Book 98. Atomic Habits. Author: James Clear  
Chapter 1. Why Small Changes Lead to Remarkable Results. There is a strategy called maximizing results, which is based on the philosophy of seeking opportunities for minimal improvements in everything you do. This strategy is used by professional cyclists in the United Kingdom. They change the design of bike saddles, apply alcohol to the tires to improve grip on the road, select the optimal type of mattress and pillow to ensure a good night's rest, and so on. Even if the results increase by just 1%, they implement these changes into their daily lives, even though no one paid attention to them before, as they seemed unpromising in terms of improvements. By improving everything just a little, they achieved astonishing results and won 60% of the gold medals at the next Olympic Games.

medals, and four years later, they set nine Olympic and seven world records. The same goes for habits. For some reason, everyone seems to think that achieving noticeable success requires a lot of effort, but that's not true. In the long run, improving by just 1% each day will yield amazing results by the end of the year. You will become 37 times better than your current self. Conversely, if you get worse by 1%, you will rapidly degrade each year. Many people give up on something because they don't see significant results here and now. If you go to the gym for three days, you won't see any changes, or if you dedicate an hour this evening to studying Japanese, you won't learn the language. But if you practice a little bit every day and look at yourself in two years, you will see monumental changes. Because we don't see instant changes, we

We often fall into bad habits. For example, if you eat unhealthy and high-calorie food for a couple of days, the scales won't show significant changes. If you work late today, you won't feel worse, and your family will forgive you for not having dinner with them. But after a year, you will see a three-digit number on the scales, and no one will be waiting for you at home. Thus, success is the product of daily habits, not large-scale changes made once in a lifetime. Your financial situation is the result of your habits regarding money. Your weight is the result of your eating habits. And the mess in your home is the result of your cleaning habits. You get what you regularly repeat. If you get angry every day, one day you will explode with rage. If you study a topic every day, you will eventually become a professional in it. Usually, progress is not noticeable until a certain critical point.

There are points beyond which you will enter a new level of life. For example, bamboo is almost invisible during the first five years as it develops a vast root system underground, but once it has formed that system, it can grow to a height of twenty meters in just six weeks. Similarly, a stonecutter may strike a rock a hundred times without any visible effect, but on the 101st strike, it will break. It is not the last blow that breaks the stone, but all those that came before it. The author refers to this as the plateau of hidden potential, and it looks like this: the author advises that after setting your goals, you should forget about them and focus on the system itself. In other words, if you do not see your goal approaching, you will abandon everything. You need to concentrate on the processes that lead to these results. For example, your goal might be to learn Japanese in order to watch anime in its original voiceover.

The system will be based on how often you learn new words and grammar, listen to audio and video content in Japanese, and receive feedback from a tutor. The only way to succeed will be the desire to improve every day. If, after learning 100 words, you still don't understand what is being said in anime, you will feel frustrated and likely give up. Therefore, if you spend too much time thinking about your goals and not enough time building a system, you may encounter problems. Conversely, if you dedicate all your time to the system, the results will come naturally. The goal should guide you, while the system helps you achieve progress. For example, first, winners and losers have the same goals. Everyone wants to win at the Olympics, but only those who adhere to a system of consistent small improvements achieve that. Secondly, achieving a goal only matters if...

at this moment. If you set a goal to clean your room, you will achieve it. However, if you maintain your old habits and tendency towards messiness, soon the room will be messy again. You will get the same result because you did not change the system behind it. You worked with the symptom, not the cause. The system would involve putting all items taken out of drawers back in their places after use, or throwing away trash immediately after it appears. Thirdly, goals limit happiness. You believe that only by achieving a goal will you be happy. For example, you think that only if your business is featured in Forbes will you be able to relax and enjoy it. In other words, you set yourself up with an either-or condition: either you achieve the goal and become successful, or you fail and become disappointed in yourself. However, if you focus on the process, you do not need to.

Wait for the moment when you can allow yourself to be happy. You will experience happiness whenever your system is functioning. Fourthly, goals are finite. That is, once you achieve a certain goal, your motivation to continue developing in that area diminishes. People gradually stop doing something and return to old habits. The system, however, is designed for an endless cycle of improvement. By atomic habits, the author means habits related to tiny achievements and improvements of 1%. These are small habits that are part of a larger system, which leads to noticeable results. Chapter 2. How habits shape identity. Changing habits occurs on three levels. First, changing outcomes—this level is related to achieving specific results, such as losing weight, writing a book, or learning a language.

