Atomic Habits by James Clear:
-An essential guide for those wishing to achieve success both personally and professionally - through small changes and mindful actions.
-These “atomic habits” can help you form sustainable habits and make incremental progress over time.
-Focuses on how to introduce positive habits and how to break negative habits - using the 4 Laws of Behavior Change.
-Explains how to make lasting changes by understanding the underlying triggers for behavior.
-Offers tools and strategies for long-term motivation and behavior change.
As a UX designer, Atomic Habits offers valuable insights into improving user behaviors, efficiently and sustainably. Additionally, James Clear’s other book ‘The Clear Lens’ is equally insightful and offers best practices for successful user experience design. To gain further knowledge on user behaviors, books such as ‘Hooked’ by Nir Eyal and Kate Wick, and ‘Designing For Behavior Change’ by Stephen Wendel may also be of use.
🎀 Highlights
Just wanting to eat more salad doesn't actually mean you will. Simply saying you'll read more books doesn't mean you'll pick up War and Peace instead of binging Netflix.
Small changes leave a negligible immediate impact.
small habits can have a surprisingly powerful impact on your life – and you won't necessarily see this impact happening in real-time.
First, he placed some cats inside a black box. Then, he timed how long it took them to escape. To start with, each cat behaved exactly as you'd expect when placed inside a box. It desperately looked for a way of escape. It sniffed and pawed at the corners; it clawed at the walls. Eventually, the cat would find a lever that, when pressed, would open a door, enabling it to escape.
After 20 or 30 attempts, the average cat could escape in just six seconds.
In other words, the process of getting out of the box had become habitual for the cats.
behaviors that give satisfying consequences – in this case, gaining freedom – tend to be repeated until they become automatic.
We now know that habits are made up of four distinct elements.
the end goal of every habit, is the reward.
You've got your instrument, you've picked up the basics, but you struggle to keep up with practice. Each morning, you tell yourself that you'll play later on, but the end of the day soon comes, and you haven't picked up your guitar once. But now that you know the secrets to building a habit, you can use it to your advantage.
comes, and you haven't picked up your guitar once. But now that you know the secrets to building a habit, you can use it to your advantage.
leave it right in the middle of your living room – in full view
turn your desire to practice into a habit.
The soda in the refrigerators next to the cash registers was replaced with bottled water, and baskets of bottled water were placed all around the cafeteria. Dr. Thorndike and the team then watched to see what would happen. And what do you think happened? Well, over three months, soda sales fell by 11 percent,
The soda in the refrigerators next to the cash registers was replaced with bottled water, and baskets of bottled water were placed all around the cafeteria. Dr. Thorndike and the team then watched to see what would happen. And what do you think happened? Well, over three months, soda sales fell by 11 percent, and water sales shot up by over 25 percent.
Simply by creating more cues for people to drink water, Dr. Thorndike and her team were able to get people to make the healthier choice.
“Many people think they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity.”
Using electrodes, they blocked the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in some rats. The results were surprising; the lab rats simply lost the will to live. Without dopamine, they had no desire to eat, drink, reproduce or do anything else. Just a few days later, they all died of thirst.
When we do something beneficial for our survival – eating, drinking, having sex – dopamine is released,
dopamine. The mere anticipation of doing something
The mere anticipation of doing something pleasurable is enough to get the dopamine flowing.
temptation bundling. Temptation bundling is where you take a behavior that you think of as important but unappealing and link it to a behavior that you're drawn to.
Ronan hacked an exercise bike. He connected the bike to his laptop and wrote some code that only allowed Netflix to run if he was cycling at a certain speed.
On the other hand, doing a hundred push-ups or studying Mandarin are both pretty tough and take a lot of effort. This is why we don't find ourselves drawn to intensive exercise or language learning in our spare time.
reducing friction. Here's what it means. James Clear has always been hopeless at sending greeting cards. His wife, though, never misses an occasion to send a card. And there's a clear reason for this. She keeps a box of greeting cards at home, presorted by occasion.
This little bit of preparation makes it easier to send congratulations or condolences or whatever is called for. She doesn't have to go out and buy a card when someone gets married or gets a new job, and this reduces the friction involved in sending
This little bit of preparation makes it easier to send congratulations or condolences or whatever is called for. She doesn't have to go out and buy a card when someone gets married or gets a new job, and this reduces the friction involved in sending one.
So, if you want to waste less time in front of the TV, unplug it and take the batteries out of the remote. This will introduce enough friction to ensure you only watch when you really want
This is a way to make any new activity feel manageable. The principle is that any behavior can be distilled into a habit that is doable within two minutes.
make a habit of reading two pages per night.
if you want to run a marathon, commit to simply putting on your running gear every day after work.
Stephen Luby's story illustrates the final and most important rule for behavioral change: habits need to be satisfying.
Today, we live in what is known as a delayed-return environment. You turn up at the office today, but the return – a paycheck – doesn't come until the end of the month. You go to the gym in the morning, but you don't lose weight overnight.
Unfortunately, our brains evolved to cope with an immediate-return environment.
