Attomic Habbits Flashcards
When most people think about the habits they want to build, they naturally start by considering the outcomes They want to achieve “I want to lose weight” or “I want to stop smoking”
The alternative is to build what I call “identity-based habits” and start by focusing on who we wish to become, not what we want to achieve.
Here’s the short version: Anyone can convince themselves to practice yoga or meditation once or twice, but if you don’t shift the belief behind the behavior, then it becomes hard to stick with long-term changes. Improvements are only temporary until they become part of who you are.
The goal is not to get straight A’s, the goal is to become a person who studies every day.
The goal is not to finish a painting, the goal is to become an artist.
The goal is not to win the game or competition, the goal is to become a person who practices every day.
Review my habits and make sure they follow the 2 minute rule
Improvements are only temporary until they become part of who you are. Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.
How many habits do you have that are a part of your personality ?
When making habits what is environment design and why is it important?
What do you think “reducing friction” on your habits means? Write down some points on how you can make your habits have less friction.
Explain priming the environment
Two strategies to combat fading motivation
Temptation bundling:
if you bundle a “need to do” with a “want to do” then you are more likely to that thing and it will also make it more enjoyable
For example,
- I can only watch YouTube while I put the washing away
- I will only eat my fav snacks while I am working
- I will only go to a coffee shop once I have decided the one task I need to complete while I am there
Commitment device:
This is a way to force you to complete your habit,
For example
- automatic savings transfer
- you can’t cancel gym 10 hours before
- website blockers
- leave your phone at home
Come up with a new example of each for all your habits and see which ones you can implement
How to Create a Reward that makes habits satisfying.
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 tells your brain that the habit paid off and that it was worth the effort.
This is why the reward is a key aspect of habit formation. It is the feeling that comes with a reward – pleasure, satisfaction, enjoyment – that closes the feedback loop and teaches your brain which behaviours to remember for next time.
In the first seven lessons, we’ve talked about how to make your habits easy, obvious, and attractive.
In this lesson, we’re going to discuss some strategies for closing the feedback loop on your habits in a positive and enjoyable way. In other words, we’re going to discuss how to create an effective reward that makes your habits satisfying.
One of my favorite examples comes from a group of city engineers in Stockholm, Sweden.
These engineers laid a series of sensors across a set of stairs in the subway and decorated them to resemble a giant set of piano keys. When pedestrians walked up the stairs, musical tones played from nearby speakers. Suddenly, using the stairs was fun and surprising. Each step was accompanied with a musical note. Motivated by the immediate satisfaction of making music as they walked, 66 percent more people took the stairs as they exited the subway rather than riding the escalator nearby.
This type of immediate feedback is a powerful factor in getting habits to stick. The more immediately satisfying a habit is, the more likely it will be repeated in the future.
Knowledge is not know how until you understand the underlying principles at work and can fit them together into a structure larger than the sum if it’s parts
How important it is to share your goals with your family and friends and optimise your environment, write down 3 dot points on how you could better your environment and what percent of your goals and habits you are sharing.
The way that social environment influences our habits is through the tribes we belong to and the groups we are a part of. The key factor in any of these tribes is that we have a sense of belonging. When you want to belong to a tribe, you want to repeat the habits of that tribe. We naturally soak up the habits of those around us.
If you move to a new neighborhood where your neighbors meticulously maintain their lawns, you might start gardening or landscaping your lawn too.
If you start going to a CrossFit class where all your classmates eat a Paleo diet, you might start eating that way too.
If you join a church or mosque that values community service, you might start volunteering your time as well.
Your culture sets your expectation for what is “normal.” Surround yourself with people who have the habits you want to have yourself. You’ll rise together.
This strategy can be utilized no matter what habits you desire to build. The key step is to join a group where your desired behavior is the normal behavior.
New habits seem achievable when you see others doing them every day. If you’re surrounded by readers, you’re more likely to consider reading to be a common habit. If you’re surrounded by people who recycle, you’re more likely to start recycling too. If your child is surrounded by friends who value studying and getting good grades, he or she will likely develop studious habits too.
