“Atomic Habit” is probably one of the most famous self-improvement books for the last few years. I have seen great reviews and some of my friends recommended this book a few years ago, but I never actually read it myself since I already read a lot of books about habits. However, I noticed that my good habits are breaking apart this year. I did not use any electronics for an hour before I went to bed, but I realized I have been watching YouTube videos until right before I lay in bed. I was occasionally missing a good night’s sleep. Concepts of human behavior and psychology were still in my brain, but I needed to trigger my motivation again. Also, reading books explaining similar concepts is also beneficial, since it helps to review important principles and they become stored in your long term memory.
Rating
If I can review this book in one sentence, it would be, “One of the best books I have ever read”. Most of the concepts in the book were very familiar to me because I enjoy reading psychology and self-improvement books. However, the book was very well written and it provides many frameworks that anyone can follow. It was easy to read and now I know what people mean by a “good writer”. I think I should re-read this book later to remind myself how to build good habits and break bad ones.
Rating: 4.8/5
Favorite Quotes
“If you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done. Conversely, if you get 1 percent worse each day for one year, you’ll decline nearly down to zero”
Don’t be in a rush to get better. Just one percent better than yesterday will create a compound effect, and one day, you will realize the huge improvements you made.
“Complaining about not achieving success despite working hard is like complaining about an ice cube not melting when you heated it from twenty-five to thirty-one degrees”
Water does not boil at 99 degrees Celsius. You need a grit and mentality to stay strong until you reach 100 degrees Celsius. Remind yourself that you are making progress that is not visible, and all of your efforts are being stored. Follow the system that helps you to make small progress each day.
“Goals are good for setting direction, but systems are best for making progress. A handful of problems arise when you spend too much time thinking about your goals and not enough time designing your systems”
I still believe planning is very important since it is when you decide what direction you want to go. However, sometimes thinking too much won’t get you anywhere. When you have a goal, focus your time on creating a correct system that can help you to reach your goal. For example, if I want to get in shape and become stronger, I set a goal of reaching the 1000 pounds club, and pick a science based program and stick with it to track the progress.
“What we really need to change are the systems that cause those results. When you solve problems at the results level, you only solve them temporarily”
To solve the core reason of the problem, we have to update our system to not occur again. If I am spending too much time on the phone, maybe the phone is too visible when I am working. Or maybe I have a habit of spending time on the phone after each meal. Find the pain point on the system and solve the problems.
“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”
Change your identity, not just a single behavior. Behaviors tend to follow your identity. I am a reader. I am a great engineer. I am wealthy. I am charismatic.
“Your identity emerges out of your habits. You are not born with preset beliefs. Every belief, including those about yourself, is learned and conditioned through experience”
Identity influences behaviors, behaviors form habits, and habits influence 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.”
I am a reader, so I will read a book for at least 10 minutes every day. I am a great engineer, so I will push one commit everyday for my personal projects. I am wealthy in both mind and financially, so I will meditate for 2 minutes every morning and evening, and find great long term investment options. I am healthy and fit, so I will go to the gym 6 times a week. All of these are just small wins that can prove your identity.
“Habits can help you achieve all of these things, but fundamentally they are not about having something. They are about becoming someone”
“You’re mentally exhausted from a long day of work, and you learn that playing video games relaxes you. You’re exploring, exploring, exploring, and then — BAM — a reward”
I have been reading webtoons and watching YouTube shorts endlessly recently. My brain is just exploring things that can give unexpected and instant rewards. I am going to take other options from now on such as 1 minute of meditation, or reading articles that I am interested in.
“4 steps to form habits: cue, craving, reward, response. 4 laws of behavior change: make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, make it satisfying”
Understand the mechanism of habit and use basic principles to create good habits and remove bad habits.
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate”
If you have a strict routine, there might be some people who ask you what makes life fun if you are so disciplined. However, most of the impulsive decisions people make are from the unconscious mind. If you really want to control your life, you have to make unconscious conscious, where having routines can be helpful.
“The process of behavior change always starts with awareness. Strategies like Pointing-and-Calling and the Habits Scorecard are focused on getting you to recognize your habits and acknowledge the cues that trigger them, which makes it possible to respond in a way that benefits you”
Before using the phone mindlessly, speak out that you are using the phone to get relief. List your habits (habit scoreboard) to analyze your behaviors.
“The simple way to apply this strategy to your habits is to fill out this sentence: I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION]”
“Combine with current habits: After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT]”
After turning off the alarm, I will turn off my phone. After eating breakfast, I will turn off my phone. After eating lunch, I will turn off my phone. After turning off my phone, I will check my to-do list.