This focus on immediate returns can encourage bad habits. Smoking may give you lung cancer in 20 years, but, in the moment, it relieves your stress and the craving for nicotine. The immediate hit from your cigarette will likely override the long-term costs to your health.
when pursuing habits with a delayed return, you need to try to attach some immediate gratification to them.
To give their objectives a little immediate-return kick, they opened a savings account called "Trip to Europe." Every time they
To give their objectives a little immediate-return kick, they opened a savings account called "Trip to Europe." Every time they avoided a meal out, they transferred $50 to the account.
Just wanting to eat more salad doesn't actually mean you will. Simply saying you'll read more books doesn't mean you'll pick up War and Peace instead of binging Netflix.
Small changes leave a negligible immediate impact.
small habits can have a surprisingly powerful impact on your life – and you won't necessarily see this impact happening in real-time.
First, he placed some cats inside a black box. Then, he timed how long it took them to escape. To start with, each cat behaved exactly as you'd expect when placed inside a box. It desperately looked for a way of escape. It sniffed and pawed at the corners; it clawed at the walls. Eventually, the cat would find a lever that, when pressed, would open a door, enabling it to escape.
After 20 or 30 attempts, the average cat could escape in just six seconds.
In other words, the process of getting out of the box had become habitual for the cats.
behaviors that give satisfying consequences – in this case, gaining freedom – tend to be repeated until they become automatic.
We now know that habits are made up of four distinct elements.
the end goal of every habit, is the reward.
You've got your instrument, you've picked up the basics, but you struggle to keep up with practice. Each morning, you tell yourself that you'll play later on, but the end of the day soon comes, and you haven't picked up your guitar once. But now that you know the secrets to building a habit, you can use it to your advantage.
comes, and you haven't picked up your guitar once. But now that you know the secrets to building a habit, you can use it to your advantage.
leave it right in the middle of your living room – in full view
turn your desire to practice into a habit.
The soda in the refrigerators next to the cash registers was replaced with bottled water, and baskets of bottled water were placed all around the cafeteria. Dr. Thorndike and the team then watched to see what would happen. And what do you think happened? Well, over three months, soda sales fell by 11 percent,
The soda in the refrigerators next to the cash registers was replaced with bottled water, and baskets of bottled water were placed all around the cafeteria. Dr. Thorndike and the team then watched to see what would happen. And what do you think happened? Well, over three months, soda sales fell by 11 percent, and water sales shot up by over 25 percent.
Simply by creating more cues for people to drink water, Dr. Thorndike and her team were able to get people to make the healthier choice.
“Many people think they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity.”
Using electrodes, they blocked the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in some rats. The results were surprising; the lab rats simply lost the will to live. Without dopamine, they had no desire to eat, drink, reproduce or do anything else. Just a few days later, they all died of thirst.
When we do something beneficial for our survival – eating, drinking, having sex – dopamine is released,
dopamine. The mere anticipation of doing something
The mere anticipation of doing something pleasurable is enough to get the dopamine flowing.
temptation bundling. Temptation bundling is where you take a behavior that you think of as important but unappealing and link it to a behavior that you're drawn to.
Ronan hacked an exercise bike. He connected the bike to his laptop and wrote some code that only allowed Netflix to run if he was cycling at a certain speed.
On the other hand, doing a hundred push-ups or studying Mandarin are both pretty tough and take a lot of effort. This is why we don't find ourselves drawn to intensive exercise or language learning in our spare time.
reducing friction. Here's what it means. James Clear has always been hopeless at sending greeting cards. His wife, though, never misses an occasion to send a card. And there's a clear reason for this. She keeps a box of greeting cards at home, presorted by occasion.
This little bit of preparation makes it easier to send congratulations or condolences or whatever is called for. She doesn't have to go out and buy a card when someone gets married or gets a new job, and this reduces the friction involved in sending
This little bit of preparation makes it easier to send congratulations or condolences or whatever is called for. She doesn't have to go out and buy a card when someone gets married or gets a new job, and this reduces the friction involved in sending one.
So, if you want to waste less time in front of the TV, unplug it and take the batteries out of the remote. This will introduce enough friction to ensure you only watch when you really want
This is a way to make any new activity feel manageable. The principle is that any behavior can be distilled into a habit that is doable within two minutes.
make a habit of reading two pages per night.
if you want to run a marathon, commit to simply putting on your running gear every day after work.
Stephen Luby's story illustrates the final and most important rule for behavioral change: habits need to be satisfying.
Today, we live in what is known as a delayed-return environment. You turn up at the office today, but the return – a paycheck – doesn't come until the end of the month. You go to the gym in the morning, but you don't lose weight overnight.
Unfortunately, our brains evolved to cope with an immediate-return environment.
This focus on immediate returns can encourage bad habits. Smoking may give you lung cancer in 20 years, but, in the moment, it relieves your stress and the craving for nicotine. The immediate hit from your cigarette will likely override the long-term costs to your health.
when pursuing habits with a delayed return, you need to try to attach some immediate gratification to them.
To give their objectives a little immediate-return kick, they opened a savings account called "Trip to Europe." Every time they
To give their objectives a little immediate-return kick, they opened a savings account called "Trip to Europe." Every time they avoided a meal out, they transferred $50 to the account.
