Atomic Habits

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🧵I’ve been thinking about INSPIRATIONAL BOOKS. Normally I’m pretty cynical when it comes to that type of thing, especially if a book has sold loads and gone viral. Such a book is ATOMIC HABITS by @JamesClear, much beloved of every productivity bro on YouTube. I gave in.

I gave in because my #ADHD (self-diagnosed currently) was bringing my life to a shuddering halt. I’d piled weight on, was irritable, had pretty much stopped writing, felt low-grade ill all the time, became horribly photosensitive, had no motivation.

So I read Atomic Habits, pretty sure that someone with a name like @JamesClear couldn’t even be a real person. He was probably just a sexy algorithm in a suit. But I found his book pretty human.

Admittedly, there seems to be a house style for this sort of book (see @fortelabs Building a Second Brain, which I enjoyed) in which the prose is shorn of all poetry, chapters are short and start with a ‘real-life’ example, and end with summaries. But in this case, it works.

Turns out JC’s name is a case of nominative determinism, because the book is damned clear. It is based around four ‘laws’ of behaviour change, stemming from the ‘cardinal law’ – ‘what is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided.’

These four laws correlate to the four-step model of habits, adapted from B F Skinner's model from the 1930s: Clear's model is 'cue, craving, response, and reward.'

Originally, I was going to break the four laws down, but I give you them in summary instead. You can decide if you want to find out more about them. I'll then share some other things that stuck with me.

The laws are: 1. Make it visible - you can't change habits you aren't aware of. 2. Make it attractive - and make the habits you want to break unattractive. 3. Make it easy - willpower isn't enough. Start small and easy. Showing up is what matters. 4. Make it satisfying.

Early on, Clear writes that your outcomes are 'a lagging measure of your habits'. We don't see improvement until we stick at something for a while, and it usually takes longer than we think it will. That's why goals aren't that useful. What is?

Focussing on systems instead. This helped a lot with my #ADHD. I started to think about my environment and what triggered me to act how I did. I asked myself what the simplest systems were that I could build to overcome problems.

And I started working in streaks. They're addictive. I use @TheStreaksApp, which is a beautifully designed minimalistic habit tracker. My habits are simple and easy. I just need not to break the chain.

And I really mean simple. Do 5 push ups. Run 3x per week (can be a few mins). Write a newsletter 1x per week. It's early, so I am not going to evangelise. But thinking in this rather mechanical way about my systems has been very helpful in breaking inertia.

One more thing, because this is a long thread now. You can't be happy if you spend all your time desiring. Desire is about what you don't have yet. Do that, and you squander present happiness. More (among other things) here: twitter.com/curtaindsleep/status/1560721512923119616?s=21&t=lUFUuJ9O0RxiTmmjrIhtgQ

Anyway — thought I'd hate it, but @JamesClear 's Atomic Habits helped me. Here's a link: amazon.co.uk/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break-ebook/dp/B01N5AX61W/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1660942582&sr=8-1