Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results

In Nov 2012, the author of the book began publishing articles. For years, he has kept notes about his experiment with habits. He started by posting a new article every Monday and Thursday. Within a few months, this simple writing habit led to the first one thousand email subscribers, and by the end of 2013, that number had grown to thirty thousand people. In 2015, he signed a book deal with Penguin Random House. In 2018, over five hundred thousand subscribers and over a million visitors were on his website. Someone experimenting with his habits has managed the dream of every writer in the world in a relatively short time. The book has sold over 15 million copies worldwide and has been translated into over 50 languages.

A kind warning here is if you want a spoiler, then read this summary further. This book is a must-read for anyone on the journey of self-improvement. Any summary review does an injustice to the author. But if you still decide to read further, I hope the next cue will be ordering this book.

By James Clear

This is my book summary of Atomic Habits by James Clear. My notes are informal and contain quotes from the book and my thoughts. Each book summary has a short description, top lessons from the book, chapter-by-chapter summary, and favorite quotes. Enjoy!

Top 10 Lessons from the Book

1. Habits are compound interests of self-improvement. Getting 1% better every day counts for a lot in the long run

2. Your identity emerges out of your habits. Every action is a vote for the person you wish to become

3. The ultimate purpose of habits is to solve the problems of life with as little energy and effort as possible

4. The process of behavior change always starts with awareness. You need to be aware of your habits before you can change them

5. Small changes in context can lead to large changes in behavior over time.

6. People with high self-control tend to spend less time in tempting situations. It's easier to avoid temptation than resist it

7. Habits are attractive when we associate them with positive feelings. Create a motivation ritual by doing something you enjoy immediately before a difficult habit. Choose a habit that best suits you and aligns with your natural abilities

8. The most effective form of learning is practice, not planning. Focus on taking action, not being in motion

9. The Cardinal rule of behavior change: What is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided

10. Never miss twice. If you miss one day, try to get back on track as quickly as possible

Interested to read more? Click to expand chapter by chapter summary

Chapter 1 - Why tiny changes make a big difference

The fate of British Cycling changed one day in 2003. The professional cycling organization has hired Dave Brailsford as the new director. At that time, Great Britain endured nearly one hundred years of mediocrity. In Tour de France, no British cycle has ever won. Brailsford has been hired to push the team forward. His commitment to searching for a tiny margin of improvement in every aspect made him different. If you break down every single principle and then improve it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together. During the ten years from 2007 to 2017, British cyclists won 178 world championships and sixty-six Olympic or Paralympic gold medals.

An atomic habit is a little habit part of a larger system. Just as atoms are the building blocks of molecules, atomic habits are the building blocks of remarkable results.

Chapter 2 - How Your Habits Shape Your Identity (and Vice Versa)

I didn't consider myself a writer for most of my early life. If you were to ask any of my high school teachers or college professors, they would tell you I was an average writer at best: certainly not a standout. When I began my writing career, I published a new article every Monday and Thursday for the first few years. As the evidence grew, so did my identity as a writer. I didn't start as a writer. I become one through my habits.

Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs and upgrade and expand your identity.

Chapter 3 - How to Build Better Habits in 4 Simple Steps

In 1898, a psychologist named Edward Thorndike conducted an experiment to lay the foundation for understanding how habits form and the rules that guide our behavior. He places each cat inside a device known as a puzzle box. The box was designed so that the cat could escape through a door by some simple act. Once the door has been opened, the cat can run to a food bowl. Initially, the animals moved around the box randomly, and it took some minutes. But the learning process begins as soon as they find the way out. After twenty to thirty trials, the behavior became so automatic and habitual that the cat could escape within a few seconds.

A habit is a behavior repeated enough times to become automatic.

Chapter 4 - Make it obvious

The phycologist Gary Klein once told me a story about a woman who attended a family gathering. She had spent years working as a paramedic and, upon arriving at the event, took one look at her father-in-law and got very concerned. She insisted he needed to go immediately to the hospital. A few hours later, the man was undergoing lifesaving surgery after an examination had revealed that he had a blockage to a major artery and was at risk of a heart attack. After many years of working with patients with heart failure, the woman had developed the ability to recognize the exact patterns. Similar stories exist in other fields.

With enough practice, your brain will pick up on the cues that predict specific outcomes without consciously thinking about it.

