Below is the entirety of my notes from reading Atomic Habits by James Clear.

I took notes, so you don't have to.

I read the book, so you can get to action.

As much for myself, as it is for you.

From paper to tech - all for you.

Table of Contents:

• Table of Contents:
• Quotes Throughout the Book to Keep Top of Mind:
• Notes:
• 4-Step Model of Habits:
• Goals & Systems:
• Changing Habits is Challenging for 2 Reasons:
• 3 Layers of Behavior Change:
• 4-Step Model of Habits:
• 4 Laws of Behavior Change:
• 1st Law - Make it Abvious
• 2nd Law - Make it Attractive
• 3rd Law - Make it Easy
• 4th Law - Make it Satisfying
• Inversion of the 1st Law - Make it Invisible
• Inversion of the 2nd Law - Make it Unattractive
• Inversion of the 3rd Law - Make it Difficult
• Inversion of the 4th Law - Make it Unsatisfying

Quotes Throughout the Book to Keep Top of Mind:

• Pg. 8 - "To write a great book, you must first become the book." (Naval Ravikant)
• Pg. 16 - "Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement."
• Pg. 18 - "Success is the product of daily habits - not once in a lifetime transformations." (James Clear)
• Pg. 18 - "Time magnifies the margin between success and failure." (James Clear)
• Pg. 21 - "Mastery requires patience."
• Pg. 27 - "Ultimately, it is your committment to the process that will determine your progress." (James Clear)
• Pg. 36 - "Progress requires unlearning."
• Pg. 45 - "Habits are simply, reliable solutions to recurring problems in your environment." (Jason Hreha)
• Pg. 62 - "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will control your life and you will call it fate." (Carl Jung)
• Pg. 143 - "Neurons that fire together, wire together." (Donald Hebb)
• Pg. 174 - "Civilization advances by extending the # of operations we can perform without thinking about them." (Alfred North Whitehead)
• Pg. 189 - "Costs of your good habits are in the present. Costs of your bad habits are in the future." (James Clear)
• Pg. 190 - "The last mile is always the least crowded." (James Clear)
• Pg. Unknown - "Greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom."
• Pg. Unknown - "But when successful people fail, they rebound quickly. The breaking of a habit doesn't matter if the reclaiming of it is fast."
• Pg. Unknown - "The first rule of compounding: Never interrupt it unnecessarily."
• Pg. Unknown - "10 years spent learning, 4 years spent refining, and 4 years as a wild success." (Steve Martin - talking about his experience as a comedian)
• Pg. Unknown - "One space, one use." (James Clear)
• "Every habits should have a home." (James Clear)
• Pg. Unknown - "Building habits in the present allows you to do more of what you want in the future."
• Pg. Unknown - "Your habits shape your identity and your identity shapes your habits."

Notes:

• James Clear's story in 1-sentence:
• Coma to All-American in baseball to habit expert

• The quality of our lives depends on the quality of our habits.
• Start small.

4-Step Model of Habits:

1. Cue
2. Craving
3. Response
4. Reward

• "Aggregation of marginal gains."
• GET 1% better everyday

• The most powerful outcomes are delayed.
• Your work's not being wasted; it is just being stored. All the action happens at 32 degress F.
• Example: analogy of ice melting - the same process exemplified

Personal Realization: I began to realize that my results had very little to do with the goals I set and nearly everything to do with the systems I followed

Goals & Systems:

• Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results.
• Problem w/ Goals #1: Winners and losers have the same goals
• Problem w/ Goals #2: Achieving a goal is only a momentary change
• In order to improve for good, you need to solve problems at the systems level. Fix the inputs and the outputs will fix themselves
• Problem w/ Goals #3: Goals restrict your happiness
• Old you → goal → happiness
• New you → happiness / systems → repeat
• Problem w/ Goals #4: Goals are at odds with long-term progress
• A yo-yo effect is created
• Process → end goal → Done
• Example: Runner training → marathon complete → Done
• This causes a reverting to old habits
• Setting goals = win the game
• Setting systems = continually play the game

• It's not about any single accomplishment. It's about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement

• Why is it so easy to repeat bad habits and so hard to form good ones?

