“Atomic Habits” was published on 16th October 2018. The book is a proven practical guide that will teach you how to create good habits, overcome a lack of motivation and build a stronger identity of yourself. The writer explains how the book will help you stick to your good habits even when they get boring and assist you in getting remarkable results by just making tiny changes and improvements in your systems. The book provides insight on how you can design your environment to make success easier and re-shape your way of thinking towards progress and success.
HOW THIS BOOK HELP US?
The book helps us realize that making tiny changes in our lives can result in big results through building a system that will make you better by 1 per cent every day. The book also showed us how to create good habits and stick with them and also it helped us realize that the problem is not that we don’t want to break our bad habits but we use the wrong systems for change while trying to break the bad habits.
THE BOOK EXPLAINED IN UNDER 60 SECONDS
- The book creates awareness on how to build better habits in four simple ways which are; cue, craving, response and reward. Together, they create a habit loop that when repeated many times, a habit is created.
- The book talks about how you don’t have to make big changes but rather form small changes through searching and making tiny improvements in everything you do and you will attain big results.
- Attention is put on improving yourself by 1 per cent every day, something which is not easily notable or even noticed. But it can be far more important and meaningful especially in the long run, the difference a tiny improvement can make over time is astonishing.
TOP THREE QUOTES
- “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your benefits, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your identity.”
- “Your actions reveal how badly you want something. If you keep saying something is a priority but you never act on it, then you don’t want it. It’s time to have an honest conversation with yourself. Your actions reveal your true motivations.”
- “When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to permit yourself to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running.”
BOOK SUMMARY AND NOTES
SECTION ONE: THE FUNDAMENTALS
The surprising power of Atomic Habits:
You don’t have to make big changes to yourself but rather small changes in everything you do. Make tiny improvements of 1 per cent in your systems and you will earn magnificent results. Improving by 1 per cent is not noticeable at times but it can be far more important in the long run, the difference a tiny change or improvement can make over time is surprisingly great.
How your habits shape your identity:
This is divided into three levels which are; change in your outcomes, change in your processes and change in your identity. Here attention is put on the third level which is the change in your identity, this level is concerned with transforming your self-image, judgments about yourself and others. Most of your beliefs, biases, and assumptions are associated with this level. Most people begin with outcome change with results into outcome habits and the option is to build identity-based habits.
How to build better habits in four simple steps:
A four-step strategy that will help you build better habits. it’s composed of cue, craving, response, and reward. You may call it ‘The 4 Laws of Behavior Change’. Think of each law as a lever that influences your behaviour. When the levers are in the right positions, they create good habits effortlessly and when in the wrong position, it is nearly impossible. The cue activates a craving, which motivates a response to provide a reward, the result satisfies the craving and becomes associated with the cue. Together they create a habit loop that, when repeated many times, habits become automatic.
Favourite quote of the chapter: “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.”
SECTION TWO: MAKE IT OBVIOUS
The man who didn’t look right:
If you’re having a difficult time determining how to rate a particular habit, ask yourself: Does this behaviour help me become the type of person I wish to be? Does this habit cast a vote for or against my desired identity? The process of behaviour change starts with creating awareness about the habits you want to change. The Habits Scorecard, a simple exercise to become more aware of our behaviour daily. You first write down a list of your daily habits and, once you have a full list, you score each habit as an effective, ineffective, or neutral habit.
The best way to start a new habit:
During behaviour change, the first law you must implement is making it obvious. Clarity of the habit, why you do it, how you will do it and, when you will do it is actually what you lack, not motivation. One of the most appropriate ways to begin a new habit is through “Habit Stacking”. Habit stacking is pairing a new habit with a current habit is a way to connect our behaviour to our reward. The habit stacking formula is: After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].
Motivation is overrated, the environment often matters more:
An environment is an invisible tool that tends to shape human behaviour. Therefore habits change depending on the environment. A small change in what you see around you can result in a big shift in what you do, as a result, you learn how important it is to live and work in environments that are filled with productive cues and avoid environments with unproductive ones. Although you don’t have to be a victim of your surroundings, you can design it the way you want by making the cues of good habits visible.
Favourite Quote of the chapter: “You don’t have to be a victim of your environment, you can also be the architect of it”
SECTION THREE: MAKE IT ATTRACTIVE
How to make a habit irresistible:
The more attractive an opportunity is, the more likely it will become habit-forming. That’s to say, social media is attractive in a way that it will earn you more likes and praise in a short period than you could ever get at home or school, this attractiveness will result in social media habits. One of the strategies of making your habits more attractive is “Temptation Bundling”. The strategy pairs an action you want to do with an action you need to do. The formula of temptation bundling is After[HABIT I NEED], I will[HABIT I WANT].
