THIS WEEKS BOOK REVIEW: Atomic Habits by James Clear

THIS WEEKS BOOK REVIEW: THIS WEEKS BOOK REVIEW: Atomic Habits by James Clear

1. Habit Stacking

Most of us already have a bunch of good habits we do. You brush your teeth when you get up, you make sure you take your dog out for a walk, you tell your kids you love them.

Most of the time, these super simple good habits are so ingrained you don’t even think that they are habits, they are just stuff you do.

This is the perfect place to start stacking other habits.

Habit stacking means taking a good habit you already do and then adding another habit you’re trying to build on top of it. These can help your habits become entwined.

You’re already doing something good, so why not add just one more simple new habit to it?

Habit stacking in action:

You brush your teeth in the morning. So how about flossing directly after you brush? You’re already standing there in the bathroom, have your floss right there next to your toothbrush ready to go.

You walk your dog every day. How about right before you take your dog out you do 10 push-ups. It won’t take more than a minute or so to do and it’s an easy way to add another fitness activity to your walk.

2. Two Minute Habits

A lot of people let good habits die because they make them too hard to start. It’s easy to say I’m gonna run 60 minutes a day when you’re super pumped to get out there and run.

You might do it for a few days or even a month, and then just give up.

And for a lot of couch potatoes, running for 60 minutes is a lot. It’s too big of a goal to start and that makes it hard to maintain momentum. 

Instead, start small. Go for two minutes.

This sounds crazy, right? What’s the point of getting ready to run if you’re only going to do it for two minutes? Well, two minutes is simple. Lots of people can walk or jog for two minutes without a ton of effort.

James says the key here is to you should think about a time that will be under what makes something feel like work. When things feel like work our brain kicks in and tells us to forget it, be lazy, and keep watching the Real Housewives (maybe that’s just my brain…).

Counteract this by going small.

Two minute habits in action:  Do you want to become a writer?That’s a common, yet overwhelming, goal for a lot of people. Two minute habits can help you start. Get a pen and paper or open your computer. Set a timer for two minutes and write. Then do it again tomorrow.

After a while, it will become second nature. And when it does, up your time limit. Try 5 minutes a day. Then 7 minutes and so on. But always try to stick under that number that will make it feel too hard.

3. Automate habits that help lock in future behavior

Everyone is all about automation today. In the entrepreneurial world, we think about automation in terms of things like marketing or email funnels, it actually can help us build good habits too.

Automation is a little trick that lets you optimize the small choices today that can have big impacts down the road. Once you make a good decision, see how you can automate it to both continuously make it easy but also help you improve over time.

And with the technology we’ve got today automating good habits is actually easier than ever.

Good habit automation in action:

You’ve convinced yourself that you’re not good at saving money. So automate it.

Read Ramit Sethi’s book I Will Teach You To Be Rich. In it, he does a deep dive on simple ways you can automate your savings, leaving only money you can spend on fun in your bank account.

4. Go all in on what you’re good at and love

We all have things we love and are naturally good at. Maybe it’s coding or reading or jogging. All too often people will try to fight against the things that they’re good at and choose to create other habits instead.

It’s like swimming upstream doing this. We pick habits that we think we should be doing based on what we see online or what our friends do.

Approach habit building (and life) this way and you’re going to be in for a lot of disappointment and feeling like a failure.

Instead, think about your own skillsets and find habits that build on those and how to make them fun.

Connecting what you love to habit building in action:

If you love playing video games, gamify your habits. Find the apps or tools that track your habits like you’re the player in a video game.

Run 2 miles? You get 50 power up points. Hit your weekly budget? Add 50 more points. Use those power up points to give yourself a reward, another way to keep the positive feelings around this new habit flowing.

When I was a kid I hated jogging but I loved playing soccer. So I did tons of drills on the soccer field and played games that still got my endurance up and built my skills.

And guess what? I did a crap ton of running while doing those, but I didn’t care because it was fun.

5. Good habits are a long-term investment

You can’t create good habits overnight. Just like you can’t get rid of bad habits in one day.

These things take time, and that’s what we should be focused on, the right now, versus the down the road. Know that the work you’re putting in on your habits today are going to pay off if you stick with them.

 

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