Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

Much of the battle of building better habits comes down to finding ways to reduce the friction associated with our good habits and increase the friction associated with our bad ones.

I like to refer to this strategy as addition by subtraction.*

Whenever I’m looking to cut calories, for example, I will ask the waiter to split my meal and box half of it to go before the meal is served. If I waited until the meal came out and told myself “I’ll just eat half,” it would never work.

One of the most effective ways to reduce the friction associated with your habits is to practice environment design.

For example, when deciding where to practice a new habit, it is best to choose a place that is already along the path of your daily routine.

A commitment device is a choice you make in the present that controls your actions in the future. It is a way to lock in future behavior, bind you to good habits, and restrict you from bad ones.

But the point is not to do one thing. The point is to master the habit of showing up.

Two-Minute Rule, which states, “When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.”

Like the muscles of the body responding to regular weight training, particular regions of the brain adapt as they are used and atrophy as they are abandoned.