Self-improvement and growth are a big topic for me and I think it is everyone's duty to become the best version of himself. I try to read every day and with this blog, I want to summarize the books that I have read and say my thoughts about them.

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Devin Hasler


## 🚀 The Book in 3 Sentences

1. Forget about goals; focus on systems instead.
2. Identity, processes, and outcomes are the three layers of behavior change.
3. The first step of change is deciding who you want to be.

## 🕵🏼 Who Should Read It?

I have seldom seen a book that meets all the expectations one should have for a book like this. Its writing style is convenient and entertaining, and James Clear did not compromise on the depth of knowledge being shared.

Most of the time, I am skeptical when a book is sold in such high numbers—often, people buy it simply because others already have. However, with this book, I completely understand why it has been sold millions of times.

These are just some of the reasons I would recommend anyone to read this book. Honestly, it is probably one of the best books I have read in the self-improvement category. If I had to recommend just one book, it would probably be this one.

## ☘️ How the Book Changed Me

Before reading this book, I thought I already knew most of the concepts it teaches, having read *The Power of Habit*. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. The concise way this book is written, along with the summaries after each chapter, makes it very easy to grasp its overall structure. These summaries also make rereading the book much easier—something I’ll likely do, given the density of knowledge it offers.

I tried implementing many of the concepts discussed, such as making habits more attractive or reducing the appeal of bad ones, and I experienced great success. This book also taught me that habits are one of the most fundamental elements of success. Most astonishing achievements don’t happen overnight; they’re the result of consistency and the habits underpinning them.


## ✍️ My Top 3 Quotes

> “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” – Carl Jung

> "Surround yourself with people who have the habits you want to have yourself." – James Clear

> “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” – Friedrich Nietzsche


## 📒 Summary + Notes

I want to begin summarizing this book by explaining, in James Clear's words, why tiny, gradual improvements matter so much and can lead to massive achievements. The figure below demonstrates the impact of a 1% improvement.

Mathematically, this looks like:

- 1% worse every day for one year: 0.99³⁶⁵ = 0.03
- 1% better every day for one year: 1.01³⁶⁵ = 37.78

<img src="/images/blog/atomicHabits/compounding.png" alt="Compounding impact on improvement" title="Compounding impact on improvement" width="50%" height="auto" />

*Figure: The compounding impact of a 1% improvement over time.*

This shows how critical it is to build good habits, even if they represent small, marginal gains. Together with a bulletproof system for creating these habits, significant progress can be achieved. James Clear explains that focusing on a stable system is more effective than focusing on goals. Goals are about results, while systems are about the process. By creating a sustainable system for habit-building, we can let the process work its magic. This idea is the crux of the book, and the laws outlined in it are designed to help achieve this.

### How Habits Work

A habit is a behavior repeated enough times to become automatic and subconscious. It evolves through trial and error. After encountering a new situation, the brain makes a decision and builds neurological pathways based on the outcome. Over time, repeating the same action strengthens these connections, and the behavior becomes automatic.

This process is explained in the *habit loop*.

<img src="/images/blog/atomicHabits/habitLoop.png" alt="The habit loop as described by James Clear" title="The habit loop as described by James Clear" width="50%" height="auto" />

*Figure: The habit loop as described by James Clear.*



According to Clear, "A cue triggers a craving, which motivates a response, which provides a reward. The reward satisfies the craving and, ultimately, becomes associated with the cue."

For example:
- **Cue**: You get a notification about a new YouTube video from your favorite creator.
- **Craving**: You feel the urge to watch the video.
- **Response**: You grab your phone, open YouTube, and watch the video.
- **Reward**: Your curiosity is satisfied, and you associate YouTube notifications with this pleasure.

### The Laws

James Clear structures the book around four laws to help readers form good habits and break bad ones. These laws, when inverted, work to eliminate old habits.

#### The 1st Law: Make It Obvious

James Clear starts teaching how to create new habits by explaining that we first must know our current habits. He suggests writing all the habits down on what he calls a habit scorecard. This means that for every habit you have, you write behind the habit if this habit is positive (+), negative (-), or neutral (=). This gives you an overview of all the habits in your life and a good base to work on.