Chapter 5 - The Best Way to Start a New Habit

In 2001, Researchers in Great Britain began working with 248 people to build better exercise habits over two weeks. The subjects were divided into three groups. The first group was the control group. They were asked to track how often they exercised. The second group was the motivation group. They were asked to follow the workouts and read some materials on the benefits of exercise. Finally, the third group tracked everything as the second group, and in addition, they were asked to formulate a plan – when and where they would exercise. “During the next week, I will partake in at least 20 minutes of exercise on (DAY) at (TIME) in (PLACE)”. The results of the research. In the first and second groups, 35 to 38 percent of people exercised at least once per week. But 91% of the third group exercised at least once per week, double the average rate.

The first law of behavior Change is to make it obvious. The two most common cues are time and location. The implementation intention formula is: I will (BEHAVIOR) at (TIME) in (LOCATION).

Chapter 6 - Motivation Is Overrated; Environment Often Matters More

Anne Thorndike, a primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston had a crazy idea. She believed she could improve the eating habits of thousands of hospital staff and visitors without changing their willpower or motivation in the slightest way. Thorndike and her colleagues simply changed how drinks were arranged in the room. Originally, the refrigerator located next to the cash registers in the cafeteria were filled with only soda. They added water as an option to each other. Additionally, they placed baskets of bottled water next to the food stations throw-out the room. Soda was still primary refrigerators, but water was now available at all drink locations. Over the next three months, the number of soda sales at the hospital dropped by 11.4% and the sales of bottled water increased by 25.8%.

People often choose products not because of what they are, but because of where they are. That’s why a stable environment where everything has a place and a purpose is an environment where habits can easily form.

Chapter 7 - The Secret to Self-Control

In 1971 as the Vietnam war was heading into its sixteenth year, congressmen Robert Steele from Connecticut and Morgan Murphy from Illinois made the discovery that stunned American public. While visiting the troops, they had learned that over 15percent of U.S. soldiers stationed there were heroin addicts. Follow up research revealed that 35percent of service members in Vietnam had tried heroin and as many as 20 percent were addicted-the problem was even worse than they had initially thought. The discovery led to an activity in Washington to promote prevention and rehabilitation. Robins found that when the soldiers who had been heroin users returned home, only 5 percent of them become re-addicted within a year, and just 12 percent relapsed within three years. In other words, approximately nine out of ten soldiers who used heroin in Vietnam eliminated their addiction nearly overnight. This revealed that if the environment radically changes has influenced in the change of habits. The context has changed so as the habit.

When Patty Olwell, a therapist from Austin, Texas, started smoking, she would often light up while riding horses with a friend. Eventually, she quit smoking and avoided it for years. She had also stopped riding. Decades later, she hopped on a horse again and found herself craving a cigarette for the first time in forever. These cues were still internalized; she just hadn’t been exposed to the in a long time.

Once habit is formed, its unlikely to be forgotten. One of the most practical ways to eliminate a bad habit is to reduce exposure to the cue that causes it.

Chapter 8 - How to Make a Habit Irresistible

In Chapter 8 of "Atomic Habits," James Clear discusses an example involving the Dutch scientist Niko Tinbergen to illustrate the concept of making habits attractive. Tinbergen studied how seagulls feed their chicks.

Niko Tinbergen conducted a series of experiments to understand how seagulls' feeding behavior works. He observed that seagull chicks had a natural instinct to peck at their parent's beak to trigger regurgitation and receive food. Tinbergen experimented with various factors to see what specifically triggered this behavior. He found that the chicks were most stimulated to peck when their parent's beak had a red dot on it. Even in the absence of the parent, chicks would peck at any object with a red dot. This simple red dot became a powerful trigger for the chicks' feeding response. Tinbergen termed this phenomenon a "supernormal stimulus." James Clear uses Tinbergen's example to illustrate the idea of making habits attractive. In the context of human behavior, just as the red dot became a supernormal stimulus for the seagull chicks, we can create attractive cues that prompt us to engage in desired habits. These cues generate a strong craving and desire, making the habit more likely to stick.

The key takeaway from this example is that by associating a habit with an attractive cue or stimulus, we can stimulate our brain's craving mechanism and make the habit more appealing. This concept of creating an appealing cue is fundamental in making habits irresistible, as discussed in the chapter.

In summary, Chapter 8 of "Atomic Habits" highlights the importance of making habits attractive by associating them with pleasure, desire, and positive emotions. By understanding the role of cravings, dopamine, identity, and immediate rewards, you can create an environment that supports the formation of new, beneficial habits.

The more attractive an opportunity is, the more likely it is to become habit forming.

Chapter 9 - The Role of Family and Friends in Shaping Your Habits

James Clear uses the example of Laszlo Polgar to illustrate the impact of environment and social influences on habits. Laszlo Polgar believed that genius was made, not born, and he set out to prove this by raising his children to excel in a chosen field. He chose chess and created an environment where his daughters were immersed in the game from a young age.

