The Book in 3 Sentences 🔗
- Small habits don’t add up. They compound.
- If you want better results, forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.
- The secret to getting results that last is to never stop making improvements.
Impression 🔗
This book helped me realize the importance of systems. Instead of focusing on our destination, we should focus on the journey that helps us reach our destination.
How the Book Changed Me 🔗
I realized the importance of little decisions that we make every moment, every day. They become habits over time and work for or against us depending on whether they are positive or negative. > How my life / behavior / thoughts / ideas have changed as a result of reading the book.
My Top 5 Quotes 🔗
- If you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.
- You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your system.
- Success is the product of daily habits — not once-in-a-life time transformations.
- Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.
- Success is not a goal to reach or a finish line to cross. It is a system to improve, an endless process to refine.
Book Notes 🔗
What are Habits? 🔗
Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.
Making a choice that is 1% better or 1% worse may be insignificant in the moment, but when you repeat these choices over a lifetime, they determine who you are and who you could be.
Habits are like the atoms of our lives.
Each one is a fundamental unit that contributes to your overall improvement. At first, they may seem insignificant, but when they build on each other, remarkable things happen.
#1: Don’t quit now — you’re just getting started 🔗
You find yourself struggling to build good habits / break bad habits not because you have lost your ability to improve. It’s because you’ve not yet crossed the Plateau of Latent Potential.
Mastery requires patience. Here’s a quote from social reformer Jacob Riis:
When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it — but all that had gone before.
When you break through the Plateau of Latent Potential, you know that it’s the work you did long ago — when it seemed that you weren’t making any progress — that makes the jump today possible.
#2: It’s not about the goals, it’s about the SYSTEMS 🔗
Goals are the results you want to achieve. Systems are the processes that leads to the results you want to achieve. For instance, as a student, my goal is to get straight-As, while my system is the way how I study, manage my time, … If I completely ignored my goal to get straight-As and only focused on the way how I revise, I would still be able to get the results.
If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.
Of course, we’re not saying that goals are completely useless. Setting a goal is like setting the directions on where you want to land on, yet going through a system is like making progress to where you want to land on. When we spend too much time thinking about our goals instead of designing our own systems, a handful of problems may arise.
Every student wants to get straight-As. If successful students and mediocre students share the same goals, then the goal cannot be what differentiates the winners from the average students.
The goal has always been there. It is only when one implements a system of continuous small improvements that one achieves a different outcome.
Achieving a goal only changes your life for the moment. We think we need to change our results, but results are not the problem. Instead, what we really need to change are the systems that cause those results. Solving the problem at the results level only solves the problem temporarily. To improve, you need to solve the problem at the systems level.
The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking isn’t about a single accomplishment. It’s about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement.
Your commitment to the process determines your progress.
#3: Make habits a part of your identity 🔗
Behind every systems of actions is a system of beliefs. Behavior that is incongruent with the self will not last.
You may want to get straight-As, but if your identity is someone who procrastinates, you may put off studying a test for several hours by browsing social media instead.
It’s hard to change your habits if you never change the underlying beliefs that led to your past behavior. You have a new goal and a new plan, but you haven’t changed who you are.
Instead of saying “I’m the type of person who wants this.”, start saying “I’m the type of person who is this.” True behavior change is identity change. You might start a habit because of motivation, but the only reason why you’ll sustain is that the habit becomes part of your identity.
Shift the belief behind the behavior:
- The goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader.
- The goal is not to learn an instrument, the goal is to become a musician.
- The goal is not to run a marathon, the goal is to become a runner.
When your behavior and your identity are fully aligned, you are no longer pursuing behavior change. You are simply acting like the type of person you already believe yourself to be.
Stop blindly following the norms attached to your identity:
- “I am horrible at math.”
- “I suck at English”
- “I am bad at remembering things” When you have repeated a story to yourself for years, it is easy to slide into these mental grooves and accept them as a fact. The more deeply a thought or action is tied to your identity, the more difficult it is to change it.
Your habits are how you embody your identity.
Every time when you hand in your homework on time, you embody the identity of a responsible student. Every time when you receive a worksheet from your teacher and you put them in the right folder, you embody the identity of an organized student. Every time when you proactively contribute during class discussions, you embody the identity of an engaged student / learner.
The more you repeat a behavior, the more you reinforce the identity associated with that behavior.
The process of building habits is actually the process of building yourself. And this process is gradual. It doesn’t happen overnight when you decided that you would become somebody entirely new. Instead, you change bit by bit, day by day, habit by habit. Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.
It is a simple two-step process:
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Decide the type of person you want to be. For instance, if your goal is to get straight-As, start thinking, “Who is the type of student that could get straight-As?” It’s probably a student who is self-disciplined, responsible and proactive in learning. Now your focus shifts from getting straight-As (outcome-based) to being the type of person who is self-disciplined, responsible and proactive in learning (identity-based).
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Prove it to yourself with small wins. Once you know what type of person you want to be, you can begin taking small steps to reinforce your desired identity. You may use this question as a guide, “What would a straight-A student do?”: Would a straight-A student do their homework properly? Would a straight-A student mindlessly scroll through social media platforms when they study? Would a straight-A student procrastinate?
You have the power to change your beliefs about yourself. You have a choice in every moment. You can choose the identity you want to reinforce today with the habits you choose today.
Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity.
