I had read small quotes and lessons from the book Atomic Habits in various Instagram posts and blog posts.
Finally, after months of liking those posts, I got my hands on the book and sat down to read it.
To me, most self-help books were generic motivational quotes decorated with inspirational words. But this one, I liked.
I don’t remember when was the last time that I read a book at this speed.
The book Atomic Habits has very clear, to-the-point explanations about numerous things about habits, both good and bad.
It talks about everything from how a habit is formed in the brain, how you can utilize that info to adopt a new habit easily and how you can let go of the bad ones.
I found the info and the tips very reasonable and intelligent. Every single one makes sense and I genuinely feel like changes are already happening in my current habits because of how much I’ve read the book.
So, here I’m sharing my top 5 learnings after reading 9 chapters of Atomic Habits by James Clear.
Table Of Contents
5 Lessons from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear
1. Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement
James talks about the importance of self-improvement, even when it is as small as getting 1% better each day.
Most people give up on new habits because they don’t see instant results and feel like maybe the habit isn’t worth something after all.
But the important thing is that big changes don’t happen overnight.
If you went to the gym for a week, you won’t see a significant difference.
Only after you’ve been consistent for at least a month, you will be able to see some visible results.
In the book, James has explained this beautifully with the example of a stonecutter hammering a rock.
The stonecutter hammers the rock uncountable times before it finally breaks. And the rock doesn’t break because the last blow was the hardest, but because of the compound effect of all of the singular blows.
Conclusion: Be patient. Significant results are obtained only after you’ve been consistent. Big changes take time.
2. Winners & losers have the same goal, its the system that makes the difference
There’s a difference between setting goals and building systems that help you reach your goal.
A goal gives you a direction and a system helps you walk that path to your goal.
People don’t succeed just by having ambitious goals. In a marathon, every runner has the goal to win the race.
But only one wins.
It’s the system that one person followed that makes them win.
Let’s assume that right now, you have a small goal of cleaning up your messy room. Somehow you find the energy and clean up your room but only to find it in a mess a few days later.
The solution or the goal is not to clean a messy room, but to develop a system that tackles the causes that lead to a messy room.
If you just focus on cleaning the room every 3 days as it gets messy, it’s a temporary solution.
The permanent solution is the system that you need to build. A system that recognizes what makes the room messy so often and what habits you need to change in order to prevent that from happening.
Conclusion: Don’t just focus on the goals but on small things that build the system that eventually leads you to your goals.
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3. Habits are mental shortcuts learned from experience
Your brain builds habits so that it can automate some processes. The more habits you build, the less thinking you’ve to do when you’re in similar situations.
You will just know what to do on autopilot, out of habit.
This gives your brain the time and energy that it can put into being creative and learning new skills.
When you come across a problem for the first time, you have to think about how you can get out of it. You try different things before landing on the solution.
You analyze the problem, the neurological activity in your brain rises, and you take in every possible info to find the best possible solution.
In the future, when you are in the same situation, you won’t have to search for the solution for the same amount of time as before. Your brain will automatically tell you what to do from your past experience.
Habits are simply, reliable solutions to recurring problems in our environment.
Jason hreha, scientist
Conclusion: The ultimate purpose of habits is to solve the problems of life with as little energy and effort as possible. (Quoted from Atomic Habits)
4. Habit stacking & trigger cues – using current habits to adopt new ones more easily
Habit stacking, as explained in the book Atomic Habits looks like this:
When situation X arises, I will perform response Y
I will {behavior} at {time} in {location}
The first statement refers to the habit stacking method which involves pairing a new habit with a current habit.
For instance, you want to drink more water. You won’t just drink more water on your own starting from one day.
You’ve to consciously remind yourself initially in order for it to become a natural habit. You need a cue that triggers the new habit you want to form.
Write this down- Every time I go to eat something, I will first have a glass of water.
Whenever I am going to sleep, I will read a book for 30 minutes.
Whenever I am cooking my breakfast, I will first have a fruit.
The second statement refers to implementation intention. Be very specific about what you want to do.
Do you want to exercise more?
Write down that you will exercise for one hour at 5 PM in your local gym.
This way, you don’t have to spend time thinking about when you can actually exercise, where, and at what time. You have already set a predetermined plan for yourself.
Most people don’t lack the motivation to do a task but the clarity on how to execute it.
Conclusion: Cues that point to your new habit are important. The two most common cues are time and location.
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5. Assign a particular environment for a particular task
Under the previous point, we talked about cues that trigger habits.
After some time, the habits get connected to not just the trigger but the environment itself.
Sharing a quote from the book –
Our behavior is not defined by the objects in the environment but by our relationship to them.
A sofa can be a place where someone likes to enjoy reading a book and also a place where someone likes to binge-watch TV shows on the weekend.
The activities get linked to the environment/space they’re done in.
You can use this to your advantage. This is one of my favorite learnings from Atomic Habits.
Assign different spaces to different tasks. Work only at your desk, eat only at the dining table and be on your bed only when you’re going to sleep at night.
If you sleep, binge-watch and work in your bed, your brain will be juggling between the 3 every time you’re on it.
The tasks can be done more efficiently out of habit when they’re done in the same place every day.
Conclusion: Make the cues of good habits obvious in your environment. Over time, habits get connected to the environment more than the specific triggers.
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