Atomic Habits — Part 5

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My sister’s videos are great for listening to! Particularly clear tone and particularly comfortable voice [Give Xinxin] [Give Xinxin]
姐姐的视频好适合做精听！特别清晰语调声音特别舒适[给心心][给心心]
I will watch the up video once while washing the dishes, and again before going to bed to prepare to form a habit [call]
up的视频就是我洗碗的时候会看一遍，睡前再看一遍，准备养成习惯[打call]
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笔记

Transcript

0:00Hi everyone, welcome to Read With Selina.
0:02Today we're going to talk about
0:03Atomic Habits, Chapter 5, the best
0:05way to build new habits.
0:07We're going to talk about 2 formulas
0:09that the author introduces that you can
0:10apply to your day-to-day life to make
0:12a new habit more likely to happen.
0:15And our introduction is going to
0:16be sprinkled with lots of interesting
0:18stories as well as useful tips.
0:20So let's get started.
0:22The reason why most people fail is
0:23not because they don't have enough motivation,
0:25but because their plans lack clarity.
0:28So if you consistently fail to
0:30do something that you think that
0:31you really want to do, it's
0:33not because there's necessarily something wrong
0:35with you as a person.
0:36It is more likely that you don't
0:37have a system in place to ensure
0:39that the right actions would happen.
0:40Time and location, these are
0:42the two most common cues.
0:43In 2001, the Great Britain did
0:45this experiment with 248 people in
0:48order to build better exercise habits
0:50over the course of 2 weeks.
0:51These people were divided
0:52into 3 different groups.
0:53The first group was a control group,
0:55meaning that they were simply asked to
0:57track how often they exercised.
0:59And the second group, in addition to
1:01being asked to track their progress, were
1:03also given a lot of motivational materials.
1:05The third group of people, they
1:07were given the same instructions as the
1:08second group, except they were also asked
1:10to fill out one sentence, and other
1:12than that, everything else was the same.
1:14And after 2 weeks, the researchers took
1:16a look at the data and they
1:17found out that in the first group,
1:19about 35% of people exercised at least
1:21once every week.
1:22And when they look at the
1:23second group, the data, surprisingly, was
1:25not so much different.
1:26And it shows that motivation itself is
1:28not so effective in inducing behavioral change.
1:31But in the third group, a
1:32shocking 91% of people worked out
1:35at least once per week.
1:36So what was the magical sentence given?
1:38During the next week, I will partake
1:39in at least 20 minutes of vigorous
1:41exercise on [day] at [time] in [place].
1:44And that's it.
1:45This magic sentence is called the "implementation
1:48intention," meaning that rather than simply stating
1:50the desire to perform a certain act,
1:52you also state how you intend to
1:54carry out the act.
1:55Another reason why having implementation
1:57intentions is helpful is because it gives us a
2:00better sense of when to say no.
2:01If you don't have a clear
2:03idea of what you want to
2:04say yes to, then you will
2:05give in for anything.
2:06When you clearly assign a time and
2:08location to an action, you're encouraging yourself
2:11to follow your own rules.
2:12The tool that I personally use
2:13to do that is Google Calendar.
2:15I've been using Google Calendar to
2:17manage my to-do list since college,
2:19and it has been extremely helpful
2:20in keeping my life organized.
2:22When I create my Google Calendar,
2:23I first input all the events
2:25that are not negotiable.
2:26I block out time for the
2:28things I really want to do.
2:29For example, things I must
2:30do like school or work
2:32and things that I believe are important for
2:33my long-term well-being, like doing cardio exercises.
2:36And in my case, that's dancing.
2:38I got that idea from
2:39the book Getting Things Done.
2:40So I would put my dance
2:42classes on the calendar the same
2:44way that I would put my
2:45classes on the calendar.
2:47And that most convenient time period
2:48for me to go to dance
2:49classes during law school was in
2:51the evenings on weekdays.
2:53And sometimes during weekdays, my friends would
2:55invite me to some kind of dinner
2:57hangouts and I would really feel very
2:59tempted to go because I knew that
3:01I would really enjoy their company.
3:02Despite the very strong desire
3:04to say yes to those invites,
3:06I always stick to my principles
3:08and tell them that I can't
3:10make it because I have my
3:12dance classes scheduled for this time.
3:14And most of the time, my
3:15friends were pretty flexible and we
3:16were able to find time during
3:18the weekend to meet up.
3:19And that way I was able
3:20to have my regular dance schedule.
3:22There were occasionally a few times
3:23where I did have to renegotiate
3:25with myself and cancel the dance
3:27classes to do something that I
3:28decided to be more important.
3:30But because I've laid out the system
3:32in a very visual way that I
3:33can see the time reserved for that
3:36specific activity, whenever I have to cancel
3:38or move that, I have to make
3:40a very strong case to myself and
3:42give extremely compelling reasons to do so.
3:44The reason why we want to tie
3:46those activities to a specific time and
3:49place is because with enough repetition, our
3:51brain will pattern match and form this
3:53craving to perform that activity.
3:55So maybe if you're in a workout
3:57routine and consistently go to the gym
3:59at a certain time, then if one
4:01day you didn't go to the gym,
4:02you will feel antsy and your body
4:04will think that there's something that's not
4:05right.
4:06So the takeaway here is to
4:07give your habit a time and
4:08space to live in this world.
4:10The second key concept in
4:11this chapter is habit stacking.
4:13There's this psychological phenomenon called
4:15Diderot effect
