Atomic habits - James Clear
The previous book about habits do not satisfy me so I come to another book to find a more clear answer about personal habits.
My rating for this book: 3/5
Some comments over the book:
- I dropped halfway through the book since it’s not quite the style of book that I like. Also, because I read the The Power of Habit before this book, I feel the former book that I read is more practical since it shows more science-based facts rather than this one.
- The book is soft of self-help style where changes depend on people willpower. The experiences and practices are good for one if they are determined to form/destroy a habit.
- The book could be shorter. It is sort of wordy when repeating a theory in many ways which does not make much sense.
Introduction: My Story
His story of how he overcame a serious injury to achieve the best result in his school life.
Similar to Adam Khoo’s story in the book I am gifted, so are you when he portraits himself as a normal child but discovered a secret formula that made him successful. It’s a very common trick to build trust and generate motivation in readers about the methods that they will present.
The fundamentals: Why tiny changes make a big difference
The surprising power of atomic habit
- Story of Brit cyclists when the whole process was broken down into tiny parts and they make 1% improvement at each of those parts, which eventually accumulate into a huge success.
- Winners and losers have the same goal: A lot of people make the same mistake of focusing too much on goals instead of the system to achieve them. Remember: winners and losers have the same goals so it does not make them different in the game.
- Achieving a goal is only a momentary change: If you have a messy room and you set a goal to clean it, you could gather your energy, finish it and feel happy by achieving it. But soon afterwards, the room will be back to its normal state. And you will repeat setting goals again and again.
We keep hearing people talking about making your bed every morning as the first step towards changing the world. Some reckon it as the first goal to achieve of the day but it’s more like making it become a habit. By making tiny habits, you soon one day will change the world.
- Goals restrict your happiness: You might want to force yourself to try very hard to achieve a goal then enjoy the feeling of happiness when achieving that goal. But it does not last long until you find the next target, you will have to go back to work and restraint your happiness until the next time. One could feel much happier if they focus more on the process rather than the goal. You will feel happy by seeing your system works rather than waiting to see you achieving the goal.
A lot of students try very hard in high school to secure a slot in a university. They think that if they achieve that goal, they can be relaxed afterwards. But if they focus more on the joy of learning, they could have a much enjoyable adolescence time.
- Goals are odd with long-term progress: the purpose of setting goals is to win the game but the purpose of building a system is to continue playing the game. It’s not about a single accomplishment, it’s about the cycle of endless refinement and improvement.
Taking the example of life-long learning, study hard to securing a space in a good university is just an accomplishment of a goal. The more important is to build for you a system that keeps you learning efficiently, and you will keep pushing and improving that system throughout your lifetime.
Changing the goal-first mentality to the system-first mentality is the first step to start identifying systems you have been building unconsciously, structuring them and improving them 1% every day.
How your habit shape your identity and vice versa
- There are three layers of behaviour change: outcome, process and identity. For example, for quitting smoke, the three layers are force yourself not to smoke is to change the outcome, make a good plan to quitting smoke is to change the process and start believing that you are not the smoker is to change the identity.
Like other self-help books, this book suggests that changes always come from people’s willpower. This is not a new or surprised fact. But it is somehow true that you should project your image of the person that you want to become before you could plan and take any action. Keep in mind: start small.
- Two-step process to change your habit:
- Device the type of person you want to be.
- Prove yourself with small wins.
This is exactly fit with the “start small” method that I usually use in both work and life. You have some ideas, you start to set small goals and achieve it to prove that the method works. Then you make it largescale.
How to build better habits in 4 simple steps
- The habit loop is broken down into 4 steps: cue, craving, response and reward. The author then forms four laws for each step in that loop:
- To form a habit: make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, make it satisfying.
- To break a bad habit: make it invisible, make it unattractive, make it difficult, make it unsatisfying.
Steps and theories in this chapter are similar to the loop mentioned in The Power of Habit book by Charles Duhigg. His model of habit includes three steps: cue, routine and reward.
The 1st law: Make it obvious
The man who didn’t look right
What mention in this book is a sort of self-help style when you loosely explain the science of habit. For this one, I think the book by Charles Duhigg has a better explanation and evidence.
The best way to start a new habit
The suggestion in this book is that you should write down what, when and where you plan to practice your new habits. It could be found in many other self-help books. Then to form a new habit, you have to form a habit of planning for it every day. It does not make sense.
Motivation is overrated: Environment often matters more
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Make things obvious and easy to find for you. For example, if you want to not forgetting drinking a medicine, place it on top of your table. If you want to eat more fruit, make it open to your view.
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Context is important to habit. It’s better to separate work and sleep rooms so your brain will automatically trigger the work mode when you are in the right environment.
The secret of self-control
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Many drug users are readdicted after leaving the treatment centre and return home. An old environment could bring back old cues that trigger your old habit.
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After done with removing old cues and changing your environment, the rest depends on your willpower.
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