The Book in Three Sentences

1. An atomic habit is a regular practice or routine that is not only small and easy to do
but is also the source of incredible power; a component of the system of compound
growth.
2. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change,
but because you have the wrong system for change.
3. Changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable
results if you’re willing to stick with them for years.

The Five Big Ideas

1. Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.
2. If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system
instead.
3. 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.
4. The Four Laws of Behavior Change are a simple set of rules we can use to build
better habits. They are (1) make it obvious, (2) make it attractive, (3) make it easy,
and (4) make it satisfying.
5. Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior.               

Atomic Habits Summary

Chapter 1: The Surprising Power of Tiny Habits

“Success is the product of daily habits—not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.”

“You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than 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.”

“Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed
it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.”

“Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to
those results.”           

“If you want to predict where you’ll end up in life, all you have to do is follow the curve of
tiny gains or tiny losses, and see how your daily choices will compound ten or twenty years
down the line.”

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

If you find yourself struggling to build a good habit or break a bad one, it is not because you
have lost your ability to improve. It is often because you have not yet crossed what James
calls, “Plateau of Latent Potential.”

“When you finally break through the Plateau of Latent Potential, people will call it an
overnight success.”                

“The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to
continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It’s not about any
single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous
improvement.”
“Ultimately, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress.”

“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.”

“Getting 1 percent better every day counts for a lot in the long-run.”

“Habits are a double-edged sword. They can work for you or against you, which is why
understanding the details is essential.”

“Small changes often appear to make no difference until you cross a critical threshold. The
most powerful outcomes of any compounding process are delayed. You need to be patient.”

“An atomic habit is a little habit that is part of a larger system. Just as atoms are the building
blocks of molecules, atomic habits are the building blocks of remarkable results.”

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

“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)

“Changing our habits is challenging for two reasons: (1) we try to change the wrong thing
and (2) we try to change our habits in the wrong way.”   

“There are three layers of behavior change: a change in your outcomes, a change in your
processes, or a change in your identity.”
                

“Outcomes are about what you get. Processes are about what you do. Identity is about what
you believe.”                

“With outcome-based habits, the focus is on what you want to achieve. With identity-based
habits, the focus is on who you wish to become.”                

“The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity.”

“It is a simple two-step process: Decide the type of person you want to be. Prove it to
yourself with small wins.”                                

“Ask yourself, “Who is the type of person that could get the outcome I want?”

“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.”

“Your identity emerges out of your habits. Every action is a vote for the type of person you
wish to become.”

“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.”                

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

Whenever you want to change your behavior, ask yourself:

1. How can I make it obvious?

2. How can I make it attractive?
3. How can I make it easy?
 4. How can I make it satisfying?

“A habit is a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic.”

“The ultimate purpose of habits is to solve the problems of life with as little energy and effort
as possible.”

“Any habit can be broken down into a feedback loop that involves four steps: cue, craving,
response, and reward.”

“The Four Laws of Behavior Change are a simple set of rules we can use to build better
habits. They are (1) make it obvious, (2) make it attractive, (3) make it easy, and (4) make
it satisfying.”                

Chapter 4: The Man Who Didn’t Look Right

“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? Does this habit cast a vote for or
against my desired identity?’”                

“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.”

“The process of behavior change always starts with awareness. You need to be aware of your
habits before you can change them.”

“Pointing-and-Calling raises your level of awareness from a nonconscious habit to a more

conscious level by verbalizing your actions.”

“The Habits Scorecard is a simple exercise you can use to become more aware of your
behavior.”                

Chapter 5: The Best Way to Start a New Habit

“The 1st Law of Behavior Change is make it obvious.”

“Many people think they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity.”

“The Diderot Effect states that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of
consumption that leads to additional purchases.”                

“One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each
day and then stack your new behavior on top. This is called habit stacking.”
  
              

“The habit stacking formula is: ‘After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].’”

“The two most common cues are time and location.”

“Creating an implementation intention is a strategy you can use to pair a new habit with a
specific time and location.”

“The implementation intention formula is: I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].”

“Habit stacking is a strategy you can use to pair a new habit with a current habit.”

“The habit stacking formula is: After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].”                

Chapter 6: Motivation is Overrated; Environment Often Matters More

“Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior.”               

“Small changes in context can lead to large changes in behavior over time.”

“Every habit is initiated by a cue. We are more likely to notice cues that stand out.”

“Make the cues of good habits obvious in your environment.”

