I’ve been thinking about writing a review of the book Atomic Habits, which I read last year on the recommendation of an LW user. As I remember, the main idea is a four-pronged approach to building habits:
Make the habit / cue obvious
Make it attractive
Make it easy
Make it rewarding
The idea is: you first need to notice that you are in a situation where you can benefit from doing the habit you want to do; then once you notice the situation, you want to have things set up so that you want (in the moment) to do the thing you wanted to do (in a more reflective past state), then you have to actually do the thing, which can’t be done if the thing you’re trying to do is too hard. Then finally, you reward yourself.
Step 2) «make it attractive» has a lot of overlap with the other steps: often simply noticing the context where a habit can be done, is enough to desire to do the thing; though not all habits are like that. Also; a habit is more attractive to do if the thing is easier to do. Jumping into an ice cold pool of water filled with electric eels, then doing 100 pushups afterward is neither an attractive nor easy thing to do. And the entire point of rewarding yourself is to make the habit more attractive- you know you will be rewarded if you do the thing, and your brain is shaped by the previous times you rewarded yourself for the desired behavior.
As far as «Make it easy», the main idea I remember there from the book is to reduce the commitment of a habit. Instead of doing fifty pushups, do one pushup. Instead of writing 16,000 words every day, commit to pick up your pencil and write one word. Instead of committing to run 5K every day, put on your jogging shoes.
This idea has been both helpful and problematic for me at times. I’m quite good at simply picking up my pencil, writing a single sentence, and then putting down the pencil again (though again… I’m writing a long post right now, aren’t I? I probably wouldn’t be doing that if I hadn’t written those trivial laconic sentences a couple weeks ago. This dynamic is mentioned in the book, I remember). But I often find myself saying I’ll just do 10 pushups, only to find I’ve done 60 or 70 or 100 pushups by the time I stop.
My own addition to the idea of «make it easy» is well, make it easy. As in, make doing the thing you want to do easier, instead of lowering the bar. Instead of rewarding yourself for saying “hi” to a woman and nothing else, only reward yourself for having a conversation where you each say two utterances (notice that’s still a low bar- but it’s a very effective starting point); but train the skill of having such conversations and make that easy. Spend time thinking about why you’re falling short, and how you can make that not happen / what mindset you can install to reduce the probability of failure. If you’re properly rewarding yourself for the times you succeed, a small conversion rate of •cue → habit• will still eventually lead to a much higher conversion rate in the future (Obviously that won’t happen if you’re not rewarding yourself).
I’ve been thinking about writing a review of the book Atomic Habits, which I read last year on the recommendation of an LW user. As I remember, the main idea is a four-pronged approach to building habits:
Make the habit / cue obvious
Make it attractive
Make it easy
Make it rewarding
The idea is: you first need to notice that you are in a situation where you can benefit from doing the habit you want to do; then once you notice the situation, you want to have things set up so that you want (in the moment) to do the thing you wanted to do (in a more reflective past state), then you have to actually do the thing, which can’t be done if the thing you’re trying to do is too hard. Then finally, you reward yourself.
Step 2) «make it attractive» has a lot of overlap with the other steps: often simply noticing the context where a habit can be done, is enough to desire to do the thing; though not all habits are like that. Also; a habit is more attractive to do if the thing is easier to do. Jumping into an ice cold pool of water filled with electric eels, then doing 100 pushups afterward is neither an attractive nor easy thing to do. And the entire point of rewarding yourself is to make the habit more attractive- you know you will be rewarded if you do the thing, and your brain is shaped by the previous times you rewarded yourself for the desired behavior.
As far as «Make it easy», the main idea I remember there from the book is to reduce the commitment of a habit. Instead of doing fifty pushups, do one pushup. Instead of writing 16,000 words every day, commit to pick up your pencil and write one word. Instead of committing to run 5K every day, put on your jogging shoes.
This idea has been both helpful and problematic for me at times. I’m quite good at simply picking up my pencil, writing a single sentence, and then putting down the pencil again (though again… I’m writing a long post right now, aren’t I? I probably wouldn’t be doing that if I hadn’t written those trivial laconic sentences a couple weeks ago. This dynamic is mentioned in the book, I remember). But I often find myself saying I’ll just do 10 pushups, only to find I’ve done 60 or 70 or 100 pushups by the time I stop.
My own addition to the idea of «make it easy» is well, make it easy. As in, make doing the thing you want to do easier, instead of lowering the bar. Instead of rewarding yourself for saying “hi” to a woman and nothing else, only reward yourself for having a conversation where you each say two utterances (notice that’s still a low bar- but it’s a very effective starting point); but train the skill of having such conversations and make that easy. Spend time thinking about why you’re falling short, and how you can make that not happen / what mindset you can install to reduce the probability of failure. If you’re properly rewarding yourself for the times you succeed, a small conversion rate of •cue → habit• will still eventually lead to a much higher conversion rate in the future (Obviously that won’t happen if you’re not rewarding yourself).
I have more to say, but I need to go