inversion of the 3rd Law: Make It Difficult 3.6: Increase friction. Increase the number of steps between you and your bad habits. 3.7: Use a commitment device. Restrict your future choices to the ones that benefit you.

Inversion of the 4th Law: Make It Unsatisfying

THE 4TH LAW Make It Satisfying

The Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change

the story of a woman who had a narcissistic relative who drove her nuts. In an attempt to spend less time with this egomaniac, she acted as dull and as boring as possible whenever he was around. Within a few encounters, he started avoiding her because he found her so uninteresting.

Positive emotions cultivate habits. Negative emotions destroy them.

The first three laws of behavior change—make it obvious, make it attractive, and make it easy—increase the odds that a behavior will be performed this time. The fourth law of behavior change—make it satisfying—increases the odds that a behavior will be repeated next time. It completes the habit loop.

But there is a trick. We are not looking for just any type of satisfaction. We are looking ...

THE MISMATCH BETWEEN IMMEDIATE AND DELAYED REWARDS

Here’s the problem: most people know that delaying gratification is the wise approach. They want the benefits of good habits: to be healthy, productive, at peace. But these outcomes are seldom top-of-mind at the decisive moment. Thankfully, it’s possible to train yourself to delay gratification—but

The best way to do this is to add a little bit of immediate pleasure to the habits that pay off in the long-run and a little bit of immediate pain to ones that don’t.

HOW TO TURN INSTANT GRATIFICATION TO ...

The vital thing in getting a habit to stick is to feel successful—even i...

The feeling of success is a signal that your habit paid off and that the wor...

It’s only months later, once you shed a few pounds or your arms gain some definition, that it becomes easier to exercise for its own sake.

The best approach is to use reinforcement, which refers to the process of using an immediate reward to increase the rate of a behavior.

Habit stacking, which we covered in Chapter 5, ties your habit to an immediate cue, which makes it obvious when to start. Reinforcement ties your habit to an immediate reward, which makes it satisfying when you finish.

In summary, a habit needs to be enjoyable for it to last.

Chapter Summary

The 4th Law of Behavior Change is make it satisfying.

We are more likely to repeat a behavior when the experie...

The human brain evolved to prioritize immediate rewards ov...

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

To get a habit to stick you need to feel immediately successful—even i...