Atomic Habits is easily one of the most talked about and one of the most admired books in the past few years. As it sounds from the name of the book, it talks about the importance of small habit-changes in our day to day lives. The author has created a set of wonderfully orchestrated laws that help us to build good habits and break all the bad ones. Today I would like to talk about two of those laws and how easy and profound they are.
- The first law is to ‘Make it obvious’
We are all used to taking big resolutions during the start of a new year or a new month. More often than not, these resolutions don’t last very long. We spend a lot of time thinking about what habits are to be added and what are to be stopped, but we rarely think about how we are gonna implement them. Before we try to change our day to day habits, we have some basic details to figure out. Through the law of making it obvious, the author tries to convey the fact that when we assign a specific time period and location to our new habit, it makes it easier for us to do it. The formula to implement this law is:
‘when situation X arises, I will perform response Y’.
For example, ‘I will meditate for one minute at 7 a.m. in my kitchen’ (or) ‘I will study Spanish for twenty minutes at 6 p.m. in my bedroom ‘
When we plan our tasks by setting a particular time and location, we are prone to complete them more often than not.
In 2001, researchers in Great Britain began working with 248 people to build better exercise habits over the course of two weeks. The first group of people were simply asked to track how often they exercised. The second group were not only asked to track their workouts but also to read some materials on the benefits of exercise(for the purpose of motivation) . The third group were also given the same rules as the second, but in addition, they ere also asked to formulate a plan for when and where they would exercise over the following week. In the first and second groups, 35 to 38 percent of people exercised at least once per week. But 91 percent of the third group exercised at least once per week. More than double the normal rate ! From the above research, it is clearly evident that specifying a time and a place can add great value to our habits.
Another interesting way to approach this technique is by using the habit stacking method. Have you ever noticed that we often decide what to do next based on the what you have just finished doing? For example, going to the bathroom leads to washing and drying your hands , which reminds you that you need to put dirty towels in the laundry, so you add detergent to the shopping list and so on. Each action becomes a cue that triggers the next behavior. One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and stack your new behavior on top. This is called habit stacking. The purpose of habit stacking is to give us a game plan on what to do next.
We can have our goals as follows :
After I pour my morning cup of coffee, I will meditate for sixty seconds. After I meditate, I will write my to do list for the day. After writing my to do list I will immediately begin my first task.
- The next law is to Make is easy
One of the biggest problems we face while creating a new habit is focusing on too many things at once. The author tells us that it is very important for us to focus on the starting point of the habit rather than the whole outcome. The hardest part in building a new habit is to find the start button. That is why, the author asks us to make our habits as easy as possible to start. When we find ways to make the starting point look easier, we will be able to bring regularity into our habits.
Before we get into the ways we can make it look easy, let me tell you the importance of the ‘first step’ that we take. Let’s assume that you want to start hitting the gym everyday from now. You wakeup everyday, you put your gym clothes on, you head out, call a taxi and you head straight to the gym. What is the most important thing to focus on now? What do you think would be the starting point? Is it the different kinds of workouts that you are going to do? No. The starting point or the trigger point is getting into your gym clothes and getting into the taxi.
Whenever we start a new habit we always tend to have struggle with following the habit regularly. We always to find ways to procrastinate our schedule and make excuses. The author says that there are certain decisive moments that we have to win over in order to continue our habit. The decisive moment in this case is not the first workout, but its actually waking up and getting ready for the gym. Just when you are about to call the taxi, your mind will start putting in doubts and give you different reasons to cancel for the day. You might feel the laziness kicking in, you might feel mentally drained to go or your mind will crave to watch a new Netflix show. These are the kind of mental battles that you have to win. The decisions you make in these decisive moments will decide the overall outcome of the habit. That is why winning in these decisive moments (or) taking the first step is very important.
The two minute rule to make our habits look easy :
The idea is, when you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do. This is intended to make our habits as easy as possible to start. Instead of trying to do too many things at once, we can start by trying out the habit for a small time period first.
Read before bed each night becomes read one page,
Study for class becomes open my notes
Fold the laundry becomes fold one pair of socks
A new habit should not feel like a challenge. When the starting process is as easy as 2 minutes, it makes it easier to actually show up to the process. Once we’ve gotten the start, it is easy for us to then spend more time on the habit, and even on the days when we feel like taking a break, doing it for just two minutes will not make it seem like a tussle. Doing ‘something’ is far better than doing absolutely nothing. Doing 5 pushups is better than doing no push ups at all, writing for five minutes is far better than not writing at all.
The whole point of the two minute rule is to create a gateway habit that naturally leads us to a more productive path. It focuses on the art of showing up and establishing the habit. A habit must always be established before it can be improved. Remember, you can’t improve a habit that doesn’t exist !
Hope you liked reading this !
Wordsbykenaniah 