Notes
An overview of the Introduction and my expectations
Chapter 1 lays the ground for the power of habits.
Chapter 2 is the 2nd of 3 chapters in The Fundamentals. This chapter identifies what you really need to change.
Chapter 3 of the Atomic Habits: The 4 Steps of the Behavior Loop (or is it 3?) and the 4 Laws of Behavior Change (or is it 8?). This is the last chapter of The Fundamentals. And you have to understand this chapter to understand the book.
Chapter 4 is a short chapter but now we get to start working on us. And we start by focusing on the invisible.
Chapter 5 focuses on how to start a new habit. You know what to do and you know why it matters. But that isn't enough to make a new habit stick.
Chapter 6 digs into the power of your environment and how it can be a cue for your habits.
Chapter 7 discusses self-control, willpower, and other things that are supposed to stop us from following bad habits.
Your brain is a complicated jerk. It's a drug addict. It's the dealer. Let's take a look at this.
This chapter focuses on 1 idea: social norms. And it's incredibly powerful.
This short chapter addresses cravings, their source, and how to reduce their control on you.
Action trumps everything. Do it. Do it often. Do it poorly. Just do it over and over and over.
In this chapter, we dive into a sub-law called The Law of Least Effort. The path of least resistance is a popular route.
Habit stacks can start with anything - even almost nothing.
This chapter shows us how to remove willpower from the habit cycle.
What have you done for me this second? The brain wants what it wants and it wants it right now.
How do you know if you're making progress? You keep track. And, as the saying goes, what gets measured gets improved.
"If failure is relatively painless, it gets ignored." Chapter 17 talks about how to make failure hurt.
Play the game to win by picking the right game to play. Chapter 18 discusses genetics and opportunity.
Chapter 19 talks about finding the sweet spot that puts you in the zone. (It's a big part of why video games are addictive.)
The final chapter: a warning about habits and how to gain mastery