Atomic Habits Book Notes
Atomic Habits by James Clear gives structure to habit-building through dozens of real-life stories. It details powerful, practical principles to help you live the way you want to live.
Key takeaways
Tiny changes compound to breed big gains or big losses
Identity, systems/habits, and goals are intertwined
Focus on systems over goals
Make good habits obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying
Table of contents
The Fundamentals
Tiny changes, remarkable results
Image by James Clear
Habits matter (Chp. 1)
Habits have small outcomes, which compound, leading to big gains or big losses long-term
Small decisions also add up to a good or bad day or week (Chp. 13)
Focus on systems over goals (Chp. 1)
Systems are how you achieve your goals. They include things like habits.
You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.
Focusing on goals over systems restricts happiness and is unsustainable
Image by James Clear
Identity matters (Chp. 2)
Identity, systems, and goals all impact each other, so they are all important
Change your identity to change your habits (go inside out)
e.g., if you go about quitting junk food as a junk food lover, change will be like holding back a train—you are bound to fail long-term. Instead, become someone who loves eating healthy, so each healthy choice feels good and you will make long-term progress.
Habits impact your identity, casting votes for desired or undesired identities
Every time you show up to work out, you cast a vote for being someone who never misses a workout. Every time you miss a workout, you cast a vote for someone who doesn’t care about working out.
Image by James Clear
Habit stages (Chp. 3)
Cue: trigger that puts the habit on your radar
Craving: underlying motivation to do the habit or not
Response: doing habit or not
Reward: good/bad feeling resulting from action
Make it Obvious or Invisible (cue)
Visibility of cues controls possibility of action.
How to get aware of your habits
Habit scorecard (Chp. 4)
Not related to cues or making cues obvious/invisible. Just for increasing awareness of your habits so you know what to change. If you aren’t conscious about your habits, you won’t know what to change in them!
Write down all daily habits (e.g., brush teeth, cook).
Mark them +/-/=. + for good habits, - for bad habits, = for neutral habits.
Use this to figure out what habits to change
How to make good habits obvious and bad habits invisible
Implementation intention (Chp. 5)
Say aloud “I will do [habit/task] at [time, location, & other details]”
Works cuz:
Saying it aloud gets it out of your muddy thoughts and into clear words
We want to keep our word
Habit stacking (Chp. 5)
Add new habits right before/after existing habits to make a string of habits
Works cuz previous habit gives momentum + serves as a cue
Environment design (Chp. 6)
Customize an environment and the cues in it to control short & long-term behavior
e.g., hide video game controllers in drawers so you forget to play video games, put a book out on the table so you are prompted to read a book instead.
Works cuz
Environment is very visible & tangible
Avoiding temptation is much easier than resisting. (Chp. 7)
Context design (Chp. 6)
Do certain things in certain environments to control each environment’s context (what activities and feelings you associate with the environments)
e.g., watching tv in living room -> living room = fun area, not work area; stop using phone in bed, only sleep in bed -> bedroom = sleep area, not awake area and you fall asleep easier
Context/entire environment can be a cue
Make it Attractive or Unattractive (craving)
Attraction to a habit controls motivation to follow through or not
How to make good habits attractive and bad habits unattractive
Temptation bundling (Chp. 8)
Put a liked activity after a non-liked habit
e.g., write 10 pages then watch a YT video
Design the cultures/groups of people you are in (Chp. 9)
Cultures: the close (fam & friends), the many (groups), the powerful (role models)
Join culture where
good habits are normal and praised
y’all already share something in common to fit in
Highlight good/bad of habit (Chp. 10)
Happy ritual before habit increases attraction to habit (Chp. 10)
Works cuz you will associate habit w/ positive feelings
Make it Easy or Difficult (response)
We do what is easiest (law of least effort, Chp. 12)
Strategies to make good habits easy and bad habits difficult
Stop planning, just get in action and improve from there (Chp. 11)
Environment design (Chp. 12)
e.g., prepare gym bag to make going to gym easy
Always show up (Chp. 13)
Showing up is most important
Show up => habit is easier to do, don’t show up => impossible to do habit
# reps controls automaticity (Chp. 11)
Habit shaping
Progress habit incrementally over time
Start by showing up only, then add more and more
2 Min Rule (do only 2 min of habit to start)
learn to show up + builds ritual
Rituals prepare you for easier deep focus
Commitment device/Ulysses Contract (intensely lock in future behavior) (Chp. 14)
e.g., cut out internet after 8pm to go to bed
Onetime choices in many forms can help (Chp. 14)
e.g., get blackout curtains, permanently delete video games, get voluntarily banned on websites
Automate for commitment or ease (Chp. 14)
e.g., use a microsavings app
Make it Satisfying or Unsatisfying (reward)
Immediate reward -> repeat, immediate punish -> avoid (cardinal rule of behavior change, Chp. 15)
Strategies to make good habits satisfying and bad habits unsatisfying
Make immediate rewards/punishments (Chp. 15)
immediate > delayed
Get creative
Habit tracking (Chp. 16)
Visible progress—makes habits obvious, attractive, & satisfying
Can automate, but manually track most important habits
Pick good metrics + don’t focus on metrics to cheat (cuz Goodhart’s law)
Never miss twice in a row
Show up, even just for a bit (reaffirms ID, continues streak, prevents downward spiral)
Accountability (do it right) (Chp. 17)
Works cuz we are under watch + want to maintain status & trust of keeping our word
Habit contracts (success -> reward, fail -> some punishment) (Chp. 17)
Advanced (good -> great)
Consistent + exceptional long term improvement is desired can be hard
Strategies for consistent, exceptional, long term progress:
Play games you can win (for exceptionalism and ease) (Chp. 18)
Know who you are and build habits accordingly to make it easy
Interests, strengths, etc.
Personality
Openness to experience (curious vs. cautious + consistent)
Conscientiousness (organized + efficient vs. easygoing + spontaneous)
Extroversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism (anxiousness and short-tempered vs calm)
Image by James Clear
Goldilocks rule (peak motivation + focus @ edge of ability) (Chp. 19)
Don’t want easy + bored or hard + discouraged
Must show up even when supposedly don’t want to (Chp. 19)
Periodically reflect & iterate (Chp. 20)
Automaticity => unnoticed small deteriorations => big losses
Keep identity small => minimize identity crisis => smoother transitions => keep improving! (Chp. 20)
e.g., instead of “I’m a programmer”, say “I’m someone who loves building things and solving problems”
