I am so proud to write this blog and announce that I read a book a day. A long overdue book that I binged read on the author’s blog. I don’t know why I didn’t just read this much sooner.

Atomic Habit by James Clear.

Yup, the very famous book that everyone is raving about. I can’t put it down when I first pick it up to read.

Here are my takes in a bitesize :

Context

• The problem in changing habits isn’t you, it’s your system

• You can’t seem to change the bad habit is because you have the wrong system

• If you want to create a habit, apply these rules: Make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy and make it satisfying

• Consistent is key : improving by 1 percent isn’t particularly notable—sometimes it isn’t even noticeable—but it can be far more meaningful, especially in the long run

• The more tasks you can handle without thinking, the more your brain is free to focus on other areas

• Your habits shape your identity, and your identity shapes your habits. It’s a two-way street.

How to start good habit ?

Habit stacking : One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behavior on top.

Example

• Meditation. After I pour my cup of coffee each morning, I will meditate for one minute.

• Exercise. When I see a set of stairs, I will take them instead of using the elevator.

Change your environment : There are three layers of behavior change like a change in your outcomes, a change in your processes, or a change in your identity.

Apply “resetting a room” strategy in which you are making your new habit do-able and within reach

Example :

• Clean the toilet when you are about to take shower, which you will wash yourself in the shower anyway

• Want to draw more? Put your pencils, pens, notebooks, and drawing tools on top of your desk where you can see them.

• Want to read more? Have it downloaded in the kindle where you can carry the book easily and/ or have it available on an audio format where you can still access it when you are doing daily run.

Every habit has a home - James Clear

One space one use - James Clear

• Avoid mixing the context of one habit with another.

Example :

• Digital spaces : Use computer only for writing, tablet for reading and phone for social media and texting

• Physical spaces : Use walking pad for meetings and administrative works, study room for reading and doing work and bed room only to sleep

Bundling works to make habit more attractive : Link the action you ‘want’ to do with the action you ‘need’ to do.

Example :

• Bundling watching Netflix (want to do) with riding stationery bike (need to do)

• Bundling chatting with a friend (want to do) with walkies on a stationery walking pad / outdoor (need to do)

• Bundling listening to a podcast you love (want to do) and cooking healthy meal in the kitchen (need to do)

Accountability and external support from others : Surround yourself with people who have the habits you want to have yourself. You’ll rise together.

• When you are trying to change yourself in an environment that don’t support the new normal you (or true you even!), people’s judgement can be brutal. Join a culture where (1) your desired behavior is the normal behavior and (2) you already have something in common with the group.

• When you join a book club or a band or a cycling group, your identity becomes linked to those around you.

• Growth and change is no longer an individual pursuit. We are readers. We are dancers. We are writers etc.

• Another extreme way to keep yourself accountable is by signing a written habit contract. ie. Write down the roadmap of your goal and putting it down on a paper which include timeline agreement, scope of habit, impact of breach of contract etc. If you don’t want to complicate yourself, you can make it less extreme way like how Thomas Frank does : Wakes up at 5:55 each morning. And if he doesn’t, he has a tweet automatically scheduled that says, “It’s 6:10 and I’m not up because I’m lazy! Reply to this for $5 via PayPal (limit 5), assuming my alarm didn’t malfunction.”

Example :

• Join a writing group to help you build your writing habit everyday

• Join a Youtube group to help you build your confidence in creating content and grow

• Pointing-and-Calling is a safety system designed to reduce mistakes by Japanese train railway system. When you point out something, it will help your brain to focus and analyze what is actually going on and to focus on. For example, say out loud, “Tomorrow, I need to go to the post office after lunch”.

Make bad habit difficult and invisible to notice

• Remove the cues of your bad habit from your environment

• Get an accountability partner. Ask someone to watch your behavior.

• Make your success to stop the habit more enjoyable.

• The human brain evolved to prioritize immediate rewards over delayed rewards.

• For productivity : Use technology to cut off pages or social media using the website blocker; there are apps out there that can help you manage your access timing

• Apply Paper Clip Strategy - Making progress is satisfying, and visual measures—like moving paper clips or hairpins or marbles—provide clear evidence of your progress. As a result, they reinforce your behavior and add a little bit of immediate satisfaction to any activity.

  One woman shifted a hairpin from one container to another whenever she wrote a page of her book. Another man moved a marble from one bin to the next after each set of push-ups.

Don’t break the chain” - is a powerful mantra.

Keeping habit consistent

All big things come from small beginnings.

• Walk slow back never backwards

• Always remember that habit + deliberate practice = mastery

• The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger.

• Create a personal habit scorecard so that you can track your completion

• If your habit breaks, rebound and reclaim it back. Most people (including myself) has a all-or-nothing attitude and this cycle of behaviour is what derailing us from achieving goals.

• 2 days rule : Also, another approach that you can do is never let your habit slipped more than twice

Habit tracking : Learn to know when (and when not) to track a habit

• Use a habit tracker. Keep track of your habit streak and “don’t break the chain.”

• Not all scale habit tracking is effective ie. weight loss isn’t always about loosing the weight in pounds/ kg and it can be about the inches and seeing your skin looking better. If you focus on the number on a scale, your motivation will sag faster than your boobs (Yup, I said this!)

• Pay attention to the small change as that is the evidence that you’re moving in the right direction and moment of immediate satisfactory for a job well done.

Apply 2 minutes rule : Decisive moments can determine what you will do next day and define if it’s a bad/good day for you. It is important to make habit an easy thing to do.

“The best way is to always stop when you are going good,” - Ernest Hemmingway in his writing habit

• To help you start an easy habit, apply a likert scale to define how easy is the habit ie. “very easy-easy-moderate-hard-very hard”

• Downscale your habits until they can be done in two minutes or less.

• For some people, 2 minutes feel like a scam and trick because you know the actual goal is to do more than 2 minutes. This is understandable, so if you feel like you are trying to fool yourself, the best way is to stop when you reach 2 mins and come back tomorrow for another round.

Other findings from this book

• You can use the framework and strategy to master a new skill too.

  • The image above represents the reason why you need a way to always being conscious of your growth performance either in work or personal.

  • If you familiar with this phrase, “things get very exciting at first before its boring” the graph above is precisely giving logical reason behind it. When habit are starting to feel automatic and you are becoming comfortable - you will fall into a trap of complacency.

  • The solution? By establishing reflection and review session with yourself.

  • Each quarter or a year, set a time with yourself to ask 3 questions : What went well this year? What didn’t go so well this year? What did I learn?

• Creating new habit comes easy when you break the beliefs that hold you back

• What you utter to yourself is who your identity will be. It may sound hippie to hear it, but brain hears what you manifest everyday to yourself.

If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change.

Closing Notes & Reference

• If you are interested in changing yourself, look inward for what’s work for you to get there.

• The strategy in this book is a game changer on how I see and build habit by far.

• This whole change and growth thing isn’t a sprint but a marathon.

• Surrounding yourself with like-minded people isn’t only letting you being the normal you that you always aim for.

• More book quotes on Goodreads

• James Clear blog

• 🛒 Order Atomic Habit