Book Review: Atomic Habits by James Clear

Remember my post from last month where I intimated you about the new habit I formed-cycling-, and here I am again picking another, which is reading a book a month so I joined a reading book club on Twitter @ReadBookNG (@PrideOfEkiti is my handle) with a strategy to read, reflect, adapt, and growth. It is not an easy one, but I started anyway and now I am sharing the insight from the first book I am reading this year titled Atomic Habits by James Clear.

It is so easy to exaggerate the importance of one defining moment and underrate the value of making minor improvements daily. Too often, we convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action, and this applies to most students and people who like the fire-brigade approach to complex situations, who would ignore little steps such as review of the day’s work, make use of the library, or even turn in the assignment while they wait to boomerang in the exams, and you wonder boomerang to where?

Our little actions daily eventually sum to the result we get after a period of consistently improving daily by 1% that compounds to about 37% efficiency improvement in a year. This is the reason we should be more concerned about our direction/path than your current result. Delay in outcome results from the refining process that will give the needed outcome from your daily habits/actions which is powerful.

Fig 1. Source: Atomic Habits- Tiny changes, remarkable results.

From fig 1, you can see that your thought sometimes differs from what happens in the reality, however in the long run after you have endured and gotten your way out of the valley of disappointment, the rate of growth becomes exponential. It will amaze you after reviewing your steps over time, and interestingly changing a habit can demotivate, often tiring, and even frustrating at the initial stage and these things are the valley of disappointment earlier talked about. You will work yourself through another 30 days to break a habit once we form it. You may be careful with which habit you are picking now.

So, for one to change the habit, there are three sides/approaches to it:

i. When the outcome is changed, it will reflect in its result and before that…

ii. Changing the process is as important because with a new routine/system of doing things you would get a different outcome but before the process is changed/optimized you must ...

iii. Change your belief system and your self-image. If you do not see yourself differently, you will always come back to your old self. You must take a conscious and intentional effort to see whom you want to be then work towards it. Once you have fixed your mind on whom you want to be and the will is there, no one can stop you except you.

You can be approach habit change from 2 angles which could be outcome-based or identity-based. The outcome-based approach will focus on what 2 achieve while the identity-based approach will focus on who to become. There are silent elements that drive your habits to thrive and they are called cues; these cues will trigger your cravings. Now, when you respond to your craving once you get cues consistently over time, it subconsciously becomes a habit that automatically happens each time the cue shows face.

The book stated the right approach to changing one’s habit by creating an implementation intention in the format below:

Every time situation X arises, I do action Y

Or

I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].

They sight an example like this; every time I am at work, I will speak to my colleagues respectfully every time we talk and/or argue. According to the writer, implementation intention is a plan you make beforehand about when and where to act, how you intend to implement a particular habit.

The cues that can trigger a habit come in a wide range of forms — the feel of your phone buzzing in your pocket, the smell of chocolate chip cookies, the sound of ambulance sirens—but the two most common cues are time and location. Implementation intentions leverage both cues.

Now, there are many ways to use the implementation intention strategy, habit stacking is one of the special approaches that is preferred by the writer who adapted it from the teachings of Prof BJ Fogg of Stanford University. The writer noted it to be the stringing of multiple implementation intentions to overhaul one’s lifestyle, habit, academic performance et al. This will help you become the person you have envisioned yourself to be.

The habit stacking formula is: “After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].” The key is to tie your desired behaviour into something you already do every day. Once you have mastered this basic structure, you can create larger stacks by chaining small habits together. This allows you to take advantage of the natural momentum that comes from one behaviour leading into the next—a positive version of the Diderot Effect (look this up).

When you want to make a series of action part of your process, you must make them as visible as possible to avoid oversight. A hidden drum cannot beat itself, so are the habits you want to create, make sure you create them in the most thriving environment. Imagine buying an apple and keeping it out of sight, you may end up not eating anyone before it rots away unlike when it is right there in your face for you to pick up. The writer clearly stated that environment design is powerful not only because it influences how we engage with the world but also because we rarely do it.

Habits and their environmental interaction.

The writer illustrated that human behaviour influenced by the relationship to the objects around then not by the object itself. For one person, her couch is the place where she reads for an hour each night. For someone else, the couch is where he watches television and eats a bowl of ice-cream after work. Different people can have distinct memories — and thus different habits — associated with the same place. Avoid mixing the context of one habit with another. When you mix contexts, you will start mixing habits — and the easier ones will usually win out.

Habits thrive under predictable circumstances like these. Focus comes automatically when you are sitting at your work desk. Relaxation is easier when you are in a space designed for that purpose. Sleep comes quickly when it is the only thing that happens in your bedroom. If you want behaviours that are stable and predictable, you need an environment that is stable and predictable. A stable environment where everything has a place and a purposeful environment is an environment where habits can easily form. It is all in the cues and context.

Habits and Self Control

Summarily the writer insinuated that disciplined people are not those with the strongest will, but those who have subjected themselves to a process of not spending too much time or no time at all in a tempting situation.

“It’s easier to practice self-restraint when you don’t have to use it often. So, yes, perseverance, grit, and willpower are essential to success, but the way to improve these qualities is not by wishing you were a more disciplined person, but by creating a more disciplined environment.”

