Atomic Habits is a Leaf Non-Fiction book focused on successful habit building.
- Plateau of Latent Potential → Plateau where results flat line or do not change with a new practice. Habits must be stuck with to break through this plateau and see larger results
- Systems (process) over goals → the score will take care of itself
- Goals can be too binary (win/lose)
- Habits build and change identity, identity shapes habits
- Every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become
- Focus on who you wish to become, not the results you wish to achieve
- The most effective way to change your habits is to focus not on what you want to achieve, but on who you wish to become.
- Habits are meant to solve life’s problems with as little effort as possible
- Applying the Ideas to Business
- Applying the Ideas to parenting
- The Habit Scorecard is a method of tracking your daily habits, this is a useful survey to conduct before deciding what habits to add or remove. A template of the scorecard can be found here
- When trying to implement a new habit, use an implementation intention. Develop a concrete plan on how you will accomplish the action. A simple template is: “When situation X arises, I will perform response Y” or “I will do <Activity> at <Time> in <Location>”.
How habits are built
- Cue
- Craving
- Response
- Reward
Four Laws of Behavior Change
- Make it obvious
- Make it attractive
- Make it easy
- Make it satisfying
Breaking a bad habit
- Make it invisible
- Make it unattractive
- Make it difficult
- Make it unsatisfying