How to become 37.78 times better at anything | Atomic Habits summary (by James Clear) (2)
If you are trying to eliminate a bad habit, You can only rely on self-control in the short-term.
Cutting off bad habits at the source is a more reliable solution and one of the most practical
ways to eliminate a bad habit is to make it invisible. Eliminate it from your environment.
For example
Put your phone in another room for a few hours if you have trouble getting work done.
Put junk food out of sight or remove it from your house if you are trying to lose weight.
Law 2
Making it Attractive
When we expect to be rewarded, we take action. The more rewarding an action is,
the more likely we are to repeat it until it becomes a habit.
Hence, the first step to forming good habits is to make them more attractive.
Understanding how dopamine affects your body will help you
DOPAMINE & FEEDBACK LOOPS
Our motivation levels are affected by dopamine, a hormone and neurotransmitter. We are more
motivated to act when our dopamine levels rise. By measuring dopamine,
scientists can pinpoint the exact moment at which a craving occurs. It was once assumed
that dopamine was just about pleasure, but now we know it's vital to many neurological functions,
including motivation, memory, learning, punishment as well as voluntary movement.
“Gambling addicts have a dopamine spike right before they place a bet, not after they win”.
Let's dive deeper into dopamine spikes.
Using social media, eating junk food and taking drugs are all associated
with high levels of dopamine and are highly habit forming.
The hormone dopamine is released not only when we experience pleasure,
but also when we anticipate it. Think about before going on a vacation.
Sometimes the thinking and anticipation of the vacation is better than the actual vacation.
Seeing the junk food you desire surges dopamine, not after eating it.
Drug addicts increase dopamine when they see the drugs, not after taking them.
The craving is what causes us to take action in the first place.
Making our habits attractive is vital because it is the expectation of a rewarding experience
that drives us to act. Here, you can use a strategy known as….
Temptation bundling
The temptation bundling process makes a habit more attractive by combining an action we need to do
with one we want to do. For example you could bundle watching Netflix
(something you want to do) with working out (something you need to do).
Temptation bundling applies a psychology principle known as Premack's Principle.
Developed by professor David Premack, the Premack principle states,
"More probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors."
In other words, even if you're not looking forward to doing some exercise,
you'll become conditioned to do it because you get to do something else you really enjoy.
Group Influence
“We are continually wondering "What will others
think of me?" and altering our behavior based on the answer.”
We are influenced by the people closest to us, and the groups we belong to.
If you are trying to build a new habit, one of the best ways to reinforce the habit
is to find and become part of a culture where that habit is the norm.
If you want to get into better shape, surround yourself with fit people.
If you want to read more, join a book club.
Primal motivators : The source of cravings
In your normal everyday life you wouldn't say something to yourself like
“I want to eat this pizza because I need to consume this food to survive”
Surface level cravings are merely manifestations of our deeper underlying motives.
And these underlying motives guide our behavior.
Here are some examples of underlying motives:
Conserving energy
Obtaining food and water Finding love and reproducing
Connecting and bonding with others Winning social acceptance and approval
Reducing uncertainty Achieving status and prestige
Your brain did not evolve with a desire to smoke cigarettes, check Instagram every 5 minutes or to
play video games. Online platforms and products do not invent new motivations, but rather appeal
to the underlying motives of human nature that we already have to gain our attention.
“Your habits are modern-day solutions to ancient desires.
New versions of old vices. The underlying motives behind human nature remain the same”
People who have the underlying motive of connecting with others may jump onto Facebook,
others seeking the underlying motive of finding love and reproducing may sign up for Tinder.
Reducing uncertainty, there's Google for that. Seeking social acceptance, there is Instagram.
Reprogramming your brain to enjoy hard habits
“You can make hard habits more attractive if you
can learn to associate them with a positive experience.”
By highlighting the benefits of a habit rather than its downsides,
you can quickly reprogram your mind and make it seem more appealing. For example,
Fitness = health and wellbeing and not fatigue.
Cleaning the house = an environment conducive to peace of mind and not wasted time.
Saving money = future financial freedom and not sacrifice.
These subtle shifts in mindset aren't magic, but they can
change your feelings toward some habits or situations.
Make it Unattractive.
To break a bad habit, do the same but highlight the benefits of NOT doing that habit
to make it as unattractive to keep doing as possible.
Law 3 - Make it Easy
How long does it actually take to form a new habit?
During habit formation, a behavior becomes increasingly automatic as it is repeated. As
you repeat an activity, your brain changes in order to become more efficient at it.