Secondly, changing processes – this level is related to restructuring habits and systems, such as a new exercise routine at the gym or a new method for memorizing foreign words. Thirdly, changing identity – this level is connected to changing your beliefs, such as your worldview and your perception of yourself and others. In other words, results are what you achieve. Processes are what you do. Identity is what you believe. Many focus on the results they want to achieve, but it is more effective to concentrate on the kind of person we want to become. Imagine two people who are trying to quit smoking. The first might say, I am trying to quit smoking. But even if he refrains from cigarettes, he still sees himself as a smoker who is trying to change his behavior. However, his beliefs will remain the same, because...

but to become a guitarist. True change in behavior is a change in identity. Therefore, your goal should not be just to read a book, but to become a book lover; not just to learn to play the guitar, but to become a guitarist.

To become a musician. If a person believes that they need to run every day, it won't last long. But if a person feels like an athlete, they won't have to convince themselves every time about the necessity of training. However, this works in the opposite direction as well. If you decide that you are someone who is always late, always sluggish in the mornings, or that you are bad at math, this will create a barrier that holds you back from programming, exercising in the mornings, and being on time. There is a two-step process to changing your identity. The first step is to decide what kind of person you want to be. For example, if you make your bed every morning, you embody the identity of an organized person. If you draw or write every day, you embody the identity of a creative individual. The more often you perform certain actions, the more you reinforce the identity associated with that behavior.

For example, before the author started his blog, he wasn't sure if he would succeed. But as soon as he began writing two articles each week, he started to feel like a writer, meaning his identity was forming. Ultimately, he became a writer not at the beginning of his career, but gradually, thanks to his habits. If you kick a ball just once, you are unlikely to consider yourself a football player. The second step is to prove to yourself that you are indeed that kind of person through small achievements. For instance, if you want to write a book – that’s a goal, but you need to change your identity, so ask yourself: What kind of person could write a book? Perhaps it’s someone who is consistent and curious. This way, you shift the focus from the result to identity. Thanks to this method, a woman lost 45 kg. She constantly asked herself the question: What would a person leading a healthy lifestyle do in this situation?

life? Would you walk or take a taxi? Would you order a hamburger or a salad? Gradually, she acted like a person leading a healthy lifestyle and eventually became that person herself. Ultimately, habits help you become the person you want to be. Chapter 3. Four Simple Steps to Forming Habits. The learning process works as follows: when pleasant consequences follow a certain action, we want to repeat that action, and if unpleasant consequences follow, we refrain from repeating it and start looking for other ways. For example, you come home from work tired and downcast. To perk yourself up, you decide to go for a run. But afterward, you might feel even more tired. The next day, you won't want to run anymore. You might try playing something that makes you feel like it helps you recover, that is,

You receive a reward. Thus, the actions that you find useful are reinforced. This is the formation of a habit. And if next time you feel tired, you will know what to do. But again, this is how bad habits are formed as well. For example, if when you were feeling sad, you tried greasy donuts and your mood improved, you will become addicted to them. Or if, feeling tired, you had a beer and it relaxed you, believe me, you will buy it after every hard day. The process of habit formation consists of four stages: cue, craving, response, and reward. The cue predicts the reward, such as money, power, love, or pleasure. And we begin to desire to do something. For example, a person does not want to smoke a cigarette; they want to experience the feeling of relaxation that smoking brings. Or you do not want to turn on the television; you want entertainment.

Each person is motivated by something unique. For instance, if a player hears the noise of slot machines, it will serve as an incentive for them to seek enjoyment. This will lead them to desire to enter that space and play. The extent to which we are motivated and the number of challenges we face will determine our reaction. If an action requires more physical or mental effort than a person is willing to expend, they are likely to refrain from doing it. If at any stage the experience is unsatisfactory, the behavior will not become a habit. Without an incentive, the formation of a habit will not begin. Without desire, you will lack the motivation to act. If the actions are too complex for you, you will not be able to carry them out. And if there is not enough reward, there will be no desire to perform that action again. Our entire life is a series of habits. For example, you hear the sound of a new message on your phone,

Do you want to know its content? That is, you feel curious and want to experience pleasure. In the case when a loved one has messaged you, you grab your phone and read the text, thus satisfying your desire to read the message. The action of grabbing the phone begins to associate with the sound of a message. Or you are preparing for a performance and start to feel stressed; you want to relieve the tension, bite your nails, and your stress begins to decrease. Therefore, the action of biting your nails starts to associate with preparing for the performance. There are four laws of behavior change, applicable for both forming good habits and eradicating bad ones. Let's consider them in order. Chapter 4. The first law is to make it obvious. People who perform the same actions over a long period begin to do them unconsciously, and we can only pay attention to them when someone from the outside points it out.

