Learn how to build good and bad habits, without paying $27 for it
Pre-Reading
Feeling like my old 2024 self was washed away in January, I thought there was no better time than now to achieve my dream morning routine. But how would I know how to stick to my routine? How would I know I wouldn’t go back to my old routine? What would guarantee my success? How would I know that this time I would actually stick to my plans? How did I know my routine would be bulletproof? Easy, by putting into practice what I had learned from public figure and fellow blogger James Clear, author of “Atomic Habits,” and began the dive of quirky analogies, simple summaries, and intuitive laws to follow if I wanted to create habits that would last.
Summary
“Atomic Habits” by James Clear is concise and useful, just like an atom. With easy to follow analogies, metaphors, and charts this book was a helpful guide on how to construct goals that line up with the life you want to lead.
The book centers around four laws.
The 1st Law: Make It Obvious
The 2nd Law: Make It Attractive
The 3rd Law: Make It Easy
The 4th Law: Make It Satisfying
The 1st Law revolves around the idea that to make good habits you first need to set up breadcrumbs for your brain to pick up like Hansel and Gretel. These cues will – over time and after consistent practice – be detected by your brain and you will be able to deliver your habit on auto-pilot. The key to being consistent with your habits is being aware of your surroundings and realizing all the embedded codes within our life. On the other hand, if you want to break a habit you would use the inverse of the 1st Law and Make It Invisible.
Let’s picture it. Your goal is to quit coffee, so instead of having your coffee machine visible in the kitchen, you tuck it away in a drawer. You also switch to drinking matcha or a refreshing drink at the same time that you would have been drinking coffee.
Convenience plays an important role in our habits. It’s better to build our environment in concert with our desired goals, so as not to clash with our bad habits from the current environment; you move the candy bars out of reach as a cue to stop snacking at random times; you put books on your bedside table as a cue to read before bed; you place running shoes next to the front door as a cue to go running later, etc.
The 2nd Law is how we act not for the sake of the action, but for what we think we will get in turn. In other words make your habit attractive. Our dopamine spikes up at the anticipation of a result and gives us a boost of motivation during the act to accomplish that goal. This law takes advantage of the dopamine spike and pairs it with a method called Temptation Bundling: pairing and action you have to do, with something you want to do.
Take me for an example. When exercising at home where there’s not a lot of motivation to try as hard in a workout than when at the gym, I’ll be following my workout video while also watching Netflix. I check off something I have to do (exercise) with something I want to do (watch TV). Sometimes I’ll switch it up and listen to a podcast or just listen to music. No matter, the point is to create a goal that you view as appealing, so you are more likely to stay committed to it if you harbor positive emotions towards it.
This law also discusses how our culture or close circle can influence us. Better pair up with people that see your desired behavior as normal. When your behavior wins you praise and respect, the habit becomes attractive.
Follow the inverse of this law to break a habit – make it ugly. Create negative emotions towards a habit you want to break, so you’re less likely to fall back into it.
Consistency is at the core of the 3rd Law. When wanting to create new habits, practicing the habit as best as we can each time, is more effective than staying in fantasy land and planning and replanning our routine to be the most optimal. The frequency of a habit is also important. If you want to meditate before bed, the frequency of this habit, morning and night, will help to establish it in your daily routine.
Clear uses the Two-Minute Rule to stop procrastination and start a new habit. By making your habit easy, you create a gateway habit which can help lead you to a more productive path.
Last but not least, the 4th Law is all about enjoying the process. With the mindset of enjoying the process rather than being fixated on one goal, the results will come quicker than anticipated. Remember to not count the days but make the days count.
New habits need to give immediate satisfaction for them to stick. Our brains have developed to prioritize instant gratification over delayed rewards.
Using a habit tracker to visualize your progress can boost your satisfactory feelings towards the new habit – which will only help repeat the new habit.
The inverse of the 4th law is Make it Unsatisfactory. If you want to get rid of a bad habit, make sure to do the opposite of everything stated.
Analysis
I don’t have to add more noise to the crowd by saying how effective this book is or whatnot. James Clear, the author, has constructed a whole business on the foundation of creating habits. Creating a blog, his book, and even an app. This is to say I have trust that Clear knows what he’s talking about (or at least I hope he does).
There were some moments in the book where my eyes turned glassy like a fish because the syntax was a little dull or the anecdotes too repetitive for me to stay awake. But there were other times where Clear wrote such strong, inspirational quotes I just wanted to say them outloud to feel even more in awe.
I had a healthy dose of skepticism walking into this book– and finishing it, I still wanted to test it out for myself.
So I made a goal to create good habits for the new year – get eight hours of sleep each night and meditate before and after bed – morning and night routine, following his Four Laws.
Step one of assigning a goal, check.
Next, creating a system to reach this goal.
Goal #1: Finish school work earlier than due so I can go to sleep and get a full eight hours of beauty sleep.
Goal #2: Get out of bed, set a 2 minute timer, meditate.
To accomplish Goal #1 I set a timer on a phone which showed me how many hours of sleep I was getting. You may be thinking, “Justine, just use basic arithmetic to know how much sleep you’re getting.” You’re right! But at the same time I also knew that seeing a visual image would only help. For Goal #2 I spread out my yoga mat each night so in the morning it would be convenient to meditate.
1st Law of making it obvious, check.
Second, I absorbed as much information as I could on the benefits of getting a good restful night of sleep and the long-term consequences of meditation for Goal #1 and #2.
2nd Law of making it attractive, check.
For Goal #1 I made getting eight hours of sleep my priority every day, this helped me not procrastinate, because I gave myself no other choice but to do my work unless I wanted to cram a sleep schedule into my already busy school schedule. For Goal #2 I set a two minute timer – as in the book Clear says to start a habit, at first make it last less than two minutes.
3rd Law of making it easy, check.
Finally, I romanticized my morning and night routine so I could “enjoy the moment,” for Goals #1 and #2.
4th Law of making it satisfying, check.
I made a table to visualize how many times during the whole month I actually did my routine.
At the end of the month, I’m happy (and not surprised) to say that I got the results I wanted by implementing the Four Laws of “Atomic Habits” into my life.
Recommendation
I would highly suggest actually reading the book, as I have not done it justice. But if you wanted to save your money for something else, or were looking for some condensed quick to the point explanation on how to stick with your resolutions, I hope I delivered exactly!
“Atomic Habits” is a good read to start the year 2025, with a fresh mind and fresh habits.
“The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity. It’s one thing to say I’m the type of person who wants this. It’s something very different to say I’m the type of person who is this.”
James Clear