Atomic Habits by James Clear

Your habits determine your life.

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

Minor improvements to your everyday life like being able to make your bed every morning as soon as you wake up and keeping your room in a state of order give you a great sense of control in life.

"A habit is routine or behaviour that is performed regularly - and, in many cases, automatically."

The changes that seem small or even irrelevant at first, can have their effects compounded over time if you are willing to stick with them. The quality of your life is very closely linked to the quality of your habits. If you have good habits then there is a high chance you will be living a fulfilling and meaningful life. If your habits are destructive, however, you may find yourself in a hopeless downward spiral until you catch yourself either through adopting good habits or by seeing the fault in your current way of going about your days. The only way to make progress is to start small. If you try to take on too much at once, especially when the changes are significant and contrary to your current identity, you can easily become overwhelmed and may even end up in a worse place than before due to the sense of defeat. The aggregation of incremental gains: When you break up a system into smaller units or parts, you will see that each part can likely be improved individually. If each unit is improved by 1 percent and you add all the parts back together again, looking at the whole you will notice a great improvement overall. Many small and seemingly unnoticeable changes accumulate. We often think that massive success requires massive action. Most of the time all it requires is small and consistent effort to be slightly better each day.

"If you get 1 percent better each day for one year, you'll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you're done."

The value of good habits and the cost of bad ones become more noticeable as more time passes. This is one of the reasons that bad habits usually go unchecked until they have damaging repercussions when we realise it's time to do something about them. One step backwards here and there has no impact on the system if you look at it as a whole, but if they are repeated day in and day out, they will soon compound and end up harming you.

"A small shift in direction can lead to a very meaningful change in destination."
"Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits."

Positive compounding: The more things that you do automatically, the more energy your brain has to focus on other more important things. Negative compounding: When little stresses persist for years, they end up being serious problems. The biggest negative that can result from compounding is negative thinking. The more you think of yourself in a bad light, the more you will perceive life to be that way too. This can get you caught in a cycle of negativity. What you focus on is what you seee in life.

"Breakthrough moments are often the result of many previous actions, which build up the potential required to unleash a major change."

Due to the compounding nature of results, we often only see any change in perceived performance when habits build up for long enough to cross a certain threshold. As a result, the most desired changes only occur long after a habit has been put into place. The reason bad habits are so hard to break is that they have already rooted themselves deep into your identity. They have become part of who you are and are executed automatically and even when a conscious effort is made to stop them from happening. Goals have no real benefit other than providing direction. When two teams compete against each other they both share the same goal, to win. It isn't goals that get you to achieve what you want, it's the systems you set in place to get you there.

"Goals focus on the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results."

When you enjoy the process, you are more likely to persevere, even when the outcome seems distant or uncertain.

"The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game."
"Ultimately, it is the commitment to the process that will determine your progress."

Once a habit has been set it sticks with you. Behaviour change stems from your identity. What you believe about yourself governs what you think and do. This impacts the way you do things and ultimately what you get out as a result. If you focus on changing your identity to the type of person you want to be, you will start doing the things that person would do. Good habits are successfully built when they align with the person you want to become. Habit building, therefore, requires you to free yourself from one fixed identity and instead replace it with an ever-changing perception of yourself that adapts.

"The most practical way to change who you are is to change what you do."
"Your habits shape your identity, and your identity shapes your habits."

Things that make you feel good in some way is what gets repeated. Things that don't, don't. If you can link a reward to doing something then you are likely to repeat that action and vice versa. The main reason your brain remembers anything is so that it can use it to predict what to do in the future. If a past action was rewarded then the prediction for repeating that action in the future is that it will reward you again and therefore it's a good idea. You don't desire the habits themselves, you desire what they do for you. Making your bed gives you a sense of pride and makes you feel neat and organized. If an action requires more effort than you are willing to give, then you are very unlikely to do it. Even if you do manage to do it, you won't be able to keep it up.

"All behaviour is driven by the desire to solve a problem."

If you aren't very self-aware then you may be controlled by your habits without even realising it. How to build good habits: Make it obvious, Make it attractive, Make it easy, Make it satisfying. How to break bad habits: Make it invisible, Make it unattractive, Make it difficult, Make it unsatisfying. The more you repeat patterns or certain behaviours, the less likely you are to question what you're doing as they further cement themselves. The first step to changing bad habits is to acknowledge that they're even taking place. If you notice yourself doing something undesirable, ask yourself why it is happening. A very useful tool to make habits obvious is to verbally call them out. This is good for breaking bad habits as well as building good habits. If you bite your nails, call it out and make it conscious so that you are aware of what you're doing so that you can take action. Calling actions out for good habits will help ingrain them. The more self-awareness you have, the more opportunity you have to change things and take control over aspects of your life. Setting out clear and easy to follow plans will make you much more likely to follow through with doing those desired actions. A concrete plan removes all uncertainty and extra effort that would be involved otherwise. In other words, the less vague the plan, the better. All habits are connected together. Each habit serves as a cue for the next. The best place to insert a new habit is directly after one that is already automatic. This way the cue is almost guaranteed.

"Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behaviour."

If you can design your environment to make good habits easy, and bad habits difficult, then you are eliminating a great deal of effort and motivation. Habits that stick around are often the ones that have multiple cues for you to act on. If you assign certain locations to certain actions then those locations will serve as cues for those actions. If you make sure you only do work at your desk and only relax on your couch, then you will ensure that the two don't mix. Stable and predictable behaviours require a stable and predictable environment. People with impressive discipline and willpower are usually just better at making good habits easier. Without desire, there is no action. What gets us to take action is not the reward itself, but the anticipation thereof. If you anticipate a reward after doing a difficult task then you are likely to follow through if the anticipated reward is worth more than the effort required. We are attracted to the behaviours that help us fit in. If the people that you surround yourself with have good habits, you will be attracted to those habits as a means to fit in. If the people that you surround yourself with have destructive habits, it will require a lot of effort not to conform to the pack. Intentions can only take you so far.

At the end of the day, actions are the only things that can bring about change. Don't allow intentions to result in "productive procrastination". Planning your day for 2 hours won't help you get your laundry done. Habits are built through repetition. They don't form better just by allocating more time. You need to ensure more repetitions. Deep down, we will always strive to be lazy. Motivation will not get things done over the long run. We do things that require the least effort. If you can make habits seem like they'll be easy to start then they will likely build easily. Putting your running shoes on is a lot easier and more repeatable than going for the run itself but the act of putting your running shoes on will likely get you to run. Friction is one of the most important things that influence behaviour. The more friction there is applied to an action, the less likely you are to follow through, and the less friction there is the easier it is since less effort is required. If your phone is always in view, you are much more likely to check it, if it is out of view or even better, in another room, the amount of effort required to go check it usually doesn't seem worth it. If all else fails, sign a contract. When the consequences of the contract outweigh the effort required to follow through with what's required then you won't even think twice about doing it. You can set up a contract with someone you trust who will ensure to see the agreement through.

"The costs of your good habits are in the present. The costs of your bad habits are in the future."

We prioritise immediate satisfaction. If you are able to make the reward for doing a desired action immediate then you will be able to repeat it and reap the future delayed rewards.

"Incentives can start a habit. Identity sustains a habit."

As simple as it sounds, the act of habit tracking can greatly encourage you to take action to maintain and increase your habit streaks. Tracking your habits also reveal a lot about what's true, versus what you have been perceiving as true. Tracking your habits may even be self-fulfilling as the act of ticking off your habit for the day provides you with a great deal of satisfaction which you can only achieve by fulfilling the habit you are tracking. It's okay to miss a habit for a day or two, but if you keep missing the habit, then missing the habit will become a habit in and of itself. If you can't achieve your habit goal, rather do something to try to reinforce it regardless, instead of giving it a skip entirely. That way it may still help build up your desired identity.

"The Goldilocks Rule states that 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."

Variable rewards are a good way to reduce boredom when a routine or habit becomes repetitive enough to require extra effort.

"There have been a lot of sets that I haven't felt like finishing, but I've never regretted doing the workout."

When improvement stalls due to automaticity, review and reflection are required to evaluate mistakes and see where changes can be made.

"A lack of self-awareness is poison. Reflection and review is the antidote."

By regularly reflecting on our actions, thoughts, and emotions, we can gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and our values. It can be uncomfortable to examine our flaws and weaknesses, but it is a necessary step to becoming more self-aware and improving ourselves. By cultivating self-awareness and regularly reflecting on our experiences, thoughts, and emotions, we can become better versions of ourselves and have a more positive impact on those around us.

"Success is not a goal to reach or a finish line to cross. It is a system to improve, an endless process to redefine."

To achieve sustainable success, focus on building habits that align with your goals and aspirations. Practice these habits consistently to develop a system for success that becomes part of your daily routine. Success is not a one-time achievement, but an ongoing process of growth and improvement. Continuously assess and adjust your system for success as you progress and accomplish your goals to ensure continued improvement.

"Happiness is the absence of desire."

Letting go of desires and appreciating what we have can lead to happiness in the present moment. Focusing too much on what we don't have can create dissatisfaction and prevent us from experiencing true happiness. While goals and desires can provide motivation, they should not consume us and prevent us from enjoying the present.