Atomic Habits by James Clear: Summary & Lessons - 1 | Summaries: Must Read Books for Entrepreneurs - Entrepreneurship PDF Download

Atomic Habits Short Summary

Atomic Habits by James Clear is the definitive guide on habit change. Learn how to create good habits and break bad ones with a simple step-by-step framework based on the best techniques from behavioral science. Highly practical, a must-read if you’re looking to upgrade your behavior and make the best version of yourself.

Executive Summary

The holy grail of habit change is not a single 1% improvement, but a thousand of them. It’s a bunch of atomic habits stacking up, each one a fundamental unit of the overall system.
Awareness comes before desire.

• A craving is created when you assign meaning to a cue. It can only occur after you have noticed an opportunity.
• It is the idea of pleasure that we chase. Desire is pursued. Pleasure ensues from action.
• With a big enough why you can overcome any how. If your motivation and desire are great enough, you’ll take action even when it is quite difficult. Great craving can power great action – even when friction is high.
• Being motivated and curious counts for more than being smart because it leads to action. To do anything, you must first cultivate a desire for it.
• Appealing to emotion is typically more powerful than appealing to reason. Our thoughts and actions are rooted in what we find attractive and not necessarily in what is logical.
• Suffering drives progress. The source of all suffering is the desire for a change in state. This is also the source of all progress. The desire to change your state is what powers you to take action.

Your actions reveal your true motivations.

• Our expectations determine our satisfaction. If the gap between expectations and outcomes is positive (surprise and delight), then we are more likely to repeat a behavior in the future. If the mismatch is negative (disappointment and frustration), then we are less likely to do so.
• Feelings come both before and after the behavior. The craving (a feeling) motivates you to act. The reward teaches you to repeat the action in the future:
• Cue > Craving (Feeling) > Response > Reward (Feeling)
• How we feel influences how we act, and how we act influences how we feel. Desire initiates. Pleasure sustains. Wanting and liking are the two drivers of behavior. If it’s not desirable, you have no reason to do it. Desire and craving are what initiate a behavior. But if it’s not enjoyable, you have no reason to repeat it.
• Pleasure and satisfaction are what sustain a behavior. Feeling motivated gets you to act. Feeling successful gets you to repeat.

How to Create a Good Habit

The 1st Law: Make It Obvious

• Fill out the Habits Scorecard. Write down your current habits to become aware of them
• Use implementation intentions: “I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION]”
• Use habit stacking: “After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT]”
• Design your environment. Make the cues of good habits obvious and visible.

The 2nd Law: Make It Attractive

• Use temptation bundling. Pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do
• Join a culture where your desired behavior is normal
• Create a motivation ritual. Do something you enjoy immediately before a difficult habit

The 3rd Law: Make It Easy

• Reduce friction. Decrease the number of steps between you and your good habits
• Prime the environment. Prepare your environment to make future actions easier
• Master the decisive moment. Optimize the small choices that deliver outsized impact
• Use the Two-Minute Rule. Downscale your habits until they can be done in two minutes or less
• Automate your habits. Invest in technology and one-time purchases that lock in future behavior

The 4th Law: Make It Satisfying

• Use reinforcement. Give yourself an immediate reward when you complete your habit
• Make “doing nothing” enjoyable. When avoiding a bad habit, design a way to see the benefits
• Use a habit tracker. Keep track of your habit streak and “don’t break the chain”
• Never miss twice. When you forget to do a habit, make sure you get back on track immediately

How to Break a Bad Habit

Inversion of the 1st Law: Make It Invisible

• Reduce exposure. Remove the cues of your bad habits from your environment

Inversion of the 2nd Law: Make It Unattractive

• Reframe your mindset. Highlight the benefits of avoiding your bad habits

Inversion of the 3rd Law: Make It Difficult

• Increase friction. Increase the number of steps between you and your bad habits
• Use a commitment device. Restrict your future choices to the ones that benefit you

Inversion of the 4th Law: Make It Unsatisfying

• Get an accountability partner. Ask someone to watch your behavior.
• Create a habit contract. Make the costs of your bad habits public and painful

The Fundamentals: Why Tiny Changes Make a Big Difference

Chapter 1: The Surprising Power of Atomic Habits

A habit is a behavior performed regularly and, in many cases, automatically.
Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.
Success is the product of daily habits. Getting 1% better every day counts for a lot in the long-run.
The important thing is whether your habits are putting you on the right path. Be concerned with your current trajectory and not with your current results.

“Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. Your net worth is a lagging measure of your financial habits. Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits. Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. Your clutter is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits. You get what you repeat.”

If you want better results, forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.

Goals vs Systems

• Goals are the results you want to achieve. Systems are the processes that lead to those results
• Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress
• Achieving a goal is a momentary change. Systems solve a problem for good
• Goals restrict happiness, e.g. “Once I reach my goal, then I’ll be happy.” Systems make you fall in love with the process rather than the product so you don’t have to wait to permit yourself to be happy
• Goals are at odds with long-term progress. Goals are about winning the game. Systems are about continuing to play the game

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

Chapter 2: How Your Habits Shape Your Identity (and Vice Versa)

The Three Layers of Behavior Change:

1. Outcomes: changing your results, e.g. losing weight. Most of the goals you set are at this level
2. Process: changing your habits and systems, e.g. developing a meditation practice. Most of the habits you build live at this level
3. Identity: changing your beliefs, e.g. your worldview or self-image. Most of the beliefs, assumptions, and biases you hold are associated with this level

The most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, but on who you wish to become.
The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity. True behavior change is identity change.

“The goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader. The goal is not to run a marathon, the goal is to become a runner. The goal is not to learn an instrument, the goal is to become a musician.”

Your identity emerges out of your habits. Repeating a behavior reinforces the identity associated with it.
Every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.

“Each time you write a page, you are a writer. Each time you practice the violin, you are a musician. Each time you start a workout, you are an athlete.”

New identities require new evidence. If you keep casting the same votes you’ve always cast, you’re going to get the same results you’ve always had.

How to change your identity:

• Decide the type of person you want to be: What are your principles and values? Who do you wish to become? Now ask yourself: “Who is the type of person that could get the outcome I want?” For example, the type of person who could write a book is probably consistent and reliable. Now your focus shifts from writing a book (outcome-based) to being the type of person who is consistent and reliable (identity-based)
• Prove it to yourself with small wins: once you have a handle on the type of person you want to be, you can begin taking small steps to reinforce your desired identity

“I have a friend who lost over 100 pounds by asking herself, “What would a healthy person do?” All day long, she would use this question as a guide. She figured if she acted like a healthy person long enough, eventually she would become that person. She was right.”

Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity.
The real reason habits matter is not because they can get you better results (although they can do that), but because they can change your beliefs about yourself.
Quite literally, you become your habits.

Chapter 3: How to Build Better Habits in 4 Simple Steps

A habit is a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic. Their ultimate purpose is solving problems as little energy and effort as possible.
Any habit can be broken down into a feedback loop of four steps:

• Cue: what triggers your brain to initiate a behavior. The bit of information that predicts a reward
• Craving: the motivational force behind every habit. You don’t crave the habit itself, but the change in state it delivers (e.g. you do not crave smoking a cigarette, you crave the feeling of relief it provides)
• Response: the actual habit you perform, as a thought or action. Whether a response occurs depends on how motivated you are and the amount of friction associated with the behavior
• Reward: the end goal of every habit. We chase rewards because they satisfy our cravings and teach us which actions are worth remembering in the future

If a behavior is insufficient in any of the four stages, it will not become a habit. Without the first three steps, a behavior will not occur. Without all four, a behavior will not be repeated.