Long before neuroscientists dug into the process of forming habits,
repetition was known as a powerful tool for establishing habits. You activate particular
neural circuits associated with habits every time you repeat them. So framing habit
formation in terms of time is flawed. It should be framed in terms of the number of repetitions.
Reducing Friction : The Law of Least Effort
The more energy required, the less likely it is to happen. It takes almost no energy to get into
the habit of reading one page of a book each day. Habits are more likely to occur when they
require less energy. The bigger the obstacle, the more friction there is between you and the
desired outcome. If you need to travel 20 minutes out of your way to go to the gym,
chances are you will not. If your gym is located on your commute to work, you will greatly decrease
the friction. By making your good habits more convenient, you're more likely to stick to them.
Your life will be easier if you find ways to reduce friction
rather than trying to solve it. In order to build better habits, we have to find ways to reduce
friction associated with our good habits and increase friction associated with our bad habits
Prime the environment for use
By automating or setting up your environment, you can reduce the friction for future action,
e.g. “I will lay out my workout clothes at night so I can get up and get moving in the morning.”
Or to prepare a healthier breakfast, place the pan on the stove,
and gather the ingredients the night before. Again to reduce any friction.
Using the Two-Minute Rule to Stop Procrastinating
Using the "2-minute rule" can help you establish small habits that will lead
to habit momentum and success in bigger goals. Find a simple, 2-minute version of your desired
habit. You want to scale down your desired outcome. Running a marathon becomes putting
on your shoes and stretching for 2 minutes. Reading an hour per day becomes reading one
page. You need to get the routine anchored in place and then slowly build up the difficulty.
After you have mastered the 2-minute habit, you can progress to the next phase;
To make something more difficult,
think about ways you can create barriers of friction between yourself and the bad habit.
Make it as impractical as possible.
If you want to watch less TV, unplug the TV after each use
and put the remote in an inconvenient location.
When you go shopping, leave your credit cards under the seat of your car
if you have a bad habit of spontaneous spending.
Do anything you can to make your Bad habits less likely to occur.
Law 4 -Make it satisfying
The most important rule of behavior change
A feeling of pleasure is a message to the brain:
"This feels good. Let's repeat this next time." When you experience pleasure,
your brain learns that a behavior is worth remembering and repeating.
"What is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided".
The first Three habits increase your chances of doing the habit this time.
The last law increases your chances of repeating the habit next time.
The Mismatch between immediate and delayed returns
It is common for us to feel good about our immediate results, but bad about
our long-term outcomes when we practice bad habits. It is the opposite with good habits:
the immediate result is unpleasant, but the ultimate outcome is satisfying.
A certain amount of success in just about every field involves
ignoring an immediate reward for a long-term one.
It is best to add a little immediate pleasure to the habits that will pay off in the long run
and a little pain to those that won't.
How to stick with good habits everyday
QUOTE “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.”
It is satisfying to make progress, and you can monitor your progress using visual measures,
such as moving paper clips, hairpins, or marbles. These “little wins” can go a long way.
For example, for each sales call you make today, move a marble from one jar to the complete jar.
For Each 25 minutes of writing, move a paperclip
Visual measurements can take many forms: diet journals,
workout logs, download progress bars, or even page numbers in a book.
Keeping a habit tracker may be the best method to monitor your progress.
Using a habit tracker is a simple way to determine whether you did a particular habit.
How to recover quickly when your habits break down
In spite of your best efforts, it is inevitable that life will interrupt you at some point.
A bad day at work, a bad performance, or a bad workout can happen to anyone.
When you're having a bad day, you don't realize how valuable it is to just show up.
“Lost days hurt you more than successful days help you.”
Don't break the chain of continuity. Missing twice is the start of a bad habit; never do it. On a bad
day, it's better to do 10 sit ups (instead of your normal 50) than not do them at all.
Breaking a bad habit: Make it Unsatisfying
How an accountability partner can change everything.
A behavior is less likely to occur when pain is immediate.
Being held accountable by a partner is a good way to keep your desired habits in check.
We all want to be liked and respected, so we would rather just avoid the punishment.
For example - I owe you $10 every time I miss a workout,
plus the respect I lose for failing to do what I said I would!
Behavior is more likely to be influenced by concrete, and immediate consequences.
The Habit Contract
You can create a habit contract to hold yourself accountable,
just as governments use laws to hold citizens accountable.
You can create a habit contract either verbally or in writing, which makes it
clear that you will honor a particular habit and that there will be punishments if you do not.
You can then use your accountability partners to enforce that contract.
Ok so it's one thing to read a book, but another to actually apply it to your life.
So i'm going to try and visually represent how I have personally
