Begin new habits at an ‘atomic level’ by making them extremely small and easy to do, then gradually layer up from there to achieve powerful results.
Instead of ‘fake it till you make it,’ let your behavior lead by consistently performing small habits, which gradually builds evidence and reshapes your self-identity over time.
View every action you take as a ‘vote’ for the type of person you want to become, using small habits to build a body of proof that reinforces your desired identity.
To start a new habit, scale it down to something that takes two minutes or less to do, making it so easy that you can’t say no, because a habit must be established before it can be improved.
Focus on establishing a habit as a consistent part of your routine, even in a small way, before attempting to optimize, expand, or upgrade it.
To ensure long-term consistency, join a group or tribe where your desired behavior is the normal and expected behavior, leveraging social pressure and identity to stay on track.
To maintain habits, powerfully notice the negative feelings (‘pain’) that arise when you don’t stick to them, and actively tune into the positive, even ‘raw animal pleasure’ of performing the habit itself.
Reframe obligations from ‘I have to’ to ‘I get to’ to shift your perspective from seeing tasks as burdens to opportunities, fostering gratitude and positive motivation.
Instead of focusing solely on the outcome, optimize for making the initial step of a habit as easy as possible, ensuring you show up consistently.
Identify and create a specific, new environment or context for a new habit to avoid fighting against existing behavioral biases tied to other places and times.
Prepare your environment in advance to make future desired actions easier, such as setting out breakfast items the night before to streamline a morning routine.
To break a bad habit, make the cues that trigger it invisible or remove them from your environment, such as putting tempting food out of sight or not buying it at all.
To break a bad habit, make it difficult or add friction to the response, such as using a programmable lockbox for snacks or brushing your teeth early to deter late-night eating.
Use an outlet timer to automatically cut power to devices like internet routers at a set time each night, preventing late-night screen use and facilitating a power-down routine.
Delete distracting apps from your phone, especially those that lead to unwanted late-night behaviors like checking email, to reduce temptation.
Implement a system where passwords for distracting digital platforms are reset and withheld during productive hours, only to be provided when it’s appropriate to access them.
To break a bad habit, make the craving for it unattractive by associating it with a negative experience, like using bitter-tasting nail polish to deter nail biting.
To break a bad habit, make the outcome of performing it unsatisfying, as your brain learns not to repeat unrewarding behaviors.
To build a good habit, make the cues that trigger it obvious in your environment.
To build a good habit, make it more attractive and appealing, such as committing to exercise with a friend so that social accountability makes it more desirable to show up.
To build a good habit, make the response easy, convenient, and frictionless to increase the likelihood of performing it.
To build a good habit, ensure the outcome is satisfying, as rewarding behaviors are more likely to become habits.
To break a bad habit, choose one of three methods: elimination (cold turkey), reduction (curtailing to a desired level), or substitution (replacing with a good habit).
To encourage desired habits in others (e.g., family members), praise them when they perform the good behavior and ignore the instances when they don’t, reinforcing positive actions.
Recognize that desire motivates you to act (e.g., the image of a donut), but it’s the pleasure or enjoyment derived from the action that sustains the habit and makes you want to repeat it.
View your life as a series of seasons, understanding that different periods may require different habits, allowing you to adapt and reintroduce habits later rather than feeling like a failure for letting one go.
Understand that your genes and personality predispose you to certain traits, which can inform where to focus your efforts in habit formation, either by leveraging strengths or providing extra support for challenges.
Recognize that habit formation is inherently difficult and that everyone struggles with it, which can lighten the burden and reduce self-judgment when trying to establish consistent behaviors.
If you fall off track with a habit, simply re-engage with it at any time, understanding that nothing is lost and you can always resume the practice.
Even meditating for just one minute can be effective and contribute to building a consistent practice.
Use a short meditation session to smooth out transitions between different parts of your day, such as moving from work to evening home life.
Identify times in your day when you mindlessly scroll through social media or engage in other unproductive behaviors, and substitute a minute or two of meditation in those ’targets of opportunity.’
Maintain a regular meditation practice, regardless of the time of day, to continuously build the mental muscle of mindfulness and self-awareness.
Engage in mindfulness meditation to cultivate meta-awareness – the ability to know that you are thinking and experiencing emotions – which creates a buffer between stimulus and response, preventing you from being owned by your thoughts and feelings.
Through deeper meditation, observe the illusion of a solid, separate self or ego, which can be healing and helpful in detaching from neurotic obsessions and seeing thoughts as impersonal.
To sustain a habit through the initial ‘valley of death’ before long-term rewards kick in, add an immediate, reinforcing reward to the behavior, like a lottery system with marbles.