A habit is a routine or behavior that is performed regularly—and, in many cases, automatically. (Location 144) #✂️

changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years. (Location 157) #✂️

The backbone of this book is my four-step model of habits—cue, craving, response, and reward—and the four laws of behavior change that evolve out of these steps. (Location 193) #✂️

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. (Location 196) #✂️

Here’s how the math works out: if you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done. (Location 252) #✂️

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them. They seem to make little difference on any given day and yet the impact they deliver over the months and years can be enormous. It is only when looking back two, five, or perhaps ten years later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones becomes strikingly apparent. (Location 261) #✂️

That said, it doesn’t matter how successful or unsuccessful you are right now. What matters is whether your habits are putting you on the path toward success. (Location 280) #✂️

Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. Your net worth is a lagging measure of your financial habits. Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits. Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. Your clutter is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits. You get what you repeat. (Location 284) #✂️

Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy. (Location 289) #✂️

The more you think of yourself as worthless, stupid, or ugly, the more you condition yourself to interpret life that way. You get trapped in a thought loop. The same is true for how you think about others. (Location 307) #✂️

Breakthrough moments are often the result of many previous actions, which build up the potential required to unleash a major change. (Location 318) #✂️

But in order to make a meaningful difference, habits need to persist long enough to break through this plateau—what I call the Plateau of Latent Potential. (Location 327) #✂️

Eventually, I began to realize that my results had very little to do with the goals I set and nearly everything to do with the systems I followed. (Location 357) #✂️

Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results. (Location 359) #✂️

Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress. (Location 370) #✂️

Winners and losers have the same goals. (Location 372) #✂️

Achieving a goal is only a momentary change. (Location 380) #✂️

Achieving a goal only changes your life for the moment. That’s the counterintuitive thing about improvement. We think we need to change our results, but the results are not the problem. (Location 384) #✂️

The implicit assumption behind any goal is this: “Once I reach my goal, then I’ll be happy.” The problem with a goals-first mentality is that you’re continually putting happiness off until the next milestone. (Location 388) #✂️

Furthermore, goals create an “either-or” conflict: either you achieve your goal and are successful or you fail and you are a disappointment. You mentally box yourself into a narrow version of happiness. (Location 392) #✂️

When all of your hard work is focused on a particular goal, what is left to push you forward after you achieve it? (Location 400) #✂️

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. It’s not about any single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. Ultimately, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress. (Location 402) #✂️

You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. (Location 407) #✂️

This is the meaning of the phrase atomic habits—a regular practice or routine that is not only small and easy to do, but also the source of incredible power; a component of the system of compound growth. (Location 414) #✂️

Changing our habits is challenging for two reasons: (1) we try to change the wrong thing and (2) we try to change our habits in the wrong way. (Location 431) #✂️

The first layer is changing your outcomes. This level is concerned with changing your results: losing weight, publishing a book, winning a championship. Most of the goals you set are associated with this level of change. (Location 439) #✂️

The second layer is changing your process. This level is concerned with changing your habits and systems: implementing a new routine at the gym, decluttering your desk for better workflow, developing a meditation practice. Most of the habits you build are associated with this level. (Location 441) #✂️

The third and deepest layer is changing your identity. This level is concerned with changing your beliefs: your worldview, your self-image, your judgments about yourself and others. Most of the beliefs, assumptions, and biases you hold are associated with this level. (Location 443) #✂️

All levels of change are useful in their own way. The problem is the direction of change. (Location 447) #✂️

Many people begin the process of changing their habits by focusing on what they want to achieve. This leads us to outcome-based habits. (Location 448) #✂️

The alternative is to build identity-based habits. With this approach, we start by focusing on who we wish to become. (Location 449) #✂️

Behind every system of actions are a system of beliefs. (Location 463) #✂️

It’s hard to change your habits if you never change the underlying beliefs that led to your past behavior. You have a new goal and a new plan, but you haven’t changed who you are. (Location 471) #✂️

The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity. It’s one thing to say I’m the type of person who wants this. It’s something very different to say I’m the type of person who is this. (Location 480) #✂️

The more pride you have in a particular aspect of your identity, the more motivated you will be to maintain the habits associated with it. (Location 482) #✂️

True behavior change is identity change. (Location 486) #✂️

The goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader. The goal is not to run a marathon, the goal is to become a runner. The goal is not to learn an instrument, the goal is to become a musician. (Location 489) #✂️

When working for you, identity change can be a powerful force for self-improvement. When working against you, though, identity change can be a curse. Once you have adopted an identity, it can be easy to let your allegiance to it impact your ability to change. (Location 498) #✂️

When you have repeated a story to yourself for years, it is easy to slide into these mental grooves and accept them as a fact. (Location 504) #✂️

The biggest barrier to positive change at any level—individual, team, society—is identity conflict. (Location 508) #✂️

Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity. (Location 513) #✂️

Your identity is literally your “repeated beingness.” (Location 523) #✂️

Of course, your habits are not the only actions that influence your identity, but by virtue of their frequency they are usually the most important ones. (Location 530) #✂️

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. (Location 539) #✂️

It is a simple two-step process: Decide the type of person you want to be. Prove it to yourself with small wins. (Location 553) #✂️

Once you have a handle on the type of person you want to be, you can begin taking small steps to reinforce your desired identity. (Location 566) #✂️

The concept of identity-based habits is our first introduction to another key theme in this book: feedback loops. (Location 569) #✂️

The formation of all habits is a feedback loop (a concept we will explore in depth in the next chapter), but it’s important to let your values, principles, and identity drive the loop rather than your results. (Location 570) #✂️

The first step is not what or how, but who. You need to know who you want to be. (Location 576) #✂️

Ultimately, your habits matter because they help you become the type of person you wish to be. They are the channel through which you develop your deepest beliefs about yourself. Quite literally, you become your habits. (Location 583) #✂️

A habit is a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic. (Location 613) #✂️

This is the feedback loop behind all human behavior: try, fail, learn, try differently. With practice, the useless movements fade away and the useful actions get reinforced. That’s a habit forming. (Location 622) #✂️

“Habits are, simply, reliable solutions to recurring problems in our environment.” (Location 625) #✂️

Habits are mental shortcuts learned from experience. In a sense, a habit is just a memory of the steps you previously followed to solve a problem in the past. (Location 632) #✂️

Habit formation is incredibly useful because the conscious mind is the bottleneck of the brain. It can only pay attention to one problem at a time. As a result, your brain is always working to preserve your conscious attention for whatever task is most essential. (Location 634) #✂️

The process of building a habit can be divided into four simple steps: cue, craving, response, and reward. (Location 650) #✂️

The cue triggers your brain to initiate a behavior. It is a bit of information that predicts a reward. (Location 656) #✂️