“Gradually, your 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 because you are not fighting against old
cues.”                
Chapter 7: The Secret to Self-Control

“The inversion of the 1st Law of Behavior Change is make it invisible.”

“Once a habit is formed, it is unlikely to be forgotten.”

“People with high self-control tend to spend less time in tempting situations. It’s easier to
avoid temptation than resist it.”

“One of the most practical ways to eliminate a bad habit is to reduce exposure to the cue that
causes it.”

“Self-control is a short-term strategy, not a long-term one.”                

Chapter 8: How to Make a Habit Irresistible

“The 2nd Law of Behavior Change is make it attractive.”

“The more attractive an opportunity is, the more likely it is to become habit-forming.”

“Habits are a dopamine-driven feedback loop. When dopamine rises, so does our motivation
to act.”

“It is the anticipation of a reward—not the fulfillment of it—that gets us to take action. The
greater the anticipation, the greater the dopamine spike.”

“Temptation bundling is one way to make your habits more attractive. The strategy is to pair
an action you want to do with an action you need to do.” 

Chapter 9: The Role of Family and Friends in Shaping Your Habits

“The culture we live in determines which behaviors are attractive to us.”

“We tend to adopt habits that are praised and approved of by our culture because we have a
strong desire to fit in and belong to the tribe.”

“We tend to imitate the habits of three social groups: the close (family and friends), the
many (the tribe), and the powerful (those with status and prestige).”

“One of the most effective things you can do to build better habits is to join a culture where
(1) your desired behavior is the normal behavior and (2) you already have something in
common with the group.”

“The normal behavior of the tribe often overpowers the desired behavior of the individual.
Most days, we’d rather be wrong with the crowd than be right by ourselves.”

“If a behavior can get us approval, respect, and praise, we find it attractive.”               

Chapter 10: How to Find and Fix The Cause of Your Bad Habits
“The inversion of the 2nd Law of Behavior Change is make it unattractive.”

“Every behavior has a surface level craving and a deeper underlying motive.”

“Your habits are modern-day solutions to ancient desires.”

“The cause of your habits is actually the prediction that precedes them. The prediction leads
to a feeling.”

“Highlight the benefits of avoiding a bad habit to make it seem unattractive.”

“Habits are attractive when we associate them with positive feelings and unattractive when
we associate them with negative feelings. Create a motivation ritual by doing something you
enjoy immediately before a difficult habit.”                

Chapter 11: Walk Slowly, But Never Backward

“The 3rd Law of Behavior Change is make it easy.”

“The most effective form of learning is practice, not planning.”

“Focus on taking action, not being in motion.”

“Habit formation is the process by which a behavior becomes progressively more automatic
through repetition.”

“The amount of time you have been performing a habit is not as important as the number of
times you have performed it.”

Chapter 12: The Law of Least Effort

“Human behavior follows the Law of Least Effort.”

“We will naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work.”

“Create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible.”

“Reduce the friction associated with good behaviors. When friction is low, habits are easy.”

“Increase the friction associated with bad behaviors. When friction is high, habits are
difficult.”

“Prime your environment to make future actions easier.”   

             

Chapter 13: How to Stop Procrastinating by Using the Two-Minute Rule

Every day, there are a handful of moments that deliver an outsized impact. James refers to
these little choices as “decisive moments.”                

“Decisive moments set the options available to your future self.”                

“A habit must be established before it can be improved.”                

“Habits can be completed in a few seconds but continue to impact your behavior for minutes
or hours afterward.”

“Many habits occur at decisive moments—choices that are like a fork in the road—and either
send you in the direction of a productive day or an unproductive one.”

“The Two-Minute Rule states, ‘When you start a new habit, it should take less than two
minutes to do.’”

“The more you ritualize the beginning of a process, the more likely it becomes that you can
slip into the state of deep focus that is required to do great things.”

“Standardize before you optimize. You can’t improve a habit that doesn’t exist.”                

Chapter 14: How to Make Good Habits Inevitable and Bad Habits Impossible

“The inversion of the 3rd Law of Behavior Change is make it difficult.”

“A commitment device is a choice you make in the present that locks in better behavior in the
future.”

“The ultimate way to lock in future behavior is to automate your habits.”

“Onetime choices—like buying a better mattress or enrolling in an automatic savings plan—

are single actions that automate your future habits and deliver increasing returns over time.”

“Using technology to automate your habits is the most reliable and effective way to guarantee
the right behavior.”                

Chapter 15: The Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change

“The 4th Law of Behavior Change is make it satisfying.”