Changing Habits is Challenging for 2 Reasons:

1. We try to change the wrong thing
2. We try to change our habits in the wrong way

3 Layers of Behavior Change:

• Outcomes:
• Focused on results
• Write book, lose weight, win championship, etc.
• Goals associated w/ this level
• Process:
• Focused on habits/systems
• New gym routine, yoga practice, etc.
• Habits associated here
• Identity:
• Focused on beliefs
• Worldview, self image, judgement, etc.
• Beliefs, biases are associated here

• Behind every system of actions are a system of beliefs
• Behavior that is incongruent with the self will not last

• The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity (i.e. not a marathoner, but a runner; not to read a book, but to become a reader)
• I'm a person who wants this ❌
• I'm a person who is this ✅

Personal Realization: with the ultimate purpose and mission of God for me, it seems as though with any task, habit, process, the outcome can be accomplished.

• The biggest barrier to positive change to any level: individual, society, team, is identity conflict
• BUT you can't get too attached to one version of your identity
• "Progress requires unlearning." (Day-1 Mentality)
• Continuously edit your beliefs, and upgrade your identity

• Habits are how you embody your identity
• Your identity is your "repeated beingness."
• Each habits not only gets results but also teaches you something far more important = to trust yourself.

1. Decide the type of person you want to be
2. Prove it to yourself with small wins
• Start at the goal and work backwards (if that helps you establish identity and process)

Personal Realization: Although the above 2 steps are true, it starts with a focus on Jesus Christ for me, and all in alignment with that, and then a building upon one's abilities from there. Faith first. Works next.

• Habits → not about having something; BUT about becoming someone.

4-Step Model of Habits:

• Edward Thordike - Psychologist (1898)
• a study with cats was done
• a study about animal behavior was done
• Habit = a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic
• Begins with trial and error
• Neurological activity is high during this period
• Feedback loop behind human behavior
• Try, fail, learn, try differently

• "As habits are created, the level of activity in the brain decreases."
• "Habits are mental shortcuts learned from experience."

• Habits do not restrict freedom. They create it.

Personal Realization: As I read this Ch. and these pgs., I hear my roomates complain about life and also not having enough time in the day. At the end of the day (no pun intended), it comes down to your habits!

Time —————————————————————————————————————————————— →

• "If a behavior is insufficient in any of the 4 stages, it will not become a habit."
• "Sometimes the problem is that you are experiencing pain and you want to relieve it. Either way, the purpose of every habit is to solve problem you face."

• Pg. 52 + 53 in the book is excellent

4 Laws of Behavior Change:

• How to Create Good Habits
• 1st law (cue) → make it obvious
• 2nd law (crave) → make it attractive
• 3rd law (response) → make it easy
• 4th law (reward) → make it satisying
• How to Break Bad Habits (inverse the above laws)
• 1st law (inversed) → make it invisible
• 2nd law (inversed) → make it unattractive
• 3rd law (inversed) → make it difficult
• 4th law (inversed) → make it unsatisying
• Every goal is doomed to fail if it goes against human nature
• Your habits are shaped by your systems

1st Law - Make it Abvious

1. James gave an example of a paramedic and daughter-in-law
• When you experience something repeatedly - your brain begins to know what is important
• This is one of the most important insights about our habits = you don't need to be aware of the cue for a habit to begin **
• Habits that become common =
• Treats on the kitchen counter
• Remote on the couch
• Phone in your pocket
2. Pointing-and-Calling (Japan)
• An effective thing to use because it raises the level of awareness from a nonconscious habit to a more conscious habit
• Many of our failures in performance are largely attributable to a lack of self-awareness
• THERE are NO GOOD HABITS or BAD HABITS. There are only effective habits **
• So, make yourself aware of them
• Say it out loud. The consequeces will then seem more real

• Best Ways to Start a New Habit
• Implementation intention = a plan you make beforehand about when and where to act
• Ex: "when situation X arises, I will perform response Y."
• People who make a plan for when and where they will perform a new habit are more likely to follow through
• "Many ppl think they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity."
• We often say yes to little requests because we are not clear enough about what we need to be doing instead

• BE SPECIFIC AND CLEAR
• Build good habits with that foundation

• Motivation is Overrated; Environment Often Matters More
• Anne Thordike example:
• "Choice architecture" of the hospital cafeteria
• People often choose products not because of what they are, but because of where they are
• Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior
• 1936, Psyschologist Kurt Lewin
• Equation of B = f(P.E)
• Behavior is a function of the person in their environment
• In humans, perception is directed by the sensory nervous system
• Most powerful of all human sensory abilities is vision
• The human body has 11 million sensory receptors
• For this reason, a small change in what you can see leads to a big shift in what you do
• Example of Dutch researchers during energy crisis and oil embargo
• When the cues that spark a habit are subtle or hidden, they are easy to ignore **
• Example of cleaning staff at the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam
• A bug sticker in urinals improved aim for men peeing haha
• If you want to make a habit a big part of your life, make the cue a big part of your environment **
• The most persistent behaviors usually have multiple cues
• Make sure the best choice is the most obvious one **
• Our behavior is not defined by objects in the environment but by our relationship to them
• "One space, one use."
• Every habit should have a home **

Personal Note: I was excited for this below section upon reading the book and ended up enjoying it very much so.

