Atomic Habits

James Clear teaches us how small routines can have outsized impacts, and gives us his ultimate guide for forming good habits and breaking bad ones.

By Yuzo Makitani in Books — Mar 19, 2023

The Book in 3 Sentences

Habits are the compound interest of self improvement. Changing habits start with changing your identity, then building a process around that identity, which brings about your desired results. In order to create good habits and break bad habits, design your process and environment based on the 4 steps of habit forming:

Cue: make it obvious (good habit) / invisible (bad habit)
Craving: make it attractive / unattractive
Response: make it easy / difficult
Reward: make it satisfying / unsatisfying

Impressions

How I Discovered It

I had heard about Atomic Habits on Youtube, but the tipping point was when my coworker recommended me the book. He introduced the concept of identity before action, and this resonated with me because my real estate coaching class I was taking discussed the same. The coach Jason Drees refers to this concept of mindset as “frame” while James Clear refers to it as “identity.” I thought if two different people are talking about the same thing, the concepts explored in Atomic Habits must have a high chance of being true and useful.

Who Should Read It?

This book is the ultimate self improvement book and I would recommend it to everybody.

How the Book Changed Me

This book further reinforced a concept that I have been exploring since last year: that you need to focus on mindset before process or results. I have been making and hitting new years resolution targets by writing down goals, then creating and executing a process to achieve each goal. But now I understand that the daily effort I put in to achieve those goals reinforces an identity, which gives meaning to those goals. An achievement becomes meaningless unless I keep reinforcing my identity with actions.

I finished reading this book close to my birthday, which is immaculate timing because I make and review my new years resolutions then. This year I am dividing my resolutions into two sections: Identity (what do I identify as / want to identify as), goals (what results will reinforce that identity). As I have been doing, I will create a schedule and process in my daily planner keynote deck for each goal.

One of the immediate benefits of reading chapter 14 which talks about automating your habits, is that I set a 1 hour daily limit (2 hours on weekends) for opening YouTube on my phone. This has reduced my average YouTube usage to less than an hour a day.

My Top 3 Quotes

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
Motivation is overrated; environment often matters more.

Summary + Notes

Note: On some chapters I have left an integration section with an example making use of that chapter’s habit forming tool.

Chapter 1: Why habits are important

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement

Like compounding interest, small habits build up over time. People have a hard time sticking to habits because they expect linear growth, when habits actually scale exponentially. This stage is called the Plateau of Latent Potential: when the effort you put in doesn’t match your expected results. However when you keep at a habit, it will reach a critical threshold where the result becomes obvious, similar to tectonic movements causing an earthquake.

The British Cycling team was able to beat a hundred years of mediocrity and dominate the Olympic Games and Tour De France by habits. They changed small things such as putting rubbing alcohol on the tires, switching to more aerodynamic suits, and optimizing the sleep system of each rider. The accumulation of these changes over five years resulted in dominating the 2008 Olympic Games.

Habits can compound for you or against you. Positive examples: productivity, knowledge, and relationships. Negative examples: stress, thoughts, and riots.

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

Forget about goals, focus on systems instead. There are 4 problems with setting goals: 1. Winners and losers have the same goals, 2. Achieving a goal is only a momentary change, 3. Goals restrict happiness because you either achieve a goal and become happy or you don’t and become dissatisfied, 4. Goals are at odds with long-term progress.

Chapter 2: Change your identity first

Ultimately, your habits matter because they help you become the type of person you wish to be.

Three layers of behavior change:

1st layer = outcomes: changing your results such as losing weight or publishing a book

2nd layer = process: changing your systems and habits such as establishing a routine at the gym, or developing meditation

3rd layer = identity: changing your beliefs such as your self-image and worldview

Two step process for forming habits:

Decide the type of person you want to be
Prove it to yourself with small wins

The most effective way to build habits is to focus on changing your identity. For example, the goals is not to run a marathon, but to become a runner. Every time you do something which matches who want to be, it reinforces that identity. For example, each time you write a page, you are a writer.

