Atomic Habits can help you improve every day, no matter what your goals are. As one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, James Clear reveals practical strategies that will help you form good habits, break bad ones, and master tiny behaviors that lead to big changes.

If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. Instead, the issue is with your system. There is a reason bad habits repeat themselves over and over again, it's not that you are not willing to change, but that you have the wrong system for changing.
 
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems” - James Clear 

I’m a huge fan of this book, and as soon as I read it I knew it was going to make a big difference in my life, so I couldn’t wait to make a video on this book and share my ideas.

Here is a link to James Clear’s website, where I found he uploads a tonne of useful posts on motivation, habit formation and human psychology.

https://jamesclear.com/


If you liked this summary and you want to go deeper into Atomic Habits, here is a link to the book (Nothing Beats the book!)

📕Atomic Habits by James Clear - https://amzn.to/2Yk6ulK

If you are more into Audiobooks, here is a link to that. You can get this audiobook for free if you sign up for a free Audible trial with the link below. 

🎧Grab Atomic Habits audiobook on an Audible trial with 2 free books - https://amzn.to/3A5r32l


🗎If you want to help out my channel, please consider grabbing the PDF mindmap and illustrations I made to go along with this summary - https://escapingordinary.gumroad.com/

Lessons you will learn from reading Atomic Habits
  •  How to make time for new habits ;
  •  How to overcome a lack of motivation and willpower;
  •  How to design your environment to make success easier;
  •  How to get back on track if your habits break down
  •  How to overcome the plateau of latent potential
  

★★★ TIMESTAMPS ★★★
00:00 Introduction
01:32 Atomic Habits 
07:15 Law 1 - Make it Obvious
11:06 Law 2 - Make it Attractive
15:38 Law 3 - Make it Easy
18:13 Law 4 - Make it Satisfying
21:35 How I personally use this book



Here are some of the other summaries and non fiction book recommendations you can find on this channel 

The Laws of Human Nature (Detailed Summary) -https://youtu.be/uhWzVdGmX2w

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective people (Detailed Summary) https://youtu.be/A-LJ6wvk7Cw
 
The Four Agreements (Detailed Summary) https://youtu.be/gpwuq5wOvwI
 
Limitless by Jim Kwik (Detailed Summary) https://youtu.be/naEkf_As9kU

Rich Dad Poor Dad | (Detailed Summary)  https://youtu.be/eDa1U9qJKxo

Here is another good summary of this book by Ali Abdaal - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT7tQzmGRLA
 

Thankyou for watching this animated summary of Atomic Habits. Please Subscribe :)

Do you ever feel like you're just floating through life, but not actually getting closer to the person that you want to be?

You imagine all the bad habits you're going to break free from, and all the good habits you will begin.

This time will be different, you say to yourself.

This time I am going to do the things that I say I will, only to end up back where you began shortly after and no closer to what you had envisaged.

So the question is, how do you break free from bad habits and make the habits you desire easier and automatic?

Atomic Habits by James Clear answers all these questions.

We're going to be doing a fast-paced detailed summary of the book and dive deep into topics like habit loops, dopamine spikes, priming your environment, plus heaps more.

And make sure you stick around until the end of the video where I go through step by step how I'm personally using this book to improve my own habits.

I hope this summary inspires you to go out and grab a copy of the book for yourself, because this book deserves a space on everyone's bookshelf.

Imagine a plane taking off and traveling from New York to Los Angeles.

Just before takeoff you adjust the plane just slightly by 3 degrees or around 80 inches.

If you were to keep flying in a straight line, you would end up closer to Tijuana in Mexico than in your intended destination of Los Angeles.

Tiny changes in our habits can change the trajectory of our lives in ways that we can't even notice until many years into the future looking back.

In both good ways and bad, You are your habits.

A slight change in your daily habits can guide your life to a very different destination.

1% Improvements Far too often we convince ourselves that massive success is only possible through massive action in any goal we are pursuing.

We expect ourselves to make some quantum leap or momentous improvement that will gain others' attention.

However, it is the tiny improvements that aren't even noticeable at first that create incredible change.

1% better every day for a year will compound to 37 times better, but 1% worse every day over a year will bring you close to 0.