Polgar's approach involved the following principles:

1. Early Exposure: The Polgar sisters were exposed to chess from a very young age. They were surrounded by chess materials and played the game regularly. 2. Encouragement and Support: Polgar provided consistent encouragement and support, reinforcing the idea that they could excel in chess. 3. Peer Influence: The sisters practiced and competed against each other, creating a competitive and supportive peer environment. 4. High Expectations: Polgar had high expectations for his daughters' achievements, and this belief influenced their own self-perception and goals.

The example of Laszlo Polgar showcases how intentional environment shaping, social support, and consistent reinforcement can lead to remarkable habit formation and success. In summary, Chapter 9 of "Atomic Habits" emphasizes the significance of family and friends in influencing our habits. It also highlights how creating the right environment and leveraging social norms can contribute to the formation of positive habits. The example of Laszlo Polgar demonstrates the powerful impact of environment and social influences on shaping habits and achieving extraordinary results.

We tend to adopt habits that are praised and approved of by our culture because we have a strong desire to fit in and belong to the tribe

Chapter 10 - How to find and Fix the Causes of Your Bad Habits

In late 2012 the author was sitting in an old apartment just a few blocks from Istanbul’s most famous street. He was in the middle of his Turkey trip and his guide Mike was relaxing close to him. Later that day the author was invited to a dinner with handful of Turkish friends of Mike. There were seven of them and they all smoked except for James. He asked one of the Turks how did he got started. “Friends” his answered was. “One friend smoke, then you try it.” What was truly fascinating was that half of the people form the room has managed to quit smoking thanks to the book: Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Stop Smoking. The author employs an interesting strategy to help smokers eliminate their cravings. He says things like:

- You think you are quitting something, but you are not quitting anything because cigarettes do nothing for you

- You think smoking is about relieving stress, but its not. Smoke does not relieve your nerves, it destroys them.

By the time you reached the end of the book, smoking seems as the most ridiculous thing in the world to do.

Every behavior has a surface level craving and a deeper underlying motive.

Chapter 11 - Walk Slowly but Never Backward

On the first day of class Jerry Uelsmann, a professor at the University of Florida, divided his film photography students into two groups. Half of the group was supposed to represent quality group and the other half quantity group. The “quantity: group was graded on the amount of work they produced. One hundred photo would rate an A ninety an B and so on. The quality group had to produce only one photo but to get an A it needs to be a perfect image. At the end of the term, he was surprised to find out that all the best photos were from the quantity group. These students that were busy with taking photos, experimenting with light, compositions, testing different methods and learning from mistakes have managed to produce amazing results. Meanwhile the quality group spent a lot of time discussing and at the end they had little to show for their efforts other than unverified theories.

If you want to master a habit the key is to start with repetition, not perfection. You do not need to map out every feature of a new habit. You just need to practice it.

The amount of time you have been performing a habit is not as important as the number of times you have performed it.

Chapter 12 - The Law of Least Efforts

The chapter opens with the example of biologist Jared Diamond, who points out a simple fact: different continents have different shapes. This is an obvious statement, but it profoundly impacts human behavior. The landmass of North and South America tends to be tall and thin rather than broad and fat. Similar in Africa. Meanwhile, the landmass that makes up Europe, Asia, and the Middle East is the opposite. These differences have played a significant role in the spread of agriculture over the centuries. The climate varies greatly when traveling from north to south, and you can be the most talented farmer in the world, but you will need help to grow Florida oranges in Canada. The spread of agriculture provides an example of the 3rd law of behavior change on a global scale. Conventional wisdom holds that motivation is the key to habit change.

These examples in Chapter 12 highlight different techniques for initiating new habits, including creating clear cues, starting with minimal responses, and making the environment conducive to the desired behavior. The underlying principle is to reduce the friction associated with starting the habit and to make the first step as easy as possible.

Prime your environment to make future actions easier.

Chapter 13 - How to Stop Procrastinating by Using the Two-Minute Rule

Twyla Tharp is regarded as one of the most incredible dancers and choreographers of the modern era. In 1992, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, and she has spent the bulk of her career touring the globe to perform her original works. She also credits her success to simple daily habits.

“I begin each day of my life with a ritual,” she writes. I wake up at 5:30 a.m. and put on my work clothes, legwarmers, sweatshirt, and hat. I walk outside my home, hail a taxi, and tell the driver to take me to the gym where I work for two hours. The ritual is not the stretching and weight training I put my body through each morning. The practice is the cab. The moment I tell the driver where to go, I have completed the ritual.

