# Atomic Habits [The Habits Cheat Sheet](https://s3.amazonaws.com/jamesclear/Atomic+Habits/Habits+Cheat+Sheet.pdf) > [!bug] Problems with goal-oriented mindset > > - Winners and losers have the same goals. > - Achieving a goal is only a momentary change. > - Goals restrict your happiness. > - Goals are at odds with long-term progress. > [!tip] Forget about goals > > The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building > systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less > thinking. ## The 1st Law: Make It Obvious - Point-And-Call - We need to engage our consciousness to break/build a habit. - Habit Scorecard - List the all the habits you commit through out the day. - Rate them as "=", "+", or "-", based on how they contribute to your ideal identity. - Implementation Intention - "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it a fate." -- Carl Jung - Many people think they lack motivation when ==what they really lack is clarity==. - "I will \[BEHAVIOR\] at \[TIME\] in \[LOCATION\]." - Habit Stacking - _Diderot Effect_ - a new possession will lead to a series of purchases. - "After I \[CURRENT HABIT\], I will \[NEW HABIT\]." - The habit to be paired should have similar frequencies. - Environment is more important than motivation - A substantial percent of resources of our brain is used to process visual information. What we _see_ affects what we _do_. > [!tip] Design your environment > > Environment design allows you to take back control and become the architect of > your life. Be the designer of your world and not merely the consumer of it. - "cue-induced wanting": an external trigger causes a compulsive craving to repeat a bad habit. - Inversion of the 1st Law: make it invisible ## The 2nd Law: Make It Attractive > [!caution] We have the brains of our ancestors but temptations they never had > to face. - Temptation bundling - We already experience surge of dopamine when craving things. aka mistaking the _wanting_ and the _liking_ - Much more neural circuitry is allocated for the _wanting_ instead of for _liking_ - The anticipation of the reward is the key! - We imitate three groups of people - The close - The many - The powerful - Join the culture where your desired behavior is the norm, and you already have something in common with the group. - When changing habits means challenging the tribe, it can be very unattractive, and vice versa. - Cravings and habits are always associated with fundamental motivations. - Create motivation ritual by doing something enjoyable immediately before hard tasks. ## The 3rd Law: Make It Easy - _Motions_ are good, but only _Actions_ make good things happen. - Start with **repetition** instead of perfection. - _Long-term potentiation_ = strengthening of connections between neurons in the brain based on recent pattern of activities. - _Hebb's Law_ = neurons that fire together wire together. - Reduce friction for good actions, increase friction for bad ones. - Master the _decisive moments_. > [!quote] Each day is made up of many moments, but it is really a few habitual > choices that determine the path you take. - _Two-Minute Rule_ = When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do. - _Habits Shaping_ = Divide habits into phases. - _Commitment Device_ = Lock our future actions into present thinking, > [!quote] Civilization advanced by extending the number of operations we can > perform without thinking about them. > > <p align=right>-- Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician and philosopher</p> ## The 4th Law: Make It Satisfying - Making handwashing enjoyable by using Safeguard soap. - What is _immediately_ rewarded is repeated. What is _immediately_ punished is avoided. - Immediate vs delayed return environment. Our neocortex developed to fit into the former one. - There is a _time-inconsistency_ of evaluating the rewards. - ==Best way to cultivate [[delay-of-gratification|delayed gratification]] is to add a bit of _instant pleasure_.== - Use instant pleasure to stay on track, while the delayed pleasure is accumulating in the background. Eventually, intrinsic [[motivation]] may take over. - ==The best [[motivation]] is progress.== Habit tracking helps.