Kind hearted folks that I am grateful to know —
Hello from the start of the infamous weather in Netherlands. Days have started appearing to be small, dull and full of rain and despair. Nights... not so much. Just couple of months ago, length of the nights were half of the days'. Now it's equal.
Last month, I gave Atomic Habits (by James Clear) another read. This time the goal was to implement the book in real life. Here's an account of that implementation.
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James writes in his book that in order to make any habit stick, the habit in question has to be obvious, easy, attractive or satisfying.
In order to make something obvious, James suggests something called 'habit stacking' — using an old and reliable daily habit as the trigger for a new habit. As a child, you stacked the habit of flushing the toilet with the habit of washing your hands. Flushing the toilet became the cue for your hand washing habit. When you stack a new habit on an existing habit, you use the momentum of the old habit to make the new habit easier to initiate.
And there's a complimentary part of habit stacking — having a starting ritual. We often make a mistake of attempting to start too big because it's easy. In James' own words:
> Even when you know you should start small, it’s easy to start too big. When you dream about making a change, excitement inevitably takes over and you end up trying to do too much too soon. The most effective way I know to counteract this tendency is to use the Two‐Minute Rule, which states, ‘When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.
So in terms of practical implications:
- “Read in the morning” becomes “Read one page while having coffee”
- Cycle everyday becomes Unlock the bicycle after getting from work.
- “Run everyday” becomes “Wear running shoes.”
Habit stacking, combined with starting ritual with Two-Minute Rule can make a habit obvious and easy. But what about making the habit attractive and satisfying?
In order to make a habit attractive, James suggests allowing yourself to enjoy your favourite experiences while executing the habit. An example from the book:
> Ronan Byrne, an electrical engineering student in Dublin, Ireland knew that he should exercise more, so he used his engineering skills to synchronise his stationary bike with his laptop. He wrote a program on his laptop to play his favourite Netflix shows on the TV in front of the stationary bike when he cycled at a certain speed. If he slowed down, Netflix would pause, and he’d need to cycle harder to finish the episode he was watching ‐ binge‐watching Netflix meant burning calories.
When you synchronise an experience you crave with a new habit you dread doing, the craving will counteract the resistance to executing the new habit and allow you to get started.
The last piece of the puzzle is making the habit satisfying. It's a well known fact that what's rewarded is repeated. And that reward needs to be instant. One of the ways to make a habit satisfying is instantly giving yourself an Adrenaline boost right after finishing the habit. One way is by scoring. Seinfeld had a calendar system in place that he used to pressure himself to write. Every. Single. Day. Here's how it worked:
> Get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain. Don't break the chain, he said again for emphasis. (Source)
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So how does these techniques of making a habit obvious, easy, attractive or satisfying worked in my case? Well, let's see.
I started with 4 habits that I wanted to follow through for at least 30 days.
- Cycling
- Learning Dutch
- Journaling
- Meditating
For cycling, the obvious cue was right after I come from office I would take the bike keys and put it in my pockets. I gave myself an easy success metric — simply unlocking the bike and going for a spin in the neighbourhood. Once my arse was on the saddle, I could easily go for 20-30 mins. If I had aimed for 20-30 mins from the start I might not have done it consistently. Having the freedom to start small made all the difference. I was tracking the rides through Strava and after a day of two, when those kilometres started adding up in the profile, it was intensely satisfying too see those numbers go up after every ride. With all these hacks, I did a little over 200kms in September.
I have been using Duolingo to learn Dutch and it has everything possible that makes it addictive. But for the right reason. The way it celebrate the streaks, the success, and the sound design. Everything is just ... addictive. I highly recommend it giving it a shot and you'll realise why I sound like someone who has drunk all the Duolingo cool aid. As of now I am on a 15-day streak and in Gold League (only the Top 10 would advance to next league so I have to keep pushing!)
For journaling the obvious cue was right after the Dutch lessons. I used DayOne to log the journals and the goal was to simply open the app and write one Dutch word that I learnt just before, everyday. There were days when I just typed — too tired to do this but simply opening it up every night before bed made it a ritual and I didn't have to think about after couple of weeks. Seeing those streaks fill every day was satisfying in its own ways.
Meditating was right after my morning coffee. I was already doing it on and off again so I was more focused on developing the consistency. I remembered what it was like when I broke 25-day streak. Now I am on 23-day streak and I need some luck.
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All in all, the experiment to implement Atomic Habits in practice was (mildly) successful. I plan to continue doing things that are already and about to become habits.
What new habit are you working on? How did you stick to it?
Apologies again! This letter is over 1,000 words — I wish I had more time to tidy it up but hey, you know me and I know you. Does everything has to be perfect between us?
Speaking of imperfect things, did I tell you I put a few shaky clips from Rome last month in a video?
Until next time,
K