Using the two-minute rule (starting with a task that takes two minutes or less), we can overcome the initial resistance and establish a habit.

“Read before bed each night “becomes “read one page”

“Do thirty minutes of yoga” becomes “Take out my yoga mat”

“Run three miles” becomes “Tie my running shoes”

The more you ritualize the beginning of the process, the more likely it becomes that you can slip into the state of deep focus that is required to do great things.

Chapter 14 - How to Make Good Habits Inevitable and Bad Habits Impossible

In the summer of 1830, Victor Hugo was facing an impossible deadline. Twelve months earlier, the author had promised his publisher a new book. Instead of writing, he pursued other activities and delayed his work that year. The publisher has set the deadline that in 6 months, the author is supposed to hand over a script for the new book. Hugo concocted a strange plan to beat his procrastination. He asked for his assistance to get rid of all the clothes. He was left with nothing to wear except a large shawl. Lacking suitable clothing, he remained in his study room and wrote furiously during the fall and winter of 1830. The Hunchback of Notre Dame was published two weeks early, on January 1831.

Sometimes, success is less about making good habits easy and more about making bad habits hard.

Chapter 15 - The Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change

In the late 1990s, a public health worker named Stephen Luby left his hometown, Omaha, Nebraska, and both a one-way ticket to Karachi, Pakistan. Karachi is one of the most famous cities in the world. By 1998, over nine million people called it home. The unsanitary conditions lead to widespread illness and disease. Luby and his team realized that the simple habit of washing hands can make a real difference in health in an environment with poor sanitation. Everyone said that handwashing was important, but very few made a habit out of it. That was when Luby and his team partnered with Procter and Gamble to supply the neighborhood with Safeguard soaps. The soap soon became a premium product, and almost everyone enjoyed using the soap. Over 95% of households given the soap for free and encouraged to wash their hands had a handwashing station with soap and water available when the study team arrived. It was a powerful example of the fourth and final law of Behavior Change: make it satisfying. The first three laws of behavior change – make it obvious, attractive, and easy – increase the odds that a behavior will be performed this time. The fourth law makes it satisfying- increase the odds that a behavior will be repeated next time.

What is immediately rewarded, even in a small way, is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided.

Chapter 16 - How to Stick with Good Habits Every Day

In 1993, a bank in Abbotsford, Canada, hired a twenty-three-year-old stockbroker named Trent Dyrsmid. It was a relatively small suburb tucked away in the shadow of Vancouver, where most of the big business deals were being made. Nobody expected too much of him.

Dyrsmid began each morning with two jars on his desk. One was filled with 120 paper clips. The other was empty. As soon as he settled in each day, he would make a sales call. Immediately after, he would move from the entire jar to the empty jar, and the process would begin again. Within eighteen months, Dyrsmid was bringing in % USD million to the firm. By 25, he made 75,000 USD annually, equivalent to 125,000 USD today.

Making progress is satisfying, and visual measures- like moving paper clips provide clear evidence of your progress. Visual measurements come in many forms: food journals, workout logs, loyalty punch cards, and even the page numbers in a book.

When your habits break down, do not do it twice. The first mistake is never the one that ruins you. It is the spiral of repeated mistakes that follows. Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit.

One of the most satisfying feelings is the feeling of making progress.

Chapter 17 - How an Accountability Partner Can Change Everything

After serving as a pilot in World War II, Roger Fisher attended Harward Law School and spent thirty-four years specializing in negotiation and conflict management. At the time, Fisher was focused on designing strategies to prevent a nuclear war, and he had noticed a troubling fact. Any sitting president would have access to launch codes that could kill millions of people but would never actually see anyone die because he would always be thousands of miles away. He suggested putting that code number in a capsule and then implanting the capsule right next to the volunteer's heart. The volunteer would carry a big heavy butcher knife as he accompanied the President. If ever the President wanted to fire nuclear weapons, the only way he could do so would be for him first, with his own hands, to kill one human being. Having to kill someone would distort the President's judgment. He might never push the button.

Just as we are more likely to repeat an experience when the ending is satisfying, we are also more likely to avoid an incident when the end is painful.

On some daily examples, we know that:

- Customers pay their bills on time when they are charged a late fee

- Students show up to class when their grade is linked to attendance and similar.

A habit contract, in addition, can be used to add a social cost to any behavior. It makes the costs of violating your promises public and painful, and knowing that someone else is watching you can be a powerful motivator.