• The Secret to Self-Control
• Example = Lee Robbins research on Vietnam troops who where heroin addicts
• The idea that a little bit of discipline would solve all our problems is deeply embedded in our culture.
• Bad habits are autocatalytic: the process feeds itself. They foster the feelings they try to numb.
• You feel bad → you eat junk food
• Because you eat junk food → you feel bad
• Cue-induced wanting = an external trigger causes a compulsive craving to repeat a bad behavior

2nd Law - Make it Attractive

• Supernormal Stimuli = a heightened version of reality - and it elicits a stronger response than usual
• Humans are also prone to fall for exaggerated version of reality

• Dynamic contrast = refers to items with a combo of sensations (context of products and foods)

• The more attractive an opportunity is, the more likely it is to become habit-forming
• i.e. - eating Oreos; sex with a good looking girl (for me: having a beautiful-looking, biblically-led wife who I'm in a relationship with that is centered upon Jesus)
• History of more enticing things =
• Junk food → natural foods
• Hard liquor → beer
• Video games → board games
• We have the brains of our ancestors but tempations they never had to face **

• Dopamine-Driven Feedback Loop
• 1954: neuroscientist James Olds and Peter Milner
• Habits are a dopamine-driven feedback loop
• Dopamine is released not only when you experience pleasure, but also when you anticipate it
• i.e. kid thinking about Christmas morning
• Wanting centers in the brain =
• brains stem....
• nucleus accumbens....
• ventral tegmental area....
• dorsal striatum....
• amygdala....
• portions of prefrontal cortex....

• Premack's Principle - David Premack
• Themore probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors

• Habit-Stacking / Temptation Bundling
1. After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [HABIT I NEED]
2. After [HABIT I NEED], I will [HABIT I WANT]
• I.E. - After I pull out my phone, I will do 10 burpees (need)..... After I do 10 burpees, I will check YouTube (want).....
3. We imitate the habits of 3 groups - These groups help leverage the 2nd law (make it attractive)
1. THE CLOSE
• surround yourself with people who have the habits you want to have yourself. You'll rise together
2. THE MANY
• The human mind knows how to get along with others
• When changing your habits means challenging the tribe, change is unattractive. When changing your habtis means fitting in with the tribe, change is very attractive
3. THE POWERFUL
• "We imitate people we envy."
• We avoid behaviors that lower our status and we care about the habits of highly effective people because we want to stand out

3rd Law - Make it Easy

• Jerry Welsmann, U of Florida professor, for film photography
• Jerry split his students into two groups and the results were as follows:
• Group 1 = quantity → ended up with the best photos
• Group 2 = quality
• Momentum into action. Start small.
• To master a habit, start with repetition, not perfection
• GET IN YOUR REPS

• Long-term potentiation = refers to the strengthening of connections between neurons in the brain based on recent patterns of activity
• Automaticity = the ability to perform a behavior without thinking about each step, which occurs when the nonconscious mind takes over

• Don't ask:
• How long does it take to build a new habit?
• Ask, how many reps does it take....?!
• Frequency matters

• Humans want convenience and preserve energy as much as we can
• Motivated to do what is easy
• Expanding a farm east to west, not north to south
• Using Alexa for scheduling calls, reminders, etc.

• You don't actually want the habit itself. What you want is the habit the outcome delivers.
• Dieting to get to being fit
• Meditation to feel calm
• Journal to think clear

• Trying to pump up your motivation to stick with a hard habit is like trying to force water through a bent hose. You can do it but there's too much tension **

• REDUCE FRICTION BY:
1. Practice environmental design
2. Addition by subtraction [even as it says in John 3:30: "He must increase, but I must decrease.")
• Japanese manufacturers in the 1970s
• Remove friction; achieve more with less
• Example: A business is a never-ending quest to delivery the same result in an easier fashion
3. Proactively lazy → efficiency in a nutshell
• Example: going to the gym on your way to work
4. Automate Your Habits
• Redesign your life so actions that matters most are also the actions that are easiest to do

