Atomic Habits by James Clear: Summary and Action Guide (2/2)

CHAPTER 12: THE LAW OF LEAST EFFORT

The Law of Least Effort: when deciding between two or more options, people will gravitate towards the one that requires the least effort.

If we make actions easy to do, we are more likely to make them a habit.

How to reduce friction

Optimise your environment
- When trying to practice a habit, pick a place that is already in your daily routine
Prime the environment for future use
- “Resetting the room”: return everything to its original place at the end of using a location.
- Prepare the room for the intended action
Reduce resistance for good habits
- Want to exercise? Set out your workout clothes ahead of time
- Want to improve your diet? Set up a meal plan
Make bad habits harder
- Want to watch less Netflix? Log out of the account after every use, and only log in when you have a specific show you want to watch
- Want to use your phone less? Leave it in another room when working
- Use Instagram/Reddit less? Log out of the account or delete the app entirely

Exercise 12.1: Optimise your environment

List one way you can prepare your environment to facilitate a good habit
List one way you can remove something in your environment to discourage a bad habit
Then do those things immediately.

CHAPTER 13: HOW TO STOP PROCRASTINATING BY USING THE TWO-MINUTE RULE

Habits (and rituals) are the “first step forward” that gets our momentum going.
We have multiple decisive moments in our day that lead to significant differences.

The two-minute rule

It’s easy to get excited about the changes that you have in mind for yourself and end up overwhelming yourself with too much
Counteract this tendency with the two-minute rule: when you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.
- Example: read research paper -> read one page of the research paper
- Example: organise study notes -> open the app and go to the notes page
- Example: exercise on switch -> set up the console at the location
The idea is to start habits as easy as possible – “gateway habits”. once you’ve started doing the right thing, it is much easier to continue doing it.

Very easy	Easy	Moderate	Hard	Very hard
Launch Word and write for 2 minutes	Write 100 words	Write one section	Write one study	Finish my thesis
Open investing learning app	Read investing stuff for 2 min a day	Finish a book on investing (hello The Intelligent Investor)	Complete an online course on investing	Read a financial report
Set up Just Dance	One dance	30 minutes of dancing	1 hour of dancing same time each week	Exercise everyday

The art of showing up

Instead of trying to engineer a perfect habit from the start, do the easy thing on a consistent basis. You have to standardise before you can optimise.
One push-up is better than not exercising at all; one minute of reading is better than not picking up the book. It is about taking the first step forward

Habit shaping: developing a habit in successive stages (easy -> hard)

Combine with the two-minute rule: focus only on the first two minutes of the first phase until you’ve mastered it. Then move on to the next phase and repeat.

Habit	Starting to Exercise with Just Dance
Phase 1	Set up Switch
Phase 2	Load up the game
Phase 3	Do one dance
Phase 4	Dance for 30 minutes once a week
Phase 5	Dance 3 times a week
Phase 6	Dance everyday

Exercise 13.1: Craft your own habit-shaping chart

Follow the above – break up your intended habit into phases.
Make sure the 1^st phase is easy enough to do in 2 minutes, and do it today.

INVERSION OF THE 3RD LAW: MAKE IT DIFFICULT

CHAPTER 14: HOW TO MAKE GOOD HABITS INEVITABLE AND BAD HABITS IMPOSSIBLE

Making good habits inevitable

Commitment devices: a choice you make in the present that controls your actions in the future
The key is to change the task such that it requires more work to get out of the habit than to get started on it
Examples:
- Outlet timer that shuts off power to internet router after a set time each day
- Scheduling an exercise session and paying ahead of time (like spin class)
- Want to start a business – email the company and set up a call in advance
Automating habits: one-time actions that lock in good habits. Examples:

NUTRITION	PRODUCTIVITY
Signing up for a meal plan	Unsubscribe from emails (e.g. unroll.me)
Buying a water filter to clean drinking water	Mute group chats and turn off all notifications
SLEEP	Set phone to silent/do not disturb mode
Buy a weighted blanket	Automate email filters to clean up inbox
Buy blackout curtains	Delete games and social media apps from phone
HEALTH	Enrol in website usage trackers
Buy a standing desk	FINANCE
Buy an office chair for comfort	Enrol in an automatic savings plan
	Set up automatic bill payments

I bought a weighted blanket and it did wonders for my sleep. Find out more here.

Technology is the most effective and reliable way to guarantee behaviour because it does not forget

Especially for infrequent behaviours
Each habit that we automate and pass over to technology gives us more time to do things machines cannot
You can also use it to set reminders

Summary

Commitment devices
Strategic onetime decision
Leverage technology to automate habits and behaviours

Exercise 14.1: Brainstorm on how you can automate your habits (like the table above) and start doing one immediately. Or you could just use my list and start with one of those.

