Atomic Habits

• Changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years.
• The backbone of this book is my four-step model of habits—cue, craving, response, and reward.
• a strategy that he referred to as “the aggregation of marginal gains,” which was the philosophy of searching for a tiny margin of improvement in everything you do. Brailsford said, “The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improve it by 1 percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.”
• Success is the product of daily habits—not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.
• You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.
• Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy. (Location 290)
• Breakthrough moments are often the result of many previous actions, which build up the potential required to unleash a major change. (Location 320)
• The outside world only sees the most dramatic event rather than all that preceded it. But you know that it’s the work you did long ago—when it seemed that you weren’t making any progress—that makes the jump today possible. (Location 336)
• This can result in a “valley of disappointment” where people feel discouraged after putting in weeks or months of hard work without experiencing any results. However, this work was not wasted. It was simply being stored. It is not until much later that the full value of previous efforts is revealed. (Location 351)
• Winners and losers have the same goals. (Location 383)
• The problem with a goals-first mentality is that you’re continually putting happiness off until the next milestone. (Location 401)
• It makes no sense to restrict your satisfaction to one scenario when there are many paths to success. A systems-first mentality provides the antidote. When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running. And a system can be successful in many different forms, not just the one you first envision. (Location 406)
• The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. (Location 414)
• You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. (Location 420)
• With outcome-based habits, the focus is on what you want to achieve. With identity-based habits, the focus is on who you wish to become. (Location 468)
• True behavior change is identity change. You might start a habit because of motivation, but the only reason you’ll stick with one is that it becomes part of your identity. (Location 503)
• The goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader. ■ The goal is not to run a marathon, the goal is to become a runner. ■ The goal is not to learn an instrument, the goal is to become a musician. (Location 506)
• Your behaviors are usually a reflection of your identity. What you do is an indication of the type of person you believe that you are—either consciously or nonconsciously. (Location 510)
• Good habits can make rational sense, but if they conflict with your identity, you will fail to put them into action.
• Your identity emerges out of your habits. You are not born with preset beliefs. Every belief, including those about yourself, is learned and conditioned through experience.
• Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.
• It is a simple two-step process: Decide the type of person you want to be. Prove it to yourself with small wins.
• Ultimately, your habits matter because they help you become the type of person you wish to be.
• Habits reduce cognitive load and free up mental capacity, so you can allocate your attention to other tasks.
• Habits do not restrict freedom. They create it.
• Conversely, when you have your habits dialed in and the basics of life are handled and done, your mind is free to focus on new challenges and master the next set of problems.
• The process of building a habit can be divided into four simple steps: cue, craving, response, and reward.
• Any habit can be broken down into a feedback loop that involves four steps: cue, craving, response, and reward.
• The Four Laws of Behavior Change are a simple set of rules we can use to build better habits. They are (1) make it obvious, (2) make it attractive, (3) make it easy, and (4) make it satisfying.
• The simple way to apply this strategy to your habits is to fill out this sentence: I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].
• Diderot’s behavior is not uncommon. In fact, the tendency for one purchase to lead to another one has a name: the Diderot Effect. The Diderot Effect states that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption that leads to additional purchases.14
• When it comes to building new habits, you can use the connectedness of behavior to your advantage. One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behavior on top. This is called habit stacking.
• The power of context also reveals an important strategy: habits can be easier to change in a new environment.12 It helps to escape the subtle triggers and cues that nudge you toward your current habits. Go to a new place—a different coffee shop, a bench in the park, a corner of your room you seldom use—and create a new routine there.
• The mantra I find useful is “One space, one use.”
• Whenever possible, avoid mixing the context of one habit with another. When you start mixing contexts, you’ll start mixing habits—and the easier ones will usually win out. This is one reason why the versatility of modern technology is both a strength and a weakness. You can use your phone for all sorts of tasks, which makes it a powerful device. But when you can use your phone to do nearly anything, it becomes hard to associate it with one task. You want to be productive, but you’re also conditioned to browse social media, check email, and play video games whenever you open your phone. It’s a mishmash of cues.
• Gradually, your habits become associated not with a single trigger but with the entire context surrounding the behavior. The context becomes the cue.
• This is the secret to self-control. Make the cues of your good habits obvious and the cues of your bad habits invisible.
• It is the anticipation of a reward—not the fulfillment of it—that gets us to take action.
• Desire is the engine that drives behavior. Every action is taken because of the anticipation that precedes it. It is the craving that leads to the response.
• Temptation bundling works by linking an action you want to do with an action you need to do.
• We imitate the habits of three groups in particular:2 The close. The many. The powerful.
• One of the most effective things you can do to build better habits is to join a culture where your desired behavior is the normal behavior.
• Whenever we are unsure how to act, we look to the group to guide our behavior. We are constantly scanning our environment and wondering, “What is everyone else doing?” We check reviews on Amazon or Yelp or TripAdvisor because we want to imitate the “best” buying, eating, and travel habits. It’s usually a smart strategy. There is evidence in numbers.
• When changing your habits means challenging the tribe, change is unattractive. When changing your habits means fitting in with the tribe, change is very attractive.
• The normal behavior of the tribe often overpowers the desired behavior of the individual. Most days, we’d rather be wrong with the crowd than be right by ourselves.

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