Your habits can compound against you in the form of things like stress or negative self-talk, or they can compound for you in the form of things like knowledge, productivity, skills, and relationships.

Success is the product of daily habits, not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.

The Truth About Progress When you start any endeavor in your life, here is what you think should happen.

Notice this section here in the beginning.

Small changes in our progress are not even noticeable.

James Clear refers to this part of the graph as the valley of disappointment.

You've done so much, you've put in so much effort, and you can barely see any results.

This is where most people fail and slip back into their old routines.

The most powerful outcomes of any compounding process are delayed, so patience is required.

Systems Forget about goals, focus on systems instead.

A goal is the result you want to accomplish.

Systems deal with processes that lead to the results.

The conventional wisdom suggests that the best way to achieve anything we want in life, be it getting into better shape, building a successful business, or spending more time with family, is to set specific realistic goals.

But if you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your systems, Would you still succeed?

The author of this book argues that you would.

Here are some problems with only having goals.

Successful and unsuccessful people share the same goals so therefore the goal cannot be what differentiates winners from losers.

Achieving a goal only changes your life for that moment in time.

Either you achieve the goal and succeed, or you don't and you're a failure, even if you are making progress in the right direction.

When you achieve a goal, What do you do after?

If your goal was running the local marathon chances are, after completing it your motivation will quickly fade and you will just slip back into your old routines.

Goals are good for setting a direction but systems are best for making progress.

A system of atomic habits The problem with changing your habits is not you.

The reason why you repeat the same bad habits for so long isn't because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change.

Atomic habits are small routines and behaviours that accumulate to produce incremental positive outcomes over time.

Big breakthroughs tend to get more attention than small improvements, but what really matters are the little daily decisions and actions we take.

Just as atoms are the building blocks of molecules, atomic habits are the building blocks of remarkable results.

The first layer is changing outcomes, the result.

Losing that weight, writing that book, or winning the season.

The second layer is changing your process, what you do.

The new workout routine, or developing a daily reading habit.

And the third layer is changing your identity, what you believe, your world views and how you think about yourself and others.

Most people focus on the outcomes, but the best way to change your habits is by focusing on the person you want to become instead of the results that you want.

The goal isn't to learn an instrument, it's to become a musician.

The goal isn't to run a marathon, it's to become a runner.

When something you want in your life becomes part of your identity, that is when your behaviors will start to naturally change.

When you tell yourself and others, I'm a runner, you want to live up to that identity.

Remind yourself, every time you do a workout, you are an athlete.

Every time you write a line of code, you are a programmer.

And each time you instruct your team, you are a leader.

The Habit Loop A habit is when something becomes repeated enough times that it becomes automatic.

Ultimately, we want our habits to solve problems in our lives with the least amount of effort.

A habit is formed and reinforced by means of a continuous feedback loop.

The key to creating habits that stick is to create feedback loops that are continuously being improved.

Reward, Solve the problem of who messaged.

Satisfy the need to feel less frustrated.

Over time, rewards become associated with cues.

So in this example, checking social media becomes tied to your mind going blank at work.

And then checking Facebook may be the cue to check Instagram, which becomes the cue to watch YouTube.

And before you know it, your mind going blank cue has led to 20 minutes of wasted time.

And the more you repeat these habit loops, the stronger and more automatic they become.

A smell, a sound, a sight, a person, a location.

Try to think of any cues in your daily life that are initiating your good or bad habit loops.

So, how can we influence the habit loop to work for us?

This book shows us the 4 laws that will guide us to do just that.

Most of your current habits are so automatic that you don't even realise them.

You must first become aware of your habits before you can change them.

You can achieve that with your Habit Scorecard.

Write down all your daily behaviours on a Habit Scorecard, From the moment you wake up until the moment you go to bed.

Your scorecard may look something like this.

Based on whether it helps you become the person you aspire to be, categorise each habit as positive, negative or neutral.

At this stage we aren't trying to change anything, but just observe what is actually going on in our daily lives.

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.

Carl Jung Vagueness is a real problem when it comes to habit formation, and studies have shown that quite often the reason people fail to stick to a habit is not because of a lack of motivation, but because of a lack of clarity.

1 day I will get into shape is easy to say to yourself, but too vague to get any momentum.

The most common cues time and location will help you achieve your goals.

