Metadata

• URL: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/
• Published Date: 2021-10-26

Highlights

• If we just get a little bit better each day, we’ll reap tremendous long-term benefits.
• James Clear’s category-defining book [[ Atomic Habits - James Clear ]].
• Remember: your goals & ambitions ≠ habits
• we make the mistake of aiming too high.
• we should focus being “heroically consistent”
• Four Laws Of Behavior Change.
  • cue (Step 1) sends a trigger to your brain to set off a specific behavior (an alarm, entering your bedroom, your phone buzzing)
  • A craving (Step 2) for a certain feeling or emotion arises (the excitement of gambling, the calmness of alcohol)
  • A response (Step 3), the habit itself (having a drink, checking your phone)
  • A reward (Step 4), either temporary or permanent is unlocked (excitement, calmness)
• most powerful cues: time and location.
  • Time: These include waking up, your afternoon coffee,
  • first thing after I wake up.
  • on Saturday mornings
  • then we can redesign our environment to make our desired habits more obvious:
• To remember your medication each night, place the pill bottle directly next to the faucet
  • place the guitar stand in the middle of your living room
• To drink more water, fill up a few bottles each morning and place them across your home
• our habits are modern-day solutions to very ancient desires.
  • Conserving energy
  • Obtaining food and water
  • Finding love and reproduce
  • Connecting and bonding with others
  • Winning social acceptance and approval
  • Reducing uncertainty
  • Achieving status and prestige
• why am I doing this?
• Temptation bundling “pairs an action you want to do with an action you need to do.”
  • For me, I drink my lemon water and do 30 pushups before I can take a sip of the magical elixir.
• Make it easy The third rule is all about getting out of your own way.
  • By removing friction for good habits (or adding friction for bad ones) you can “stack the deck” to work in your favor.
  • Chop up a ton of fruits and vegetables on weekends and pack them in containers, so you have easy access to healthy, ready-to-eat-options during the week.
• the fourth law increases the odds that the behavior sticks.
• This strategy shows the power of habit tracking,
• ==“What gets measured, gets mastered”==
• Creates a visual cue that can remind you to act
  • Is inherently motivating because you see the progress and don’t want to lose it (think Snapchat streaks)
  • Feels satisfying whenever you record a successful instance
• ==“never miss twice.”== If you miss one day, keeping that momentum by getting back on track as soon as possible.
• Finally, to break a bad habit, there’s also the inversion of the 4th law: Make it unsatisfying.
• tap into our core human desire: avoiding social rejection.
• getting an accountability partner,
• Being even more public about your habits (via, Social Media) can make the costs of violating your promises public and painful.

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