|
Game of
Thrones
reference into this book.
*
This is just a partial list of underlying motives. I offer
a more complete list and more examples of how to
apply them to business at
atomichabits.com/business
.
* A similar story is told in the book
Art & Fear
by David
Bayles and Ted Orland. It has been adapted here with
permission. See the endnotes for a full explanation.
* This is a foundational principle in physics, where it is
known as the Principle of Least Action. It states that the
path followed between any two points will always be the
path requiring the least energy. This simple principle
underpins the laws of the universe. From this one idea,
you can describe the laws of motion and relativity.
* The phrase
addition by subtraction
is also used by
teams and businesses to describe removing people from a
group in order to make the team stronger overall.
* To be fair, this still sounds like an amazing night.
*
I designed a habit journal specifically to make
journaling easier. It includes a “One Line Per Day”
section where you simply write one sentence about your
day. You can learn more at
atomichabits.com/journal
.
* The irony of how closely this story matches my process
of writing this book is not lost on me. Although my
publisher was much more accommodating, and my closet
remained full, I did feel like I had to place myself on house
arrest to finish the manuscript.
* This is also referred to as a “Ulysses pact” or a “Ulysses
contract.” Named after Ulysses, the hero of
The
Odyssey
, who told his sailors to tie him to the mast of
the ship so that he could hear the enchanting song of the
Sirens but wouldn’t be able to steer the ship toward
them and crash on the rocks. Ulysses realized the
benefits of locking in your future actions while your
mind is in the right place rather than waiting to see
where your desires take you in the moment.
* The shift to a delayed-return environment likely began
around the advent of agriculture ten thousand years ago
when farmers began planting crops in anticipation of a
harvest months later. However, it was not until recent
centuries that our lives became filled with delayed-return
choices: career planning, retirement planning, vacation
planning, and everything else that occupies our calendars.
* Time inconsistency is also referred to as
hyperbolic
discounting
.
* This can derail our decision making as well. The brain
overestimates the danger of anything that seems like an
immediate threat but has almost no likelihood of actually
occurring: your plane crashing during a bit of turbulence,
a burglar breaking in while you’re home alone, a terrorist
blowing up the bus you’re on. Meanwhile, it
underestimates what appears to be a distant threat but is
actually very likely: the steady accumulation of fat from
eating unhealthy food, the gradual decay of your muscles
from sitting at a desk, the slow creep of clutter when you
fail to tidy up.
*
Interested readers can find a habit tracker template
at
atomichabits.com/tracker
.
*
You can see the actual Habit Contracts used by
Bryan Harris and get a blank template at
atomichabits.com/contract
.
*
If you are interested in taking a personality test, you
can find links to the most reliable tests here:
atomichabits.com/personality
.
* If it’s Harry Potter on repeat, I feel you.
* I have a pet theory about what happens when we achieve
a flow state. This isn’t confirmed. It’s just my guess.
Psychologists commonly refer to the brain as operating in
two modes: System 1 and System 2. System 1 is fast and
instinctual. Generally speaking, processes you can
perform very quickly (like habits) are governed by System
1. Meanwhile, System 2 controls thinking processes that
are more effortful and slow—like calculating the answer to
a difficult math problem. With regard to flow, I like to
imagine System 1 and System 2 as residing on opposite
ends of the spectrum of thinking. The more automatic a
cognitive process is, the more it slides toward the System
1 side of the spectrum. The more effortful a task is, the
more it slides toward System 2. Flow, I believe, resides on
the razor’s edge between System 1 and System 2. You are
fully using all of your automatic and implicit knowledge
related to the task while also working hard to rise to a
challenge beyond your ability. Both brain modes are fully
engaged. The conscious and nonconscious are working
perfectly in sync.
* The discovery of variable rewards happened by accident.
One day in the lab, the famous Harvard psychologist B. F.
Skinner was running low on food pellets during one
experiment and making more was a time-consuming
process because he had to manually press the pellets in a
machine. This situation led him to “ask myself why every
press of the lever had to be reinforced.” He decided to
only give treats to the rats intermittently and, to his
surprise, varying the delivery of food did not decrease
behavior, but actually increased it.
*
I created a template for readers interested in keeping a
decision journal. It is included as part of the habit
journal at
atomichabits.com/journal
.
*
You can see my previous Annual Reviews
at
jamesclear.com/annual-review
.
*
You can see my previous Integrity Reports
at
jamesclear.com/integrity
.
*
Sorites is derived from the Greek word
sorós
,
which means
heap
or
pile
.
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