Atomic Habits: Summary
by Joe · 65 things on NewTwos
- If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.
- The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision
- The more you repeat a behavior, the more you reinforce the identity associated with that behavior
- Science of how habits work
- Response (obtaining the reward)
- Reward
- Craving (wanting the reward)
- Cue (noticing the reward)
- How to create a good habit
- Response (Make it easy)
- Reward (Make it satisfying)
- Craving (Make it attractive)
- Cue (Make it obvious)
- How to break a bad habit
- Craving (Make it unattractive)
- Response (Make it difficult)
- Reward (Make it unsatisfying)
- Cue (Make it invisible)
- Make a habits scorecard to identify your good/bad habits
- "Does this habit help me become the type of person I wish to be?"
- Identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behavior on top
- After I [current habit], I will [new habit], in [specific location]
- Disciplined people are better at structuring their lives in a way that does not require heroic willpower and self-control
- They spend less time in tempting situations
- If you can’t get any work done, leave your phone in another room for a few hours
- The wanting centers of your brain are much larger than the liking centers
- The habit stacking + temptation bundling formula:
- After I [habit I need], I will [habit I want]
- After I [current habit], I will [habit I need]
- Nothing sustains motivation better than being part of a tribe
- High status people enjoy the approval, respect, and praise of others
- Even the tiniest action is tinged with the motivation to feel differently
- Find something that makes you truly happy and then create a short routine that you perform every time before you do the things you love
- The key to finding and fixing the causes of your bad habits is to reframe the associations you have about them.
- Don't delay for the best approach, take action
- That is the biggest reason why you slip into motion rather than taking action. You want to delay failure.
- The key is to start with repetition, not perfection.
- Redesign your life so the actions that matter most are also the actions that are easiest to do.
- “When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do”
- The more you ritualized the beginning of a process, the more likely becomes that you can slip into the state of deep focus that is required to do great things.
- Sometimes, success is less about making good habits easy and more about making bad habits hard
- Like resetting your passwords on social media every Monday
- Make sure your good habits are not just an outcome you hope for but an outcome that is virtually guaranteed
- You must make habits satisfying
- What is rewarded is repeated
- Change is easy when it’s enjoyable
- When you slip: follow this rule. Never miss twice.
- Making progress is satisfying and visual measures provide clear evidence of your progress
- Even small wins feed your desire
- Habit tracking also keeps you honest
- Just don’t put up a zero
- If you want to prevent bad habits, adding an instant cost to the action is a great way to reduce the odds
- Creating a habit contract with accountability partners is a strong way to make your bad habits painful
- You don’t have to build the habits that everyone tells you to build. Choose the habit that best suited you, not the one that is the most popular
- When you can’t win by being better, you can win by being different
- The Goldilocks rule: humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right.
- The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom.
- Professionals stick to the schedule (have a high threshold for boredom); amateurs life get in the way.
- Habits + deliberate practice = mastery
- Reflection review offers an ideal time to revisit the most important aspect of behavior change, identity
- Lack of self-awareness is poison. Reflection and review is the antidote 
- The secret to getting results that last is to never stop making improvements.
- Small habits don’t add up, they compound.
- Tiny changes, remarkable results.