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

by James Clear

habits form based on frequency, not time.

what people really should be asking is, “How many does it take to form a new habit?”

You need to string together enough successful attempts until the behavior is firmly embedded in your mind and you cross the Habit Line.

To build a habit, you need to practice it.

Energy is precious, and the brain is wired to conserve it whenever possible. It is human nature to follow the Law of Least Effort, which states that when deciding between two similar options, people will naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work.

the less energy a habit requires, the more likely it is to occur.

In a sense, every habit is just an obstacle to getting what you really want.

You don’t actually want the habit itself. What you really want is the outcome the habit delivers. The greater the obstacle—that is, the more difficult the habit—the more friction there is between you and your desired end state.

The problem is that some days you feel like doing the hard work and some days you feel like giving in. 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. The less friction you face, the easier it is for your stronger self to emerge.

Trying to pump up your motivation to stick with a hard habit is like trying to force water through a bent hose. You can do it, but it requires a lot of effort and increases the tension in your life. Meanwhile, making your habits simple and easy is like removing the bend in the hose.

you can also optimize your environment to make actions easier.

For example, when deciding where to practice a new habit, it is best to choose a place that is already along the path of your daily routine.

I like to refer to this strategy as addition by subtraction.

The central idea is to create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible.

Whenever you organize a space for its intended purpose, you are priming it to make the next action easy.

You can also invert this principle and prime the environment to make bad behaviors difficult. If you find yourself watching too much television, for example, then unplug it after each use. 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.

It is remarkable how little friction is required to prevent unwanted behavior.

Whether we are approaching behavior change as an individual, a parent, a coach, or a leader, we should ask ourselves the same question: “How can we design a world where it’s easy to do what’s right?”

Redesign your life so the actions that matter most are also the actions that are easiest to do.

Every day, there are a handful of moments that deliver an outsized impact. I refer to these little choices as decisive moments.

Habits are the entry point, not the end point. They are the cab, not the gym.

Even when you know you should start small, it’s easy to start too big. When you dream about making a change, excitement inevitably takes over and you end up trying to do too much too soon.

The most effective way I know to counteract this tendency is to use the Two-Minute Rule, which states, “When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.”

The idea is to make your habits as easy as possible to start.

once you’ve started doing the right thing, it is much easier to continue doing it.

What you want is a “gateway habit” that naturally leads you down a more productive path.

The point is to master the habit of showing up. The truth is, a habit must be established before it can be improved. If you can’t learn the basic skill of showing up, then you have little hope of mastering the finer details. Instead of trying to engineer a perfect habit from the start, do the easy thing on a more consistent basis. You have to standardize before you can optimize.

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.

You may not be able to automate the whole process, but you can make the first action mindless. Make it easy to start and the rest will follow.

once you’ve established the habit and you’re showing up each day, you can combine the Two-Minute Rule with a technique we call habit shaping to scale your habit back up toward your ultimate goal.

Sometimes success is less about making good habits easy and more about making bad habits hard.

A commitment device is a choice you make in the present that controls your actions in the future.

Commitment devices increase the odds that you’ll do the right thing in the future by making bad habits difficult in the present.

Once my bad habit became impossible, I discovered that I did actually have the motivation to work on more meaningful tasks. After I removed the mental candy from my environment, it became much easier to eat the healthy stuff.

We are more likely to repeat a behavior when the experience is satisfying.

the Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change: 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 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.

You live in what scientists call a delayed-return environment because you can work for years before your actions deliver the intended payoff.

The brain’s tendency to prioritize the present moment means you can’t rely on good intentions. When you make a plan—to lose weight, write a book, or learn a language—you are actually making plans for your future self.

As a general rule, the more immediate pleasure you get from an action, the more strongly you should question whether it aligns with your long-term goals.

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

At some point, success in nearly every field requires you to ignore an immediate reward in favor of a delayed reward.

The vital thing in getting a habit to stick is to feel successful—even if it’s in a small way. The feeling of success is a signal that your habit paid off and that the work was worth the effort.

In the beginning, you need a reason to stay on track. This is why immediate rewards are essential. They keep you excited while the delayed rewards accumulate in the background.

You want the ending of your habit to be satisfying.

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.

it is important to select short-term rewards that reinforce your identity rather than ones that conflict with it.

Eventually, as intrinsic rewards like a better mood, more energy, and reduced stress kick in, you’ll become less concerned with chasing the secondary reward. The identity itself becomes the reinforcer. You do it because it’s who you are and it feels good to be you.

Incentives can start a habit. Identity sustains a habit.