The Journal App Making Journal: Day 54

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 Easy.

• This principle is perhaps summed up by the following quote:

“Conventional wisdom holds that motivation is the key to habit change. Maybe if you really wanted it … But the truth is, our real motivation is to be lazy and to do what is convenient. … Energy is precious, and the brain is wired to conserve it whenever possible.”

• The idea is not to choose easy things to do, but rather to make difficult and important things as easy as possible to act on in practice. Focusing first on the action to show up before the journey to repetition, refinement, and perfection. Writing a book becomes writing one sentence, running a marathon becomes putting on running shoes, and preparing the running gears at night to make it easier in the morning. As such, “Nearly any larger life goal can be transformed into a (first-)two-minute behaviour.”
• The bigger question is to ask, “How can we design a world where it’s easy to do what’s right (and hard to do what’s undesirable)?” Such as intentionally putting the phone in another room, or isolating social media apps onto a separate device with a scheduled accessibility.
• The two-minute rule makes good habits easier in the moment. Designing environments, on the other hand, requires more serious sit-down time and deliberate planning.

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

• The habit change I have been implementing is daily meditation. Using the Calm app has been my way of making it easy.
• I have not had to use the Clear Habit Journal to implement this change today.
• Writing this journal everyday has certainly not been a two-minute exercise. And the best advice from Atomic Habits about this?

“Nearly everyone can benefit from getting their thoughts out of their head and onto paper … The secret is … (to build) a daily journaling habit by specifically writing less than (one) felt like.”

• On that note, today’s journal is done!

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