Summary of Atomic Habits

... by James Clear

• Think about your goal:

We often start activities with lack of clarity on goals. I (Kartick) began with the goal of reducing weight, then changed it to feeling energized every day, because the latter will provide an immediate benefit to me.

• Systems: Many people focus on their goal, like losing weight. This doesn’t work. Instead, put a system in place that will result in that goal, and then focus on the system. For example, play tennis every morning at 11 with Kiran. Focus on the system, and the goal will take care of itself. Focus on the goal, and you won’t achieve it. Why? First, a goal gives you direction, but won’t cause progress. Every athlete has a goal of winning the gold medal, but what separates winners from losers is the system the winners have. Second, once you achieve the goal, say losing weight, goal-oriented people stop working, regaining weight. Whereas, if you had put a system in place, it will keep you fit. Third, a goal causes dissatisfaction because you haven’t achieved it. You tell yourself that once you achieve the goal, you’ll permit myself to be happy. But that will result in years of unhappiness and one day of happiness, which leads to overall unhappiness.

• Systems are composed of atomic habits. An atomic habit is so small (like an atom) that you may wonder whether it will even result in any difference. If your mutual fund increases in value by 1% this month, that’s negligible, but compounded over years, it means that someday, you won’t need to work any more. Atomic habits compound like this. Plus they combine with other atomic habits to form a system. One habit may be about eating, another about exercise, another about positive self-talk, and they combine to form a big change, like how atoms combine to form molecules.

• To make a habit stick, make it easy, like setting a goal to wear your running shoes, not necessarily to have an intense running session. Conversely, if you want to do something less often, make it harder. If you want to watch less TV, when you’re done, unplug it, and take the batteries out of the remote.

• Make it obvious: if you want to go for a morning run tomorrow, leave your running shorts on your sofa the night before, where you can’t miss them.

• Make it attractive, like buying running shorts you like and which make you look good. To stop drinking Coke, I trained myself to have a yuck! reaction. Then, when I was in a supermarket and they offered a discount on Coke, I told them, “Forget about me paying you any money; you’ll have to pay me to get me to consume toxins!”

• Make it satisfying. This is different from attractive because attraction is how you feel before doing it, and satisfaction is how you feel after doing it. For example, I feel invigorated after playing tennis for 20 min, but exhausted after playing for 45 min. So I should consider limiting my sessions to 20 min. If we get positive feedback after doing something, we’ll do it more often. If we get negative feedback, we’ll do it less often. If something is attractive, you’ll do it now. If it’s satisfying, you’ll do it next time.

• Make it specific like setting an alarm for 11 AM every day to play tennis rather than telling yourself you’ll exercise (how?) every day (when?). Or choose a specific place like “I’ll jog around the apartment.” Many people who are unable to achieve their goals think they lack motivation but they actually lack clarity.

• Have an accountability partner, like a tennis buddy. Since you don’t want to let him down, you’ll turn up.

• A woman used to ride a horse with her friend and smoke while at it. She managed to kick stop smoking, and also happened to stop horse riding. She didn’t smoke at all for a decade. After that, she happened to get on a horse, and she immediately felt the irresistible urge to smoke. A habit forms a groove in our mind. It can never be completely erased. The only solution is to change the environment, like not riding a horse. Continuing in the same environment and telling yourself, “I’ll change!” will make you fail.

• When we want to achieve a goal, like losing weight, we can get side-tracked into finding the perfect exercise system to lose weight: should you walk briskly? Jog? Run? Play tennis? Go to the gym? Walk 5km to office? We can spend weeks researching the perfect method rather than picking any one, starting the exercise, and sticking with it every day. Execution, not perfection. But some of us focus on planning rather than execution. Why? If we execute, we can fail, and we all hate failure. It comes with social disapproval: “Kartick is useless!” To avoid failing, we get stuck in analysis paralysis. It’s safe. If we don’t start, we can’t fail! Perfectionists are afraid.

• I played tennis the other day. This gave me so much energy that I was happy the whole day. I was able to cook and eat healthy food instead of ordering in. I enjoyed the sunset because I was receptive to nature. I spent quality time with my family. One thing — tennis — unlocked many good things. Identify such key habits and try to make them routine. The rest will fall in place automatically.

• Lock yourself in: if you want to start playing tennis, buy a racquet while your mind is in the right place. Then, abandoning tennis will waste money. Another example is social awkwardness. If you’re inspired to play tennis, message your friend and ask if you can play tomorrow at 11 AM. If you have to take it back, it will be awkward. You want to make it the path of least resistance to perform the activity. It should be easier to do it than to skip it.

• Immediate vs delayed rewards: If a lion hunts successfully, it’s rewarded immediately with a meal. If it doesn’t, it goes hungry. Either way, the consequences are immediate. We humans have evolved in this immediate rewards environment. But the modern world is a delayed rewards environment. For example, we have to develop skills that will serve us years later in our career. We have to invest for our retirement. We have to exercise, unlike the lion, which didn’t have to think about exercise — its need to hunt each meal gave it enough exercise. In the modern world, food is available without hunting. So we don’t exercise, hurting us. We evolved for an immediate rewards environment, and are not equipped to handle a delayed rewards environment.

• Doing at least one pushup every day is more important than doing 20 on some days and none on others. Consistency is key.

• Attempt something one step ahead of what you’ve done before. Not 10 steps ahead — you’ll fail and start to wonder whether you can do it at all. If you jog for a kilometer every day, try jogging 2 km, not 10.