“We are more likely to repeat a behavior when the experience is satisfying.”

“The human brain evolved to prioritize immediate rewards over delayed rewards.”

“The Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change: What is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is
immediately punished is avoided.”

“To get a habit to stick you need to feel immediately successful—even if it’s in a small way.”
“The first three laws of behavior change—make it obvious, make it attractive, and make it
easy—increase the odds that a behavior will be performed this time. The fourth law of
behavior change—make it satisfying—increases the odds that a behavior will be repeated
next time.”                

Chapter 16: How to Stick with Good Habits Every Day

“Named after the economist Charles Goodhart, Goodhart’s Law states, ‘When a measure
becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.’”

“One of the most satisfying feelings is the feeling of making progress.”

“A habit tracker is a simple way to measure whether you did a habit—like marking an X on a
calendar.”

“Habit trackers and other visual forms of measurement can make your habits satisfying by
providing clear evidence of your progress.”

“Don’t break the chain. Try to keep your habit streak alive.”

“Never miss twice. If you miss one day, try to get back on track as quickly as possible.”

“Just because you can measure something doesn’t mean it’s the most important thing.”

Chapter 17: How an Accountability Partner Changes Everything

“The inversion of the 4th Law of Behavior Change is make it unsatisfying.”

“We are less likely to repeat a bad habit if it is painful or unsatisfying.”

“An accountability partner can create an immediate cost to inaction. We care deeply about
what others think of us, and we do not want others to have a lesser opinion of us.”

“A habit contract can be used to add a social cost to any behavior. It makes the costs of
violating your promises public and painful.”

“Knowing that someone else is watching you can be a powerful motivator.”

Chapter 18: The Truth About Talent (When Genes Matter and When They
Don’t)

“The secret to maximizing your odds of success is to choose the right field of competition.”

“Pick the right habit and progress is easy. Pick the wrong habit and life is a struggle.”

“Genes cannot be easily changed, which means they provide a powerful advantage in
favorable circumstances and a serious disadvantage in unfavorable circumstances.”
“Habits are easier when they align with your natural abilities. Choose the habits that best suit
you.”

“Play a game that favors your strengths. If you can’t find a game that favors you, create one.”

“Genes do not eliminate the need for hard work. They clarify it. They tell us what to work
hard on.”                

Chapter 19: The Goldilocks Rule—How to Stay Motivated in Life and Work  

“The Goldilocks Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on
tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities.”

“The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom.”

“As habits become routine, they become less interesting and less satisfying. We get bored.”

“Anyone can work hard when they feel motivated. It’s the ability to keep going when work
isn’t exciting that makes the difference.”

“Professionals stick to the schedule; amateurs let life get in the way.”             

Chapter 20: The Downside of Creating Good Habits

“The upside of habits is that we can do things without thinking. The downside is that we stop
paying attention to little errors.”

“Habits + Deliberate Practice = Mastery”

“Reflection and review is a process that allows you to remain conscious of your performance
over time.”
“The tighter we cling to an identity, the harder it becomes to grow beyond it.”               

In November 2012, James Clear began a small blog about productivity. By publishing an
article every Monday and Thursday like clockwork, he soon attracted an audience. Within a
year, his number of email subscribers topped 30,000 which is unusually good. Today, he has
a huge readership of over 450,000 subscribers. Most authors would kill to have that kind of
audience.

What makes his writing resonate with so many people? Well, James’s articles are written in a
clear and engaging way, while talking about practical life situations and interesting historical
examples or scientific studies. For example, his most popular article is about intermittent
fasting, which is a health and weight loss strategy. In this article he shares his own story
trying the strategy, and backs up any claims with links to studies. It just illustrates how he
focuses on practical strategies to get us closer to specific goals related to health, money,
relationships and productivity. No airy-fairy positive thinking will be found here.

And after hundreds of well researched self-help articles, James Clear believes the most
important key to achieving most of our goals are habits. Habits are those automatic
routines we follow every day, day after day after day. If we make small changes to these
automatic daily routines we all have, then we will see huge changes in our life quality over
the months and years, which is why this book is called “Atomic Habits.” It’s about small
changes that lead to powerful explosive progress. Now let’s look at the first big lesson in this
book.

1. Delayed Results: Why You Shouldn’t Judge Your

Progress Too Often
What happens if the trajectory of a huge airplane changes by 2 degrees? At first, nothing. But
after a few hours, the airplane will be flying thousands of miles away from where it was
headed before.