Clearly state your intention to act using the following formula.

I will behavior at time in this location.

I will read a book for 15 minutes daily at 6am in the spare bedroom.

Another good way to get a habit started is by habit stacking.

To stack habits, tie a desired habit to an existing habit according to the following formula.

For example, after I brush my teeth, I will stretch for 5 minutes.

For example, after you finish brushing your teeth, you will meditate for 10 minutes and then plan the rest of your day, before checking social media.

A chain of habits is more likely to be sustained if you practice this consistently.

Choosing the correct trigger is essential.

Your trigger should be something that you do automatically without fail during your day such as waking up, turning off your alarm, or brushing your teeth.

James Clear tells us in the book that motivation is highly overrated.

You can better shape your behavior by designing your environment.

We are more influenced by our environment than our willpower or motivation.

It's hard to stick with positive habits in a negative environment.

Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior.

Creating a habit requires you to redesign the space around you.

To 1, make it easier to see the cues for the desired habits, and 2, avert bad habits by making them invisible.

If you want to drink more water, make the cues visible and obvious.

Place water bottles around the house in places you are likely to see them.

Place the book somewhere where you'll see it.

And if you want to get better on guitar, don't leave it out of sight in the closet.

Objects in the environment do not determine our behaviour, rather it is our relationship to them that does.

Stop seeing your environment as a place simply filled with objects.

Imagine it as a place filled with relationships.

The couch in the living room is the place where 1 person reads an hour a night.

For another the couch is where they watch Netflix and eat pizza and relax after work.

If your relationship with the couch is a place to relax, then trying to get a work related task done in that environment may be difficult.

Try to make separate zones in your house for different activities.

The author likes to use the mantra, 1 space, 1 use.

If you are trying to eliminate a bad habit, you can only rely on self-control in the short term.

Cutting off bad habits of the source is a more reliable solution and 1 of the most practical ways to eliminate a bad habit is to make it invisible.

For example, put your phone in another room for a few hours if you have trouble getting work done.

Or, put junk food out of sight or remove it from your house if you are trying to lose weight.

Make it attractive When we expect to be rewarded, we take action.

The more rewarding an action is, the more likely we are to repeat it until it becomes a habit.

Hence the first step to forming good habits is to make them more attractive.

Understanding how dopamine affects your body will help you.

Dopamine Our motivation levels are affected by dopamine, a hormone and neurotransmitter.

We are more motivated to act when our dopamine levels rise.

By measuring dopamine, scientists can pinpoint the exact moment at which craving occurs.

It was once assumed that dopamine was just about pleasure, but now we know it's vital to many neurological functions including motivation, memory, learning, punishment, as well as voluntary movement.

The hormone dopamine is released not only when we experience pleasure, but also when we anticipate it.

Gambling addicts have a dopamine spike right before they place a bet, not after they win.

Using social media, eating junk food and taking drugs are all associated with high levels of dopamine and a highly habit forming.

Sometimes the thinking and anticipation of the vacation is better than the actual vacation.

Seeing the junk food you desire surges dopamine, not after eating it.

Drug addicts increase dopamine when they see the drugs, not after taking them.

The craving is what causes us to take action in the first place.

Making our habits attractive is vital, because it is the expectation of a rewarding experience that drives us to act.

Here you can use a strategy known as temptation bundling.

The temptation bundling process makes a habit more attractive by combining an action we need to do with 1 that we want to do.

For example, you could bundle watching Netflix, something you want to do with working out, something you need to do.

Temptation bundling applies a psychology principle known as Pre-Max Principle.

Developed by Professor David Premack, the Premack Principle states more probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors.

In other words, even if you're not looking forward to doing some exercise, you become conditioned to do it because you get to do something else you really enjoy.

We are continually wondering, what will others think of me, and altering our behavior based on the answer.

We are influenced by the people closest to us and the groups that we belong to.

If you're trying to build a good habit, 1 of the best ways to reinforce the habit is to find and become part of a culture where that habit is the norm.

If you want to get into better shape, surround yourself with fit people.

If you want to read more, join a book club.

Primal motivators, the source of cravings In your normal everyday life, you wouldn't say something to yourself like I want to eat pizza because I need to consume this food to survive.

