The Journal App Making Journal: Day 53

User experience with the Clear Habit Journal

Continue to journal on two questions everyday in this Journal App Making Journal.

1. What have I learned about app design and development today?

Taking a break from coding today.

2. What have I learned about journaling products / technologies / other journal users today?

Continue to look into journaling products / technologies out there today.

Featured journaling technology today: The Clear Habit Journal

> About the Clear Habit Journal

This is a physical notebook designed by James Clear, the author of the bestselling book, Atomic Habits. I have been using it as an implementation system for the book, and experimenting with my own habit change over 21 days, to assess how effective the journaling system is. This experiment will end on Day 56.

> Key ideas I learned from Atomic Habits today

Atomic Habits is a book about the four principles of habit and behaviour change — Make It Obvious, Attractive, Easy, and Satisfying.

My reading today was all about Making It Attractive.

• This principle is about creating new habits by artificially engineering the dopamine spike for a desired behaviour. Dopamine spike is the neuropsychological origin of repeated behaviours.
• What is most interesting about the dopamine spike is “It is the anticipation of a reward — not the fulfillment of it — that gets us to take action.” Once we experience something rewarding, dopamine is released to create action next time at the cue of the reward before receiving the reward.
• That’s why sandwiching an unfamiliar, simple, and new desired habit (eg. saying Grace / practicing a brief gratitude prayer), between an existing routine (eg. sitting down for dinner), and an attractive habit (eg. eating dinner), works.
• Of the forms of rewards there are, one of the most powerful is social belonging. Therefore a powerful way to engineer a new habit is to join a culture where you share a common interest and the new behaviour is the norm. eg. health and wellbeing group for entrepreneurs.
• For the more challenging and hard habits, the best way to re-engineer a new pleasurable association is often to gain a mindset shift or form a motivational ritual. eg. bringing gratitude for getting to do something instead an obligation of having to do it (glass half full), or listening to the Calm app, perhaps LeBron James’ mind training meditation, before a demanding task.

> The UX of using Clear Habit Journal for my own habit change

• After reading about this principle, there is a sense that growing good habits is like growing a garden. It takes thoughtful observations, design, planning, and patience.
• Throughout the section of the book, there are exercises to facilitate the new design of habit associations. Journaling and writing things down therefore is again useful for making things obvious, clear, and intentional.

About The Journaling App Making Journal.

Connect with me.

Follow updates from this journal.

Read the last update. … Read the next update.