The Four Laws of Behavior Change are a simple set of rules we can use to build better habits:

• Cue: make it obvious
• Craving: make it attractive
• Response: make it easy
• Reward: make it satisfying

We can invert these laws to learn how to break a bad habit:

• Cue: make it invisible
• Craving: make it unattractive
• Response: make it difficult
• Reward: make it unsatisfying

The 1st Law: Make It Obvious

Chapter 4: The Man Who Didn’t Look Right

You don’t need to be aware of the cue for a habit to begin. With enough practice, your brain will pick up on the cues that predict certain outcomes without consciously thinking about it. Once our habits become automatic, we stop paying attention to what we are doing.
That’s why the process of behavior change always starts with awareness. You need to be aware of your habits before you can change them.
We need a “point-and-call” system for our personal lives. That’s the origin of the Habits Scorecard, which is a simple exercise you can use to become more aware of your behavior.
How to create your Habit Scorecard:

• Make a list of your daily habits
• For each habit, ask yourself: “Is this a good, habit, or neutral habit?”
• If it is a good habit, write “+” next to it. For bad habits, write “–”. For neutral, write “=”

If you’re having trouble determining how to rate a particular habit, ask yourself: “Does this behavior help me become the type of person I wish to be?”
Habits that reinforce your desired identity are usually good. Habits that conflict with your desired identity are usually bad.

Chapter 5: The Best Way to Start a New Habit

The two most common cues that can trigger a habit are time and location.
Implementation Intention: pairing a new habit with a specific time and location –  “I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].”
For example: “I will exercise for one hour at 5 p.m. at my local gym.”
Habit Stacking: pairing a new habit with a current habit – “After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].”
For example: “After I pour my cup of coffee each morning, I will meditate for one minute.”

The key is to tie your desired behavior into something you already do each day.
You can develop general habit stacks for specific situations:

• “If I see stairs, I will take them instead of the elevator.”
• “When I serve myself, I will always put veggies on my plate first.”

The secret to creating a successful habit stack is selecting the right cue. Brainstorm a list of your current habits:

• In the first column, write the habits you do each day without fail
• In the second column, write everything that happens to you each day without fail
• Now find the best place to layer your new habit into your lifestyle

Make your cue highly specific and immediately actionable: “After I close the door”; “After I brush my teeth”. The more tightly bound your new habit is to a specific cue, the better the odds are that you will notice when the time comes to act.

Chapter 6: Motivation is Overrated; Environment Often Matters More

Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior. Habits are context-dependent. Small changes in context can lead to large changes in behavior over time.
Make the cues of good habits obvious in your environment:

• Practice guitar more frequently? Place it in the middle of the living room
• Drink more water? Fill up a few water bottles each morning and place them around the house

The most persistent behaviors usually have multiple cues. Habits become associated not with a single trigger but with the entire context surrounding the behavior. The context becomes the cue.
It is easier to build new habits in a new environment as you won’t fight old cues. Create new routines in new places, like a different coffee shop or a bench in the park.
If you can’t, rearrange your current one. Create a separate space for work, study, exercise, and entertainment.
If your space is limited, divide your room into activity zones: a chair for reading, a desk for writing, a table for eating. You can do the same with your digital spaces.

“I know a writer who uses his computer only for writing, his tablet only for reading, and his phone only for social media and texting. Every habit should have a home.”

A stable environment where everything has a place and a purpose is an environment where habits can easily form.

Inversion of the 1st Law: Make It Invisible

Chapter 7: The Secret to Self-Control

Once a habit has been formed, the urge to act follows whenever the environmental cues reappear.
Bad habits are autocatalytic: the process feeds itself. They foster the feelings they try to numb. You feel bad, so you eat junk food.
Researchers refer to this phenomenon as “cue-induced wanting”: an external trigger causes a compulsive craving to repeat a bad habit. Once you notice something, you begin to want it.
You can break a habit, but you’re unlikely to forget it.
In the short-run, you can try to overpower temptation. In the long-run, you become a product of the environment that you live in. 

“I have never seen someone consistently stick to positive habits in a negative environment.”

The best strategy to eliminate bad habits is to cut off at the source. Reduce exposure to the cue that causes it.
For example:

• Can’t get any work done? Leave your phone in another room for a few hours
• Watch too much television? Move the TV out of the bedroom

Rather than make it obvious, make it invisible. Remove a single cue and the entire habit often fades away. Self-control is a short-term strategy, not a long-term one.
People with high self-control tend to spend less time in tempting situations. It’s easier to avoid temptation than to resist it.