Business Book Blog: Atomic Habits
I've set myself a goal to blog about the books I read. I will extract wisdom from the best business and personal development books I've read and share it with you.
This time around, I’m reading “Atomic Habits” by James Clear
About the book
Atomic Habits promises to explain “An easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones”. I chose this book after hearing many good things about it from people I trust, and I was excited to read more about how I can kick bad habits and adopt some new ones.
In Atomic Habits, James Clear cover his Four Laws of Behaviour Change. Central to Clear's methodology is the concept of making incremental progress, striving to get just 1% better each day. By breaking down daunting goals into manageable steps, individuals can gradually build momentum towards lasting change. The book addresses common mistakes in habit change and offers solutions for overcoming a lack of motivation. It highlights the importance of self-identity and designing environments conducive to success. So much of this sounds similar to what I’ve read before, so does this add something new?
What did I learn?
The importance of identity
I was pleased to see this topic included. Often when people set goals, they focus on the process without really changing their beliefs, or sense of who they are. Clear explains your outcome and the process are just two parts of habit change. If we want to form habits, we need to reassess the way we look at ourselves. He gives the example of someone who declines a cigarette. One person might say “No thank you I'm trying to quit” but someone who has changed their identity will say “No thank you I'm not a smoker”. Who do you think will be more successful? When we focus on the outcome, we might read a book or run a marathon, but what we really want is to become a reader or to become a runner and that's different. Think about what type of person you want to be.
How habits work
Clear explains that all behaviour is driven by a desire to solve a problem. The challenge is that not all of the solutions we develop are helpful, but by understanding how habits are formed we can make conscious choices about which ones to form.
Clear describes the four stages of habit formation:
Cue
Craving
Response
Reward
For example:
You smell a doughnut shop as you walk down the street to your office. This is your cue.
You crave a doughnut.
Your response is to buy a doughnut and eat it.
The reward is you have satisfied your craving to eat the doughnut. Buying a doughnut becomes associated with walking down the street to your office.
Repeated over time this becomes a habit.
Four Laws of Behaviour Change
From here, Clear introduces his Four Laws of Behaviour Change:
The first law: Make It Obvious
The second law: Make It Attractive
The third law: Make It Easy
The fourth law: Make It Satisfying
These can also be inverted to break a bad habit. The inversion of these would be:
Make It Invisible
Make It Unattractive
Make It Difficult
Make It Unsatisfying
Let’s explore these in more depth.
The First Law: Make It Obvious
Implementation intention
I found this really useful because I'm good at coming up with goals, but I don't always create detail in my actions. In his research, James Clear found a study that showed when people determine the situation, time, and location of the habit that they want to start, they are more successful. Often when people think they lack motivation, what they really lack is clarity.
An example is:
“I will study Spanish for 20 minutes at 6:00 PM in my study”
I find this to be true. I often make time and space for a habit but when the time comes, I have to go through the mental effort of working out what it is I'm going to do and how I’m going to do it. By the time I've done that, I've expended a lot of energy, and the motivation dissipates.
Habit stacking
Habit stacking is an extension of this idea. Clear suggests that you are more likely to be successful if you attach a new habit to an existing habit. This way, the queue to act becomes really Clear. For example, “When I brush my teeth, I will also do my calf raise exercises. This can be used to chain lots of habits together.
Context
The final part of making it obvious is to make sure that your environment supports your habit. For example, if you want to get into the habit of running, leave your gym kit out where you can see it. The way I've used this is to put my bodhrán in my office so that it's really easy for me to pick it up and practise for 10 minutes whenever I see it, which I do every time I walk in or out of the room.
The inverse of this is to make something invisible. This means leaving your phone in another room if you want to break the habit of being distracted. Or to stop reading fashion magazines if you buy too many clothes.
The Second Law: Make It Attractive
Clear explains the dopamine feedback loop. Dopamine is what creates a desire for something. Interestingly, you experience a dopamine hit when you anticipate a reward more than when you actually get the thing you want. This understanding about what causes our cravings can help us lock in good habits.
Temptation Bundling
If you're struggling to form a habit, chances are it doesn't trigger much dopamine, but if we tie it to something that we crave, we can get that dopamine hit. Clear calls this ‘Temptation Bundling’, this means tying together something that you need to do with something that you want to do.
“After (current habit), I will do (new habit that I need), after doing (the habit that I need) I will do (the habit that I want)”.
For example, if you want to watch YouTube but you have work to do, you might decide:
“When I get back from my lunch break, I will call 3 clients. After I call 3 clients, I will watch a video”.
This helps us capitalise on the dopamine hit we get when we anticipate a reward. This helps us want to do our habits.
The role of other people
Clear also explains the role that friends and family can play in shaping our habits. He says we take our habits from three groups of people:
· The Close: such as family and friends.
· The Many (or the tribe): society as a whole.
· The Powerful: Those with status or prestige (such as celebrities or authority figures).
If you want to build good habits, join a culture where your desired behaviour is the norm and you already have something in common with the group. If a behaviour gets us approval or respect, we will find it more attractive.
The inverse of this is to change a bad habit is to make it unattractive.
The tip that Clear offers here is to focus on the negative consequences of bad habits, and then understand the underlying need that caused the desire for the habit. Often, when we crave snacks, we are trying to address the underlying need to alleviate boredom. We could focus on the negative consequences of snacking and also think of better ways to relieve the boredom-the underlying need.
You might post lots of pictures on Instagram because you want approval, but those likes are pretty meaningless and do nothing for your self-esteem. What you really want is validation, so find a better way to address that need.
