Atomic Habits: Make it Easy
How can we design a world where it is easy to do what is right?
We are continuing to read through Atomic Habits and today we are getting deeper into the actual habits. In Part 3, “Make It Easy,” James Clear walks us through the third law of behavior change: the RESPONSE. By this point, you should have completed chapters 11, 12, 13, and 14.
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In Chapter 11, Clear talks to us about the differences between ACTION and motion, between practice and planning.
Writing a to-do list is MOTION. Actually doing something on that list (let’s say “doing the laundry”) is ACTION. There is a key difference here. Motion (writing that to-do list) might need to happen as a step to get to the action, but it also can be a form of procrastination. We feel like we’re doing something, but we’re really procrastinating from performing the action that must be taken.
Clear gives us a strategy toward action: REPETITION.
Every time you repeat an action, you activate a neural circuit associated with that action.
Habits form based on FREQUENCY not TIME. How often have you heard something like “it takes 21 days to form a new habit?” James Clear isn’t interested in the time, he’s interested in the frequency. And again, this is why he says to start small. “Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results” is the subtitle of this book for a reason.
If you set a goal of doing 100 push-ups each day, you’re quickly going to find that action is exhausting and time-consuming. On the other hand, doing 1 push-up each day is super EASY. Want to work in push-ups into your daily routine? Start small. 1 or 10 might be good. Once you build the FREQUENCY of that habit each day, it will be easier to continue it (it may become automatic - a HABIT!) and perhaps even to build upon it later.
In order to build a habit you have to PRACTICE it. As he says: GET YOUR REPS IN. The best way to practice it is to adhere to the third law of behavior change: MAKE IT EASY.
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In Chapter 12, Clear explains to us that it is human nature to gravitate to the option that requires the least effort and least amount of work. That’s why we must MAKE IT EASY to perform the behaviors and habits we want to build.
The LOWER AMOUNT OF ENERGY a behavior takes, the easier it is for it to occur and be repeated.
He tells us to think about how easy/convenient it is to watch TV or to scroll through social media on our smart phones. We do these things mindlessly, without effort, because they are so EASY to do. Use these examples to find ways to make your new habits EASY.
Making our good habits more convenient means we are more likely to follow through on them.
What we have to think about is those days when we are busy, when we’re tired, when we’re out of energy. We need to be sure our new habits are made as easy as possible for moments like these.
Clear tells us that in order to make actions easy, we need to practice environment design.
When trying to form a new habit, it is best to CHOOSE A PLACE that is already along the path of your daily routine.
Habits are easier to build if it’s along the flow of our usual path.
For example, the location of a gym. I read some years ago that the most important thing when finding a new gym to workout at is the LOCATION. Is it convenient? The further away the gym is from our home or office, the easier it is for each of us to talk ourselves out of working out on any particular day, especially days we are low on energy.
REDUCE THE FRICTION in your home or office.
Clear gives us an example of why Japanese products started surpassing American ones. It’s because Japanese companies started making their products easier to use and cause less problems than American ones.
Successful companies design their products to automate simply, or eliminate as many steps as possible.
Look at how focused meal delivery services, ride sharing, and dating apps are at making them EASY to use so we will use them often.
Business is a never-ending quest to deliver the same result in an easier fashion.
Create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible! Prime your environment so it’s ready for easy use. Make the good habit the path of least resistance.
We can take the opposite tactic for bad habits. Create friction for those habits to be performed. The greater the friction, the less likely the habit. Don’t want to drink as much beer at home? First, you can simply choose not to bring beer home from the grocery store. But if you do, you can place that beer at the back of the fridge so you’re less likely to see it and get the urge.
When building your new habits: how you can design a world where it is easy to do what is right?
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In Chapter 13, James Clear gives us a strategy: THE TWO-MINUTE RULE.
Every day there are little decisive moments that make a big impact towards forming your habits.
