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

by James Clear

A habit is a routine or behavior that is performed regularly—and, in many cases, automatically.

changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years.

With the same habits, you’ll end up with the same results. But with better habits, anything is possible.

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.

Success is the product of daily habits—not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.

You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.

Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. Your net worth is a lagging measure of your financial habits. Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits. Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. Your clutter is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits. You get what you repeat.

Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.

Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results.

The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It’s not about any single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. Ultimately, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress.

You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.

This is the meaning of the phrase atomic habits—a regular practice or routine that is not only small and easy to do, but also the source of incredible power; a component of the system of compound growth.

Outcomes are about what you get. Processes are about what you do. Identity is about what you believe.

The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity. It’s one thing to say I’m the type of person who wants this. It’s something very different to say I’m the type of person who is this.

Your identity is literally your “repeated beingness.”

The most practical way to change who you are is to change what you do.

It is a simple two-step process: Decide the type of person you want to be. Prove it to yourself with small wins.

Habits can help you achieve all of these things, but fundamentally they are not about having something. They are about becoming someone.

“Habits are, simply, reliable solutions to recurring problems in our environment.”

You do not crave smoking a cigarette, you crave the feeling of relief it provides. You are not motivated by brushing your teeth but rather by the feeling of a clean mouth. You do not want to turn on the television, you want to be entertained.

The cue is about noticing the reward. The craving is about wanting the reward. The response is about obtaining the reward. We chase rewards because they serve two purposes: (1) they satisfy us and (2) they teach us.

In summary, the cue triggers a craving, which motivates a response, which provides a reward, which satisfies the craving and, ultimately, becomes associated with the cue. Together, these four steps form a neurological feedback loop—cue, craving, response, reward; cue, craving, response, reward—that ultimately allows you to create automatic habits. This cycle is known as the habit loop.

The simple way to apply this strategy to your habits is to fill out this sentence: I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].

The Diderot Effect states that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption that leads to additional purchases.

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

This is the secret to self-control. Make the cues of your good habits obvious and the cues of your bad habits invisible.

It is the anticipation of a reward—not the fulfillment of it—that gets us to take action.