Cravings are the second step, and they are the motivational force behind every habit. Without some level of motivation or desire—without craving a change—we have no reason to act. What you crave is not the habit itself but the change in state it delivers. (Location 662) #✂️

Cues are meaningless until they are interpreted. The thoughts, feelings, and emotions of the observer are what transform a cue into a craving. (Location 668) #✂️

The response is the actual habit you perform, which can take the form of a thought or an action. Whether a response occurs depends on how motivated you are and how much friction is associated with the behavior. If a particular action requires more physical or mental effort than you are willing to expend, then you won’t do it. Your response also depends on your ability. It sounds simple, but a habit can occur only if you are capable of doing it. (Location 670) #✂️

Rewards are the end goal of every habit. The cue is about noticing the reward. The craving is about wanting the reward. The response is about obtaining the reward. (Location 674) #✂️

The first purpose of rewards is to satisfy your craving. Yes, rewards provide benefits on their own. Food and water deliver the energy you need to survive. (Location 676) #✂️

Second, rewards teach us which actions are worth remembering in the future. Your brain is a reward detector. As you go about your life, your sensory nervous system is continuously monitoring which actions satisfy your desires and deliver pleasure. Feelings of pleasure and disappointment are part of the feedback mechanism that helps your brain distinguish useful actions from useless ones. Rewards close the feedback loop and complete the habit cycle. (Location 679) #✂️

This cycle is known as the habit loop. (Location 694) #✂️

We can split these four steps into two phases: the problem phase and the solution phase. The problem phase includes the cue and the craving, and it is when you realize that something needs to change. The solution phase includes the response and the reward, and it is when you take action and achieve the change you desire. (Location 698) #✂️

I refer to this framework as the Four Laws of Behavior Change, and it provides a simple set of rules for creating good habits and breaking bad ones. (Location 756) #✂️

How to Create a Good Habit The 1st law (Cue): Make it obvious. The 2nd law (Craving): Make it attractive. The 3rd law (Response): Make it easy. The 4th law (Reward): Make it satisfying. (Location 760) #✂️

How to Break a Bad Habit Inversion of the 1st law (Cue): Make it invisible. Inversion of the 2nd law (Craving): Make it unattractive. Inversion of the 3rd law (Response): Make it difficult. Inversion of the 4th law (Reward): Make it unsatisfying. (Location 765) #✂️

This is one of the most surprising insights about our habits: you don’t need to be aware of the cue for a habit to begin. You can notice an opportunity and take action without dedicating conscious attention to it. This is what makes habits useful. (Location 823) #✂️

Over time, the cues that spark our habits become so common that they are essentially invisible: the treats on the kitchen counter, the remote control next to the couch, the phone in our pocket. Our responses to these cues are so deeply encoded that it may feel like the urge to act comes from nowhere. For this reason, we must begin the process of behavior change with awareness. (Location 835) #✂️

This process, known as Pointing-and-Calling, is a safety system designed to reduce mistakes. It seems silly, but it works incredibly well. Pointing-and-Calling reduces errors by up to 85 percent and cuts accidents by 30 percent. (Location 849) #✂️

Pointing-and-Calling is so effective because it raises the level of awareness from a nonconscious habit to a more conscious level. (Location 852) #✂️

One of our greatest challenges in changing habits is maintaining awareness of what we are actually doing. This helps explain why the consequences of bad habits can sneak up on us. We need a “point-and-call” system for our personal lives. (Location 859) #✂️

Habits Scorecard, (Location 861) #✂️

implementation intention, (Location 916) #✂️

the two most common cues are time and location. Implementation intentions leverage both of these cues. Broadly speaking, the format for creating an implementation intention is: “When situation X arises, I will perform response Y.” (Location 918) #✂️

Many people think they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity. It is not always obvious when and where to take action. (Location 932) #✂️

habit stacking. (Location 951) #✂️

The Diderot Effect states that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption that leads to additional purchases. (Location 964) #✂️

When it comes to building new habits, you can use the connectedness of behavior to your advantage. One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behavior on top. This is called habit stacking. (Location 971) #✂️

Suggestion Impulse Buying, which “is triggered when a shopper sees a product for the first time and visualizes a need for it.” In other words, customers will occasionally buy products not because they want them but because of how they are presented to them. (Location 1068) #✂️

you can imagine how important it is to live and work in environments that are filled with productive cues and devoid of unproductive ones. (Location 1088) #✂️

Stop thinking about your environment as filled with objects. Start thinking about it as filled with relationships. Think in terms of how you interact with the spaces around you. For one person, her couch is the place where she reads for an hour each night. For someone else, the couch is where he watches television and eats a bowl of ice cream after work. (Location 1130) #✂️

“cue-induced wanting”: an external trigger causes a compulsive craving to repeat a bad habit. Once you notice something, you begin to want it. (Location 1216) #✂️

A supernormal stimulus is a heightened version of reality—like a beak with three red dots or an egg the size of a volleyball—and it elicits a stronger response than usual. (Location 1283) #✂️

Other processed foods enhance dynamic contrast, which refers to items with a combination of sensations, like crunchy and creamy. (Location 1296) #✂️

The ability to experience pleasure remained, but without dopamine, desire died. And without desire, action stopped. (Location 1328) #✂️

Habits are a dopamine-driven feedback loop. Every behavior that is highly habit-forming—taking drugs, eating junk food, playing video games, browsing social media—is associated with higher levels of dopamine. (Location 1333) #✂️

When it comes to habits, the key takeaway is this: dopamine is released not only when you experience pleasure, but also when you anticipate it. (Location 1337) #✂️

It is the anticipation of a reward—not the fulfillment of it—that gets us to take action. (Location 1341) #✂️

Temptation bundling works by linking an action you want to do with an action you need to do. (Location 1371) #✂️

Temptation bundling is one way to apply a psychology theory known as Premack’s Principle. (Location 1387) #✂️

“more probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors.” (Location 1388) #✂️

And as we are about to see, whatever habits are normal in your culture are among the most attractive behaviors you’ll find. (Location 1437) #✂️

We imitate the habits of three groups in particular: The close. The many. The powerful. (Location 1455) #✂️

One groundbreaking study tracked twelve thousand people for thirty-two years and found that “a person’s chances of becoming obese increased by 57 percent if he or she had a friend who became obese.” It works the other way, too. Another study found that if one person in a relationship lost weight, the other partner would also slim down about one third of the time. (Location 1466) #✂️

One of the most effective things you can do to build better habits is to join a culture where your desired behavior is the normal behavior. New habits seem achievable when you see others doing them every day. If you are surrounded by fit people, you’re more likely to consider working out to be a common habit. (Location 1474) #✂️ #favorite

There is tremendous internal pressure to comply with the norms of the group. The reward of being accepted is often greater than the reward of winning an argument, looking smart, or finding truth. (Location 1518) #✂️