People underestimate habits because the effects are delayed. If we join a gym, we won’t
see results in a week or two. Yet if we keep going consistently for a couple years, we can
look like a totally new person to people who haven’t seen us in a while. As James puts it:

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies
through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them. They seem
to make little difference on any given day and yet the impact they deliver over the months
and years can be enormous. It is only when looking back two, five, or perhaps ten years later
that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones becomes strikingly apparent.

In most of the areas of life that matter, the results of our actions are not immediately
apparent. James mentions the example of bamboo. After bamboo is planted, it spends 3-5
years underground, developing a large root system. Then one day (just as you’re probably
wondering if you bought some expired bamboo seeds) it suddenly shoots out of the ground,
growing up to 25 meters / 80 feet in the air within a short space of 5 weeks. The bamboo
wasn’t resting all those years, it was steadily building up a hidden potential for future growth,
but the results of all those years of work only became visible at the very end.

Summary:Just like bamboo takes years of hidden work before shooting up from the ground,
the results of our habits often take time to show up in the physical world. So don’t step on the
scale too often, rather just measure that you’re eating right and exercising.

2. Goals vs. Systems: “Winners and Losers Have the Same

Goals”
This idea was made popular by Scott Adams, the enormously successful cartoonist behind the
Dilbert comics. In a nutshell, this idea says you’ll be far happier and more successful by
ignoring goals and focusing on building great systems in your life.

So what’s the problem with goals? Well, for the last few decades, self improvement has had a
sick obsession with them. Endless authors and speakers have repeated advice to write down
your goals, set bigger goals, S.M.A.R.T. goals, to dream bigger and on and on.

Yet few people stopped to consider the many problems inherent in goals. The first and
biggest problem, as James points out, is that “winners and losers have the same goals.”

 When 20 writers submit a book to a publisher, they all have the goal of being
published, yet only 1 will be successful.
 When 10 runners line up at the Olympics, they all have the goal of finishing first, yet
only 1 will win the gold medal.
 When 50 people sign up to the gym on January 2nd, they all have the goal of losing
weight, yet most won’t.

And since winners and losers have the same goals, then your goals cannot make the
difference between success and failure.

Instead of goals, it’s much better to focus on systems. Systems are the processes by
which we achieve our goals. For example, if you have the goal of being a published author,
then your systems may be writing 2 hours every evening and contacting 5 agents/publishers
every week. If you have the goal of being a professional artist, then your systems could be
producing one new painting every week and taking two art classes per year to improve your
skills.

A goal centred approach has many people imagining happiness and fulfillment after some
future finish line, like after they’ve sold their first manuscript or painting. As a result, they
feel unsuccessful and miserable right now. In contrast, a systems-centred approach puts our
focus on the process or daily habits rather than the end goal. It’s about finding ways to
improve our skill of writing or painting, and most importantly finding enjoyment in the
activity itself as our driving motivation.

The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to
continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking.
This highlights another problem with goals: Goals can sabotage long-term progress. Why is it
so common for someone to go on a diet to lose weight, only to end up putting the weight back
on a few months after they’ve hit their goal? Because the main motivation was to hit a certain
number on the scale. Once that number is hit, the motivation to continue the diet goes away
too.

Systems, on the other hand, encourage both long term progress and allow us to feel satisfied
as we make progress toward a certain direction. A focus on systems means putting in place
the habits that allow us to feel successful, content and growing each and every day.

Summary:Goals have many built-in problems. They make us believe happiness is found in
the future and sabotage lifelong progress. Focusing on systems, which are the processes and
daily habits of our lives, will make us both more happier and more successful.

3. Identity: Change Your Inner WHO, Not Just What You

Do
Why do so many of our attempts at personal change fail to stick? James says one big reason
is we’re all focused on the most outer superficial layer of ourselves, which is our actions. Yet
far deeper than our actions is a core part of us called our identity, which is like your sense of
who you really are. We can almost imagine it like layers of an onion. Your daily actions are
the outer layer, your identity is at the centre.

Our identity is the sum total of our beliefs, world views and judgements about ourselves and
others. It’s about who we wish to be seen as and what groups we claim to be part of. Most
importantly, it’s the source of many of our actions.

Research has shown that once a person believes in a particular aspect of their identity, they
are more likely to act in alignment with that belief. For example, people who identified as
“being a voter” were more likely to vote than those who simply claimed “voting” was an
action they wanted to perform.