The role of family and friends in shaping your Habits:
In most cases, we adopt habits praised and approved by our families and friends around us. The normal habits in your family and culture are the most attractive behaviours you will ever find. The normal behaviour in your culture will overpower the desired behaviours of an individual as most days, we would prefer being wrong with the crowd to being right on ourselves. We tend to copy habits from three social groups that are, the close (family and friends), the many (the tribe), and the powerful (those with status and prestige). Some of the things you can do to build better habits are to join a culture where your desired behaviour is normal and you have something in common with the group.
Favourite quote of the chapter: “The customs and practices of life in society sweep us along.”
SECTION FOUR: MAKE IT EASY
Walk slowly, but never backward:
Being in motion is as important as taking action. You can not take action on something you have not planned for but rather be more focused on taking action than being in motion. Being in motion will not bring you the desired results no matter how many times you plan or consult about something. It’s the action you take towards something that will bring you the results you want. You don’t have to master every feature of a new habit but the more you practice the better you become at it, habit formation is a process where behaviour becomes progressively more automatic through repetition.
The law of less effort:
It’s human nature that people will always choose an option that requires the least amount of energy to execute. Every action calls for a certain amount of energy, the more energy required, the less likely you will perform the action and the less energy a habit calls for, the more chances you have of getting it done. Every habit is an obstacle to achieving what you want, the greater the obstacle, the more difficult it will be for you to meet your desired goal. Instead of trying to get rid of the friction between you and your desired achievement, you can just reduce it through practising environment design, a method that makes cues more obvious.
How to make good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible:
At times, success is less about making good habits easy and more about making bad habits hard. In case you’re struggling to follow your plans, try making your bad habits difficult by creating a Commitment device. A commitment device is a choice you make in the present that locks in better behaviour in the future and this can be done by automating your good habits, this will deliver increasing returns over time. One of the most effective and reliable ways to guarantee the right behaviour is the use of technology to automate your habits.
Favourite quote of the chapter: “When deciding two similar options, people will naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work.”
SECTION FIVE: MAKE IT SATISFYING
The cardinal rule of behaviour change:
What is immediately rewarded is repeated and what is immediately punished is avoided. It’s in human nature to put first immediate rewards over delayed rewards. There are high chances that you will repeat a behaviour when the experience is satisfying and if the experience is not satisfying, there will be little or no reason for you to repeat the habit. No matter how small it may be, you need to feel immediate success for you to stick to a new habit.
How to stick with your good habits every day:
Try as much as you can to keep your habit streak alive. Don’t break the chain. This can be avoided by employing Habit Tracking. Habit tracking will help you know whether you did a habit or not, noting all your previous actions will one way or the other lead you to the next step. Habit tracking makes a behaviour obvious, attractive, satisfying and helps you stick to your good habits every day.
How an accountability partner can change everything:
An accountability partner may be someone you don’t want to have a lesser opinion of you. They will create an instant cost to your bad habit by making you realize how unsatisfying it is. In case you don’t have an accountability partner, you can add immediate cost to any bad habit by “Habit contracting”. A habit contract can be used to add a social cost to behaviour by making the costs of violating your promises public and painful.
Favourite quote of the chapter: “One of the most satisfying feelings is the feeling of making progress.”
SECTION SIX: ADVANCED TECHNIQUES
The truth about talent [When genes matter and when they don’t]:
Genes will not influence your destiny but rather determine your fields of opportunity. The trick to maximizing your odds of success is to find the best field of competition, the same applies to habits. You will find habits much easier to execute and more satisfying when they align with your natural abilities, therefore choose a habit that suits your natural inclination. Genes will give you clarification for the need to work hard by telling you what to work hard on. Therefore, it doesn’t matter how talented you are in any field, be it singing, basketball, soccer, or writing, if you do not practice the habit, you will never be good at it.
The Goldilock Rule [How to stay motivated in life and work]:
The goldilock rule states, humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. You will stay motivated and work hard when a habit delivers just enough victories and just enough mistakes. When you’re beginning a new habit, it’s important to keep it as easy as possible for you to stick to it. As habits get repetitive, they become less interesting and less satisfying therefore we get bored and the biggest threat to success is boredom, not failure.
Favourite quote of the chapter: “The way to be successful is to learn how to do things right, then do them the same way every time.”
HOW THIS BOOK CAN HELP SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS?
“Atomic Habits” by James Clear can help software developers by providing practical strategies for building good habits and breaking bad ones. By implementing Clear’s ideas, developers can create a system for consistently producing high-quality work and continually improving their skills. The book emphasizes the importance of small, incremental changes and how they can lead to significant improvements over time. Additionally, Clear’s advice on creating a supportive environment and leveraging the power of habit stacking can help developers maintain their productivity and focus. Clear’s strategies for habit formation and goal setting can be applied to any aspect of a developer’s life, from improving coding skills to developing better communication and teamwork habits.