My friends who meditate tell me the same thing: it is much easier to do with someone else. When you’re meditating alone, you can give up whenever your mind wanders. Maybe you were planning on doing ten minutes of meditation, but it’s been seven minutes and, whatever, that’s good enough. But when you’re meditating with a friend and seven minutes pass, well, you don’t want to be the first one to quit. You’ll sit there the entire time.
Nothing sustains motivation better than belonging to the tribe. It transforms a personal quest into a shared one. Previously, you were on your own. Your identity was singular. You are a reader. You are a musician. You are an athlete.
Warren buffets 2 list strategy
One day, Buffett asked his personal pilot to go through the 3-step exercise.
STEP 1: Buffett started by asking the pilot, named Mike Flint, to write down his top 25 career goals. So, Flint took some time and wrote them down. (Note: You could also complete this exercise with goals for a shorter timeline. For example, write down the top 25 things you want to accomplish this week.)
STEP 2: Then, Buffett asked Flint to review his list and circle his top 5 goals. Again, Flint took some time, made his way through the list, and eventually decided on his 5 most important goals.
STEP 3: At this point, Flint had two lists. The 5 items he had circled were List A, and the 20 items he had not circled were List B. Flint confirmed that he would start working on his top 5 goals right away. And that’s when Buffett asked him about the second list, “And what about the ones you didn’t circle?”
Flint replied, “Well, the top 5 are my primary focus, but the other 20 come in a close second. They are still important so I’ll work on those intermittently as I see fit. They are not as urgent, but I still plan to give them a dedicated effort.”
To which Buffett replied, “No. You’ve got it wrong, Mike. Everything you didn’t circle just became your Avoid-At-All-Cost list. No matter what, these things get no attention from you until you’ve succeeded with your top 5.’
I love Buffett’s method because it forces you to make hard decisions and eliminate things that might be good uses of time, but aren’t great uses of time. So often the tasks that derail our focus are ones that we can easily rationalize spending time on.
Are you using the 80/20 rule in your life?
write down 3 things that you should be doing in your life that align with this rule.
write down 3 things that you should be doing in your life that align with this rule.
explain what the Eisenhower Box is?
have you used it for today or this week,
if not fill It out and take action
to help with answering these questions answer these to questions
What am I working toward?
What are the core values that drive my life?
https://jamesclear.com/eisenhower-box
What is the strategy of “ relentless marginal gains”
Searching for a tiny margin of improvement in everything you do.
If you broke down everything you could think of that you are trying to improve and improve it by one percent you would get a significant increase when you put them all togeather
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. Conversely, if you get 1 percent worse each day for one year, you’ll decline nearly down to zero. What starts as a small win or a minor setback accumulates into something much more.
Buffets 3 step strategy
Do this task and see what you come up with
Mike Flint was Buffett’s personal airplane pilot for 10 years. (Flint has also flown four
US Presidents, so I think we can safely say he is good at his job.) According to Flint, he was talking about his career priorities with Buffett when his boss asked the pilot to go through a 3-step exercise.
Here’s how it works.
STEP 1: Buffett started by asking Flint to write down his top 25 career goals. So, Flint took some time and wrote them down. (Note: you could also complete this exercise with goals for a shorter timeline. For example, write down the top 25 things you want to accomplish this week.)
STEP 2: Then, Buffett asked Flint to review his list and circle his top 5 goals. Again, Flint took some time, made his way through the list, and eventually decided on his 5 most important goals.
STEP 3: At this point, Flint had two lists. The 5 items he had circled were List A and the 20 items he had not circled were List B.
Flint confirmed that he would start working on his top 5 goals right away. And that’s when Buffett asked him about the second list, “And what about the ones you didn’t circle?”
Flint replied, “Well, the top 5 are my primary focus, but the other 20 come in a close second. They are still important so I’ll work on those intermittently as I see fit. They are not as urgent, but I still plan to give them a dedicated effort.”
To which Buffett replied, “No. You’ve got it wrong, Mike. Everything you didn’t circle just became your Avoid-At-All-Cost list. No matter what, these things get no attention from you until you’ve succeeded with your top 5.”
