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Atomic Habits

By James Clear

An easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones

  • Habits are like the atoms of our lives. Each one is a fundamental unit that contributes to your overall improvement.
  • cue, craving, response, reward
  • Implementation intentions

Introduces a clear plan of action, setting out when and where you'll carry out the habit you'd like to cultivate

  • Many people think they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity
  • Humans are motivated by the anticipation of reward, so making habits attractive will help you stick to them
    • Temptation bundling - take a behavior that you think of as important but unappealing and link it to a behavior that you're drawn to - one that will generate that motivating dopamine hit
  • If you want to build a new habit, make that habit as easy to adopt as possible
    • Reducing friction for creating new habits
    • Increasing friction for breaking bad habits (ex - take batteries out of remote and unplug tv)
    • Two-minute rule - start with just two minutes of certain habit
  • Making your habits immediately satisfying is essential to effective behavior change
    • delayed-return environment
    • immediate return envornment
  • Creating a framework to keep your habits on tract, using trackers and contracts
    • Habit tracking - itself is an attractive, and satisfying, habit. The anticipation and action of crossing off each day will feel good and keep you motivated
      • A habit tracker reminds you to act
      • A habit tracker motivates you to continue
      • A habit tracker provides immediate satisfaction
    • Habit contract - that imposes negative consequences if you fail to stay on track
  • Habit stacking can be used to introduce new behaviors
    • stack new habit on top of an existing habit