Anecdotally, one common thread I’ve noticed with many weight loss success stories I’ve read
online is that the person having some change in their identity. They didn’t just start eating
less, instead they began identifying as a vegetarian, vegan, hiker, marathoner, paleo, gluten-
free or part of one of the other hundreds of subcultures that exist around health. And once this
shift in identity happens, I believe people gain a lot of satisfaction living up to this new
identity and the principles that come with it.

For example, rather than exercising feeling like a chore, it can inspire enthusiasm when the
activity reinforces a desired empowering identity as a bodybuilder, powerlifter or boxer.
There is often a hint of pride attached to the new identity which is also addictive. And just
think of it this way: what’s a more powerful motivation for eating vegetables: To look a little
thinner? Or to join a global movement of vegan crusaders determined to lift the suffering of
millions of living beings? You can guess which one of those is a deeper and more meaningful
motivation.

So, the first step is to get clear on what your desired future identity looks like and feels
like. It can be useful to write down your answers to questions like:
  What are my values?
 What do I stand for? Who or what do I stand against?
 Who do I admire and why?

This shift in identity is very powerful because we humans love to act congruent with our
identity. When you identify as a runner, then it’s only natural you’ll love putting on your
shoes every day, rather than being someone forcing themselves to run in order to lose weight.
To borrow another example from the book, there’s a big difference when someone declines a
cigarette by saying “No thanks, I’m trying to quit” versus saying “No thanks, I’m not a
smoker.” The first no implies resistance and willpower, the second no is easy.

Summary:Our actions are just the outermost layer of us, our identity is at the core, driving
most of our actions. That’s why real change must usually start from inside. For example, the
goal is not to write more, but to see oneself as a writer. Humans love to act congruent with
their identity.

4. The Habit Loop: Cue, Craving, Response and Reward

1n 1898, a psychologist named Edward Thorndike created an experiment. He put cats inside a
“puzzle box” and they couldn’t get out of the box unless they pressed a specific lever. Just
outside the puzzle box were some tasty fish, so the cats were very motivated to get out.

At first, Thorndike didn’t see many signs of reasoning or logical thinking in his test cats.
They poked around the box in a random way and would inevitably hit the lever, allowing
them to escape.

Now here’s where things get interesting. After a cat had “found” the escape lever inside
the puzzle box the first time, it seemed to “remember” its technique for escaping the box
in future attempts. So the more times a cat was put in the same puzzle box, the faster and
faster it would be able to escape. For example, in one of his experiments, Thorndike wrote,
“Cat 12 took the following times to perform the act. 160 seconds, 30 seconds, 90 seconds, 60,
15, 28, 20, 30, 22, 11, 15, 20, 12, 10, 14, 10, 8, 8, 5, 10, 8, 6, 6, 7.”

This leads to a novel way of thinking about habits. Habits are mental shortcuts. Just like cats
escaping a box by pushing the same lever, we humans also learn mental shortcuts to the
problems we encounter. For example, someone is feeling stressed and find that smoking a
cigarette calms their nerves. Well, the next time they feel stressed, what do you think they’re
gonna do? That’s right, their hand will reach automatically for the cigarette box and lighter,
because that’s the action that relieved the bad feeling last time. Habits are mental shortcuts,
they are a reliable road to a certain destination.

Habit Loops

The model at the core of this book is The Habit Loop, this is a four step process we all follow
when we repeat habits. The four steps are: cue, craving, response and reward.

This isn’t a brand new idea, by the way. An influential psychologist named B.F. Skinner
was talking about animals being conditioned through “stimulus, response and reward”
70 years ago. You’ve probably heard of his experiments with dogs and bells. Every time
Skinner fed his dogs, he rang a bell, his theory was that over time he could “condition” his
dogs to feel hungry just at the sound of the bell. And sure enough, soon just by ringing the
bell, even with no food around, he observed his dogs began to drool. More recently Charles
Duhigg popularized a similar idea in his bestselling self help book The Power of Habit.

Very quickly, let’s define the 4 steps of The Habit Loop in more detail:

1. Cue. This is the signal or trigger that begins every habit loop. It could be a sound,
object, location, time, your phone buzzing or almost anything else.
2. Craving. This is the feeling, the itch, that motivates us to act. For example, scientists
have found that gamblers experience a huge surge of dopamine BEFORE they place a
bet, rather than after they win.
3. Response. This is the action or behavior we do. It can be pulling our phone out of our
pocket or putting a coin in a slot machine.
4. Reward. The pleasurable sensations that follow a habit. Just like the cats escaping the
puzzle boxes to eat tasty fish, we generally follow these habit loops because we are
trying to get to a reward. This is the dopamine spike of social media likes, enjoying a
delicious meal, experiencing orgasm, a rush of sugar, etc.