• Twyla Tharp - best dancer and choreographer fo the modern era
• "She also credits much of her success to simple daily habits."
• Master the decisive moments. The first habit is an important first step
• Habits are the entry point, not the end point

• 2-MINUTE RULE:
• "When you start a new habit, it should take less than 2 mins to do."
• Example when starting off: instead of running 3 miles → tie your shoes upon starting off and that's it
• Example when starting off: instead of reading before bed → read one page before bed upon starting off and that's it

• The truth is that a habit must be established before it can be improved **
• STANDARDIZE BEFORE YOU OPTIMIZE

4th Law - Make it Satisfying

• Cardinal Rule
• Stephen Luby - public health worker
• Went to Karachi, Pakistan
• Washing hands helped rid diseases and illness in one of the worst living cities in the world
• Example: Wrigley making gum flavors
• They became the largest chewing gum company in the world
• What is rewarded is repeated. What is punished is avoided.
• Positive emotions cultivate habits. Negative emotions destroy them.
• Animals = immediate-return environment
• Modern humans = delayed-return environment
• During the last 500 years we've shifted to this

• Delaying gratification can be good in context with some things but not the best with habits

• Once you understand how the brain prioritizes rewards, the answers become clear: the consequences of bad habits are delayed while the rewards are immediate **
• Bad habits:
• Smoking = reduce stress now; yet will and can kill you in 5 years
• Overeating
• Sex
• Good habits:
• Immediate outcome is unenjoyable, but the ultimate outcome feels good
• The costs of your good habits are in the present. Costs of your bad habits are in the future

• How to Stick with Good Habits
1. Never miss twice rule
• Example of: Trent Dyrsmid with 2 jars and 120 paper clips - worked at a bank in Abbotsford, Canada and used this tactic
2. Non scale victories
• Making progress is satisfying and visual measures provide clear evidence of your progress
• The most effective form of motivation is progress

Inversion of the 1st Law - Make it Invisible

• People with high self-control tend to spend less time in tempting situations. It's easier to avoid temptation than resist it.
• Reduce exposure. Remove the cues of your bad habits from your environment

• Self control is a short-term strategy; not a long-term one **
• Willpower alone is not enough

Inversion of the 2nd Law - Make it Unattractive

• "If you no longer expect smoking to bring you any benefits, you have reason to smoke."
• A craving is just a specific manifestation of a deeper underlying motive

• Your habits are modern-day solutions to ancient desires. New versions, old vices.
• Find love and reproduce = Tinder
• Connect and bond with others = Facebook / Instagram / TikTok
• Win social acceptance and approval = posting on social media
• Reduce uncertainty = search on Google
• Achieve status and prestige = playing video games

Personal Note: This is like discovering gold during the Gold Rush.

• Habits are all about associations
• It's all relative to each individual. Once you associate a solution with a problem you need to solve, you keep coming back to it.
• Feelings and emotions transform cues we perceive and the predictions we make... into a signal that we can apply **

• When you binge it, light up, or browse social media, what you really want is not a chip, a cigarette, or a bunch of likes.... What you really want is to feel different.
• Desire to feel different

• Mindset Shift to Make it Attractive
• Change "have to" → "get to"
• "IT'S NOT EASY, BUT IF YOU CAN REPROGRAM YOUR PREDICTIONS, YOU CAN TRANSFORM A HARD HABIT INTO AN ATTRACTIVE ONE."

Inversion of the 3rd Law - Make it Difficult

• For example: prime your environment to make habits difficult
• If you find yourself watching too much TV, then unplug it after each use
• Too much phone, hide it in another room

• Victor Hugo example:
• He finished writing a book in 6 months because he had no clothes and locked himself in his study
• Commitment device = a choice you make in the present that controls your actions in the future

Inversion of the 4th Law - Make it Unsatisfying

• Example: Roger Fisher - 34 years as a negotiator and conflict manager
• Nuclear bomb button → volunteer with butcher knife next to President as an accountability partner

• Repeat habit = if ending is satisfyingn
• Avoid habit = if ending is painful

• Pain is an effective teacher

• When the consequences are severe, people learn quickly

• Habit tracking (bad side)
• The dark side of tracking a particular behavior is that we become driven by the # rather than the purpose behind it
• Examples:
• We focus on long hours instead of meaningful work done
• We focus on 10k steps instead of being healthy
• We teach for standarized tests instead of for learning, curiosity, and critical thinking
• In short, we optimize for what we measure. Wrong measurement; leads to wrong behavior **

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