4:16and it came from the story of
4:18this French philosopher called Diderot.
4:20He lived his entire life in poverty
4:22until this one day he received a
4:24big fortune from the Empress of Russia.
4:26One of the things that he
4:27used the money to buy was
4:29this beautiful scarlet robe.
4:30So he started to notice that
4:32nothing really quite fit with the
4:34new robe that he got and
4:35he decided to gradually replace possessions
4:38in his house one by one.
4:40He got beautiful sculptures and he replaced
4:42the mirrors and then he got a
4:44better kitchen table, et cetera.
4:46And gradually he replaced all of
4:47his possessions so that they can
4:49match with the elegant robe.
4:51And the takeaway here is that
4:52our behaviors are chain reactions.
4:54One behavior will lead to another.
4:56The most commonplace example for this effect
4:59for me would be going grocery shopping.
5:01I would go past the vegetable section
5:03and pick up a couple of items
5:04and then realize that these vegetables will go
5:06really well with these kinds of meat.
5:08And I would go to the meat
5:09section and then realize, okay maybe I
5:11should get some condiments too to make
5:12the stew taste even better.
5:14And after that I would think,
5:15okay this should be complemented with
5:17some desserts or some ice cream.
5:19So one purchase leads to
5:20another, leads to another.
5:21And that shows that
5:22purchases are a chain reaction.
5:24And the point that James
5:25is making here is that
5:26no behavior happens in isolation.
5:28Each action becomes a cue
5:30that triggers the next behavior.
5:32So the good news is that
5:33when it comes to building new
5:34habits, you can use the connectedness
5:36of behaviors to your advantage.
5:39And that's where habit stacking comes in.
5:41The basic idea is that you stack
5:42a desired behavior on top of a
5:44behavior that you already do.
5:46So the formula looks like this.
5:48After A, do B.
5:49And A is the behavior that you
5:51already do, and B is the behavior
5:53that you desire to cultivate.
5:54And the beauty of using habit
5:56stacking is that unlike implementation intentions,
5:59here the time and location is
6:01baked into the formula.
6:02To start off this habit stacking
6:04exercise, you can begin by brainstorming
6:07two separate lists of things that
6:08are sure to happen.
6:09When you make the first list, write
6:11down all the activities that you already
6:13do for sure every day, such as
6:15waking up, going to sleep, eating food.
6:17And for your second list, put
6:19down things that for sure happen
6:20to you, such as the sun
6:22rising or the sun going down,
6:24or getting a text message.
6:25These are the cues
6:26for your desired behavior.
6:27Now you want to be very mindful
6:29of when and where to insert this
6:31habit because you do want to ensure
6:33that this new desired habit has a
6:35high likelihood of success.
6:36So you want to pick a
6:37time that is convenient for you,
6:38that will make sense for the
6:40new action to happen.
6:41You don't want to pick a
6:42time or location where carrying out
6:44that action is inconvenient or hard.
6:46Additionally, your desired behavior should have
6:48the same frequency as the cues.
6:50So these are the two things that
6:52you should have in mind when deciding
6:54which cues to use to stack together
6:57with your desired behavior.
6:58For example, James wanted to
6:59start a push-up habit.
7:01So his habit stack was, when
7:03I take a break for lunch,
7:04I will do 10 push-ups.
7:05At first glance, this goal sounded reasonable.
7:08But soon he realized that
7:09the trigger wasn't clear enough.
7:10First, time.
7:11Will he do his push-ups before
7:13or after he eats lunch?
7:14Second, location.
7:15Where would he do those push-ups?
7:17So then after a few unsuccessful
7:19attempts, he revised his habit stack
7:21to be: when I close my
7:22laptop for lunch, I will do
7:2410 push-ups next to my desk.
7:26And that's how he eliminated ambiguity.
7:28And now my personal example.
7:29I enjoy philosophy a lot and I
7:31enjoy learning about it through podcasts.
7:33My favorite podcast in this
7:35area is Philosophize This.
7:36So I really wanted to take more
7:38time to listen to the show.
7:39But having that vague
7:40desire is not enough.
7:41There's always something else that comes
7:43up during the day and there's
7:44never enough time for me to
7:46listen to the podcast really.
7:47So in order to make more
7:48time and space, I decided that
7:50I would listen to podcasts every
7:52time that I do the dishes.
7:53And I really like this particular application
7:55of habit stacking in my case because
7:57the trigger is very clear.
7:58After I eat, I
7:59listen to the podcast.
8:01And because washing dishes is a
8:03relatively monotonous and manual task, it
8:05doesn't require so much brain power
8:07for me to focus.
8:08Whereas listening to podcasts is relatively
8:10inactive, but it does require my
8:13mind to be very engaged.
8:14So these two activities
8:16perfectly complement each other.
8:17And because the time and location
8:19is perfect for this activity, I
8:21have a high success rate of
8:23actually listening to the podcast.
8:25Additionally, I usually have time to
8:27cook 2 meals a day for
8:29myself, and that matches perfectly with
8:31the desired frequency that I want
8:33to listen to podcasts every day.
8:34So that's my application of habit
8:36stacking to my own life.
8:37What is one action that
8:39you desire to cultivate?
8:40Please leave a comment below.
8:42I'm interested in hearing about your experiments.
8:44In the next video, we're going to
8:45talk about how to rely less on
8:48motivation and how to create the ideal
8:50environment for your desired habits to happen.
8:53Like and subscribe to the channel
8:54to make sure that you don't
8:55miss the latest content.
8:57I'll see you again next time!

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