When changing your habits means challenging the tribe, change is unattractive. When changing your habits means fitting in with the tribe, change is very attractive. (Location 1522) #✂️

We are drawn to behaviors that earn us respect, approval, admiration, and status. (Location 1527) #✂️

A craving is just a specific manifestation of a deeper underlying motive. (Location 1581) #✂️

Here’s the powerful part: there are many different ways to address the same underlying motive. One person might learn to reduce stress by smoking a cigarette. Another person learns to ease their anxiety by going for a run. Your current habits are not necessarily the best way to solve the problems you face; they are just the methods you learned to use. Once you associate a solution with the problem you need to solve, you keep coming back to it. (Location 1590) #✂️

You see a cue, categorize it based on past experience, and determine the appropriate response. (Location 1598) #✂️

A craving is the sense that something is missing. It is the desire to change your internal state. When the temperature falls, there is a gap between what your body is currently sensing and what it wants to be sensing. This gap between your current state and your desired state provides a reason to act. (Location 1610) #✂️

Reframing your habits to highlight their benefits rather than their drawbacks is a fast and lightweight way to reprogram your mind and make a habit seem more attractive. (Location 1633) #✂️

If you want to take it a step further, you can create a motivation ritual. You simply practice associating your habits with something you enjoy, then you can use that cue whenever you need a bit of motivation. (Location 1647) #✂️

When preparation becomes a form of procrastination, you need to change something. You don’t want to merely be planning. You want to be practicing. (Location 1729) #✂️

The more you repeat an activity, the more the structure of your brain changes to become efficient at that activity. Neuroscientists call this long-term potentiation, which refers to the strengthening of connections between neurons in the brain based on recent patterns of activity. (Location 1733) #✂️

First described by neuropsychologist Donald Hebb in 1949, this phenomenon is commonly known as Hebb’s Law: “Neurons that fire together wire together.” (Location 1736) #✂️

repetition is a form of change. (Location 1749) #✂️

All habits follow a similar trajectory from effortful practice to automatic behavior, a process known as automaticity. (Location 1753) #✂️

Automaticity is the ability to perform a behavior without thinking about each step, which occurs when the nonconscious mind takes over. (Location 1754) #✂️

One of the most common questions I hear is, “How long does it take to build a new habit?” But what people really should be asking is, “How many does it take to form a new habit?” That is, how many repetitions are required to make a habit automatic? (Location 1768) #✂️

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. Maybe if you really wanted it, you’d actually do it. But the truth is, our real motivation is to be lazy and to do what is convenient. And despite what the latest productivity best seller will tell you, this is a smart strategy, not a dumb one. Energy is precious, and the brain is wired to conserve it whenever possible. It is human nature to follow the Law of Least Effort, which states that when deciding between two similar options, people will naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work. (Location 1808) #✂️

The central idea is to create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible. Much of the battle of building better habits comes down to finding ways to reduce the friction associated with our good habits and increase the friction associated with our bad ones. (Location 1871) #✂️

Whenever you organize a space for its intended purpose, you are priming it to make the next action easy. For (Location 1882) #✂️

Whether we are approaching behavior change as an individual, a parent, a coach, or a leader, we should ask ourselves the same question: “How can we design a world where it’s easy to do what’s right?” Redesign your life so the actions that matter most are also the actions that are easiest to do. (Location 1907) #✂️

Researchers estimate that 40 to 50 percent of our actions on any given day are done out of habit. (Location 1927) #✂️

“When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.” (Location 1956) #✂️

At some point, once you’ve established the habit and you’re showing up each day, you can combine the Two-Minute Rule with a technique we call habit shaping to scale your habit back up toward your ultimate goal. Start by mastering the first two minutes of the smallest version of the behavior. Then, advance to an intermediate step and repeat the process—focusing on just the first two minutes and mastering that stage before moving on to the next level. (Location 2013) #✂️

Sometimes success is less about making good habits easy and more about making bad habits hard. This is an inversion of the 3rd Law of Behavior Change: make it difficult. (Location 2057) #✂️

A commitment device is a choice you make in the present that controls your actions in the future. (Location 2060) #✂️

When working in your favor, automation can make your good habits inevitable and your bad habits impossible. It is the ultimate way to lock in future behavior rather than relying on willpower in the moment. By utilizing commitment devices, strategic onetime decisions, and technology, you can create an environment of inevitability—a space where good habits are not just an outcome you hope for but an outcome that is virtually guaranteed. (Location 2146) #✂️

We are more likely to repeat a behavior when the experience is satisfying. This is entirely logical. Feelings of pleasure—even minor ones like washing your hands with soap that smells nice and lathers well—are signals that tell the brain: “This feels good. Do this again, next time.” (Location 2225) #✂️

You live in what scientists call an immediate-return environment because your actions instantly deliver clear and immediate outcomes. (Location 2249) #✂️

You live in what scientists call a delayed-return environment because you can work for years before your actions deliver the intended payoff. (Location 2252) #✂️

Behavioral economists refer to this tendency as time inconsistency. That is, the way your brain evaluates rewards is inconsistent across time.* You value the present more than the future. (Location 2264) #✂️

This is precisely what research has shown. People who are better at delaying gratification have higher SAT scores, lower levels of substance abuse, lower likelihood of obesity, better responses to stress, and superior social skills. We’ve all seen this play out in our own lives. If you delay watching television and get your homework done, you’ll generally learn more and get better grades. (Location 2290) #✂️

The vital thing in getting a habit to stick is to feel successful—even if it’s in a small way. The feeling of success is a signal that your habit paid off and that the work was worth the effort. (Location 2299) #✂️

You want the ending of your habit to be satisfying. The best approach is to use reinforcement, which refers to the process of using an immediate reward to increase the rate of a behavior. (Location 2307) #✂️

Identity sustains a habit. (Location 2328) #✂️

A habit tracker is a simple way to measure whether you did a habit. The most basic format is to get a calendar and cross off each day you stick with your routine. (Location 2357) #✂️

Before long, an emergency will pop up—you get sick or you have to travel for work or your family needs a little more of your time. Whenever this happens to me, I try to remind myself of a simple rule: never miss twice. (Location 2418) #✂️

Too often, we fall into an all-or-nothing cycle with our habits. The problem is not slipping up; the problem is thinking that if you can’t do something perfectly, then you shouldn’t do it at all. (Location 2427) #✂️ #favorite

Going to the gym for five minutes may not improve your performance, but it reaffirms your identity. The all-or-nothing cycle of behavior change is just one pitfall that can derail your habits. (Location 2436) #✂️

