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◆ 1: The Surprising Power of Atomic Habits
▪ Meanwhile, 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.
▪ a slight change in your daily habits can guide your life to a very different destination
▪ Breakthrough moments are often the result of many previous actions, which build up the potential required to unleash a major change.
▪ habits often appear to make no difference until you cross a critical threshold and unlock a new level of performance.
▪ THE PLATEAU OF LATENT POTENTIAL
▪ results had very little to do with the goals I set and nearly everything to do with the systems I followed.
▪ it would be ridiculous to spend the whole game staring at the scoreboard
◆ 2: How Your Habits Shape Your Identity (and Vice Versa)
▪ The second person declines by saying, “No thanks. I’m not a smoker.” It’s a small difference, but this statement signals a shift in identity.
▪ We do not change by snapping our fingers and deciding to be someone entirely new. We change bit by bit, day by day, habit by habit. We are continually undergoing microevolutions of the self.
▪ Each time you write a page, you are a writer. Each time you practice the violin, you are a musician. Each time you start a workout, you are an athlete. Each time you encourage your employees, you are a leader.
◆ 4: The Man Who Didn’t Look Right
▪ “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
▪ If you eat a chocolate bar every morning, acknowledge it, almost as if you were watching someone else. Oh, how interesting that they would do such a thing.
◆ 5: The Best Way to Start a New Habit
▪ 91 percent of the third group exercised at least once per week
▪ people who make a specific plan for when and where they will perform a new habit are more likely to follow through.
▪ I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].
▪ “Obviously you’re never going to just work out without conscious thought. But like a dog salivating at a bell, maybe you start to get antsy around the time of day you normally work out.”
▪ The Diderot Effect states that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption that leads to additional purchases.
▪ Many human behaviors follow this cycle. You often decide what to do next based on what you have just finished doing.
▪ Each action becomes a cue that triggers the next behavior.
▪ The habit stacking formula is: “After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].”
▪ people select cues that are too vague. I made this mistake myself. When I wanted to start a push-up habit, my habit stack was “When I take a break for lunch, I will do ten push-ups.”
◆ 6: Motivation Is Overrated; Environment Often Matters More
▪ People often choose products not because of what they are, but because of where they are.
▪ If your space is limited, divide your room into activity zones: a chair for reading, a desk for writing, a table for eating
◆ 7: The Secret to Self-Control
▪ Once a habit is formed, it is unlikely to be forgotten.
◆ 8: How to Make a Habit Irresistible
▪ However, if you see a cue and expect a reward, but do not get one, then dopamine will drop in disappointment
▪ “more probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors.” In other words, even if you don’t really want to process overdue work emails, you’ll become conditioned to do it if it means you get to do something you really want to do along the way.
◆ 9: The Role of Family and Friends in Shaping Your Habits
▪ “The customs and practices of life in society sweep us along.”
▪ We imitate the habits of three groups in particular: The close. The many. The powerful.
▪ New habits seem achievable when you see others doing them every day.
▪ Humans are similar. There is tremendous internal pressure to comply with the norms of the group.
◆ 10: How to Find and Fix the Causes of Your Bad Habits
▪ “I need to go run in the morning,” say “It’s time to build endurance and get fast.”
▪ “I am excited and I’m getting an adrenaline rush to help me concentrate.”
▪ “My focus and concentration goes up just by putting my headphones [on] while writing. I don’t even have to play any music.”
◆ 11: Walk Slowly, but Never Backward
▪ he was surprised to find that all the best photos were produced by the quantity group.
▪ “Neurons that fire together wire together.”
▪ One of the most common questions I hear is, “How long does it take to build a new habit?” But what people really should be asking is, “How many does it take to form a new habit?”
◆ 12: The Law of Least Effort
▪ Law of Least Effort, which states that when deciding between two similar options, people will naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work.
▪ addition by subtraction.
◆ 13: How to Stop Procrastinating by Using the Two-Minute Rule
▪ Two-Minute Rule, which states, “When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.”
▪ If the Two-Minute Rule feels forced, try this:
◆ 14: How to Make Good Habits Inevitable and Bad Habits Impossible
▪ “Civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them.”
◆ 15: The Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change
▪ a habit needs to be enjoyable for it to last.
◆ 16: How to Stick with Good Habits Every Day
▪ Paper Clip Strategy
▪ never miss twice.
▪ “The first rule of compounding: Never interrupt it unnecessarily.”
▪ Goodhart’s Law
◆ 18: The Truth About Talent (When Genes Matter and When They Don’t)
▪ explore/exploit trade-off.
◆ 19: The Goldilocks Rule: How to Stay Motivated in Life and Work
▪ example of the Goldilocks Rule. 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.
▪ Professionals stick to the schedule; amateurs let life get in the way.
◆ 20: The Downside of Creating Good Habits
▪ When you can do it “good enough” on autopilot, you stop thinking about how to do it better.
▪ “keep your identity small.”
▪ Habits + Deliberate Practice = Mastery
▪ The tighter we cling to an identity, the harder it becomes to grow beyond it.