After we have this, we can then start creating implementation intentions for our new habits. The formula for **implementation intentions** is the following:

“I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].”

With the help of implementation intentions, we no longer have to ask ourselves when we should go to the gym or go running, as it will already be very clear. James Clear also suggests something additional that works really well with the implementation intention: habit stacking. **Habit stacking** is the combination of a current habit with a new habit.

“After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].”

The last thing James Clear suggests is the use of **environmental design**, which involves using environmental cues to start doing your habits. For example, you could dedicate a specific room just for work. In this room, no phone or TV is allowed, and you can only work there. If the need arises to check your phone, you leave the room and come back to work afterward.

#### The 2nd Law: Make It Attractive

In this law, James Clear also suggests some tips and tricks to make the habit you are trying to form easier. The first thing is using **temptation bundling** to make new habits more enjoyable. The example mentioned in the book is very creative, but simpler things can do the job equally well. The example was of someone who connected a phone to a bicycle and only if he rode the bicycle could he watch Netflix, as the power was connected to the output of the bicycle.

**Joining a culture** where the desired habit is the norm can help to build the habit because it will be easier to stick with other people and just do the same thing as they do. This could mean joining a book club, lifting club, running club, or simply going to a place for work where you know the people are working diligently on their tasks.

The third and last thing for this law is using a **motivational ritual** to make the habit more enjoyable. This helps reprogram the habit to be more enjoyable for the mind. This is something I find difficult since it can lead to spending too much time on the motivational ritual instead of starting to do the thing we wanted to do.

#### The 3rd Law: Make It Easy

The first thing mentioned for this law is to **reduce friction** between you and the good habits. This means having the things you want to do as accessible and easy to reach as possible to decrease the barrier to starting. Regarding reading, this could mean placing a book at the entrance of your home so you immediately start reading when you arrive.

Reducing friction comes hand in hand with **priming the environment for future use**, where you set up your environment to make reaching your goals as easy as possible. This means using the Law of Least Effort to your advantage.

The **Two-Minute Rule** is another suggestion to make habits as easy as possible to stick to. This rule became very popular and suggests breaking down the habit into a two-minute version. For example, reading a book a month becomes reading one page every day.

**Automating a habit** can be a game-changer when wanting to create a new habit. For example, if you want to save more money, set up an automatic transfer from your checking account to a savings account. This eliminates the need to use cognitive energy worrying about whether the money was transferred.

#### The 4th Law: Make It Satisfying

Making a habit satisfying involves immediately **rewarding** yourself after every completed habit. This can be done in many ways, but it is important to do it immediately after completing the habit.

Using a **habit tracker** can make habits very satisfying. The best example of this is the streak feature on Duolingo. There is nothing more satisfying than maintaining a long streak and knowing that you have been consistent for many days.

One rule that is very important in the context of sticking to a habit is **never missing twice**. If you follow this rule, it’s not the end of the world if you miss a day, as long as you complete the habit the next day. This rule emphasizes the importance of getting back on track immediately after missing a day.

Now equipped with multiple laws and tools to create new habits and stop old ones, I hope you enjoyed this blog post. I apologize for the length, but it was really hard to summarize all the important points given the sheer amount of information in this book. As always, thank you sincerely for reading, and I hope to see you in the next post.

With regards,  
Devin

A book by James Clear about good habits and removing destructive ones

Atomic Habits


## 🚀 The Book in 3 Sentences

1. Sleep is one of the most important factors when talking about self-improvement
2. Good Sleep results in better skin health more youthful appearance, emotional regeneration, better relationships and an overall more healthy body
3. People and society, in general, should value sleep more and

## 🕵🏼Who Should Read It?

This book is for everyone and will change the view of sleep, everyone. In schools, the value of sleep is not taught and we don’t learn what detrimental effects sleep deprivation has on our life. There is not one person on this earth that does not see drastic changes in their body’s and mind’s health if they are deprived of sleep. The Book is not that long and is an easy read so it will improve sleep for everyone that read it and this with not much effort

