The Mathematics of Habits

“If you can get just one percent better each day, you will end up with results that are nearly 37 times better after a year.” Intriguing it is, isn’t it? I encountered this mathematical calculation of habit formation while I was reading Atomic Habits: An essay and proven way to build good habits and break bad habits a year ago. Since then, this simple rule applies to everything I do and it has impacted my life to the degree I have never imagined.

It just takes a minute to think what you want to do, just an effort to do what you want to do and a leap of faith to complete any action. Once you incorporate all these ideas in your everyday life then BOOM!, there you are with a new habit. Habits are nothing but repetition of action that takes a little bit of effort everyday to build up. Once you take a small step of action and repetition, it is all set to get converted into habit.

Carl Jung once said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” I hope after reading this you won’t let your bad habits guide your way unconsciously letting you to call it fate.

Here are the core ideas posed by James Clear in his book to help build habits:

The first law: Make it obvious

Be sure of the things you want to do and allocate specific time and areas for the particular act to be done. This enhances you to get stick with the things you want to do. Follow the following methods;

• Make a habit scorecard

Write down all of your current habits so that you can be aware of it.

• Have implementation intention

A research done in Great Britain in the year 2001, pointed that implementation intention is needed for better results. Here, you try to implement an idea setting an exact time and area beforehand. Clearing the dilemma, it ensures you to stick to the task.

• Use habit stacking

Pair two actions (a new with the old one) so they could be done at the same time and location. For example, while I drive, I can chose to listen to an audio-book.

• Creating favorable environment

To build any habit, you have to design the environment to favor the task. If you make the cues of good habit visible then you naturally opt to do the action you want as habit. For example, if you want to incorporate healthier options for your snacks, you can place the healthier food in the area which is most visible and junk items to less visible place.

The second law: Make it attractive

James proposes three ways to make things more attractive.

• Use Temptation Bundling

The strategy is to pair an action you have to do with an action you want to do. For example, you only get to watch Netflix after you complete your assignment.

• Spend time with the people where your desired behavior is a normal ritual.

• Do things you enjoy before undertaking any difficult habit or action.

The third law: Make it easy 

Below are the ways to make things easy.

• Reduce friction

• Shape the environment so that it becomes easier for you to do the actions in future.

• Follow the two-minute rule

When you are tired of putting in the effort to build up any habit just try to do the particular stuff for 2 minutes.

• When you feel like not doing the desired task, just focus and try to take the simplest step you can. If you want to incorporate yoga into your habit, get yourself into the mat even if you don’t feel like doing yoga. This tricks your brain to get started.

The fourth law: Make it satisfying 

• If you complete the desired task, give yourself a reward because that’s what your brain always longs for. Your brain gets ready to do any task if given a reward.

• Use a habit tracker to let yourself know how much you progressed.

• You might miss to do the desired task once but don’t miss it again and break the chain of habit formulation.

These are the simple tricks that James Clear urges each of us to follow. These atomic changes in my daily rituals helped change my habits. Let yourself try it too. In the end, why not take a small step when, in the course of a few months or years, you can see the desired version of yourself?