“Some experts estimate that half of brain’s resources are used on vision”
Visual effects can have an impact on behaviors. Like Dr. Huberman says, visual focus leads to mental focus. Remove distracting items out of your sight and try to focus on the thing you want to focus on. Make a statement of your identities, and post on the walls so you can look at them to remind yourself.
“Create a separate space for work, study, exercise, entertainment, and cooking. The mantra I find useful is ‘One space, one use’”
Desk for studying and working, microwave & fridge for cooking and eating, and next to windows for thinking and relaxing.
“disciplined people are better at structuring their lives in a way that does not require heroic willpower and self-control. In other words, they spend less time in tempting situations”
Automate habits and optimize the brain, and that will automatically boost productivity.
“You can break a habit, but you’re unlikely to forget it”
Bad habits can pop up again. Control the system and environment that you are in. I will never visit Naver on my phone in order to stop reading webtoons.
“dopamine is released not only when you experience pleasure, but also when you anticipate it”
“As a child, thinking about Christmas morning can be better than opening the gifts. As an adult, daydreaming about an upcoming vacation can be more enjoyable than actually being on vacation. Scientists refer to this as the difference between wanting and liking”
I also experienced this when I was seeking a job. Throughout the process, I felt great, imagining myself working at great companies (of course there were some stressful moments as well). After reaching the goal, I kind of felt empty. Before habit, dopamine spikes during the reward phase, but after habit is earned, dopamine spikes after specific cues. If the habit becomes part of your system, it will be enjoyable to pursue the habit!
“Temptation bundling works by linking an action you want to do with an action you need to do”
“The habit stacking + temptation bundling formula is:
- After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [HABIT I NEED].
- After [HABIT I NEED], I will [HABIT I WANT].”
Link what you need to do and what you like to do.
“In the long history of humankind, those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed”
“We imitate the habits of three groups in particular:
- The close.
- The many.
- The powerful.”
Based on evolution, one of the deepest human desires is to belong. Putting yourself into a group that appreciates the behaviors you want to have can force you to create habits in order to make sense of belonging. Control the three main groups humans tend to follow.
“The reward of being accepted is often greater than the reward of winning an argument, looking smart, or finding truth”
There was research that people chose to answer what most people said, even though it was obviously the wrong answer. We should evaluate our thoughts and check if we are saying what we actually believe, or are we just saying what most people believe.
“Some of our underlying motives include: Conserve energy, Obtain food and water, Find love and reproduce, Connect and bond with others, Win social acceptance and approval, Reduce uncertainty, Achieve status and prestige”
“Your brain did not evolve with a desire to smoke cigarettes or to check Instagram or to play video games. At a deep level, you simply want to reduce uncertainty and relieve anxiety, to win social acceptance and approval, or to achieve status”
“Your current habits are not necessarily the best way to solve the problems you face; they are just the methods you learned to use”
We have to understand the real desire we have under the action. These desires helped us to survive in the stone age, but modern society is too different and some of these behaviors are unnecessary. Find out the true desire and take better actions that can release the craves. For example, I read webtoons to relieve anxiety and achieve status (indirect experience). I can rather work out to relieve anxiety and focus on my work to achieve status.
“You don’t ‘have’ to. You ‘get’ to”
“Whenever you want to get in the mood, just press play.”
Reprogram your mind that you “get” to do habits. Create short routines that you perform before things you like to do. For example, have a grand music list that you listen to before and during workouts. I am going to take three deep breaths before I meet my friends and do what I love to do. I can perform the same action right before the habits, and it will make my brain think that I will be doing things that I love.
“When preparation becomes a form of procrastination, you need to change something. You don’t want to merely be planning. You want to be practicing”
I have a lot of plans, but for the past 2 years, it feels like I have not put most of them into action. Without action, there is no result. It is okay to start slow, so make really small goals that can become a habit! I will push at least one commit for my personal project everyday! It can be just one line of change, but I will keep this as a habit!
“If you look at the most habit-forming products, you’ll notice that one of the things these goods and services do best is remove little bits of friction from your life”
“…, successful companies design their products to automate, eliminate, or simplify as many steps as possible”
Business idea: start a business that reduces friction of daily behavior of people.
“Create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible”
Create friction on things you don’t want to do. I will turn off my phone and put it inside the drawer, whenever I am working on something.
“When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.”
