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Atomic Habits: How to Easily Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones

Popular author and speaker James Clear says, “Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.” That is, the effects of your habits multiply, when repeated, much like your money multiplies, as it sits in an interest-bearing account.

Clear is the author of the new Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones, and he has a simple formula for making your habits Atomic, which he shared with Hack Learning creator and Times 10 Publisher Mark Barnes for Episode 127 of the Hack Learning Podcast.

Excerpts from Mark’s brief interview with James Clear

 

MB — In your new book, Atomic Habits, you say, “Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.” Talk about that statement.
JC — The basic idea is that habits don’t add up, they compound. The same way that money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them.
This process can work for you or against you. That is, habits are a double-edged sword. We’ve all experienced this with bad habits: eating junk food or procrastinating for an hour seem like insignificant choices on any given day, but when you repeat them week after week they can really add up.
It is only when looking back two, five, or perhaps ten years later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad ones becomes very obvious.
This is why it’s so important to understand how habits work: you want to be able to design them to help you rather than hinder you. Understanding habits allows you to avoid the dangerous half of the blade on that double-edged sword.
MB — People often connect habits to goals, but in Atomic Habits, you say “Forget about goals and focus on systems.” Why should we forget about goals and what systems should we focus on?
JC — This is one of the core philosophies of Atomic Habits: You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
Setting a goal is fairly easy. Anyone can sit down for 10 minutes and complete a goal-setting exercise. But what you find is that setting a goal often has very little to do with actually achieving a particular outcome.
In fact, the winners and losers in any particular domain often have the same goals. Every Olympian wants to win a gold medal. Every candidate wants to get the job. And if successful and unsuccessful people share the same goals, then the goal cannot be what differentiates them.
MB — So what makes the difference?
JC — I think it comes down to the system that you follow each day. Throughout my book, I give dozens of strategies and examples of how to build a system of atomic habits that make it easier to stick to good habits and break bad ones.
Also, it’s worth noting: I don’t believe goals are completely useless. Goals are good for setting a sense of direction and gaining clarity about what you’re working on. But systems are better for actually making progress.
MB — Can you share a system from your book?
JC — How to stop procrastinating with the “2-Minute Rule.” The Two-Minute Rule states “When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.”

You’ll find that nearly any habit can be scaled down into a two-minute version:

  • “Read before bed each night” becomes “Read one page.”
  • “Do thirty minutes of yoga” becomes “Take out my yoga mat.”
  • “Study for class” becomes “Open my notes.”
  • “Fold the laundry” becomes “Fold one pair of socks.”
  • “Run three miles” becomes “Tie my running shoes.”

The idea is to make your habits as easy as possible to start. Anyone can meditate for one minute, read one page, or put one item of clothing away. And, as we have just discussed, this is a powerful strategy because once you’ve started doing the right thing, it is much easier to continue doing it.

A new habit should not feel like a challenge. The actions that follow can be challenging, but the first two minutes should be easy. What you want is a “gateway habit” that naturally leads you down a more productive path.

MB - You have a wildly popular site and newsletter, with hundreds of thousands of subscribers. What can our listeners expect to find when they subscribe?
JC — I write about self-improvement tips based on proven scientific research. Newsletter subscribers get a new article from me each week about topics like habits, decision making, and continuous improvement. Over 400,000 people subscribe to those messages.

Check out Atomic Habits

James Clear’s new book, Atomic Habits: How to Easily Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones, just arrived and is appropriate for us, because like Hack Learning books, it looks at a problem through a unique lens and offers simple, right-now solutions to making your habits Atomic. You can learn more and grab your copy at atomichabits.com.
Learn how to become uNforgettable at uNseries.com

James Clear is an author and speaker focused on habits, decision-making, and continuous improvement. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Entrepreneur, Time, and on CBS This Morning.

How Finding Balance Can Make You an uNforgettable Teacher

Listen to “126: How Teachers Can Find Balance” on Spreaker.

Consider for a moment your responsibilities as a teacher. Now, ask yourself how many of those are real necessities.

Find Balance

Veteran teacher, author, and presenter Chuck Poole believes that one of the keys to becoming an unforgettable teacher is to find your balance. In his book, uNforgettable: Your Roadmap to Being the Teacher They Never Forget, Poole says that balance “frees us from unnecessary responsibilities.”

But how can busy teachers find balance? Poole explains it this way:

from uNforgettable

Finding balance is not easy, but it is worth it. Professional surfers have balance. They have the remarkable ability to stand on a board without falling off while powerful waves continually attempt to knock them down.

They understand that in order to stay upright, they have to control their own actions, rather than letting the waves beneath them control the situation. They learn to respect the power of the ocean and just enjoy the ride.

If, though, we figure out when our energy is at its highest point, and budget our time with that in mind, we can increase our effectiveness and efficiency.