For example, we can cover our mouths with our hands when we laugh or finish sentences for others. The more often you engage in a certain pattern, the less you think about why you do it. Therefore, to start taking control of our lives, we need to make the unconscious conscious and begin the process of changing behavior by becoming aware of our actions. In Japan, they use a process called Show and Tell. For instance, a train conductor points to various objects and verbalizes his actions. He points to a traffic light and says, Green light! When the train approaches the station, he points to the speedometer and states the exact speed. When departing, he points to the clock and announces the time. At first glance, this may seem silly, but this system reduces the number of errors by 85% and the number of accidents by 30%. That is, people perform their actions consciously rather than out of habit.

For example, our bus driver might sometimes, out of habit, miss a stop where no one often gets off. You might have used this method as well, for instance, when preparing to go somewhere. You probably said to yourself: I took the keys, I took the wallet, wait, I forgot something... oh right, my wife. Therefore, you need to develop the ability to be aware of what we are doing in the present moment, so you can start noticing details and eliminate bad habits. To begin, make a list of your daily habits. Then, mark whether each habit is good, bad, or neutral. A good habit differs from a bad one in that it has a positive effect on you, both now and in the long term. For example, smoking may reduce stress in the moment, but in the long run, it will harm your health. If you can't decide whether a habit is good or bad, ask yourself: Does it help me?

Is this behavior helping me become the person I want to be? Even if you continue to engage in bad habits, don't scold yourself for it; observe yourself from the outside. For example, if instead of working, you find yourself on entertainment websites or playing games, acknowledge that you are spending your life in a way you wouldn't prefer. The first step to changing bad habits is awareness. Don't forget to apply the show and tell method. For instance, if your hand reaches for the program to check what you've been messaged on social media, say to yourself, I am going to waste my time if I do this; I won't finish my work on time. When you name harmful habits out loud, it makes them more real in your eyes. This will also increase your chances of doing something productive, like reading a book after work. Chapter 5. The best way to form a new habit.

Three groups of people were identified. In the first group, individuals simply noted how often they engaged in sports. In the second group, they additionally read materials about the benefits of physical exercise. In the third group, they did the same but also created a plan for when and where they would exercise during the week. Each participant had to complete the following sentence. As a result, in the first and second groups, 35 to 38% of people exercised at least once a week. In the third group, 91% of participants did. This happened because they set a pre-established plan for where and when they would perform a specific action—these are two significant incentives to start forming a new habit. For example, if you plan to write a book, first decide when and where you will do it; this may lead to secondary questions, such as what you will write on.

You will do it. If you tell yourself, I will start exercising or I will be more efficient, you will forget about it in five minutes. Therefore, the next sentence should always be in your mind: I will [action] at [time] in [place]. For example, I will meditate for one minute at 7 a.m. in my kitchen. You can do the same with studying, exercising, etc. If you are unsure when you want to start forming a habit, try choosing the first day of the week, month, or year. During this period, people are more inclined to start doing something. Remember, specificity is very important! Habits tend to build on each other – this is similar to the Diderot effect. This effect means that buying one item leads you to new purchases. For example, you buy a new dress. To go with it, you get new shoes and a necklace.

of washing the dishes, I will wipe the table, after that I will prepare my clothes for tomorrow. This way, you can build a routine that flows smoothly from one task to another. The key is to identify the existing habits that can serve as triggers for the new behaviors you want to adopt. By linking new actions to established routines, you create a natural progression that makes it easier to incorporate these changes into your daily life.

when I wipe the table, I will play for about an hour, and so on. Or you can expand the existing chain. If you want to learn a few foreign words, you can insert this task anywhere in the existing list. So, after you wipe the table, you can learn 10 words, and only then play. Over time, you can regularly apply habit stacking. For example, tell yourself that when you see stairs, you will take the steps instead of using the elevator. Or, when you want to buy something that costs more than $100, you will wait 24 hours before making the purchase to avoid buying it on impulse. Chapter 6. The Importance of Environment. People often start eating something simply because the food is in plain sight. For example, when you enter the kitchen and see a plate of cookies on the table, you will take one, even if you didn't want a cookie and aren't even hungry. That is, if we constantly see pastries and donuts around us,