The dark side of tracking a particular behavior is that we become driven by the number rather than the purpose behind it. If your success is measured by quarterly earnings, you will optimize sales, revenue, and accounting for quarterly earnings. If your success is measured by a lower number on the scale, you will optimize for a lower number on the scale, even if that means embracing crash diets, juice cleanses, and fat-loss pills. The human mind wants to “win” whatever game is being played. (Location 2445) #✂️

This is sometimes referred to as Goodhart’s Law. Named after the economist Charles Goodhart, the principle states, “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” Measurement is only useful when it guides you and adds context to a larger picture, not when it consumes you. Each number is simply one piece of feedback in the overall system. (Location 2452) #✂️

Laws and regulations are an example of how government can change our habits by creating a social contract. As a society, we collectively agree to abide by certain rules and then enforce them as a group. Whenever a new piece of legislation impacts behavior—seat belt laws, banning smoking inside restaurants, mandatory recycling—it is an example of a social contract shaping our habits. The group agrees to act in a certain way, and if you don’t follow along, you’ll be punished. (Location 2510) #✂️

Just as governments use laws to hold citizens accountable, you can create a habit contract to hold yourself accountable. A habit contract is a verbal or written agreement in which you state your commitment to a particular habit and the punishment that will occur if you don’t follow through. (Location 2514) #✂️

In summary, one of the best ways to ensure your habits remain satisfying over the long-run is to pick behaviors that align with your personality and skills. Work hard on the things that come easy. (Location 2743) #✂️

The human brain loves a challenge, but only if it is within an optimal zone of difficulty. If you love tennis and try to play a serious match against a four-year-old, you will quickly become bored. It’s too easy. You’ll win every point. In contrast, if you play a professional tennis player like Roger Federer or Serena Williams, you will quickly lose motivation because the match is too difficult. (Location 2777) #✂️

This is a challenge of just manageable difficulty and it is a prime example of the Goldilocks Rule. The Goldilocks Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right. (Location 2782) #✂️

Once a habit has been established, however, it’s important to continue to advance in small ways. These little improvements and new challenges keep you engaged. And if you hit the Goldilocks Zone just right, you can achieve a flow state. (Location 2793) #✂️

A flow state is the experience of being “in the zone” and fully immersed in an activity. Scientists have tried to quantify this feeling. They found that to achieve a state of flow, a task must be roughly 4 percent beyond your current ability. (Location 2796) #✂️

But this coach was saying that really successful people feel the same lack of motivation as everyone else. The difference is that they still find a way to show up despite the feelings of boredom. Mastery requires practice. But the more you practice something, the more boring and routine it becomes. (Location 2812) #✂️

The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom. We get bored with habits because they stop delighting us. The outcome becomes expected. And as our habits become ordinary, we start derailing our progress to seek novelty. (Location 2817) #✂️

As Machiavelli noted, “Men desire novelty to such an extent that those who are doing well wish for a change as much as those who are doing badly.” (Location 2820) #✂️

In psychology, this is known as a variable reward.* Slot machines are the most common real-world example. A gambler hits the jackpot every now and then but not at any predictable interval. The pace of rewards varies. This variance leads to the greatest spike of dopamine, enhances memory recall, and accelerates habit formation. (Location 2824) #✂️

The sweet spot of desire occurs at a 50/50 split between success and failure. Half of the time you get what you want. Half of the time you don’t. You need just enough “winning” to experience satisfaction and just enough “wanting” to experience desire. (Location 2829) #✂️

If you’re already interested in a habit, working on challenges of just manageable difficulty is a good way to keep things interesting. (Location 2831) #✂️

Variable rewards or not, no habit will stay interesting forever. At some point, everyone faces the same challenge on the journey of self-improvement: you have to fall in love with boredom. (Location 2835) #✂️

Professionals stick to the schedule; amateurs let life get in the way. Professionals know what is important to them and work toward it with purpose; amateurs get pulled off course by the urgencies of life. (Location 2842) #✂️ #favorite

The upside of habits is that we can do things without thinking. The downside of habits is that you get used to doing things a certain way and stop paying attention to little errors. You assume you’re getting better because you’re gaining experience. In reality, you are merely reinforcing your current habits—not improving them. (Location 2867) #✂️

However, when you want to maximize your potential and achieve elite levels of performance, you need a more nuanced approach. You can’t repeat the same things blindly and expect to become exceptional. Habits are necessary, but not sufficient for mastery. What you need is a combination of automatic habits and deliberate practice. (Location 2873) #✂️

Mastery is the process of narrowing your focus to a tiny element of success, repeating it until you have internalized the skill, and then using this new habit as the foundation to advance to the next frontier of your development. Old tasks become easier the second time around, but it doesn’t get easier overall because now you’re pouring your energy into the next challenge. Each habit unlocks the next level of performance. It’s an endless cycle. (Location 2880) #✂️

Reflection and review enables the long-term improvement of all habits because it makes you aware of your mistakes and helps you consider possible paths for improvement. Without reflection, we can make excuses, create rationalizations, and lie to ourselves. We have no process for determining whether we are performing better or worse compared to yesterday. (Location 2928) #✂️

I know of executives and investors who keep a “decision journal” in which they record the major decisions they make each week, why they made them, and what they expect the outcome to be. They review their choices at the end of each month or year to see where they were correct and where they went wrong. (Location 2938) #✂️

Personally, I employ two primary modes of reflection and review. Each December, I perform an Annual Review, in which I reflect on the previous year. I tally my habits for the year by counting up how many articles I published, how many workouts I put in, how many new places I visited, and more.* Then, I reflect on my progress (or lack thereof) by answering three questions: What went well this year? What didn’t go so well this year? What did I learn? (Location 2943) #✂️

Six months later, when summer rolls around, I conduct an Integrity Report. Like everyone, I make a lot of mistakes. My Integrity Report helps me realize where I went wrong and motivates me to get back on course. I use it as a time to revisit my core values and consider whether I have been living in accordance with them. (Location 2949) #✂️

My yearly Integrity Report answers three questions: What are the core values that drive my life and work? How am I living and working with integrity right now? How can I set a higher standard in the future? (Location 2952) #✂️

The more sacred an idea is to us—that is, the more deeply it is tied to our identity—the more strongly we will defend it against criticism. (Location 2970) #✂️

The tighter we cling to an identity, the harder it becomes to grow beyond it. (Location 2973) #✂️

The key to mitigating these losses of identity is to redefine yourself such that you get to keep important aspects of your identity even if your particular role changes. (Location 2983) #✂️

When chosen effectively, an identity can be flexible rather than brittle. Like water flowing around an obstacle, your identity works with the changing circumstances rather than against them. (Location 2988) #✂️

We can say the same about atomic habits. Can one tiny change transform your life? It’s unlikely you would say so. But what if you made another? And another? And another? At some point, you will have to admit that your life was transformed by one small change. (Location 3010) #✂️

“If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change.” (Location 3023) #✂️

