Atomic Habits Summary

A habit is a routine or behavior that is carried out repeatedly and most of the time automatically.

When you are faced with a problem repeatedly, your brain starts to automate the process of solving it. Your habits are sets of automatic solutions that solve the problems you come across regularly.

Goals are good for establishing a direction, but systems are best for making progress.

Goals are about the results you hope to reach. Systems are about the mechanisms that lead to those results.

1. Changing your outcomes. This means changing your results: losing weight, publishing a book, etc.
2. Changing your process. This means changing your habits and systems: for example, developing a meditation practice.
3. Changing your identity. This means changing your beliefs: the way you see yourself and the ones around you.

“If you can get 1 percent better each day You will end up 37 times better by the time you’re done, if you get worst 1% every single day end up reaching nearly 0"

• Small habits compound over time, and they are barely visible at the beginning. Only after time they build into a powerful system.

1.Design a system that will get you to where you want to be :Goals are good to set direction. The system is what will get you there.

2.Make the system motivate you and give you happiness :The feeling you get when you achieve a goal is only momentary. focus on the system instead, you will enjoy entire process.

“The goal is not to run a marathon, the goal is to become a runner.”

Your actions define who you are. To change your identity:

1.Decide the type of person you want to be.

2.Prove it to yourself with small wins.

Habits exist in order to help us do repetitive things automatically.

Problem phase

1. Cue - the cue triggers the brain to a certain behavior, like you walk into dark room.
2. Craving - this is the motivation behind the habit, like you want to be able to see

Solution phase

1. Response - this is the action to perform, like you flip the light switch.
2. Reward - it has two purposes - to satisfy us and to teach us, like you satisfy your craving to see.

Getting 1% better every day is for the long run. You will able to see the results after a while. If you wait for a year you will be 37% better than the previous year.

Just remember one thing, there will be one time during this long run when you don't be able to see any progress, but then also you have to carry on. 

To create a new good habit or destroy an old bad one you just need to change your identity to yourself and others.

If you want to quit smoking, then whenever anyone offers you a cigarette, say "I'm not a Smoker."

If you want to build a good reading habit, tell others that you are a good reader.

When you start saying like that your subconscious takes it as an order and tries to act according to that.

The effects of small habits compound over time.

They seem to make little difference on any given day and yet the impact they deliver over the months and years can be enormous. A slight change in your daily habits can guide your life to a very different destination.

Making a choice that is 1% better or 1% worse seems insignificant in the moment, but over a lifetime these choices determine the difference between who you are and who you could be.

1. Make it obvious. Don’t hide your fruits in your fridge, put them on display front and center.
2. Make it attractive. Start with the fruit you like the most, so you’ll actually want to eat one when you see it.
3. Make it easy. Don’t create needless friction by focusing on fruits that are hard to peel. Bananas and apples are super easy to eat, for example.
4. Make it satisfying. If you like the fruit you picked, you’ll love eating it and feel healthier as a result!

The idea is simple: You keep a record of all the behaviors you want to establish or abandon and, at the end of each day, you mark which ones you succeeded with. This record can be a single piece of paper, a journal, a calendar, or a digital tool, like an app.

The best way to start a new habit is by Implementation Intention. 

It is a plan you make beforehand about when and where to act. That is, how you intend to implement a particular habit.

The format for creating an implementation intension is :

“When situation X arises, I will perform response Y.”

The punch line is clear:

"People who make a specific plan for when and where they will perform a new habit are more likely to follow through."

We tell ourselves, “I’m going to eat healthier” or “I’m going to write more,” but we never say when and where these habits are going to happen. We leave it up to chance and hope that we will “just remember to do it” or feel motivated at the right time".

"Many people think they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity".

Once an implementation intention has been set, you don’t have to wait for inspiration to strike.

The simple way to apply this strategy to your habits is to fill out this sentence:

I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].

People are more likely to take action at those times because hope is usually higher. If we have hope, we have a reason to take action. A fresh start feels motivating.

It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis. Too often, we convince ourselves that a massive success requires massive action.

We often dismiss small changes because they don't seem to matter very much in the moment.

Success is the product of daily habits.

People make a few small changes, fail to see a tangible result, and decide to stop. But in order to make a meaningful difference, habits need to to persist long enough to break through this plateau.

If you find yourself struggling to build a good habit or break a bad one, it is not because you have lost your ability to improve. It is often because you have not yet crossed the Plateau of Latent Potential.

"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. “

"Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement."

"You don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems."

The secret to having a successful life is not a single habit. It's many habits that compound and create a system of living. One single habit may change your life by 1%-it's too small to notice. But what if you create one habit every day for 365 days? You will become 37x better.

• “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.”
• What people see is a breakthrough. What people don't see are all the small details that happened before it.
• Small actions and habits one establishes are what drove one toward success every single day.

• The foundation of every lasting change is identity.
• Lasting change can only come through an identity change.
• If good habits are in conflict with your identity, you will fail to establish them.
• Actions prove your identity—changing your actions proves you are a writer.

Instead of trying to improve everything in your life in one day, try becoming 1% better every day. 1% better every single day results in 37x improvement over a year.

Your character and personality is formed by every single action you take during the day. To improve your habits means that you in fact improve your character.

Your entire identity is the result of all your habits together.

Every habit consists of four parts:

1. The cue (what triggers your desire to do something)
2. The craving (the desire for an action)
3. The response (the action)
4. The reward (the satisfaction you get from doing it)