Ultimately, your habits matter because they help you become the type of person you wish to be. They are the channel through which you develop your deepest beliefs about yourself. Quite literally, you become your habits.
#4: Four laws that we can use to create good habits and break bad ones 🔗
1. Make it obvious 🔗
- Creating an implementation intention, which is pairing a new habit with a specific time and location. A simple way to apply this strategy is to fill out this sentence: I will {BEHAVIOR} at {TIME} in {LOCATION}. For instance, I will read an English article for ten minutes at 7a.m. in my bedroom. The benefit of doing this is that you don’t have to wait for inspiration to strike.
Give your habits time and space to live in the world. The goal is to make time and location so obvious that, with enough repetition, you get an urge to do the right thing at the right time, even if you can’t say why.
- Using habit stacking, which is identifying a current habit you already do each day and then stacking your new behavior on top. A simple way to apply this method is to fill out this sentence: “After I [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].”. For instance, after pouring my morning cup of tea, I will read an English article. After reading an English article, I will practice 10 math questions from the topics that I’ve learnt the previous lesson. Overall, habit stacking allows you to create a set of simple rules that guide your future behavior.
- Designing your environment. Making cues of good habits obvious and visible. For instance, if you want to remember to complete your homework, once you get home, immediately put your homework on a visible spot, for instance, on your desk. In contrast, if you want to break bad habits, rather than making it obvious, you can make it invisible. For instance, if you are always distracted by your phone when studying, leave your phone in another room for a few hours.
Instead of summoning a new dose of willpower whenever you want to do the right thing, your energy would be better spend optimizing your environment. This is the secret to self-control.
2. Make it attractive 🔗
- Using temptation bundling, which is pairing an action you want to do with an action you need to do. You may combine the habit stacking strategy with the temptation bundling strategy. A simple way to combine these two methods is to fill out this sentence: “After I [CURRENT HABIT], I will [HABIT I NEED]. After [HABIT I NEED], I will [HABIT I WANT].” For instance, if I want to play video games, but I need to revise for tomorrow’s math quiz: After I finish my homework, I will do 10 math questions. After I do 10 math questions, I will play video games.
- The culture we live in determines which behaviors are attractive to us. We tend to adopt habits that are praised and approved of by our culture because we have a strong desire to fit in and belong to the tribe. One of the most effective things you can do to build better habits is to join a culture where (1) your desired behavior is the normal behavior (2) you already have something in common with the group. For instance, you may consider joining study servers on Discord.
- Change just one word: You don’t “have” to, you “get” to. You get to receive secondary school education. You get to learn English. You get to wake up early for school. By simply changing one word, you shift the way you view each event. You transition from seeing these behaviors as burdens and turn them into opportunities.
In contrast, if you want to break bad habits, rather than making it attractive, make it unattractive. For instance, if you are addicted to Instagram, you may repeat the following phrases: “You think you are quitting something, but you’re not quitting anything because Instagram does nothing for you. You think using Instagram is something you need to do to be social, but it’s not. You can be social without using Instagram at all. Quit using Instagram, it’s wasting your time, energy, confidence, and most important of all, the quality of your future life.”
3. Make it easy 🔗
- Focus on taking action, not being in motion. Motion makes you feel like you’re getting things done. But in fact, you’re just preparing to get something done. When preparation becomes a form of procrastination, you need to change something. You don’t want to merely be planning, you want to be practicing.
- Prime your environment to make good habits the path of least resistance and make bad behaviors difficult. For instance, you find yourself using your phone too much, turn it off and put it as far as you can.
- Use the two-minute rule, which states that “When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.” For instance, “Study for class” becomes “Open my notes.”, “Read before bed each night” becomes “Read one page.”, … Make it easy to start and the rest will follow. A new habit should not feel like a challenge. The actions that follow can be challenging, but the first two minutes should be easy. As you master the art of showing up, the first two minutes becomes a ritual at the beginning of a larger routine. The more you ritualize the beginning of a process, the more likely it becomes that you can slip into the state of deep focus.
4. Make it satisfying 🔗
- Reward yourself with something that doesn’t contradict with your long-term vision. For instance, if you finish revising for 1 hour, you may reward yourself with a small snack.
- Measure your progress with a habit tracker. The most basic format is to get a calendar and cross off each day you stick with your routine. Yet, sometimes, life will interrupt you. Whenever this happens to you, remind yourself of a simple rule: never miss twice.
- Get an accountability partner or sign a habit contract. For instance, you may get a study buddy. Knowing that someone is watching can be a powerful motivator.
#5: Play a game that favors your strengths 🔗
- Choose the habits that best suit you. You may ask yourself a series of questions, “What feels like fun to me, but work to others?”, “What makes me lose track of time?”, “Where do I get greater returns than the average person”, “What comes naturally to me?”
- If you can’t find a game where the odds are stacked in your favor, create one. When you can’t win by being better, you can win by being different. Combine your skills.
A good player works hard to win the game everyone else is playing. A great player creates a new game that favors their strengths and avoids their weaknesses.
- Our genes do not eliminate the need for hard work, instead they tell us what to work hard on.
#6: Stick to it 🔗
The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom.
When a habit is truly important to you, you have to be willing to stick to it in any mood. What makes the difference between a professional and an amateur is that professionals take action even when the mood isn’t right.
The only way to become excellent is to be endlessly fascinated by doing the same thing over and over. You have to fall in love with boredom.