A habit is a routine or behavior that is performed regularly—and, in many cases, automatically. (Location 144) #✂️

changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years. (Location 157) #✂️

The backbone of this book is my four-step model of habits—cue, craving, response, and reward—and the four laws of behavior change that evolve out of these steps. (Location 193) #✂️

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. (Location 196) #✂️

Here’s how the math works out: if you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done. (Location 252) #✂️

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them. They seem to make little difference on any given day and yet the impact they deliver over the months and years can be enormous. It is only when looking back two, five, or perhaps ten years later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones becomes strikingly apparent. (Location 261) #✂️

That said, it doesn’t matter how successful or unsuccessful you are right now. What matters is whether your habits are putting you on the path toward success. (Location 280) #✂️

Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. Your net worth is a lagging measure of your financial habits. Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits. Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. Your clutter is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits. You get what you repeat. (Location 284) #✂️

Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy. (Location 289) #✂️

The more you think of yourself as worthless, stupid, or ugly, the more you condition yourself to interpret life that way. You get trapped in a thought loop. The same is true for how you think about others. (Location 307) #✂️

Breakthrough moments are often the result of many previous actions, which build up the potential required to unleash a major change. (Location 318) #✂️

But in order to make a meaningful difference, habits need to persist long enough to break through this plateau—what I call the Plateau of Latent Potential. (Location 327) #✂️

Eventually, I began to realize that my results had very little to do with the goals I set and nearly everything to do with the systems I followed. (Location 357) #✂️

Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results. (Location 359) #✂️

Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress. (Location 370) #✂️

Winners and losers have the same goals. (Location 372) #✂️

Achieving a goal is only a momentary change. (Location 380) #✂️

Achieving a goal only changes your life for the moment. That’s the counterintuitive thing about improvement. We think we need to change our results, but the results are not the problem. (Location 384) #✂️

The implicit assumption behind any goal is this: “Once I reach my goal, then I’ll be happy.” The problem with a goals-first mentality is that you’re continually putting happiness off until the next milestone. (Location 388) #✂️

Furthermore, goals create an “either-or” conflict: either you achieve your goal and are successful or you fail and you are a disappointment. You mentally box yourself into a narrow version of happiness. (Location 392) #✂️

When all of your hard work is focused on a particular goal, what is left to push you forward after you achieve it? (Location 400) #✂️

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. It’s not about any single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. Ultimately, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress. (Location 402) #✂️

You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. (Location 407) #✂️

This is the meaning of the phrase atomic habits—a regular practice or routine that is not only small and easy to do, but also the source of incredible power; a component of the system of compound growth. (Location 414) #✂️

Changing our habits is challenging for two reasons: (1) we try to change the wrong thing and (2) we try to change our habits in the wrong way. (Location 431) #✂️

The first layer is changing your outcomes. This level is concerned with changing your results: losing weight, publishing a book, winning a championship. Most of the goals you set are associated with this level of change. (Location 439) #✂️

The second layer is changing your process. This level is concerned with changing your habits and systems: implementing a new routine at the gym, decluttering your desk for better workflow, developing a meditation practice. Most of the habits you build are associated with this level. (Location 441) #✂️

The third and deepest layer is changing your identity. This level is concerned with changing your beliefs: your worldview, your self-image, your judgments about yourself and others. Most of the beliefs, assumptions, and biases you hold are associated with this level. (Location 443) #✂️

All levels of change are useful in their own way. The problem is the direction of change. (Location 447) #✂️

Many people begin the process of changing their habits by focusing on what they want to achieve. This leads us to outcome-based habits. (Location 448) #✂️

The alternative is to build identity-based habits. With this approach, we start by focusing on who we wish to become. (Location 449) #✂️

Behind every system of actions are a system of beliefs. (Location 463) #✂️

It’s hard to change your habits if you never change the underlying beliefs that led to your past behavior. You have a new goal and a new plan, but you haven’t changed who you are. (Location 471) #✂️

The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity. It’s one thing to say I’m the type of person who wants this. It’s something very different to say I’m the type of person who is this. (Location 480) #✂️

The more pride you have in a particular aspect of your identity, the more motivated you will be to maintain the habits associated with it. (Location 482) #✂️

True behavior change is identity change. (Location 486) #✂️

The goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader. The goal is not to run a marathon, the goal is to become a runner. The goal is not to learn an instrument, the goal is to become a musician. (Location 489) #✂️

When working for you, identity change can be a powerful force for self-improvement. When working against you, though, identity change can be a curse. Once you have adopted an identity, it can be easy to let your allegiance to it impact your ability to change. (Location 498) #✂️

When you have repeated a story to yourself for years, it is easy to slide into these mental grooves and accept them as a fact. (Location 504) #✂️

The biggest barrier to positive change at any level—individual, team, society—is identity conflict. (Location 508) #✂️

Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity. (Location 513) #✂️

Your identity is literally your “repeated beingness.” (Location 523) #✂️

Of course, your habits are not the only actions that influence your identity, but by virtue of their frequency they are usually the most important ones. (Location 530) #✂️

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. (Location 539) #✂️

It is a simple two-step process: Decide the type of person you want to be. Prove it to yourself with small wins. (Location 553) #✂️

Once you have a handle on the type of person you want to be, you can begin taking small steps to reinforce your desired identity. (Location 566) #✂️

The concept of identity-based habits is our first introduction to another key theme in this book: feedback loops. (Location 569) #✂️

The formation of all habits is a feedback loop (a concept we will explore in depth in the next chapter), but it’s important to let your values, principles, and identity drive the loop rather than your results. (Location 570) #✂️

The first step is not what or how, but who. You need to know who you want to be. (Location 576) #✂️

Ultimately, your habits matter because they help you become the type of person you wish to be. They are the channel through which you develop your deepest beliefs about yourself. Quite literally, you become your habits. (Location 583) #✂️

A habit is a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic. (Location 613) #✂️

This is the feedback loop behind all human behavior: try, fail, learn, try differently. With practice, the useless movements fade away and the useful actions get reinforced. That’s a habit forming. (Location 622) #✂️

“Habits are, simply, reliable solutions to recurring problems in our environment.” (Location 625) #✂️

Habits are mental shortcuts learned from experience. In a sense, a habit is just a memory of the steps you previously followed to solve a problem in the past. (Location 632) #✂️

Habit formation is incredibly useful because the conscious mind is the bottleneck of the brain. It can only pay attention to one problem at a time. As a result, your brain is always working to preserve your conscious attention for whatever task is most essential. (Location 634) #✂️

The process of building a habit can be divided into four simple steps: cue, craving, response, and reward. (Location 650) #✂️

The cue triggers your brain to initiate a behavior. It is a bit of information that predicts a reward. (Location 656) #✂️