THE 4TH LAW: MAKE IT SATISFYING

CHAPTER 15: THE CARDINAL RULE OF BEHAVIOUR CHANGE

The fourth law of behaviour change: make it satisfying

What is immediately rewarded is repeated
What is immediately punished is avoided

Hyperbolic discounting / time inconsistency

Good habits are not rewarding in the moment, but pay off only in the future
Bad habits are immediately rewarding but lead to undesirable long-term consequences
The human brain evolved to prioritise the present moment, which is why people gravitate towards bad habits rather than good ones

Turning instant gratification to our advantage – use reinforcement for good habits

At the end of a good habit, immediately reward yourself with something you like
This reward should be consistent with the identity you want to develop.
- e.g. if you want to become someone who exercises, it does not make sense to reward yourself with bubble tea. Instead, you can take a long leisurely shower.
Immediate reinforcement can be particularly useful for habits of avoidance where we want to avoid doing something
- Nothing happens when we avoid an action; we are just resisting temptation. it’s hard to feel satisfied when there is no action.
- Instead, we can make avoidance visible e.g. every time I make the conscious decision to skip bubble tea, I can deposit $5 (the money I technically “saved”) into a Book Fund
As intrinsic rewards like better mood, more energy, and reduced stress kick in, the secondary reward will become less important over time
- Still, external rewards are important at the beginning when we cannot see consequences and require a bit of a push.

Exercise 15.1: Decide on a reinforcement activity for a good habit that you want to build. For example, every time I eat at home, I write in my journal to indicate I have saved $10.

CHAPTER 16: HOW TO STICK WITH GOOD HABITS EVERY DAY

Habit tracking: a (visual) measurement that indicates whether you’ve performed a habit or not

Habit tracking is obvious: we know exactly where we are and seeing our daily actions can spark the urge to change.
Habit tracking is attractive: demonstrates progress and gives us motivation to continue
Habit tracking is satisfying*: tracking is rewarding in itself. It is satisfying to check off a task on your to-do list or see that you are making progress. It keeps us focused on the process rather than the result.

Making tracking easier

Automate your measurements – there are a lot of existing apps and tech that can do the work for you. Examples:
- Your phone measures the number of steps you have taken that day
- Credit card statements tell us how much we spend
- Once you know where to get the data, add a note to your calendar and review it weekly or monthly
Manual tracking should be limited to the most important habits – it’s better to track one habit regularly than sporadically track ten.
Record each measurement immediately after the habit occurs (I prefer to do it every night though).

Recovering quickly when habits break down

We all miss our habits sometimes.
The key is to never miss twice and don’t break the chain.
The most important thing is to just show up on bad days. Simply doing something – even if it’s not always up to standard – is better than doing nothing.

Beware of measuring the wrong thing!

Sometimes we get caught up with the measurement instead of the process. Be careful not to be driven by the number rather than the purpose behind it.
It can help to redirect our focus to on other measurements that can give more signals of progress
- Instead of weight loss from exercising, or a flatter belly, track overall mood and energy levels every day after exercise to refocus yourself

I like to physically track, and the Self Journal I swear by includes a section on paper. But if you prefer a simple printable version like the above, you can try this.

INVERSION OF THE 4TH LAW: MAKE IT UNSATISFYING

CHAPTER 17: HOW AN ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING

The habit contract: A verbal or written agreement in which your state your commitment to a habit and the punishment that will occur if you don’t follow through.

Then find one or two people to act as your accountability partners and sign off on the contact with you.

Habit contracts are extremely effective because they make behaviour unsatisfying.

They add a consequence to behaviour, as well as a social cost.
In general, the more local, tangible, concrete, and immediate the consequence, the more likely it is to influence subsequent behaviour (and correction).
- Late for class = marked as absent
- Did not pay for parking = parking fine
However, behaviour only shifts when the punishment is painful enough and reliably enforced. The cost of inaction needs to be greater than the cost of action.

Exercise 17.1: Write your own habit contract and get someone on it with you!

Be sure to include:

The goal/why you want to change
Objectives (specific actions you will take every day)
Consequences of succeeding or lapsing
How you and your partner will ensure accountability.

Here’s one I made to tackle my sleep issues.

And that marks the end of the Atomic Habits Action Guide! Thanks for sticking around, and I hope you’ve been able to take away some insights.

In this half, we’ve covered the 3^rd and 4^th laws and their inversions – making it easy (difficult) and making it satisfying (unsatisfying). Now put all your responses to the exercises together, and they should set you off to a good start on building your new habit (or breaking an old one).

If you enjoyed this action guide and would like to see more, subscribe to my blog at the bottom of this post! I’ll be working on other books next, so stay tuned – e.g.

See you around!

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