Surface-level cravings are merely manifestations of our deeper underlying motives and these underlying motives guide our behavior.

Here are some examples from the book of underlying motives.

Conserving energy, obtaining food and water, finding love and reproducing, connecting and bonding with others, winning social acceptance and approval, reducing uncertainty, achieving status and prestige.

Your brain did not evolve with a desire to smoke cigarettes, check Instagram every 5 minutes or to play video games.

Online platforms and products do not invent new motivations, but rather appeal to the underlying motives of human nature that we already have to gain our attention.

Your habits are modern-day solutions to ancient desires.

New versions of old vices, the underlying motives behind human behavior, remain the same.

People who have the underlying motive of connecting with others may jump onto Facebook.

Others seeking the underlying motive of finding love and reproducing may sign up for Tinder.

If you want to reduce uncertainty, there's Google for that.

And seeking social acceptance, there's Instagram.

Reprogramming Your Brain to Enjoy Hard Habits You can make hard habits more attractive if you can learn to associate them with a positive experience.

By highlighting the benefits of a habit rather than its downsides, you can quickly reprogram your mind and make it seem more appealing.

For example, fitness equals health and wellbeing and not fatigue, Cleaning the house, an environment conducive to peace of mind and not wasted time.

Saving money, future financial freedom and not sacrifice.

To break a bad habit, do the same but highlight the benefits of not doing that habit to make it as unattractive to keep doing as possible.

Law 3 Make it easy How long does it actually take to form a new habit?

During habit formation, a behaviour becomes increasingly automatic as it is repeated.

As you repeat an activity, your brain changes in order to become more efficient at doing it.

Long before neuroscientists dug into the process of forming habits, repetition was known as a powerful tool for establishing habits.

You activate particular neural circuits associated with habits every time you repeat them.

So framing habit formation in terms of time is flawed.

It should be framed in terms of number of repetitions.

Reducing Friction The Law of Least Effort The more energy required, the less likely it is to happen.

It takes almost no energy to get into the habit of reading 1 page of a book each day.

Habits are more likely to occur when they require less energy.

The bigger the obstacle, the more friction there is between you and the desired outcome.

If you need to travel 20 minutes out of your way to go to your gym, chances are you will not.

But if your gym is located on your commute to work, you will greatly decrease the friction.

By making your good habits more convenient, you are more likely to stick to them.

Your life will be easier if you find ways to reduce friction rather than trying to solve it.

In order to build better habits, we have to find ways to reduce friction associated with our good habits and increase friction associated with our bad habits.

Priming the environment for use By automating or setting up your environment, you can Reduce the friction for future action.

For example, I will lay out my workout clothes the night before, so when I get up, I can get moving in the morning.

Or to prepare a healthier breakfast, place the pan on the stove, cooking spray on the counter, and gather the ingredients the night before.

Using the 2 minute rule to stop procrastinating.

Using the 2 minute rule can help you establish small habits that will lead to success in bigger ones.

Find a simple 2 minute version of your desired habit.

You want to scale down your desired outcome.

Running a marathon becomes putting on your shoes and stretching for 2 minutes.

Reading an hour per day becomes reading 1 page.

You need to get the routine anchored in place and then slowly build up the difficulty.

After you have mastered the 2 minute habit, You can progress to the next phase.

To make something more difficult, think about ways you can create barriers of friction between yourself and the bad habit.

If you want to watch less TV, unplug the TV after each use and put the remote in an inconvenient location.

When you go shopping, leave your credit cards under the seat of the car if you have a bad habit of spontaneous spending.

Do anything you can to make your bad habits less likely to occur.

Law 4 Make it Satisfying The Most Important Rule of Behaviour Change A feeling of pleasure is a message to the brain, this feels good, let's repeat this next time.

When you experience pleasure, your brain learns that behaviour is worth remembering and repeating.

What is immediately rewarded is repeated.

The first 3 laws increase your chances of doing the habit this time.

The last law increases your chances of repeating the habit next time.

The mismatch between immediate and delayed returns It is common for us to feel good about our immediate results, but bad about our long-term outcomes when we practice bad habits.

The immediate result is unpleasant, but the ultimate outcome is satisfying.

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How to become 37.78 times better at anything | Atomic Habits summary (by James Clear)