We will do them more often. That's why we don't do certain things. It's much easier not to read a book when it's in a far corner of the room in a closed cabinet. Or not to take vitamins when they are in a drawer behind a pile of spices. If you want to do something, place that item in a visible spot. If you need to take medicine every morning, put it next to the sink where you brush your teeth. If you want to read more before bed, place a book on your pillow in the morning. If you want to drink more water, pour it into several bottles and place them around the house. If you want to learn foreign words, stick labels on every item in the house. Conversely, if you want to smoke less, leave your cigarettes in the car, and you will be too lazy to run back and forth each time. You can also change your environment; for example, if you want to switch to a healthy diet, try going...

go to another supermarket, so you won't know where your favorite treats are located and therefore won't instinctively grab them. Or create separate spaces for work, study, and entertainment. Even if you have just one room, divide it into sections, each associated with a specific activity. A chair for work, a desk for studying, a computer corner for entertainment, and a bed for sleep. This way, you will suffer less from insomnia, as the bed will be associated only with sleep. Nowadays, many people eat, work, and watch series in bed, resulting in a mixed context of their environment and habits. To get rid of bad habits, you can eliminate the stimuli that provoke them. For example, if you spend too much money on gadgets, stop reading news about the latest releases. If you constantly feel like something is missing,

Stop looking at other people's profiles – it causes jealousy and envy. Chapter 7. The second law – add attractiveness. You need to learn to make habits appealing so that you want to engage in them. To do this, either reward yourself after completing a certain action, for example, writing three pages of a book, and then watching an episode of an anime. Make sure to watch this anime only after completing the specific action, so you don't find out what happens next until you complete that action. Alternatively, you can perform an action alongside a reward, for example, listening to a new album by your favorite band while jogging or watching a series. Chapter 8. The role of friends and family in forming habits. The spouses decided to conduct an experiment. They claimed that with carefully thought-out exercises and the development of good habits, a child can become a genius in any field.

parents had decided that their children would be chess players. First of all, they kept the children on home schooling. Secondly, their house was filled with books about chess and photographs of famous chess players. Thirdly, the children constantly played with each other and participated in tournaments. In other words, the children's entire life was dedicated to chess. As a result, the eldest daughter, when she was four years old, was already defeating adults. The middle daughter became the world champion by the age of fourteen, and a few years later, she became a grandmaster. The youngest surpassed them all. By the age of five, she was already defeating her father. At twelve, she entered the top hundred players in the world. And at fifteen, she became the youngest grandmaster of all time. For 27 years, she remained the champion in the world tournament. When they were interviewed, all three said that their

the more likely you are to have a higher IQ yourself. This is because we tend to adopt the habits and behaviors of those around us. In a family where education is valued and rewarded, children are more likely to thrive and develop a love for learning. It is essential to create an environment that encourages curiosity and intellectual growth. Therefore, I find it perplexing that there is criticism directed at a family whose eight-year-old daughter has been accepted into Moscow State University. She, too, grew up in a household that celebrated academic achievements and where learning was seen as a source of joy.

The higher you are, the more important it is to choose the right environment and habits for yourself. The habits that you previously could not implement will now become a natural pastime for you. Chapter 9. How to find and eliminate the causes of bad habits. Simply make the habit unattractive. There are many habits that satisfy the same need, and the current one is not necessarily the best way to solve the problem. For example, when you are tired and bored, you might buy yourself a few bottles of beer. But you could also buy a game for the same amount of money. In the first case, you will only enjoy it today, while in the second, you can play and enjoy it for several days or even weeks, saving money that you would have spent on beer every day. Thus, our behavior depends on how we interpret the events happening to us.

For example, two people can look at a cigarette differently: one feels the desire to smoke, while the other remembers how terrible it smells. That is, the same stimulus can evoke different sensations. The same goes for beer – now you might think it's a waste of money. Chapter 10. The third law – simplify. It’s easy to get stuck at the planning stage, for instance, trying to determine which weight loss method is the most effective or which English learning program is the best. We become so focused on finding the best approach or learning something that we take no action. This happens because we think that if we start incorrectly, we will fail. If you read 100 books on photography but never take a single photo, you will know much less than someone who reads one book and takes 5,000 photos.

become more significant over time. The law of least resistance suggests that we are more likely to engage in activities that require less energy. For example, if you want to do one hundred push-ups a day, at first, you might feel motivated to do them, but after a few days, such a huge effort will seem exhausting. On the other hand, doing just one push-up requires minimal effort, making it more likely that you will form that habit. We may have the habit of scrolling through our news feed or watching television because it doesn't require much effort. Even if a habit takes only a few seconds, it influences our subsequent actions, which can lead to larger consequences over time.

