Summary
Better daily habits are the way we can improve our quality of life and we can create the systems to form such habits or break bad ones.
Notes
- Aggregation of marginal gains – philosophy of searching for small improvements in everything you do e.g. British Cycling team painting van to reduce dust
- Focus less on goals and more on systems
- Don’t get too attached to one identity, as identity conflict may inhibit growth. It’s about continuously evolving
E.g. “The goal is not to read a book, the goal is to become a reader. The goal is not to run a marathon, the goal is to become a runner.”
- 4 laws of behaviour change:
- Make it obvious.
- Make it attractive.
- Make it easy.
- Make it satisfying.
And invert laws to break bad habits
- The Diderot Effect – tendency for one purchase to lead to another
- Habit Stacking – identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behaviour on top
- Temptation bundling – pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do.
- As we rely more on vision, use visual cues e.g. Crosses on a calendar
- Design your environment – One space: one use
- Use implementation intentions: “I will (BEHAVIOR) at (TIME) in (LOCATION).”
- Reframe habits – You don’t “have” to. You “get” to wake up early
- Accountability partner to add a cost to inaction
- Your genes determine areas of opportunity
- You need to love boredom, because mastery requires practices, which leads to boredom
- Build in time for reflection
- Happiness is simply the absence of desire