The rest of the book goes through these 4 steps of the habit loop again, but showing practical
techniques we can use to “hack” our habits every step of the way. This means we can learn
how to form good habits so we can stop procrastinating and do what we know is best for us in
the long term, from eating healthy to saving money and working towards our dreams. We’ll
also see how to more easily eliminate our worst habits and addictions. So let’s begin!

Summary:Habits are mental shortcuts, reliable roads to a certain destination. For example,
smoking a cigarette may be a reliable way to relieve stress, at least for a few minutes. The
habit loop is 4 steps we all follow with any habit, and for the rest of this note we’ll explore
how to “hack” these steps to more easily form good habits and break bad ones.

5. Cues: Make the Right Ones Obvious

Like we just said, a cue is the signal that triggers a habit. Potential cues are all around us.
When our phone buzzes, that vibration can be a cue to begin our “check phone” habit. When
we feel bored in the evening, that can be a cue to begin our “watch pornography” habit. But
even constructive habits have cues. Seeing our running shoes beside the front door can be the
cue to put them on and go for a run. Saturday can be our cue to relax after a hard workweek
and let the stress hormones like cortisol flush out of our system.

The first challenge with habits is maintaining awareness. Since we do habits almost
automatically by definition, a lot of them can slip under our radar. To overcome this
challenge, James mentions a really useful exercise called writing a habits scorecard. This
is a simple list of all the things you do every day, in order. For example, waking up, turning
off your alarm, going to pee, brushing your teeth, checking your phone, making breakfast,
putting on pants, and so on. Make this list, then beside each item put a plus, minus or
equals sign to show whether it’s a good, bad or neutral habit. Also pay attention to the
cues that may trigger each habit. For example, if your morning alarm is on your phone, does
that make you immediately check your social media when you wake up?
Implementation Intentions

Now the first strategy for hacking our habits is called implementation intentions. Numerous
studies have shown that creating implementation intentions made people more likely to
do what they said they were going to do when it came to voting, getting a flu shot,
following a weight loss plan and more.

For example, there was a 2007 study on women 18-76 years old who wanted to lose weight.
The study split them up into 2 groups, the first group was shown how to create
implementation intentions about what, when and how they will eat and exercise. The second
group followed a different strategy, attending supportive group meetings related to health and
dieting. After 2 months, they found the first group lost about twice as much weight, 4.2kg
compared to the second group’s 2.1kg.

So what is an implementation intention? It’s just a statement of exactly what you will do
in the future and exactly when you will do it. For example, “WHEN I come home from
work, THEN I will make a green smoothie.”

Sounds simple, but the results of doing this are powerful. And I think the power of
implementation intentions comes from them forcing people to design CUEs for their positive
habits. What I mean is, if we say we want to lose weight in a general and abstract way, then
we’re likely to forget that goal because we’re often busy or tired. But if we make a specific
intention of what we will do, complete with time or location, then it will almost impossible to
forget that.

Summary:A CUE is a signal that triggers a habit. Cues come in all shapes and sizes, from
time of day, location or even a buzzing phone. Implementation intentions are a powerful way
to construct cues for our desired habits. Remember to use the WHEN-THEN formula: “When
this happens, then I will do this.”

6. Craving: Make Good Habits More Attractive

In the 1940s, Dutch scientist Niko Tinbergen was studying herring gulls, birds which have a
small red dot on their beaks. He noticed the baby chicks pecked this red dot on their parent’s
beaks when they wanted food. So, he tried an experiment. He painted a small red spot on a
fake bird and showed this to the chicks. Surprisingly, they were fooled and pecked the red
spot on the fake bird as well. Then he got creative. He painted a much bigger red spot and the
chicks pecked even harder! He kept painting the red spot bigger and bigger, eventually
painting multiple red spots on one fake bird and the pattern continued. The chicks went crazy
for the unrealistically large and bright red spots.

This was one of the studies that started the idea of supernormal stimuli. In short, an
animal’s instincts can be hijacked by extreme versions of what they are naturally wired to be
attracted to.

For example, over millions of years humans evolved to love eating sweet things. Well, in
nature sweetness is very hard to find. Ripe fruits are the main place wild animals might find
sweetness, and those are mostly only available once a year. So when humans thousands of
years ago found a banana tree, it made sense to gorge, to stock up calories for the winter. Fast
forward to today, and not only are fruit found all year long in our local supermarket, but so
are foods like candy, cookies and ice cream—all far sweeter than anything found on a tree
branch. Our modern world is full of supernormal stimuli, from fast food to social media
(approval) to porn (sexual variety) to magazine models (beauty).