for a few minutes or even hours. Therefore, there is a two-minute rule, which states that any new habit should take no more than two minutes. To read half a book a day, start by reading at least one page. To meditate for thirty minutes, begin by meditating for at least two minutes. To learn to play the guitar, start by playing for at least two minutes, and so on. It’s important to start doing something; continuing will be much easier afterward. A new habit should not be a challenge for you; it should be as simple as possible. Then gradually make it more complex. For example, if you want to start writing, first write one sentence. When you want to do more, write a paragraph, then a thousand words, then five thousand, and finally write your book. The main thing is to avoid feeling forced; always write.

Less than you want. That is, stop writing before you get tired of it, so you won't associate this activity with something negative. You will approach it with much more enthusiasm than if you immediately set yourself the task of writing a book. If you do not master the basic skill of starting, you will not be able to continue either. At the same time, do not deceive yourself; if you really do not want to engage for more than two minutes, then do not do it, otherwise your brain will understand that it is just a trick. But in most cases, you will find that you want to spend much more time on this activity. As mentioned earlier, the environment also affects how easily you will repeatedly perform an action. For example, if the gym is on your way home, you will be more willing to go there than if you had to travel several stations.

Or, every time you wait for the bath to fill up, you can clean the toilet – and you will do it with much more enthusiasm than if you were sitting on the couch and remembered that you needed to clean it. Well, it might be easier for you to take out the trash when you are already going outside, or to learn vocabulary on your way to work. And prepare your environment so that it is ready for immediate use. For example, prepare your sports outfit, shoes, and water bottle in advance. So that when you arrive, you can just grab everything and go to training. Or if you want to eat healthily – on Sunday, cut up vegetables and fruits and pack them into containers for each day of the week. That is, integrate your habits in such a way that it is easier for you to engage in them and choose the perfect time for them. And for carrying out bad habits, you need to complicate everything instead. For example, after watching television, get rid of everything.

remove the batteries from the remote control and hide the television in a cabinet. You will only take it out when you really want to watch it. This way, the problem will resolve itself. The same goes for social media. Delete the app immediately after use. Or you can practice self-restraint. For example, buy a socket for your Wi-Fi router with a timer so that it turns off at 10 PM. Install an app that blocks access to certain websites or even the internet until a specific time. Buy food in small packages or leave all your money at home when you go outside. And set up your finances so that a portion of your salary automatically goes into savings. Chapter 12. Bring in pleasure. Our brain is accustomed to preferring immediate rewards rather than waiting several years to learn a language or get in shape. That is, eating a greasy hamburger or smoking is more appealing to us.

will be more valuable than doing something that may only bring us pleasure in the future. Therefore, the most effective approach will be to add a bit of pleasure to habits that have long-term results. Firstly, we can do this through habit stacking, that is, doing what we want after we do what we need to do. Secondly, you can tie a habit to an immediate reward. For example, if you are saving for a tablet and at the same time love to spend money on meaningless things, then every time you refrain from making a purchase, put the amount you didn't spend into your savings account. If you didn't buy yourself beer and snacks, transfer 300 rubles to yourself. If you cooked your own meal instead of ordering delivery, set aside the saved money in your account. This way, you will receive immediate rewards.

instead of just depriving yourself of something. To keep doing something every day, you need to see that progress is being made. For this, you can keep a journal or a calendar where you cross off the day when you took some action. Or you can set up a jar and every time you accomplish something, throw a coin in it; this way, you will also see your progress, which in turn will give you the strength to keep going. Crossing off days and tossing a coin into the jar is a reward in itself. And to make tracking your habits a habit, you need to use layering; it might look like this. If you do break the routine of doing something, for example, if you get sick or need to attend to family matters, follow this simple rule: NEVER MISS TWICE. If you slip up and eat pizza, the next time, eat.

Healthy food. If you skip it once, it's an accident; if you skip it twice in a row, it's already the formation of a new habit. That's all. Now you know absolutely everything about habits, how to acquire them, and how to get rid of harmful ones. If you liked it, give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, and write in the comments how much you enjoyed this video. Bye!

Атомные привычки. Как приобрести хорошие привычки и избавиться от плохих | Джеймс Клир

Атомные привычки. Как приобрести хорошие привычки и избавиться от плохих | Джеймс Клир

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