About Atomic Habits

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The following content will cover some of the knowledge found in the book Atomic Habits and they will be related to the features you find in Atomic Progress that help you achieve your goals faster and consistent.

What is Atomic Habits about?

Extracted from Atomic Habits website itself: "is the most comprehensive and practical guide on how to create good habits, break bad ones, and get 1 percent better every day".

The book is a best-seller and written by James Clear, one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work.

It is highly recommended you read the book so you can get all the details and context, if you haven't done yet, you can buy it here.

The content in this page by no means is a replacement of the book, it is simply is a way to introduce you a summary of it.

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The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game.

— James Clear

The 3 Layers of Behavior Change

The 3 Layers of Behavior Change expose areas which habits can be changed. Assuming circular layers as: outcomes (the outer), processes (center) and identity (inner), depending the direction of the change (inward or outward) you will get very different results.

The outcome layer is concerned with the results. The process layer is related to your actions and system. And the identity layer is about your beliefs.

Focusing on your identity change is the fundamental piece and should be the primary area to be tackled, that will drive your process and system definition, and by consequence, deliver the outcomes you expect.

There are two simple steps defined in the book for this part:

decide the type of person you want to be;
prove it to yourself with small wins;

This mindset shift from results to identity will make a lot of difference in your habit change, as your focus will be on building a system instead of reaching goals.

The Habit Loop

The Habit Loop describes how the process of building a habit is divided in four phases at this order: cue, craving, response and reward.

Cue Craving Response Reward

The cue is the indication of a reward later on and your brain is constantly analyzing your environment for those pieces of information.

The cue will lead to a craving, that is your motivational force, what drives you to perform an action.

Performing an action or habit is the response to the craving and it is directly related to how motivated you are for the reward.

Finally, your habit will deliver an outcome that will be in the form of satisfaction or learning, but also what actions are worth remembering later on. The reward satisfy your cravings and associates with the cue, closing the habit loop.

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Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.

— James Clear

The 4 Laws of Behavior Change

1st Law of Behavior Change — Make It Obvious

This law addresses the first part of the habit loop, the cue. The cue is the indication of a reward later on.

Making a habit obvious using tools or environment addresses the cue phase, and it will trigger your brain for the next part of the habit loop which is the craving, awareness is key.

You need to be aware of your current habits before you can change them, listing them is a simple way to show to yourself what you are doing and how these habits contribute or not towards your desired identity.

The best way to start a habit is using what is called Implementation Intention with specific time and location pre-defined. A simple formula is I will [habit] at [time] in [location]. The fact that a context is being set along with the habit remove the need for extra thinking, making it more obvious.

2nd Law of Behavior Change — Make It Attractive

The craving works as your dopamine as an anticipation of the upcoming reward and it is your motivation force.

Combining an action you want with an action you need is a great way to make a habit more attractive. This is called Temptation Bundling and can be seen in the formula after [habit I need], I will [habit I want].

We tend to be influenced by three social groups: the close (family and friends), the many (the tribe), and the powerful (those with status and power).

Following this fact, a great strategy is to be part of a tribe in which the habit is part of their identity and it is the expected behavior.

3rd Law of Behavior Change — Make It Easy

The 3rd law is about how to make an action as easy as possible to be performed when it needs to, and it applies to the response part of the habit loop.

One of the important things associated with this law is the fact that a habits are formed through repetition, so it is important to focus on the number of times you perform.

And to make that happen, when starting a new habit, use the Two-Minute Rule. It states that when you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do. Dedicate effort to repetition, and increase complexity over time, what is called habit shaping. You can apply this strategy to almost every type of habit.

4th Law of Behavior Change — Make It Satisfying

There is a reward that comes as satisfaction or learning once a habit is performed.

While the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd laws apply to performing the habit once, the 4th law is about repeating the habit over and over. And that will only happen if the reward is satisfying.

The Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change says that What is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided so as long as your habit is rewarding you with any sort of win, big or small, you will likely do it again.

Whenever you want to change how you behave you should consider:

How can I make the habit obvious?
How can I make the habit attractive?
How can I make the habit easy?
How can I make the habit satisfying?

How to Stay Motivated

One of the reasons people keep or lose motivation along the time can be found in the Goldilocks Principle. Based on that, tasks that have a good amount of challenge but it is not considered super simple or overly complex are the ones we reach the top of our motiviation.

The two ingredients for keeping motivated:

Measure your progress so you know how you are doing;
Tweak your habits, add complexity over time, so habits don't become boring;

If you keep this process over and over for all your habits, progress will be made because you are motivated, and you will stay motivated because progress is being made.

Atomic Progress helps you to put the book into practice and build good habits, break bad ones and get 1% better every day.

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