Cravings are the second step, and they are the motivational force behind every habit. Without some level of motivation or desire—without craving a change—we have no reason to act. What you crave is not the habit itself but the change in state it delivers. (Location 662) #✂️

Cues are meaningless until they are interpreted. The thoughts, feelings, and emotions of the observer are what transform a cue into a craving. (Location 668) #✂️

The response is the actual habit you perform, which can take the form of a thought or an action. Whether a response occurs depends on how motivated you are and how much friction is associated with the behavior. If a particular action requires more physical or mental effort than you are willing to expend, then you won’t do it. Your response also depends on your ability. It sounds simple, but a habit can occur only if you are capable of doing it. (Location 670) #✂️

Rewards are the end goal of every habit. The cue is about noticing the reward. The craving is about wanting the reward. The response is about obtaining the reward. (Location 674) #✂️

The first purpose of rewards is to satisfy your craving. Yes, rewards provide benefits on their own. Food and water deliver the energy you need to survive. (Location 676) #✂️

Second, rewards teach us which actions are worth remembering in the future. Your brain is a reward detector. As you go about your life, your sensory nervous system is continuously monitoring which actions satisfy your desires and deliver pleasure. Feelings of pleasure and disappointment are part of the feedback mechanism that helps your brain distinguish useful actions from useless ones. Rewards close the feedback loop and complete the habit cycle. (Location 679) #✂️

This cycle is known as the habit loop. (Location 694) #✂️

We can split these four steps into two phases: the problem phase and the solution phase. The problem phase includes the cue and the craving, and it is when you realize that something needs to change. The solution phase includes the response and the reward, and it is when you take action and achieve the change you desire. (Location 698) #✂️

I refer to this framework as the Four Laws of Behavior Change, and it provides a simple set of rules for creating good habits and breaking bad ones. (Location 756) #✂️

How to Create a Good Habit The 1st law (Cue): Make it obvious. The 2nd law (Craving): Make it attractive. The 3rd law (Response): Make it easy. The 4th law (Reward): Make it satisfying. (Location 760) #✂️

How to Break a Bad Habit Inversion of the 1st law (Cue): Make it invisible. Inversion of the 2nd law (Craving): Make it unattractive. Inversion of the 3rd law (Response): Make it difficult. Inversion of the 4th law (Reward): Make it unsatisfying. (Location 765) #✂️

This is one of the most surprising insights about our habits: you don’t need to be aware of the cue for a habit to begin. You can notice an opportunity and take action without dedicating conscious attention to it. This is what makes habits useful. (Location 823) #✂️

Over time, the cues that spark our habits become so common that they are essentially invisible: the treats on the kitchen counter, the remote control next to the couch, the phone in our pocket. Our responses to these cues are so deeply encoded that it may feel like the urge to act comes from nowhere. For this reason, we must begin the process of behavior change with awareness. (Location 835) #✂️

This process, known as Pointing-and-Calling, is a safety system designed to reduce mistakes. It seems silly, but it works incredibly well. Pointing-and-Calling reduces errors by up to 85 percent and cuts accidents by 30 percent. (Location 849) #✂️

Pointing-and-Calling is so effective because it raises the level of awareness from a nonconscious habit to a more conscious level. (Location 852) #✂️

One of our greatest challenges in changing habits is maintaining awareness of what we are actually doing. This helps explain why the consequences of bad habits can sneak up on us. We need a “point-and-call” system for our personal lives. (Location 859) #✂️

Habits Scorecard, (Location 861) #✂️

implementation intention, (Location 916) #✂️

the two most common cues are time and location. Implementation intentions leverage both of these cues. Broadly speaking, the format for creating an implementation intention is: “When situation X arises, I will perform response Y.” (Location 918) #✂️

Many people think they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity. It is not always obvious when and where to take action. (Location 932) #✂️

habit stacking. (Location 951) #✂️

The Diderot Effect states that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption that leads to additional purchases. (Location 964) #✂️

When it comes to building new habits, you can use the connectedness of behavior to your advantage. One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behavior on top. This is called habit stacking. (Location 971) #✂️

Suggestion Impulse Buying, which “is triggered when a shopper sees a product for the first time and visualizes a need for it.” In other words, customers will occasionally buy products not because they want them but because of how they are presented to them. (Location 1068) #✂️

you can imagine how important it is to live and work in environments that are filled with productive cues and devoid of unproductive ones. (Location 1088) #✂️

Stop thinking about your environment as filled with objects. Start thinking about it as filled with relationships. Think in terms of how you interact with the spaces around you. For one person, her couch is the place where she reads for an hour each night. For someone else, the couch is where he watches television and eats a bowl of ice cream after work. (Location 1130) #✂️

“cue-induced wanting”: an external trigger causes a compulsive craving to repeat a bad habit. Once you notice something, you begin to want it. (Location 1216) #✂️

A supernormal stimulus is a heightened version of reality—like a beak with three red dots or an egg the size of a volleyball—and it elicits a stronger response than usual. (Location 1283) #✂️

Other processed foods enhance dynamic contrast, which refers to items with a combination of sensations, like crunchy and creamy. (Location 1296) #✂️

The ability to experience pleasure remained, but without dopamine, desire died. And without desire, action stopped. (Location 1328) #✂️

Habits are a dopamine-driven feedback loop. Every behavior that is highly habit-forming—taking drugs, eating junk food, playing video games, browsing social media—is associated with higher levels of dopamine. (Location 1333) #✂️

When it comes to habits, the key takeaway is this: dopamine is released not only when you experience pleasure, but also when you anticipate it. (Location 1337) #✂️

It is the anticipation of a reward—not the fulfillment of it—that gets us to take action. (Location 1341) #✂️

Temptation bundling works by linking an action you want to do with an action you need to do. (Location 1371) #✂️

Temptation bundling is one way to apply a psychology theory known as Premack’s Principle. (Location 1387) #✂️

“more probable behaviors will reinforce less probable behaviors.” (Location 1388) #✂️

And as we are about to see, whatever habits are normal in your culture are among the most attractive behaviors you’ll find. (Location 1437) #✂️

We imitate the habits of three groups in particular: The close. The many. The powerful. (Location 1455) #✂️

One groundbreaking study tracked twelve thousand people for thirty-two years and found that “a person’s chances of becoming obese increased by 57 percent if he or she had a friend who became obese.” It works the other way, too. Another study found that if one person in a relationship lost weight, the other partner would also slim down about one third of the time. (Location 1466) #✂️

One of the most effective things you can do to build better habits is to join a culture where your desired behavior is the normal behavior. New habits seem achievable when you see others doing them every day. If you are surrounded by fit people, you’re more likely to consider working out to be a common habit. (Location 1474) #✂️ #favorite

There is tremendous internal pressure to comply with the norms of the group. The reward of being accepted is often greater than the reward of winning an argument, looking smart, or finding truth. (Location 1518) #✂️