Make a habit easy so that it can be maintainable in the beginning. I will meditate for 2 minutes every morning and evening. I will write at least one sentence in my journal every day. I will push one commit per day for my personal project (it can be one letter change).
“Each habit that we hand over to the authority of technology frees up time and energy to pour into the next stage of growth”
Watching YouTube videos and scrolling down Social media might not seem like energy consuming, but it actually uses a lot of mental energy to make small decisions and take in a lot of useless information. To save energy, I will turn off my phone right after I wake up.
“As a general rule, the more immediate pleasure you get from an action, the more strongly you should question whether it aligns with your long-term goals.”
Humans tend to have a short time preference, in order to survive in the wild. If you find instant rewards in your life, question yourself if it aligns with your long term goal, and if not, create friction on it. Reading webtoons gives me an instant reward of relieving anxiety, but it does not align with my long term goals. For actions that align with your long term goal, create instant reward so that you can be consistent with that behavior. I will keep the habit tracker to keep instance reward, and I will keep track of ‘Habit Balance’ in which I will deposit a dollar whenever I execute the planned habit.
“never miss twice”
“Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit.”
Don’t be too tolerant of yourself. If you repeat an action more than twice, that is the start of a new habit.
“Measurement is only useful when it guides you and adds context to a larger picture, not when it consumes you”
Choose measurement wisely, because it can direct you in the wrong direction.
“A habit contract is a verbal or written agreement in which you state your commitment to a particular habit and the punishment that will occur if you don’t follow through”
I made a contract with a friend that I will buy him 3 meals if I read webtoon until the end of the year. It has been working great for the past two weeks.
“The key is to direct your effort toward areas that both excites you and match your natural skills, to align your ambition with your ability”
“As Robert Plomin, a behavioral geneticist at King’s College in London, told me, ‘It is now at the point where we have stopped testing to see if traits have a genetic component because we literally can’t find a single one that isn’t influenced by our genes’”
“Five spectrums of behavior:
- Openness to experience: from curious and inventive on one end to cautious and consistent on the other
- Conscientiousness: organized and efficient to easygoing and spontaneous
- Extroversion: outgoing and energetic to solitary and reserved
- Agreeableness: friendly and compassionate to challenging and detached
- Neuroticism: anxious and sensitive to confident, calm, and stable”
Everyone has different genes, and there are some sort of advantageous genes for each area. You can find a game that ‘you’ have advantages over other people. Find an area you are passionate about that aligns with your skills. In my case, I believe I have pretty good problem solving skills and understanding abstract concepts. I am also pretty good at being consistent on things.
“Thankfully, there is an effective way to manage this conundrum, and it is known as the explore/exploit trade-off”
Spend 80–90% of your time on exploiting things that you are good at, and spend 10–20% of your time on exploring new things. When you are young, try to weigh a little more on exploring (I would say 40–50% on exploring).
“When you can’t win by being better, you can win by being different”
Collect tools of titans.
“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.”
Yerkes-Dodsson Law suggests 4% beyond current ability would be the right level of challenge. Pick the right book, pick the right problems. Don’t rush yourself to solve Millennium Prize Problems right away. If you increase your problem solving ability gradually, you might be able to end up solving the problems eventually.
“At some point it comes down to who can handle the boredom of training every day, doing the same lifts over and over and over.”
“But stepping up when it’s annoying or painful or draining to do so, that’s what makes the difference between a professional and an amateur”
Have grit! If you are feeling bored some days, it might be an indication that you are getting closer to your goal!
“The more sacred an idea is to us — that is, the more deeply it is tied to our identity — the more strongly we will defend it against criticism”
“Life is constantly changing, so you need to periodically check in to see if your old habits and beliefs are still serving you”
It is important to review your progress and check if your identity or your ego is blocking your growth. Re-evaluate your identities every year. Don’t make a single identity to take up a huge portion of who you are, which will reduce the flexibility of your traits.
“Satisfaction = Liking — Wanting
This is the wisdom behind Seneca’s famous quote, ‘Being poor is not having too little, it is wanting more’”
Remember, that ‘enough’ is relative. This is a very hard problem since wanting motivates us moving forward, but desire will increase as we get more reward.
“This is one reason why we continually grasp for the latest get-rich-quick or weight-loss scheme. New plans offer hope because we don’t have any experiences to ground our expectations”
Evaluate if new strategies have higher expected return. It might be just ‘hope’ that makes the illusion.
Resources
The author’s website contains a lot of helpful resources as well. For example, you can find a habit cheat sheet in his website:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/jamesclear/Atomic+Habits/Habits+Cheat+Sheet.pdf