Chapter 18 - The Truth About Talent (When Genes Matter and When they Don’t)

Many people are familiar with Michael Phelps, who is widely considered to be one of the greatest athletes in history. Phelps has won more Olympic medals than any Olympian in any sport. Fewer people know El Guerrouj, but he was a fantastic athlete. He is a Moroccan runner with two Olympic gold medals and the greatest distance runner of all time.

These two athletes are widely different in many ways. El Guerrouj is five feet, nine inches tall, and Phelps is six feet, four inches tall. Despite this seven-inch difference in height, the two men are identical in one respect: they wear the same length inseam on their pair. Now imagine if these world-class athletes were to switch sports. Given his remarkable athleticism, could Phelps become an Olympic-caliber distance runner with enough training? It is unlikely. Phelps weighed 40 percent heavier than El Guerrouj, who competed at an ultra-light 138 pounds.

The secret to maximizing your odds of success is to choose the right field of competition. Selecting the right place to focus is crucial if you want to be truly great. Genes do not determine your destiny. They determine your area of opportunity.

Pick the proper habit, and the progress is easy. Pick the wrong habit, and life is a struggle.

Chapter 19 - The Goldilocks Rule: How to Stay Motivated in Life and Work

In 1955, Disneyland opened in California when a ten-year-old boy walked in and asked for a job. He managed to land a position selling guidebooks for 0.50 USD apiece. Within a year, he had transitioned to Disney's magic shop, where he learned tricks from the older employees. He experimented with jokes and tried out simple routines on visitors. Soon, he discovered that what he loved was not performing magic but performing in general. He set his sights on becoming a comedian. He spent a decade experimenting, adjusting, and practicing. By the mid-1970s, he had worked his way into being a regular guest on The Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live.

Finally, after nearly fifteen years of work, the young man rose to fame. He toured sixty cities in sixty-three days. He catapulted to the top of his genre and became one of the most successful comedians of his time.

His name is Steve Martin.

The Goldilocks Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right.

The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom. Professionals stick to schedule; amateurs let life get their way.

Chapter 20 - The Downside of Creating Good Habits

In 1986, the Lakers had one of the most talented basketball teams ever assembled, but they are rarely remembered that way, but they are seldom placed that way. The team started in the 1985 -1986 NBA season with an astounding 29-5 record. The best team in the history of basketball didn't even play for the NBA championship. After that, Blow's head coach, Rilay, was tired of hearing about how much talent his players had. In the summer of 1986, he created a system called the Career Best Effort Program or CBE. When players first joined the Lakers, they tracked their basketball statistics back to high school. After determining a player's baseline level of performance, he asked each player to improve their output by at least 1 percent throughout the season. The Lakers rolled out CBE in October 1986. Eight months later, they were NBA champions. Reflection and review enable the long-term improvements of all habits because they make you aware of your mistakes and help you consider possible paths for improvement.

The author's way of reflecting is to perform an annual review in which he reflects on the previous year. How many articles he published, workouts he put in, and new places he visited. Then, he reflects on his progress by answering three questions:

1. What went well this year?

2. What didn't go so well this year?

3. What did I learn?

Six months later, when summer rolls around, he conducts an Integrity Report that helps him realize where he went wrong. This is where he reflects on his identity and how he can work toward becoming the person he wishes to be.

The three questions he answers in his Integrity Report are:

1. What are the core values that drive his life and work?

2. How am I living and working with integrity right now?

3. How can I set higher standards for the future?

These two reports take little time, just a few hours per year, but they are crucial periods of refinement. They provide an annual reminder to revisit everything that needs to be reviewed: my identity, habits, what I shall upgrade, and remaining conscious of our performance over time.

An ancient Greek parable known as the "Sorites Paradox" talks about the effect one small action can have when repeated enough times. We can say the same for the atomic habits. The holy grail of habit change is not a single 1 percent improvement but a thousand.

In a world flooded with self-help advice, "Atomic Habits" stands out. The book will move the needle, and you will feel instant results. Although it preaches the long-term effects of changing small details, the immediate change is remarkable. After all, this blog today is up and running because of this book. It's 2023, and I have read the book a year ago. No other book left such a trace as the Atomic Habits.

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Favorite quotes from the book:

Naval Ravikant “To write a great book, you must first become a book”

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

Alfred North Whitehead “Civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them.”

Lao Tzu ““Men are born soft and supple; dead they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus, whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail.”

Beyond the Book: Atomic Habits Journal

Check James Clear at the Fast Forward Conference 2023 where he explains the mechanics of habit formation and unveils fresh insights.

Discover the author's habit tracker book, a game-changer that combines a grid notebook, daily journal, and habit tracker. Perfect for those seeking an all-in-one tool for the year: https://jamesclear.com/habit-journal.