What are the 4 steps of a habit?
With the 4 stages of a habit,
What are the simple ways you can make each step easier on a good habit or harder on a bad habit?
Update your habit score card
That is habit stacking?
Find one think in your life that you can implement with this formula
Motion vs Action
this card is very important, explain the difference and read the article.
what I see is that its so important to make a schedule for action, lock in the dates that action will occur or it will never happen.
There is a common mistake that often happens to smart people — in many cases, without you ever realizing it.
The mistake has to do with the difference between being in motion and taking action. They sound similar, but they’re not the same.
Here’s the deal…
Motion vs. Action
When you’re in motion, you’re planning and strategizing and learning. Those are all good things, but they don’t produce a result. Action, on the other hand, is the type of behavior that will deliver an outcome.
Here are some examples…
- If I outline 20 ideas for articles I want to write, that’s motion. If I actually write and publish an article, that’s action.
- If I email 10 new leads for my business and start conversations with them, that’s motion. If they actually buy something and turn into a customer, that’s action.
- If I search for a better diet plan and read a few books on the topic, that’s motion. If I actually eat a healthy meal, that’s action.
- If I go to the gym and ask about getting a personal trainer, that’s motion. If I actually step under the bar and start squatting, that’s action.
- If I study for a test or prepare for a research project, that’s motion. If I actually take the test or write my research paper, that’s action.
Sometimes motion is useful, but it will never produce an outcome by itself. It doesn’t matter how many times you go talk to the personal trainer, that motion will never get you in shape. Only the action of working out will get the result you’re looking to achieve.
Why Smart People Find Themselves in Motion
If motion doesn’t lead to results, why do we do it? Sometimes we do it because we actually need to plan or learn more. But more often than not, we do it because motion allows us to feel like we’re making progress without running the risk of failure. Most of us are experts at avoiding criticism. It doesn’t feel good to fail or to be judged publicly, so we tend to avoid situations where that might happen. And that’s the biggest reason why you slip into motion rather than taking action: you want to delay failure.
Yes, I’d like to get in shape. But, I don’t want to look stupid in the gym, so I’ll just talk to the trainer about their rates instead.
Yes, I’d like to land more clients for my business. But, if I ask for the sale, I might get turned down. So maybe I should just email 10 potential clients instead.
Yes, I’d like to lose weight. But, I don’t want to be the weird one who eats healthy at lunch. So maybe I should just plan some healthy meals when I get home instead.
It’s easy to be in motion and convince yourself that you’re still making progress. You think, “I’ve got conversations going with four potential clients right now. This is good. We’re moving in the right direction.” Or, “I brainstormed some ideas for that book I want to write. This is coming together.”
Motion makes you feel like you’re getting things done. But really, you’re just preparing to get something done. 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.
Ideas for Taking Action
I’m sure there are many strategies for taking action, but I can think of two that have worked for me.
- Set a schedule for your actions.
Every Monday and every Thursday, I write a new article and publish it to the world. It’s just what happens on those days. It’s my schedule. I love Mondays and Thursdays because I know that I will always produce something on those days. I’ll get a result. That’s a good feeling.
For weightlifting, I train on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. That’s the schedule every week. I’m not planning workout exercises. I’m not researching workout programs. I’m simply working out. Action, not motion.
For on–going goals and lifestyle changes, I think this is the best approach. Set a schedule for your actions and stick to it.
- Pick a date to shift you from motion to action.
For some goals, setting a daily or weekly schedule doesn’t work as well.
This is the case if you’re doing something that is only going to happen once: like releasing your new book, or launching a new product, or taking a big exam, or submitting a major project.
These things require some planning up front (motion). They also require plenty of action to complete them. For example, you could set a schedule each week to write each chapter of your book. But for the book launch itself, you could spend weeks or months planning different venues, locations, and so on.
In a situation like this, I find that it’s best to simply pick a date. Put something on the calendar. Make it public. This is when X is happening.
For big projects or one–time goals, I think this is the best approach. Force yourself out of motion and into action by setting a hard deadline.