Clear also gives tips for how to address hard habits. My favourite one is a simple re-frame. Change the words “I have to” to “I get to”.
For example:
“I get to cook dinner for my family”
“I get to exercise and make my body stronger”
“I get to save money and increase my wealth”
The Third Law: Make It Easy
Focus on action not being in motion.
Clear says if he writes 20 blog outlines that is being in motion, but if he writes an article that's action.
If you look up 10 diet plans that's motion, but if you start a diet that's action.
Action produces outcomes. It's easy to be in motion and convince yourself that you're making progress, but this can also be a form of procrastination. If you want to master a habit, start with repetition, not perfection. You don't need a perfect plan; action is the way that we learn what we need to do to be successful. Repetition is more important than the duration of a habit.
Again, Clear suggests using your environment to help. If you want to draw more, put your pencils, pens and notebooks on top of your desk within easy reach. If you want to improve your diet, chop up fruit and veg on weekends and have them in containers so that they are easy to access during the week.,
Stop procrastination with the two-minute rule.
Standardise before you optimise. One of my favourite tips in this section of the book is the two-minute rule. Usually, when we have a goal in mind, we think big. But if we try and take on the whole task it seems insurmountable. Instead, if we just focus on the first small step, it makes it easier to get started and make better decisions from there on in.
For example:
Instead of telling yourself to read before bed each night, just plan to read one page.
Instead of committing to do 30 minutes of yoga, tell yourself you will simply take out your yoga mat and sit on it.
Instead of planning to run 3 miles, resolve to put on your running gear and step outside.
These are small goals that are easy to achieve and therefore they are very motivating. Once you've made these small decisions it's much easier to make further good decisions. They act like a gateway habit. This also helps us master the art of showing up. A habit has to be established before it can be improved. If you can't get the hang of showing up, then you're unlikely to master the bigger habit.
This also helps reinforce identity. If you show up to the gym five days a week, there’s no doubt that you are a gym-goer.
The inversion of this law would be to make it difficult. Clear suggests using commitment devices in order to maintain good habits and avoid bad ones. This is a choice you make in the present that locks in better behaviour for the future.
Automating habits can be a good way to do this. For example, automating a savings plan or signing up to a pension scheme where the money comes out automatically. It requires extra effort to stop these things once they've been set in motion. If you want to start a good habit, reduce the friction. If you want to break a bad habit, increase the friction by adding in extra steps.
The 4th Law: Make It Satisfying
This is important because it increases the odds that a behaviour will be repeated. We are more likely to repeat a behaviour when the experience is satisfying. We often set goals for the benefit of our future selves, but the human brain has evolved over time to prioritise immediate rewards over delayed rewards. To get a habit to stick, you'll need to feel immediately successful even if it's just in a small way.
For example, if you go out for a run reward yourself with a nice bath. Personally, if I go out for a run, I reward myself by listening to my favourite songs on my headphones. For some people, posting their activity on social media and getting likes gives them some instant gratification for their efforts. For others, a habit tracker or a journal helps because they can see that sense of progress every time they put an entry in the diary.
If you want to save for a holiday, put some money in the jar every time you avoid eating out or whenever you decide not to make a frivolous purchase. This makes your results visible, and you see progress every day.
The inverse of this of course is to make it unsatisfying.
If what gets rewarded gets repeated, then what gets punished will be avoided. Again, the negative consequences have to be felt immediately. Creating a habit contract with an accountability partner can help. It can motivate us to do the good things but make the experience of missing a habit painful.
Advanced Tactics
In addition to creating habits, Clear also includes chapters on how to sustain habits and maintain motivation. There is too much to cover here so I will summarise some key learning points:
Choose the right field of competition: I was really pleased to see that Clear has included a section on playing to strengths. Tap into the things that you're good at, the things that you're wired for, the things that feel like fun to you, the things that give you great returns, and the things that make you lose track of time. The key to maximising your success is to play in the right space.
Choose habits that suit you best. If you can't find a game that favours you, create one.
Your genes do not eliminate the need for hard work. They clarify it by telling us what to work on.
Humans experience peak motivation when they're working on tasks that are right on the edge of their capabilities. Choose habits that work in your favour but that are also stretching.
Once a habit is formed, we stop thinking about it. Combine habits with deliberate practise and you will achieve mastery. Track your habits and remember to reflect and review your progress. This will help you stay conscious of your performance over time.
My favourite chapter is called Little Lessons From The Four Laws and there are loads of great tips in here that make for a nice summary of the key lessons in the book. It sits at the end and makes it easy to go back and reflect long after you’ve read the book.
There are also resources available on Clear's website about how to apply these ideas to business, parenting and other areas of life. I love that there are plenty of online resources and even a bonus chapter available on the website.
What did I think of the book?
This is one of the best-written personal development books I have read. I don't say that lightly. It's not just the content, although that is of high quality, but the way the book is structured and the supporting resources that are available.
Many personal development books are designed to be read as workshops but are too easy to just flick through. Atomic Habits has been created as a valuable resource. It's very clearly set out, easy to read, and there is a summary of the key points at the end of each chapter, making it easy to go back and truly digest the learning. The chapters at the end of the book help you actually apply the key points, and the additional resources allow you to keep using what you've learned far beyond reading the book itself.
I've been trying to instil some new habits in myself recently, so this book is timely for me. It has given me real insight into how to set yourself up for success. It also chimes with my values. I'm a big believer in starting with identity, values and working to strengths. I'm so pleased this is not just another “dream big”, or “set a scary goal” book. It's informative but more importantly actionable. This book is definitely worth a read. If you're just trying to pick up some good habits, or whether you have big goals, anyone can get value from this book.