When changing your habits means challenging the tribe, change is unattractive. When changing your habits means fitting in with the tribe, change is very attractive. (Location 1522) #✂️

We are drawn to behaviors that earn us respect, approval, admiration, and status. (Location 1527) #✂️

A craving is just a specific manifestation of a deeper underlying motive. (Location 1581) #✂️

Here’s the powerful part: there are many different ways to address the same underlying motive. One person might learn to reduce stress by smoking a cigarette. Another person learns to ease their anxiety by going for a run. Your current habits are not necessarily the best way to solve the problems you face; they are just the methods you learned to use. Once you associate a solution with the problem you need to solve, you keep coming back to it. (Location 1590) #✂️

You see a cue, categorize it based on past experience, and determine the appropriate response. (Location 1598) #✂️

A craving is the sense that something is missing. It is the desire to change your internal state. When the temperature falls, there is a gap between what your body is currently sensing and what it wants to be sensing. This gap between your current state and your desired state provides a reason to act. (Location 1610) #✂️

Reframing your habits to highlight their benefits rather than their drawbacks is a fast and lightweight way to reprogram your mind and make a habit seem more attractive. (Location 1633) #✂️

If you want to take it a step further, you can create a motivation ritual. You simply practice associating your habits with something you enjoy, then you can use that cue whenever you need a bit of motivation. (Location 1647) #✂️

When preparation becomes a form of procrastination, you need to change something. You don’t want to merely be planning. You want to be practicing. (Location 1729) #✂️

The more you repeat an activity, the more the structure of your brain changes to become efficient at that activity. Neuroscientists call this long-term potentiation, which refers to the strengthening of connections between neurons in the brain based on recent patterns of activity. (Location 1733) #✂️

First described by neuropsychologist Donald Hebb in 1949, this phenomenon is commonly known as Hebb’s Law: “Neurons that fire together wire together.” (Location 1736) #✂️

repetition is a form of change. (Location 1749) #✂️

All habits follow a similar trajectory from effortful practice to automatic behavior, a process known as automaticity. (Location 1753) #✂️

Automaticity is the ability to perform a behavior without thinking about each step, which occurs when the nonconscious mind takes over. (Location 1754) #✂️

One of the most common questions I hear is, “How long does it take to build a new habit?” But what people really should be asking is, “How many does it take to form a new habit?” That is, how many repetitions are required to make a habit automatic? (Location 1768) #✂️

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. Maybe if you really wanted it, you’d actually do it. But the truth is, our real motivation is to be lazy and to do what is convenient. And despite what the latest productivity best seller will tell you, this is a smart strategy, not a dumb one. Energy is precious, and the brain is wired to conserve it whenever possible. It is human nature to follow the Law of Least Effort, which states that when deciding between two similar options, people will naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount of work. (Location 1808) #✂️

The central idea is to create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible. Much of the battle of building better habits comes down to finding ways to reduce the friction associated with our good habits and increase the friction associated with our bad ones. (Location 1871) #✂️

Whenever you organize a space for its intended purpose, you are priming it to make the next action easy. For (Location 1882) #✂️

Whether we are approaching behavior change as an individual, a parent, a coach, or a leader, we should ask ourselves the same question: “How can we design a world where it’s easy to do what’s right?” Redesign your life so the actions that matter most are also the actions that are easiest to do. (Location 1907) #✂️

Researchers estimate that 40 to 50 percent of our actions on any given day are done out of habit. (Location 1927) #✂️

“When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.” (Location 1956) #✂️

At some point, once you’ve established the habit and you’re showing up each day, you can combine the Two-Minute Rule with a technique we call habit shaping to scale your habit back up toward your ultimate goal. Start by mastering the first two minutes of the smallest version of the behavior. Then, advance to an intermediate step and repeat the process—focusing on just the first two minutes and mastering that stage before moving on to the next level. (Location 2013) #✂️

Sometimes success is less about making good habits easy and more about making bad habits hard. This is an inversion of the 3rd Law of Behavior Change: make it difficult. (Location 2057) #✂️

A commitment device is a choice you make in the present that controls your actions in the future. (Location 2060) #✂️

When working in your favor, automation can make your good habits inevitable and your bad habits impossible. It is the ultimate way to lock in future behavior rather than relying on willpower in the moment. By utilizing commitment devices, strategic onetime decisions, and technology, you can create an environment of inevitability—a space where good habits are not just an outcome you hope for but an outcome that is virtually guaranteed. (Location 2146) #✂️

We are more likely to repeat a behavior when the experience is satisfying. This is entirely logical. Feelings of pleasure—even minor ones like washing your hands with soap that smells nice and lathers well—are signals that tell the brain: “This feels good. Do this again, next time.” (Location 2225) #✂️

You live in what scientists call an immediate-return environment because your actions instantly deliver clear and immediate outcomes. (Location 2249) #✂️

You live in what scientists call a delayed-return environment because you can work for years before your actions deliver the intended payoff. (Location 2252) #✂️

Behavioral economists refer to this tendency as time inconsistency. That is, the way your brain evaluates rewards is inconsistent across time.* You value the present more than the future. (Location 2264) #✂️

This is precisely what research has shown. People who are better at delaying gratification have higher SAT scores, lower levels of substance abuse, lower likelihood of obesity, better responses to stress, and superior social skills. We’ve all seen this play out in our own lives. If you delay watching television and get your homework done, you’ll generally learn more and get better grades. (Location 2290) #✂️

The vital thing in getting a habit to stick is to feel successful—even if it’s in a small way. The feeling of success is a signal that your habit paid off and that the work was worth the effort. (Location 2299) #✂️

You want the ending of your habit to be satisfying. The best approach is to use reinforcement, which refers to the process of using an immediate reward to increase the rate of a behavior. (Location 2307) #✂️

Identity sustains a habit. (Location 2328) #✂️

A habit tracker is a simple way to measure whether you did a habit. The most basic format is to get a calendar and cross off each day you stick with your routine. (Location 2357) #✂️

Before long, an emergency will pop up—you get sick or you have to travel for work or your family needs a little more of your time. Whenever this happens to me, I try to remind myself of a simple rule: never miss twice. (Location 2418) #✂️

Too often, we fall into an all-or-nothing cycle with our habits. The problem is not slipping up; the problem is thinking that if you can’t do something perfectly, then you shouldn’t do it at all. (Location 2427) #✂️ #favorite

Going to the gym for five minutes may not improve your performance, but it reaffirms your identity. The all-or-nothing cycle of behavior change is just one pitfall that can derail your habits. (Location 2436) #✂️