Beyond this, a more effective way to cut away an unpleasant habit is to cut it from its roots.

This means that the individual reduces exposure to such cues that lead to cravings. This approach is the inversion of the 1st law of behaviour change which is to make it invisible. It is hard to forget habit; it is only the cues that are out of sight.

HOW TO CREATE A GOOD HABIT

 The 1st Law: Make It Obvious

1.1: Fill out the Habits Scorecard. Write your current habits to notice them.

1.2: Use implementation intentions: “I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].”

1.3: Use habit stacking: “After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].”

1.4: Design your environment. Make the cues of good habits visible.

 The 2nd Law: Make It Attractive

 The 3rd Law: Make It Easy

 The 4th Law: Make It Satisfy

The Two-minute rule: When you start a new habit, it should take less than 2-minutes to do. You can be breakdown nearly any habit to suit this rule. Read before sleeping can become reading a page before the night rest which is achievable. When an activity becomes pleasurable constantly, a habit is eminent. When you reward your minor achievements in line with the new behaviour, the chance that it will eventually become a habit is high.

HOW TO BREAK A BAD HABIT

Inversion of the 1st Law: Make It Invisible by reducing your exposure to it. Remove the cues of your bad habits from your environment.

Inversion of the 2nd Law: Make It Unattractive

Inversion of the 3rd Law: Make It Difficult                 

Inversion of the 4th Law: Make It Unsatisfying

Our habits are built by cues, cravings, and actions and the laws of behavioural change make it true especially the 2nd law which is to make it attractive. Habits are dopamine-driven, and it gives a feedback loop mechanism that rewards your cravings when you act on it. Family and friends have a part to play in shaping your lifestyle and/or habits. As a child, you probably do not act out on your own, people guide us by their actions (you should understand why programs are censored) which is how they learn and fit-in into society; this further shows humans to be social beings.

There are three groups whose habit we imitate:

The close: The writer claimed that being close has a powerful effect on our behaviour. This is true of the physical environment, as iterated earlier in the 6th chapter, but it is also true of the social environment.

The many: You must be very careful here, but people follow the crowd. Not because they do not see they just “feel the need to fit” to be safe with the majority even though they have seen with their eyes.

The Powerful: Naturally, we are drawn to behaviours that earn us respect, approval, admiration, and status. We always want to work towards this in our own understandable “little” way by putting in daily and consistent effort.

Track your performance constantly.

Making progress is good but when you can visually measure where you were vs where you are, you will eventually do your best because per time, you will see how close you are to your making that habit stick. An important step in habit formation is tracking your recent activities and if it is in line with your goal. There are enjoyable benefits attached which are not limited to it being satisfying and attractive; it stops you from deceiving yourself, you will know if you are doing well or doing “Iranu”. One good thing that is certain you would have done is to have started that activity which you want to develop, thereafter track your performance. 

So, the habit stacking + habit tracking formula is:

After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [TRACK MY HABIT].

A wise man one once said in my village “if e dey sweet dey go na set-up” so, life is not a bed of roses as it comes with its own challenges. Therefore, your journey to forming a new habit may be hit by a few setbacks, but not to worry, there are steps you can take, which are to retrace and restart from where you left off immediately.

You can start by determining you will not skip two days in a roll of that activity no matter what happens. Why? If you miss once, it is a mistake but if you miss twice; it is the formation of a new habit. You should be accountable to yourself and if you have a partner-I mean, the more the merrier- that would be great, and yes write what you aim to achieve down and in phases.

You, your gene, and your habit

Let us take a deeper dive from here, according to the writer, your genes operate silently behind the scenes, and you as the individual needs to be self-aware. So, your set of unique features/characteristics/genetic traits predisposed you to a particular personality; a set of characteristics that remain regardless of the situation. You must be self-aware to be effective in your habit formation.

Scientifically, you belong to a mix of 5 characters:

1. Openness to experience: from curious and inventive on one end to cautious and consistent on the other.

2. Conscientiousness: organized and efficient to easy-going and spontaneous.

3. Extroversion: outgoing and energetic to solitary and reserved (you likely know them as extroverts vs. introverts).

4. Agreeableness: friendly and compassionate to challenging and detached.

5. Neuroticism: anxious and sensitive to confident, calm, and stable.

Once you understand your personality, things get even clearer to you as you will build the habit that works for you and even put the odds in your favour because naturally the activities come to you and in no time, you become a master of it differently.

In summary, the secret to maximizing your odds of success is to choose the right field of competition. If you pick the right habit and progress, life is simple, and if otherwise, life will be a struggle.

To go far, you need all the motivation you can get so do not overwork yourself; the Goldilocks Rule states that “humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities”. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right. Improvements require a delicate balance to it so that result is as expected else it can go south again.

When you want to maximize your potential and achieve elite levels of performance, you need a more refined approach. You cannot repeat the same things blindly and expect to become exceptional. Habits are necessary, but not sufficient for mastery. What you need is a combination of automatic habits and deliberate practice.

Habits + Deliberate Practice = Mastery

I will share my insights from our next book -The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s wives- which is a fictional story. It should be fun and I look forward to it.

Read | Reflect | Adapt | Growth.

ìféolúwa òshó,

@ReadBookNG

@PrideOfEkiti on Twitter