## ☘️ How the Book Changed Me

The Book changed my awareness of sleep and the importance of good sleep. I knew that sleep was important since the body and mind heal during sleep and rebuild the torn muscle tissue during the day. But I did not know the exact science behind sleep and all the hormones that are evolved in the process. The book gave me practical tips for improving overall sleep and also the quality of sleep

## ✍️ My Top 3 Quotes

> “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Stevenson, Shawn
>

> “Sunglasses can be like a 7-foot-tall NBA All-Star and block sunlight’s shot at getting to your eyes.” Stevenson, Shawn
>

> “Rock socks.” Stevenson, Shawn
>

## 📒 Summary + Notes

### The Value of Sleep

Stevenson explains the Value of sleep simply and states:

Sleep is the force multiplier. It will magnify the results you get from your food and movement most amazingly if you allow it to.

This sentence is the most simple way two describe what sleep is and in the following chapters, he explains why that is.

### The Morning

The first hours of your day have a big impact on your overall sleep quality and in general your whole day. Because of that, it is important to wake up consistently at the same time during the whole week so your sleep cycles are not disrupted. If it so happens that you stay up late because of work or a party it is important that you wake up at the same time so that your inner clock does not get confused if you sleep until 2 pm.

It is vital for your body to get enough water and sunlight in the morning to secure your sleep cycle.

Also, it is shown by numerous studies, that working out in the morning improves your sleep length and the time spent in the deep sleep stage.

With this knowledge consider doing the practices of the miracle morning. The summary of the book “Miracle Morning” is available under this link:

[The Miracle Morning](https://www.peopleofgrowth.com/post/themiraclemorning)

### The Day

It is very important to get as much sunlight during the day as possible. Humans have sleep cycles also called the circadian timing system which is heavily impacted by the amount of sunlight a person gets.

The circadian timing system along with the scheduled release of hormones helps to control your digestion, immune system, blood pressure etc. Sunlight triggers your body to produce optimal levels of daytime hormones and neurotransmitters that regulate your biological clock.

One of the most vital compounds affected by light exposure is serotonin which is the feel-good hormone. This hormone is vital to obtain during the day because it is the hype man for melatonin which is another important hormone for good sleep quality. The counterpart of melatonin is cortisol which is named the bad guy in the media although it really is the superstar of the hormones. Cortisol gives you the energy and gusto to get up and it enables you to be awake and alert.

It is important to note that when melatonin is up cortisol is down and when cortisol is up melatonin is down. Because of this correlation, it is important to control your melatonin level with the amount of sunlight you expose yourself to during the day. And to control your cortisol levels with meditation, not drinking coffee, exercising in the morning or during the day and so on.

### The Evening

A crucial part of a good night’s sleep is to get to bed at the right time and stick to that.

It’s been shown that human beings get the most beneficial hormonal secretions and recovery by sleeping during the hours of 10:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.

You should not use any digital devices 90 minutes before sleep time because their blue light will signal your body to be awake and alert. Also, the electrical signal of your digital devices is felt by receptors on your skin which disrupt the brain wave pattern called delta waves which are the most reliable marker of deep sleep.

### The Night

In the Night the action of sleeping is taking place. This act can be disrupted if your room is not completely blacked out. This is because of the before talked about the function of light exposure on your hormones.

The temperature of your room also plays a big role in your sleep. Studies have found that the optimal room temperature for sleep is really quite cool at around 16° to 20°C.

Another crucial element is fresh air and negative ions in your room. This can be insured with plants in your room or an oil diffuser.

During your sleep, it is important that you do not compromise the body’s ability to heal itself with a bad posture. Many experts will tell you that sleeping on your back is the ideal position to be in with many benefits and just one downside: The likelihood of snoring increases. Other than that it is the best position for your spine and your digestion. One last important note for your sleep is: to get a good quality mattress and get rid of any excessive pillows that bring your spine into unnatural positions.

I hope you are now equipped with tips and tools to improve your sleep, your health and with that your ability to achieve great things. Leave a comment about how you like this book and I hope I will see you reading the next Blog.

With regards  
Devin Hasler



A Book that will change your sleep and your ability to achieve what you want

Habit

Atomic Habits

Sleep Smarter