Integration: I want to identify as an adventurer (avid backpacker, avid traveler, and high fitness)

Chapter 3: How to trigger habits and why they become an automatic response

Habit forming happens in 4 steps:

Cue: trigger for your brain to initiate a behavior
Craving: motivational force
Response: habit that is performed
Reward: satisfies your craving

After repeated action, the brain associates a cue with a reward. The brain continuously scans for a cue and learns to automatically respond to it over time. This becomes non-conscious behavior.

Examples:

Cue: phone buzzes with a new text / Craving: you want to learn the contents of the message / Response: you grab the phone and read the text / Reward: you satisfy your craving to read the message
End result: phone buzzing becomes associated with your phone buzzing

Behavioral change can be made by influencing these 4 steps:

Cue: How can I make it obvious?
Craving: How can I make it attractive?
Response: How can I make it easy?
Reward: How can I make it satisfying?

The opposite is true for breaking bad habits. Ex: How can I make it invisible?

Chapter 4: Become aware of your habits before you can change them

You must be aware of your habits before you can change them. There are two methods to become more aware of your habits:

Pointing-and-Calling: verbalize actions to make your non-conscious habits conscious
Habits Scorecard: write down a list of your daily habits and mark if the habit is good, bad, or neutral

Integration: I will write down a habit scorecard for my morning routine because I feel I take too long to get out of bed especially on weekends.

Chapter 5: Be specific about where and when

Implementation intention: The best way to start a habit is to commit to a time and location of the response. Simply tell yourself, “I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] and [LOCATION].”

I am multi-lingual. I am a caring husband.

Ex) I will study Spanish for twenty minutes at 6PM in my bedroom

Ex) I will make my partner a cup of tea at 8AM in the kitchen.

Habit stacking: A form of implementation intention where the cue for your desired habit is a habit you already have.

Ex) After I pour my cup of coffee each morning, I will mediate for 1 minute. After I meditate for 1 minute, I will write my to-do list for the day. After I write my to-do list for the day, I will immediately begin my first task.

Integration: I will go to soccer 30 minutes early and practice a skill I want to improve (juggling, dribbling, shooting), and leave 30 minutes early.

Chapter 6: Make your environment your cue

Motivation is overrated; Environment often matters more

A study at a hospital found that by making water bottles more conveniently accessible, the water consumption went up and soda consumption went down. This shows that without additional motivation, environment alone can promote favorable behavior.

The most obvious part of your environment is what you see. For example to eat healthier, you should leave out a basket of fruits at the dinner table. Make the cue part of your environment.

Habits can also be easier to change in a new environment, such as trying a new grocery store to buy healthier foods. It is also more effective to have separate habitats for specific habits - such as a study room for work and living room for play.

Integration: I will put a fruit basket in the new house.

Chapter 7: Remove cues from your environment to eliminate a bad habit

People with high self control spend less time in tempting situations: make a bad habit invisible

Self control is a short term strategy. For the long term, eliminate a bad habit by reducing exposure to the cues that cause it.

Ex) Rehabilitation of Vietnam veterans who were addicted to heroin: only 12% relapsed within a year of coming back

Integration: I will store chips and other snack foods in the top shelf cabinet where it is harder to reach.

Chapter 8: Reward yourself for doing a habit

Dopamine is released when you experience pleasure and also when you anticipate it. Our body takes action when it anticipates a reward, because that is when dopamine is released.

Temptation bundling = combine a habit you need to do with a habit you wish to do. A more probable behavior will reinforce a less probable behavior.

Use habit stacking + temptation bundling:

After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [HABIT I NEED]
After [HABIT I NEED], I will [HABIT I WANT]

Example: If you want to watch sports but need to make sales calls:

After I get back from my lunch break, I will call 3 potential clients
After I call 3 potential clients, I will check ESPN

Goal is to eventually look forward to calling 3 clients.

Integration: Every time I pick up a book, sit down to write a blogpost, I will pour myself a cup of iced sparkling water.

