Today marks day 5 of reading Atomic Habits, in this chapter review, we will learn about setting specific goals and habit stacking.
The book itself is very highly rated on amazon https://amzn.to/3x4K7Sa (affiliate link to book), boasting a 4.7 star rating over 157,532 reviews. The book also claims to have sold over 15 million copies as of Oct. 16, 2018 and has sold over 20 million copies as of Mar. 4, 2024.
This chapter follows up Chapter 4, where we learned about things like our “super-human” ability, Pointing-and-Calling, and The Habit Scorecard.
Chapter Summary:
- “The 1st Law of Behavior Change is make it obvious.” I believe this line is referring to making the “cue” obvious. To recap, if you wanted to start reading before bed, one of the best things you can do is start leaving a book on your pillow in the morning, so that when you get into bed, you will see the book, and remember to start reading before sleep.
- “The two most common cues are time and location.” Most people struggle to do things due to them being in the wrong place and possibly it being at the wrong time. For example, if you have kids, and the kids a typically bother you in the morning, then it would be best to try and meditate at a different time, possibly when they are occupied or sleeping. Also, some might find it a lot easier to meditate in a less cluttered environment, so this would be an example of something to consider when choosing a location to meditate.
- Creating an implementation intention is a strategy you can use to pair a new habit with specific time and location.” (View the next summary for the implementation formula). You want to use the formula, as when we attach specific measures to a goal, we become a lot more likely to do it. In this chapter the author discussed an experiment that was conducted involving three groups. Group 1 was told to track exercise two weeks, Group 2 was also told to do this, but Group 2 also was told to read about the benefits of working out for “motivation”, finally there was Group 3, now Group 3 also was told to read about the benefits of working out for “motivation”, but they were also told to use the implementation intention formula. Funny enough, Group 1 & 2 had basically the same results as 35 to 38 percent of people exercised at lest once per week. But 91 percent of people in Group 3 exercised at least once per week, this is an increase of over twice the normal rate.
- “The implementation intention formula is: I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].” (Described in previous paragraph). You should start using this formula if you want to actually start achieving your goals and building positive habits.
- “Habit stacking is a strategy you can use to pair a new habit with a current habit.” Habit stacking is essentially paring a habit that you already have, like brushing your teeth in the morning, with another habit you want to start doing, like meditating. The idea is that once you have brushed your teeth, you tell yourself it’s time to meditate, and after time you will also integrate meditation into your already established habits.
- “The habit stacking formula is: After I [CURRENT HABBIT], I will [NEW HABIT].” (Described in previous paragraph). Use this formula to integrate new habits into your life.
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