Atomic Habits Summary
Atomic Habits Summary
A really good book that’s been highly recommended. Knocked it out in one day thanks to me doing a road gig yesterday. A lot of regurgitation but that’s what we need to get down some of these habits. Lots of practicality, and examples. Heard a lot of this from How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, Willpower Instinct, and Made to Stick. Lots of extra help, charts, and content on the book’s website.
- Habit Stack- Do a new habit after doing an old habit you already do. The best way is to Oreo stack. When waking up I could Old habit (drink coffee), free write for 30 minutes (new habit), then make the bed (old habit).
- Systems > Goals- Goals are something you want, systems are what you’re currently doing. You don’t fail to live up to your goals, you fail to do to your system not being set up correctly. The goal would be to write a novel. The system would be to set a timer and write 30 minutes a day. A goal would be to be a headlining comedian. The system would be to do record and watch every set and take notes. A goal could be to be a successful filmmaker. The system would make a youtube short or sketch once a week or once a month. Add extra systems on top once you get a basic foundational habit down. Tweak them to get you to the next level as you layer them on one another.
- Habits Don’t Narrow your life down- Habits take away the distractions thinking and make it an auto response so you can use your thinking on things that need it. Don’t think about what to eat, just eat healthy like your habit has you doing. Don’t think if you need to make your bed, you already did it in an about 1 minute as soon as you woke up. More free time.
- Identity- My identity is that I’m a clean-cut, ambitious, muscular, teetotaler. Whether or not you see me that way, that’s how I see myself as. So I have to maintain that identity. Anything against that will drive me crazy. So, establish an identity that’s got the habits you want. Instead of wanting to learn an instrument, establish the identity of a musician.
- Ultra Identity Checklist: If I want to be a badass headlining comedian, what would that kind of person be doing with his free time. What habits would he be doing, and which avoiding? I can look at my habits and view which are effective and which aren’t for that.
- Scorecard: Are the habits getting you where you need to be? Are you hitting them with the frequency you need to be? Review and try to get better weekly.
- 2 minutes: You’ve heard the make a deal with yourself for cleaning the room for 2 minutes or just do 1 push up trick right? Tell yourself that, then you’ll trick yourself into doing it longer than you planned. But instead of that, actually just do 2 minutes. You know it’s a trick, so it wouldn’t work if you know that. So force yourself to stop at 2 minutes. Then you will do it regularly. Once it’s regular, then you can start pushing further with it. How can you get better at a habit you don’t even have yet.
- Make it fun- If you’re wanting to write, make yourself stop as soon as it’s not fun anymore. However long that is. Do that daily. Always end while it’s still going well. That’s what Hemmingway suggests.
- Eliminate Friction- Take anything away that makes things harder to do. Distance, Distractions, Toxic people. Make things you want to do easier. Make things you want to stop harder. Hide them, stay further from them, make it more complicated to log onto your phone or facebook. Get rid of all winter clothes so you can’t go out during cold months so you have to stay home and write like Victor Hugo.
- Accountability by Death: Be accountable so that it’s embarrassing. Bet money that will go to a hate group if you fail, or post a deadline on social media you’ll be embarrassed for failing. One writer said he’d kill himself if he didn’t do as he said he would.
- Environment– New places allow new habits. Your old environments are established with a certain habit. You can’t get over that. go to new places. Check into a hotel for a weekend and just write a whole book. Ride an airplane and write an entire book. If you can’t get a new environment, rearrange the one you have to fit what you need. Be around people where what you’re doing is normal, even coveted. If being an actor or opera singer is weird where you are, you’ll feel weird or at least lackadaisical doing it. If you’re around an apartment full of people obsessed with it, you can’t help but get better at it.
- Do what you’re easily good at– Michael Phelps was meant to be a swimmer. Tall, long upper torso and arms, short legs. Not meant to run and be a powerlifter or gymnast or cyclist. If you do what you’re great at, you’ll get quick results, giving you the motivation to keep pushing forward. Are you an introvert, are you a detail person, are you a confrontational person, are you a creative person, are you a tall, are you a people person, are you great at public speaking, are you funny. Then dial it down to specific niches so you have no competition. Combine skills that you’re in the top 25% at. That way you don’t have to be the top 1% or even top 10 %. This way you only have to be pretty good at a bunch of things that you like and make a new thing out of it. Like Scott Adams did with Dilbert. Funny, good at drawing, long history of working in corporate. Combined it all. That’s like if I made a comedy movie or web series based off of personal training or growing up in small-town Arkansas. Hmmm. I should actually do that. By the way, his book I cited earlier is one of my favorites if you haven’t read that yet.
- Get your Reps in– Not about how long it takes to get a habit. About how frequent. Get your reps in and it happens. Just like doing a lot of workouts and building a muscle. Don’t think of it as 30 days, think of it as getting 30 sets in.
- Action, not Motion– Motion is planning. Action is doing it. Planning should account for 5% at most of your stuff. Just do it. Do it badly. Doing it badly is doing it, becoming a habit. Waiting and planning for best will not make a habit. Best is the enemy of good. Quantity over quality. Quality will come from quantity. Don’t wait till your energetic to record a podcast. Record a possible shitty one now. Even if short.
- Paper Clip Strategy– Guy moved 120 paperclips from one jar to an empty jar. Each paper clip represented a sales call. Never breaking the chain on a calendar of marking an x on the calendar. Like Seinfeld does with writing jokes.
- Never miss twice– Missing once can happen. Missing twice is becoming a habit. Everything you do is a habit, like it or not. Think about that are rearrange your life so that most of is something moving you where you need and want to be.
Maybe I’ll post an entire list of all the habits I’m forming and taking away for an example in a later post. I wanted to wait and perfect this post more. Do more personal examples, be funnier, but decided just to do it so I can do all my other projects. Getting those reps in. Perfection is the enemy of good.