Book information
- Date read: 2020-04-26
- Author: James Clear
- Genre: Productivity
- Rating: 5*
- Goodreads page
Summary
A self-help book that’s not really a “self-help book”, and instead emphasises the need for constant small ‘effects’; as it leads to greater ‘effects’ (compounding).
Key points
- Power of compounding, 1% better each day for a year, you end up 37% better
- It’s hard to master because we’re used to instant gratification
- The plateau of latent potential; we don’t see the outcome because we think progress is linear instead of non-linear
- We shouldn’t have goals and instead systems
- Completing a goal is only a momentary change
- Need to change the systems that are meant to cause the goal
- Once you’ve achieved the goal, what now? etc.
- “The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game”
- I.e. the goal at the end of a game of football is to win the game, but you wouldn’t spend 90 minutes looking at the score, The score takes care of itself.
- The habit needs to become part of an identity
Four stages: cue, craving, response, reward
Four laws of behaviour change
- Make it obvious, put the objects needed to carry out the habits, in a constant view
- Put more steps between you and the bad behaviours and fewer in front of you and the good behaviours
- Make it attractive i.e. listen to an audiobook that you like exclusively when you’re at the gym
- Make it easy, the more friction the harder it will be to pick up the habit
- Make it imminently satisfying, we live in a very high dopamine environment – Something positive after doing a habit