As teachers, our work can sometimes feel like a wave crashing beneath our feet and trying to knock us off balance. We become so overwhelmed with lesson plans, expectations, and initiatives that we have little time to enjoy anything else at all, and our job becomes more of a burden than a labor of love.

We feel as though we are surfers who just can’t stay upright, and we find ourselves falling into the ocean time and time again. Finding a way to balance is the only way to keep from drowning. When we find balance, our vision becomes clear and we are able to rise above the waves and make an even greater impact.

Don’t drown; find balance

uNforgettable teachers understand the importance of balance. Although we find ourselves falling from time to time, we follow a plan and maintain a set of boundaries that show us the line between our surfboard and the raging ocean around us.

The plan and the boundaries give us a path to follow, even when things become a struggle. It’s easy to get consumed by what’s going on in the moment, but a plan keeps us on the path toward success, and the grander scheme of things.

Manage your energy

Identify your peak time to help you start to build balance in your life and teaching. When you consider your usual day, when is it easiest for you to work, and when do you feel most efficient? On average, people have three to five peak hours in a day, so pay attention to the tasks that require the most energy, and accomplish those during your peak hours.

Use your not-so-peak hours to accomplish the tasks that take less concentration or motivation. Doing these important—and perhaps most difficult—tasks during these hours will guarantee that you get them done, and leave the rest of the day for lesser tasks that take less energy and focus.

uNforgettable author Chuck Poole talks about finding balance

You will find that your days are more organized and that you end up getting more done. We often spend too much time trying to figure out how to fit everything into the limited amount of time we have each day, and end up failing at many of our goals.

If, though, we figure out when our energy is at its highest point, and budget our time with that in mind, we can increase our effectiveness and efficiency.

Here’s an example of how I work to manage my energy throughout the day:

High-energy time (5–8 a.m., 3–5 p.m.): Spend time with family, write podcast episodes and blog posts, brainstorm ideas for the uNseries.

Mid-energy time (11 a.m.–1 p.m.): Plan lessons, grade papers, collaborate with colleagues.

Low-energy time (6–9 p.m.): Work out, read/answer email, watch TV, check social media.

Follow these simple steps to help you match your energy level with the proper task:

• Step One: Consider which tasks take up most of your energy. If you’re struggling, try creating a list or chart and classifying your tasks in regard to how difficult they are.

• Step Two: Determine when you are at your best during the day; when you have the most energy. For some teachers, this will be in the morning or during a prep period. For others, it may come at the end of a school day, after the students have left the building.

Click here and learn how to be uNforgettable

• Step Three: Plan to complete your high-energy tasks during your peak hours.

• Step Four: Complete your mid-energy tasks during other times of the day, when you still have energy, but are outside or at the edges of your peak time. These tasks might include things like grading papers, completing paperwork, or planning units with colleagues.

• Step Five: Leave your low-energy tasks for the time of day when you have the least energy. These are the things that take the least mental work and can be left for times when you have the least mental energy. Include things like checking email, social media, or working out.

Sign a boundary contract

Finding balance is not only about time. We might budget our time perfectly . . . and still find that there aren’t enough hours in the day to complete everything we have to do.

Making that decision, and avoiding the overwhelm that comes with overpromising, will help you achieve better balance.

Becoming overwhelmed and stressed about a lack of time is not the way to become an uNforgettable teacher. Instead, you’ll be going through the motions and treating your students as afterthoughts. So how do we avoid the problem?

Click here to learn how to find balance

Many of us have trouble saying no because it is in our nature to help others. We end up taking on more than we can handle, which causes stress and resentment. Instead of teaching, which we love, we get busy doing favors that we never wanted to do. Our life begins to spiral out of control—all because we never set boundaries, and therefore we said yes to too many things.

Ultimately, our passion takes a back seat to stress—and our students notice. Combat this problem by creating a contract with yourself. When we sign a teaching contract, we are saying we will abide by what’s in it, and meet the expectations we’ve just signed on for.

If we do not follow through with that, we can be fired or sued. They are powerful pieces of paper that bring joy to those who receive them and pain to those who break them.

The same concept works with a boundary contract. This contract is one you design and outlines what you’re willing to take on outside of your normal teaching responsibilities—and what you are not.

Click image to look inside

Here are some examples. If you enjoy heading up committees to help develop the school, include it in the contract as one of your outside activities. If you do not, include it in the contract as a responsibility that is not acceptable to you.

If you are willing to take on a coaching responsibility or an after-school club, include it in the contract. If not, make sure to list that as something you are not willing to take on during the year.

Put these things down in writing and then sign it, and you’ll have a document to review down the line when you’re faced with a decision. Making that decision, and avoiding the overwhelm that comes with overpromising, will help you achieve better balance.

Finding balance in our lives will benefit everyone we come into contact with, and by implementing a few strategies, we can change our lives for the better.