Chapter 9: You tend to do things others do

People tend to adopt habits their culture deems good:

Join a culture where the 1. desired behavior is normal behavior, and 2. you have something in common with the group.
On the flip side, normal behavior of a tribe can overpower the desired behavior of the individual. In these cases, imitate the habits of highly effective people.

Integration: I will join a cooking FB page.

Chapter 10: Take advantage of underlying motives

Your habits are modern-day solutions to ancient desires.

You crave things you think are missing. Habits are just an attempt to address fundamental underlying motives:

Conserve energy
Obtain food and water
Find love and reproduce
Connect and bond with others
Win social acceptance and approval
Reduce uncertainty
Achieve status and prestige

To break a bad habit, highlight the benefits of avoiding a bad habit.

To create a good habit, create a motivation ritual by doing something you enjoy immediately before a difficult habit.

Chapter 11: Start with repetition, not perfection

The best is the enemy of the good - Voltaire

Habit formation: Practice (take action) instead of planning in order to form neural circuits in your brain that make the habit automatic.

The amount of time you perform a habit is not as important as the number of times you perform it.

Chapter 12: Prime your environment to make your habit effortless

Human behavior follows the Law of Least Effort. We will naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work.

Example: Farming proliferated in wide continents (Europe, Asia) faster than tall continents (Africa, Americas) because farmers did not need to acclimate to new land when traveling horizontally across the globe. This is because the climate east to west is more similar the climate north to south. This enabled civilization to progress more quickly in the wide continents.

Chapter 6 was about designing your environment to make cues obvious. This chapter is about designing your environment to make the action easy. The best habit forming products remove friction from your life (ex: ride hailing reduce friction of transport, ex: text messaging reduces friction of sending a letter)

Examples of priming your environment to reduce friction:

Setup skillet and utensils the night before to cook a healthy breakfast
Put pencils and notebooks within reaching distance on your desk to draw more
Setup your workout clothes ahead of time to exercise more
Chop up and pack fruits and veggies in containers during the weekend to eat more healthy during the weekday

Reduce friction associated with good behaviors and increase friction associated with bad behaviors. Prime your environment to make future actions easier.

Integration: I will do meal prep for my weekday dinners when nobody else is cooking.

Chapter 13: The two minute rule - focus on doing the initial easy ritual, not the entire action

Decisive moment = moments in your day that deliver an outsized impact

Ex: deciding to change into workout clothes (as opposed to crashing on the couch)

Two minute rule = when you start a new habit, it should take less than 2 minutes to do

Ex: changing into gym clothes

Your decisive moment should be the decision to do an easy ritual that follows the 2 minute rule

Ex: Instead of deciding to workout for 30 minutes, decide to put on your gym clothes

Examples:

Becoming an early riser:
Phase 1: Be home by 10pm every night
Phase 2: Have all devices turned off by 10pm every night
Phase 3: Be in bed by 10pm, every night
Phase 4: Lights off by 10pm, every night
Phase 5: Wake up at 6am, every day
Starting to exercise:
Phase 1: Change into workout clothes
Phase 2: Step out the door
Phase 3: Drive to the gym, exercise for 5 minutes, then leave
Phase 4: Exercise for 15 minutes at least once per week
Phase 5: Exercise 3 times per week

Chapter 14: Use technology to automate your habits

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

Commitment device = a choice that you make in the present that controls your actions in the future. Examples:

Voluntarily be asked to be banned at a casino to prevent future gambling
Outlet timer which cuts off the power in your router at 10PM
Cash register which prevents theft by employees
Delete games and social media apps on your phone
Ask service providers to lower your bills

The most effective way to guarantee your future behavior is to automate your habits using technology.

Integration: I will set an app limit on my YouTube browsing.

Chapter 15: Get habits to stick by making them immediately rewarding

Ex: Researches in Pakistan were able to lower the rate of diarrhea by 52% giving rural Pakistani’s free premium soap (easy to foam, smells great). By making the hand-washing experience satisfying, they were able to enforce a hand-washing habit.