The dark side of tracking a particular behavior is that we become driven by the number rather than the purpose behind it. If your success is measured by quarterly earnings, you will optimize sales, revenue, and accounting for quarterly earnings. If your success is measured by a lower number on the scale, you will optimize for a lower number on the scale, even if that means embracing crash diets, juice cleanses, and fat-loss pills. The human mind wants to “win” whatever game is being played. (Location 2445) #✂️

This is sometimes referred to as Goodhart’s Law. Named after the economist Charles Goodhart, the principle states, “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” Measurement is only useful when it guides you and adds context to a larger picture, not when it consumes you. Each number is simply one piece of feedback in the overall system. (Location 2452) #✂️

Laws and regulations are an example of how government can change our habits by creating a social contract. As a society, we collectively agree to abide by certain rules and then enforce them as a group. Whenever a new piece of legislation impacts behavior—seat belt laws, banning smoking inside restaurants, mandatory recycling—it is an example of a social contract shaping our habits. The group agrees to act in a certain way, and if you don’t follow along, you’ll be punished. (Location 2510) #✂️

Just as governments use laws to hold citizens accountable, you can create a habit contract to hold yourself accountable. A habit contract is a verbal or written agreement in which you state your commitment to a particular habit and the punishment that will occur if you don’t follow through. (Location 2514) #✂️

In summary, one of the best ways to ensure your habits remain satisfying over the long-run is to pick behaviors that align with your personality and skills. Work hard on the things that come easy. (Location 2743) #✂️

The human brain loves a challenge, but only if it is within an optimal zone of difficulty. If you love tennis and try to play a serious match against a four-year-old, you will quickly become bored. It’s too easy. You’ll win every point. In contrast, if you play a professional tennis player like Roger Federer or Serena Williams, you will quickly lose motivation because the match is too difficult. (Location 2777) #✂️

This is a challenge of just manageable difficulty and it is a prime example of the Goldilocks Rule. The Goldilocks Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right. (Location 2782) #✂️

Once a habit has been established, however, it’s important to continue to advance in small ways. These little improvements and new challenges keep you engaged. And if you hit the Goldilocks Zone just right, you can achieve a flow state. (Location 2793) #✂️

A flow state is the experience of being “in the zone” and fully immersed in an activity. Scientists have tried to quantify this feeling. They found that to achieve a state of flow, a task must be roughly 4 percent beyond your current ability. (Location 2796) #✂️

But this coach was saying that really successful people feel the same lack of motivation as everyone else. The difference is that they still find a way to show up despite the feelings of boredom. Mastery requires practice. But the more you practice something, the more boring and routine it becomes. (Location 2812) #✂️

The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom. We get bored with habits because they stop delighting us. The outcome becomes expected. And as our habits become ordinary, we start derailing our progress to seek novelty. (Location 2817) #✂️

As Machiavelli noted, “Men desire novelty to such an extent that those who are doing well wish for a change as much as those who are doing badly.” (Location 2820) #✂️

In psychology, this is known as a variable reward.* Slot machines are the most common real-world example. A gambler hits the jackpot every now and then but not at any predictable interval. The pace of rewards varies. This variance leads to the greatest spike of dopamine, enhances memory recall, and accelerates habit formation. (Location 2824) #✂️

The sweet spot of desire occurs at a 50/50 split between success and failure. Half of the time you get what you want. Half of the time you don’t. You need just enough “winning” to experience satisfaction and just enough “wanting” to experience desire. (Location 2829) #✂️

If you’re already interested in a habit, working on challenges of just manageable difficulty is a good way to keep things interesting. (Location 2831) #✂️

Variable rewards or not, no habit will stay interesting forever. At some point, everyone faces the same challenge on the journey of self-improvement: you have to fall in love with boredom. (Location 2835) #✂️

Professionals stick to the schedule; amateurs let life get in the way. Professionals know what is important to them and work toward it with purpose; amateurs get pulled off course by the urgencies of life. (Location 2842) #✂️ #favorite

The upside of habits is that we can do things without thinking. The downside of habits is that you get used to doing things a certain way and stop paying attention to little errors. You assume you’re getting better because you’re gaining experience. In reality, you are merely reinforcing your current habits—not improving them. (Location 2867) #✂️

However, when you want to maximize your potential and achieve elite levels of performance, you need a more nuanced approach. You can’t repeat the same things blindly and expect to become exceptional. Habits are necessary, but not sufficient for mastery. What you need is a combination of automatic habits and deliberate practice. (Location 2873) #✂️

Mastery is the process of narrowing your focus to a tiny element of success, repeating it until you have internalized the skill, and then using this new habit as the foundation to advance to the next frontier of your development. Old tasks become easier the second time around, but it doesn’t get easier overall because now you’re pouring your energy into the next challenge. Each habit unlocks the next level of performance. It’s an endless cycle. (Location 2880) #✂️

Reflection and review enables the long-term improvement of all habits because it makes you aware of your mistakes and helps you consider possible paths for improvement. Without reflection, we can make excuses, create rationalizations, and lie to ourselves. We have no process for determining whether we are performing better or worse compared to yesterday. (Location 2928) #✂️

I know of executives and investors who keep a “decision journal” in which they record the major decisions they make each week, why they made them, and what they expect the outcome to be. They review their choices at the end of each month or year to see where they were correct and where they went wrong. (Location 2938) #✂️

Personally, I employ two primary modes of reflection and review. Each December, I perform an Annual Review, in which I reflect on the previous year. I tally my habits for the year by counting up how many articles I published, how many workouts I put in, how many new places I visited, and more.* Then, I reflect on my progress (or lack thereof) by answering three questions: What went well this year? What didn’t go so well this year? What did I learn? (Location 2943) #✂️

Six months later, when summer rolls around, I conduct an Integrity Report. Like everyone, I make a lot of mistakes. My Integrity Report helps me realize where I went wrong and motivates me to get back on course. I use it as a time to revisit my core values and consider whether I have been living in accordance with them. (Location 2949) #✂️

My yearly Integrity Report answers three questions: What are the core values that drive my life and work? How am I living and working with integrity right now? How can I set a higher standard in the future? (Location 2952) #✂️

The more sacred an idea is to us—that is, the more deeply it is tied to our identity—the more strongly we will defend it against criticism. (Location 2970) #✂️

The tighter we cling to an identity, the harder it becomes to grow beyond it. (Location 2973) #✂️

The key to mitigating these losses of identity is to redefine yourself such that you get to keep important aspects of your identity even if your particular role changes. (Location 2983) #✂️

When chosen effectively, an identity can be flexible rather than brittle. Like water flowing around an obstacle, your identity works with the changing circumstances rather than against them. (Location 2988) #✂️

We can say the same about atomic habits. Can one tiny change transform your life? It’s unlikely you would say so. But what if you made another? And another? And another? At some point, you will have to admit that your life was transformed by one small change. (Location 3010) #✂️

“If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change.” (Location 3023) #✂️