Atomic Habits: 4 simple steps to better habits

Atomic Habits: 4 simple steps to better habits

This article aims to distill key concepts from the book Atomic Habits to adopt better habits with 4 key lessons.

Key lessons for adopting better habits

First, let’s look at the three main lessons in Atomic Habits to get a better idea of the points the author is making. Then we’ll tackle the four simple, easy steps to better habits.

Lesson 1: small habits make a big difference

It’s so easy to overestimate the importance of a defining moment and underestimate the value of small, everyday improvements. The difference a tiny improvement can make over time is staggering. A 1% improvement may be imperceptible at the time, but it can be significant in the long term. What starts as a small victory or minor setback turns into something much bigger. The current degree of success or failure is irrelevant. What matters is whether your habits put you on the road to success. Concentrate on improving by 1% a day.

Lesson 2: forget about goals, focus instead on your system

Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results. If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t with you. The problem is your system. Bad habits are repeated again and again, not because you don’t want to change, but because you don’t have the right system to change. So you’re never at the level of your goals but rather at the level of your systems. True long-term thinking is thinking without goals. It’s not about a single achievement, it’s about a cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. It is your commitment to this process that will determine your progress.

Lesson 3: develop identity-based babits

The key to building lasting habits is to focus first on creating a new identity. Your current behaviours are simply a reflection of your current identity. What you do now is a mirror image of the type of person you believe yourself to be (consciously or unconsciously). To change your behaviour for good, you need to start believing new things about yourself. You need to develop habits based on identity.

Changing your beliefs is not as difficult as you might think:

  1. Decide what kind of person you want to be.
  2. Prove it to yourself with small victories.

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity. This is one reason why meaningful change does not require radical change. Small habits can make a meaningful difference by providing evidence of a new identity. And if a change is meaningful, it is actually big. That’s the paradox of making small improvements.”

James Clear, Atomic Habits

Adopt better habits in 4 simple steps

This brings us to the heart of the matter. The process of creating a habit can be broken down into four simple steps: the cue, the urge, the response and the reward. Breaking it down into these basic elements can help us understand what a habit is, how it works and how to improve it.

Atomic Habits- The Habit Loop

The signal triggers a craving, which motivates a response, which provides a reward, which satisfies the craving and, finally, associates with the signal. Together, these four steps form a neurological feedback loop: signal, craving, response, reward; signal, craving, response, reward. This allows you to create automatic habits.

We can turn these four steps into a practical framework that we can use to design good habits and eliminate bad ones. This framework is called the Four Laws of Behaviour Change and provides a simple set of rules for creating good habits and breaking bad ones.

How to adopt better habits

1. First law (Signal): make it obvious

  • Make a list of your habits so that you become aware of them.
  • Use clear intentions such as: I’m going to [ behaviour ] at [ such and such a time ] at [ place ].
  • Stack your habits: After [ current habit ], I’m going to [ new habit ].
  • Make the signals of your good habits obvious and visible.

2. Second law (Envy): make it attractive

  • Associate an action you want to do with an action you must do.
  • Join a culture where the desired behaviour is the normal behaviour.
  • Create a motivational ritual by doing something you enjoy just before a difficult habit.

3. Third law (Answer): make the task easy

  • Reduce the number of steps between you and your good habits.
  • Prepare your environment to make future actions easier.
  • Optimise small decisions that have a big impact.
  • Reduce your habits until they can be done in two minutes or less.
  • Invest in technology and in one-off purchases that guarantee future behaviour (subscriptions, etc.).

4. Fourth law (Reward): make it satisfying

  • Offer yourself an immediate reward when you finish your habit.
  • When you avoid a bad habit, devise a way of seeing the benefits.
  • Use a tracking tool so you don’t break your habit.
  • Never miss twice in a row. When you forget, make sure you get back on track the next time.

How to break bad habits

1. Reverse the first law (Signal): make it invisible.

  • Remove the signals of the bad habit from your environment.
  • Hide your cigarettes or put away your Nintendo.

2. Reverse the second law (Envy): make it unappealing.

  • Reframe your state of mind by emphasising the benefits of avoiding your bad habits.

Reverse the third law (Response): make the task difficult.

  • Increase the number of steps between you and your bad habits (e.g. remove the batteries from your controller; you’ll have to put them back in to watch TV).
  • Use a commitment device to limit your future choices to those that give you the most benefit.

4. Invert the fourth law (Reward): make it unsatisfactory.

  • Ask a responsible partner to monitor your behaviour.
  • Create a contract by making the results of your bad habits public.

“All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger. Roots entrench themselves and branches grow. The task of breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us. And the task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time.”

– James Clear, Atomic Habits

Conclusion

Atomic Habits is not just a guide to habit formation. The book is a roadmap to a new way of looking at our personal growth and self-improvement. By focusing on small changes, embracing identity change and understanding the mechanisms behind habit formation, James Clear provides a comprehensive toolkit for anyone seeking to make meaningful and lasting changes in their lives.

Find out more about the author and his book.