Ex: Chewing gum became popular when flavors like spearmint and juicy fruit were introduced .

Time inconsistency = your brain prioritizes immediate rewards over delayed gratification

With bad habits, the immediate outcome feels good but the ultimate outcome feels bad. With good habits it is the reverse.

To get a habit to stick, you need to feel immediately successful so that you come back for more. Satisfaction is what makes you repeat the behavior the next time.

Integration: Reward myself with a can of sparking water whenever I sit down to read a book

Chapter 16: Measure what matters

Habit tracker = simple way to measure whether you did a habit

Ex: marking an X on your calendar after you have done an activity

Never miss twice rule = when you miss a habit, you absolutely cannot miss the next

Ex: “bad” workouts are important because they maintain your progress even if you don’t feel progress that particular time
Ex: a weight scale may not be the best motivator because it does not change quickly - instead focus on your better looking skin or waking up earlier

A habit tracker shows you are making progress, which is a satisfying feeling.

Chapter 17: Make a habit contract with an accountability partner to keep you on track

Habit contract = a contract that binds you to a punishment when a habit is not completed

Ex: Unless Thomas from Boulder wakes up at 5:55 in the morning, an automatically scheduled tweet goes out that says “It’s 6:10 and I’m not up because I’m lazy! Reply to this for $5 via PayPal (limit 5), assuming my alarm didn’t malfunction.”

Accountability partner can create immediate cost to inaction because we care deeply about what others think of us.

Chapter 18: Try out then hone in on the habits that you are most predisposed to being satisfied by

Genetic traits predispose you to a particular personality, and personality influences your habits. The “Big Five” spectrums of personality are:

Openness to experience: curious and inventive vs cautious and consistent
Conscientiousness: organized and efficient vs easygoing and spontaneous
Extroversion: outgoing and energetic vs solitary and reserved
Agreeableness: friendly and compassionate vs challenging and detached
Neuroticism: anxious and sensitive vs confident and calm

Explore/exploit tradeoff:

When picking up an activity there should be a period of exploration, where you try out many possibilities and cast a wide net
After this, you should shift your focus to the best solution you’ve found with periodic experimentation

Ex: Google asks employees to spend 80% of their workweek on an official job and 20% on projects of their choice. This has resulted in products like AdWords and Gmail.

How to find habits which will be most satisfying to you:

What feels like fun to me, but work to others?
What makes me lose track of time?
Where do I get greater returns than the average person?
What comes naturally to me?

Play the game that favors your strengths, such as by finding a niche where you combine two of your strengths to become better than everybody else. Same applies to habits.

Chapter 19: Improvement comes from working on tasks that are not too easy but just challenging enough

Professionals stick to the schedule; amateurs let life get in the way.

Goldilocks Rule = humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are on the edge of their abilities (not too hard, not too easy)

Ex: Steve Martin became a renown comedian by starting at 10 years old and slowly improving his routine through to adulthood. Every year his routine got a bit longer and crowd a bit larger.

What differentiates the best athletes from everyone else is that they can handle the boredom of training every day: they show up despite feeling bored.

Chapter 20: Self evaluate periodically

Mastery = Habits + Deliberate Practice

Establish a system for reflecting on your habits. Stay conscious about your performance by periodically reviewing your process and results. Otherwise, we stop paying attention to small errors and get stuck.

James Clear conducts two reviews every year:

Annual review: reflect on the year each December. Ask yourself:

What went well this year?
What didn’t go so well this year?
What did I learn?

Integrity report: help realize where you went wrong and get back on course

What are the core values that drive my life and work?
How am I living and working with integrity right now?
How can I set a higher standard in the future?

Clinging onto an identity will make it harder to grow beyond it. Ex: Identities “I am a great soldier” or “I am a great CEO” cannot be maintained after your service ends or you sell your company. Instead it must be evolved into something like “I am disciplined and reliable” or “I’m the type of person who builds and creates things.”