Supernormal stimuli are incredibly irresistible because they highjack dopamine, the
source of our motivation. You probably heard of dopamine before, it’s one of the brain
chemicals that make us feel good. Recently, scientists have found that dopamine is
released not only when we get a reward, but even more so the moment we anticipate a
reward. For example, gamblers experience a huge hit of dopamine when they make a bet, not
when they win.

The importance of dopamine became apparent in 1954 when the neuroscientists James Olds
and Peter Milner ran an experiment that revealed the neurological processes behind craving
and desire. By implanting electrodes in the brains of rats, the researchers blocked the release
of dopamine. To the surprise of the scientists, the rats lost all will to live. They wouldn’t eat.
They wouldn’t have sex. They didn’t crave anything. Within a few days, the animals died of
thirst.

So, to make all this practical, how can we take advantage of super stimuli and dopamine
cravings to motivate ourselves to accomplish our habits?

One way is the strategy of temptation bundling. This means combining something you
get pleasure from or want to do with something you need to do. For example, many
people go for a run and listen to music or podcasts while they do it. Ronan Byrne went one
step further and invented Cycflix, a way to connect a stationary bike to Netflix. As long as he
keeps pedalling fast enough, the shows keep playing. If he stops exercising, then Netflix
stops too. A brilliant solution.

Summary:Dopamine is a brain chemical that is the source of motivation, take it away and rats
lose the will to live. If we want to pursue good habits, it’s important they are attractive, which
means they spike dopamine. One good way to accomplish this is temptation bundling,
combining something you want to do with something you need to do, like cycling on a
stationary bike while binging Netflix.

7. Response: Make Good Habits Easy, and Bad Ones

Difficult
At the University of Florida, a photography professor named Jerry Uelsmann had a bright
idea. As an experiment, he divided his film photography students that year into two groups.
He told the first group they would be graded solely based on the quantity of photos they
produced, in other words the more the better. And he told the second group they would be
graded solely on the quality of their one best photo.

And to his surprise, at the end of the year, ALL the best photos from that class came
from the group told they would be judged on quantity, not quality. Why? Well, the
students, feeling free of the burden of needing to make anything good, got their hands dirty,
experimenting with all kinds of creative ideas and film techniques. Meanwhile, the other
group of students sat around thinking of abstract ideas of what makes a perfect photo, gained
little practice or experience, so their final photos were mediocre.

With any new habit, repetition is far more important than perfection. As Arnold
Schwarzenegger says, “everything is reps, reps, reps.” And he would know. Whether Arnold
was lifting weights hours every day or tirelessly rehearsing movie scripts and political
speeches, he knew that repetition makes people wildly successful. (Check out our note on
Arnold’s autobiography ‘Total Recall’ also.)

Small Habits and Getting Started

Studies have shown the first 10-20 days of starting a new habit require the most
willpower. That’s when you have to push yourself with every fibre of your being to get out
of bed early and put on your running shoes. But after a couple weeks, scientists can actually
measure more “automaticity” in our habits. This means we start to repeat them without much
thinking or willpower. And after a couple months, the new habit becomes as automatic and
natural as brushing our teeth, we actually feel wrong if something prevents us from doing it.

The neurons in our brains are actually able to reshape their connections based on what
we do, through a mechanism called “neuroplasticity.” It’s like we have grooves in our
brain, and the more we do something, the deeper the grooves for that behavior become,
making it easier to repeat in the future. Remember when you learned to drive? The first few
times were probably awkward, but now you can drive for hours without much thought. In
fact, scientists have measured that mathematicians have more gray matter in the part of their
brain called the inferior parietal lobule, which has to do with logic and calculations. An even
weirder example: London taxi drivers (who have to memorize the confusing London streets)
have an enlarged hippocampus region which is critical for spatial memory, but when they
retire this region shrinks again to the size of an average person’s. In short, the brain can
rewire itself based on our habits, just like doing certain exercises repeatedly in the gym can
make your muscles grow over time.

But this can’t happen if your habit never gets off the ground! That’s why James says it’s
critical to make our habits easy, especially in the beginning.

Standardize before you optimize. You can’t improve a habit that doesn’t exist.