Master the decisive moments of your day
Habits are the entry point, not the end point
In the beginning of this chapter, he gives us an example of a woman who goes to the gym every morning. The 2-minute ritual isn’t working out at the gym. It’s hailing the cab. The cab will take her to the gym.
For James Clear and his wife: changing into their workout clothes at 5:00 PM is their decisive moment.
Each day is made up of many small decisive moments, but it is really a few habitual choices that determine the path you take. These little choices stack up, each one setting the trajectory of how you spend the next chunk of time.
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The 2-minute rule: when you start a new habit, you should be able to do it in less than 2 minutes. You will find any habit can be scaled down to two minutes.
Make your habits as easy as possible to start
Example: read one page; pull out your yoga mat; for me, after lunch, just start going for a walk. After that, I might listen to an audio book or podcast while I walk. These habits begin to stack!
Once you’ve started doing the right thing, it’s easier to keep doing it.
A new habit should not feel like a challenge; the actions that follow might be challenging but the first two minutes should be EASY.
What you want is a “a gateway habit” that leads you down a more productive path.
Running a marathon is difficult but putting on your running shoes is easy. Make your habit putting on your running shoes.
Clear tells us the point is not to do this one small thing. The point is to MASTER THE HABIT OF SHOWING UP.
Once you master the skill of showing up, then you can work on improving from there. Do the easy thing on a more consistent basis. Standardize before you optimize!
Ritualize the BEGINNING of the PROCESS.
You might not be able to automate the entire process of a new habit, but you can make the first action mindless and the rest will follow.
Clear talks about his own HABIT JOURNAL (one I use every day!) In that journal he has a section to write ONE LINE per day. One line is very easy to do, and it will help create the habit of journaling every day.
This reinforces the IDENTITY you want to build. Every time you perform an action with frequency, you are casting a vote for the kind of person you want to be.
It is better to do less than you hoped than to do nothing at all.
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In Chapter 14, Clear teaches us how to make good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. This is where we learn to invert the 3rd law of behavior change of making it easy so that we can make bad habits difficult.
Strategy: Make your bad habits more difficult by creating a commitment device. A commitment device is a choice you make in the present that controls your actions in the future.
Lock in your future actions while your mind is in the right place rather than waiting for your emotions of the moment to dictate your actions.
Take advantage of your good intentions before being tempted.
Make bad habits difficult in the present.
Our smart phones are actually pretty smart, when we want them to be. Almost every app can be set to have a time limit per day. Our phones can be automatically set to “do not disturb” at certain hours of the day. Using these kinds of tools can be a type of commitment device to help us control our future actions before we fall victim to temptation.
In the book, Clear gives us the example of James Patterson’s cash register making it almost impossible for stealing to occur by employees by automating ethical behavior. Rather than trying to change the behavior of employees, it made the preferred behavior automatic.
One-time choices lead to better long-term results. One-time actions make it easier to do what you want: sleep well, be productive, eat healthy, etc.
In this day and age, we can be the victim of technology, and slip into the impulses of the moment. Or, we can choose to put technology to work for us. A few examples:
Automate financial savings
Unsubscribe from emails
Turn off app notifications
Delete social media apps from your phone
When you automate your life as much as possible, you can free up your time and energy to do the tasks machines cannot do yet.
Utilizing commitment devices, strategic one-time decisions, and technology, you can make good habits inevitable, and bad habits impossible.
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Hopefully reading is becoming a good habit. Keep reading! By this time next week, you should complete Part 4: Make it Satisfying. This means, you’ll want to complete Chapters 15, 16, and 17. I love how short and quick-moving these chapters are. Keep this ACTION going!
And feel free to come over to the book club channel our community Slack page or our private Facebook group and leave some thoughts about what you’re discovering the most through our reading of Atomic Habits.
Don’t forget to register for our live book club discussion taking place on October 15 at 10:30 AM ET. Let’s keep forming community as we journey together!