Book: 20220517 to 20220524, "Atomic Habits" by Clear, James

20220517 - Introduction

Good habits can fullfil our potential.

External stimulus is important to impact our behavior, internal thoughts (consciouness), feelings (subconsciouness), and beliefs (perception, identity) are also important.

The Fundamentals - Why Tiny Changes Make a Big Difference
20220517 - 1. The surprising power of Atomic Habits

Most of the huge achievement are done through daily tiny improvements. The compound effect is the major reason behind the changes.

It's hard to get good habit, because there is no noticable benefit in the near term; it's easy to get bad habit, because there is no noticable harm in the near term.

This is the reason that I need one month to read a book. - correction: not true. There are too many cues of bad habits.

You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results. p18

This explains that "Your position is not important, the important thing is your action.".

Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. You get what you repeat. p18

We think we need to change our results (to achieve the goal), but the results are not the problem. What we really need to change are the systems that cause those results. p25

Our lives is filled with process, not a few great results. So the meaning of life should be associated with infinite tiny processes, not any goals. Goal is illusion, not matter it's reached or not. We should focus on processes, and enjoy them. Processes bring us progress, and progresses bring us good result eventually, so we don't need to pay too much attention to them.

Processes could be navigated by thousands of atomic habits. Together we get a huge automatic system. We should try to improve this huge automatic system, make it run smoothly and efficiently. If we enjoy the running process of this complicated system, we enjoy every bit of life.

20220518 - 2. How Your Habits Shape Your Identity (and Vice Versa)

The most effective way to change our habit is to change our identity and believes. This could be done through self-hypnosis or real perception changes, such as, "You have beautiful nails.", then you would stop chewing nails. Ego and pride is powerful. They can change our behavior to maintain our identities.

Am I that type of person who medidate everyday and be able of controlling the mind? Am I that type of person who live up to 110? Am I that type of person who know how to be wealthy and healthy? Am I the type of person who don't waste time in web surfing? Am I the type of person who has strong self-discipline? Am I the type of person who can focus on reading for long time?

Ultimately, your habits matter because they help you become the type of person you wish to be. p41

20220519 - 3. How to Build Better Habits in 4 Simple Steps

Cues are meaningless until they are interpreted. The thoughts, feelings, and emotions of the observer are what transform a cue into a craving. p48

To make good habit, we need to make it obvious, attractive, easy and satisfying.

To break bad habit, we need to make it invisible, unattractive, difficult and unsatisfying.

How to get the habit of meditating? Set alarm clock?

The 1st Law - Make It Obvious
20220520 - 4. The Man Who Didn't Look Right

Carl Jung:"Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate." p62

Does this behavior help me become the type of person I wish to be? p65

Pointing and calling is effective to bring in our consciousness. Instead of following our feeling, that needs us to think about how to move our hand, how to express it in language and what we would hear.

Listen to our breath is an effective way in meditation. I think it's based on the same mechanism.

20220521 - 5. The Best Way To Start A New Habit

We often say yes to little requests (or internal urges) because we are not clear enough about what we need to be doing instead. p72

We forget our major aims, and pursue trivial targets instead.

Cue needs to be specific and be easy to follow.

If I do some pushups or pullups after accessing any screen, would that reduce my screen time?

20220521 - 6. Motivation is Overrated; Environment Often Matters More

Stop thinking about your environment as filled with objects. Start thinking about it as filled with relationships. Think in terms of how you interact with the spaces around you. p87

These relationships can be called "context". Each relationship is a cue. If there are conflict habit relate to the same cue, normally the easier one would win. That's why phone and tablet is not a good tool for study. We incline to use them for entertainment.

Ideally, work, sleep and entertainment needs different room/space. If we don't have that condition, then we need different corner of the same room for different activities.

New environment helps us to build new habits.

If live in the moment, we don't get restricted by those cues. Our conscious is in charge for most of the time.

20220521 - 7. The Secret to Self Control

You can break a habit, but you're unlikely to forget it. p94

To put it bluntly, I have never seen someone consistently stick to positive habits in a negative environment. p94

The secret of Self Control is to hide the cue.

The 2nd Law - Make it Attractive
20220521 - 8. How to Make a Habit Irresistible

No pain(need to do) no gain(want to do).

If we bundle the pain with gain, even pain can bring us dopamine spike.

What gain that I can give to myself? A cup of coffee after breakfast (and reading), 30 minutes web surfing after meditation, Lunch and youtube after morning work or reading, etc.

20220521 - 9. The Role of Family And Friends in Shaping Your Habits

If the Hungary three sisters studied different subjects, the result could be quite different. Let's say one focused on chess, one focus on Maths, and the other one focus on tennis. They may all fail. From this point of view, it's habit/meme leads to their success.

Should I comply to peer pressure? For minor issues, I should; but for major issues, it's better to make decision based on the First Principle. Maybe it's good opportunities to gain from other people's misperception.

20220521 - 10. How to Find and Fix the Causes of Your Bad Habits

Good habits take positive approach to get to desired status, and bad habits take negative approach. They give us similar feelings we want, but some feelings are just illusion.