So if you want to read more, set a daily goal of one page. Why? Because then you’ll never
have the excuse of no time or energy! And once you’ve read one page, there’s a good chance
you’ll keep going. When humans are in motion, we often like to stay in motion. It’s getting
started that’s the hard part, most of the time. So make your habits easy in the
beginning. Read one page, do one push up, meditate for one minute. Once your habits are
started you can increase the difficulty every couple weeks.

Making Bad Habits Difficult

Another important technique is shaping our environment. The power of our environment to
drive our habits is huge. During the Vietnam War, a very high percentage of US soldiers
began using heroin, perhaps to escape the brutality and violence of war. Yet when they came
home, 90% immediately stopped using heroin. Why? Well, they came home and were in a
totally different environment than where their addiction started. They were back among
friends and family and left behind all the cues that were tied to heroin use overseas. Contrast
that to drug addicts who go to rehab and after getting clean, most of them come home and
relapse. What’s the difference? Well, they came back to the same environment that formed
their addiction, with all the cues that triggered their past drug use, from drug addict friends to
a depressing job.

Let me share with you a personal example that drastically improved my health. A few years
ago, I decided that I wouldn’t buy anything unhealthy at the supermarket, even mildly
unhealthy. I’d learned that if I have any junk food in the cupboard, then I will eat it sooner or
later, and probably sooner. So removing anything unhealthy from my immediate environment
forced me to settle for snacks like almonds and dark chocolate when I was craving something
sweet. (Don’t worry, I still have a designated “cheat day” where I pig out occasionally.) But
the point is, changing my environment, eating healthy requires very little willpower during
the week. I just need willpower for the short time I go food shopping.

So think about some ways you can reshape your environment to support your desired
habits. How about blocking certain websites or disabling your wifi automatically during
certain times of the day to get rid of the “mental candy” in your environment? Or if you want
to practice guitar more often, leave your guitar where you always see it. On the other hand, if
you want to play video games less often, hide the console in a closet after each time you play.
It’s all about increasing exposure to cues for the habits we want and hiding cues for the habits
we don’t want.

Summary:Making good habits easier in the beginning will allow them to take off, like if you
want to read more, then start reading one page per day. Eventually when the habit’s in place,
you can increase your standards. Also reshape your environment to make bad habits more
difficult, like removing wifi at certain hours so there’s less temptation to procrastinate.

8. Rewards: Make Good Habits Immediately Satisfying

and Punish Bad Ones
In the late 1990s a public health worker named Stephen Luby when to the densely populated
slums of Karachi Pakistan. The neighbourhood had poor sanitation and constant spread of
bacteria and disease. Stephen focused on one specific problem: many residents knew that
hand washing was important for health, but they weren’t doing it. So he partnered with
Proctor and Gamble to supple a premium kind of soap to the slum residents. This soap
lathered more easily and smelled great, it was pleasurable to use. There was soon a rapid shift
in the health of the neighbourhood. Diarrhea rates fell by 52 percent. Best of all, six years
later, he came back and found over 95% of households in the experiment still washed their
hands regularly.

Humans evolved to prefer rewards right now than later. This conflicts with the fact that
many good habits we want to do only pay off weeks, months or years later. Saving
money for retirement may not pay off for 40 years. Who can wait that long?! That’s why it’s
a good idea to build immediate rewards into our habits. Just like the nice smelling soap
introduced to the slums, how can we make our habits more immediately pleasurable so we’re
more likely to do them?

One classic way is through rewards. You can reward yourself as you start a habit or
right when you finish. Just make sure the reward is consistent with your values and identity.
If you’re exercising to lose weight, for example, then candy might be an inconsistent reward
and the better choice might be a relaxing massage at the spa.

On the flip side, we can also make a bad habit immediately less pleasurable through
punishments. For example, productivity expert Thomas Frank found a great method to ensure
he always wakes up at 5AM. So, if he doesn’t wake up, an app on his phone automatically
tweets to thousands of followers that Frank is lazy and the first 3 people to respond to the
message will get money. Ouch! So if he oversleeps, then not only does he get publicly
embarrassed, but also loses money! This is exactly how government laws work too, by the
way. And it was a stupidly low percentage of people who actually wore seat belts before the
laws were in place to immediately punish people for not wearing them.

Summary:Humans have a short term bias, we much prefer gratification now than later.
Rewards are a well-known strategy that take advantage of this. The flip side is punishments,
like how one productivity expert found a way to avoid oversleeping, by having an automatic
tweet go out to his thousands of followers calling himself lazy if he does it.