Chairwheel can confine our freedom, but without it we may have to lie in bed everyday. Exercise and meditation may feel hard, but they give us chances to improve our physical and mental self.

Challenges and difficulties are also opportunities. They are good chances to learn new stuff.

The 3rd Law - Make it Easy
20220522 - 11. Walk Slowly, But Never Backward

Habits form based on frequency, not time. p145

So I should practise meditation, or violin, or maths, or tennis, or drawings, etc. multiple times a day to learn it quickly. Good idea!

20220522 - 12. The Law of Least Effort

Our real motivation is to be lazy and to do what is convenient. p151

We always prefer to do things which consume less energy.

The book missed one thing: boredom. Boredom is like vaccum. If it's not filled by good habits, it would take away by bad habits. So we need to keep ourselves busy.

It's same to business. If the employees got a lot of spare time, it's more likely that they would start to waste their time. Or worse: they start to waste other people's time. Maybe this is the reason that we should keep minimum number of managers.

20220522 - 13. How to Stop Procrastinating By Using The Two-Minute Rule

We can start any habit, no matter how hard it is. 

We just need to start from the super simple version. The point it, we need action to start a habit.

1 minute workout maybe is not enough. But once we get used to do it everyday, we can expand it to 2 minutes, then 5 minutes.

The first "jump" is the hardest part, after planning.

No matter how hard we try, great work always come with huge friction. If we cannot overcome those obstacles, we cannot win the competition. Most of people cannot make it.That's what differs great from good.

20220522 - 14. How to Make Good Habits Inevitable And Bad Habits Impossible

Do I need to access social media and news web site every day? No.

It's time to quit daily social media access. Once per week is fine.

If I don't use screen much, then it won't distract me much. I am not going to regret that I used social media too less when I got 80 years old.

Use technology to automate activities is good, such as paying bills. Water filter is also good idea.

The 4th Law - Make It Satisfying
20220522 - 15. The Cardinal Rule of Behavior Change

Immediate gain is more powerful than long term benefit. It helps us to set up good habit.

What incentives I can reward myself for sticking with good habits? Dark chocolate, web surfing, record tracking, a cup of coffee, eat out, movie. Anything else?

I can have a cup of coffee or a piece of chocolate after the meditation and physical exercise.

20220522 - 16. How to Stick With Good Habits Every Day

If no time for 20 minutes meditation, 1 minute is fine. If don't feel well to do 10 pull-ups, 1 pull-up is fine.

Habit tracker could be powerful.

And daily journal. It's good to write down the review of today's experience before going to bed.

Goodhart's Law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." p203

The habit tracker itself is not our aim.It's better to track whether we did, instead of how well we did.

20220523 - 17. How An Accountability Partner Can Change Everything

This one doesn't suit me. If I need the help from someone else to "force" me to maintain my habit, that means something else in my mind is wrong. I need to fix that part first.

Advanced Tactics - How to Go from Being Merely Good to Being Truly Great
20220523 - 18. The Truth About Talent

Genes do not determine your destiny. They determine your areas of opportunity. p219

If gene doesn't match our aim, that means we cannot get into the top 0.01% position in that area, especially to sports (more about the training of body). But top 5% is still not too hard, especially to non-sport area (more about personality such as Big Five).

We can change our brain, such as memory and observation; but it's hard to change our body features, such as height. Anyone with proper training and practicing can join the top 5% rich people group.

20220523 - 19. The Golidlocks Rule: How to Stay Motivated in Life And Work

What is a good habit/career/hobby? You are good at it but others think it's painful.

How to find the good habit? Explore and Exploit. Think ahead, think hard.

Talent doesn't eliminate the need for hard work.

When a habit is truly important to you, you have to be willing to stick to it in any mood. p236

It's the ability to keep going when work isn't exciting that makes the difference. p237

20220523 - 20. The Downside of Creating Good Habits

Habits + Deliberate Practice = Mastery. p240

Yearly review should be changed to quarterly review. Daily review is necessary. The former is to reflect ourselves from faraway place, and the latter is to check ourselves closely.

Habits deliver numerous benefits, but the downside is that they can lock us into our previous patterns of thinking and acting - even when the world is shifting around us. p249

20220523 - Conclusion: The Secret to Results That Last

Success is not a goal to reach or a finish line to cross. It is a system to improve, and endless process to refine. p252

Small habits don't add up. They compound. p253

p259

Awareness comes before desire.

Happiness is simply the absence of desire. (Is it make people feel empty/lost inside?)

It is the idea of pleasure that we chase.

Peace occurs when you don't turn your observations into problems.

With a big enough why you can overcome any how.

Being curious is better than being smart.

Emotions drrive behavior.

We can only be rational and logical after we have been emotional.

Your response tends to follow your emotions.

Suffering drives progress. Your actions reveal how badly you want something.

Reward is on the other side of sacrifice.

Self-control is difficult because it is not satisfying.

Our expectations determine our satisfaction.

Feelings come both before and after the behavior.

Desire initiates. Pleasure sustains.

Hope declines with experience and is replaced by acceptance.

Seneca's famous quota: "Being poor is not having too little, it is wanting more." p263