Best Ways to Build Better Habits & Break Bad Ones | James Clear

In this episode of the Huberman Lab podcast, Andrew Huberman hosts James Clear, the author of "Atomic Habits," to discuss the science of habit formation and breaking bad habits. They explore how habits are solutions to recurring problems in our environment and emphasize the importance of creating systems tailored to individual needs for lasting behavioral change. Clear highlights the significance of starting small, mastering the art of showing up, and the power of environment and social influences in shaping habits. They also touch on the role of identity in habit formation and the balance between striving and relaxation.

• Habits are solutions to recurring problems in our environment, such as dealing with exhaustion after a long day.
• Different people solve the same problem in various ways, which may include exercise, playing video games, or smoking.
• Many solutions to these recurring problems are inherited or modeled from parents or friends.
• Recognizing that inherited solutions may not be ideal is the first step to finding better habits.

"As soon as you realize that your solutions may not be the best solution, it's now your responsibility to try to figure out a different way to do it."

• Acknowledging the need for change is crucial for habit transformation.

• James Clear emphasizes that building and breaking habits requires realistic approaches beyond cliches like SMART goals.
• Habit formation is about creating systems that work for the individual and are designed to stick.
• The conversation includes practical tools for forming good habits and breaking bad ones.

"Today we discuss how to build a habit and how to break bad habits as fast and durably as possible."

• The focus is on practical, real-world examples rather than theoretical acronyms.

• Common habits people aim to develop include health, fitness, productivity, and creativity.
• The key to successful habits is mastering the art of starting and overcoming initial friction.
• Consistency in starting habits is crucial for long-term success.

"The magic and the importance of starting... mastering that five minute window or sometimes even like that 30 second window of choosing to start and making it easy to start."

• Initiating action is often the most significant hurdle in habit formation.

• Make it obvious: Ensure the habit is visible and easily noticeable.
• Make it attractive: Increase the appeal of the habit.
• Make it easy: Reduce friction and simplify the process.
• Make it satisfying: Create a rewarding experience to encourage repetition.

"Make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, make it satisfying."

• These principles provide a framework for designing effective habits.

• The environment plays a critical role in habit formation by making certain behaviors more obvious or easy.
• Adjusting the environment can help promote desired habits and reduce reliance on willpower.

"What behaviors are obvious here? What behaviors are easy here? What is this space designed to encourage?"

• Analyzing and modifying environments can facilitate habit changes.

• Habits can and should change with different life seasons and circumstances.
• Flexibility in habits allows for adaptation to new challenges and responsibilities.

"Habits can have a season, you know, and you have different seasons in your life."

• Recognizing and adapting to life's changing seasons is essential for maintaining effective habits.

• True mental toughness involves adaptability and finding ways to show up despite challenges.
• Consistency in action, even on bad days, is more valuable than sporadic perfection.

"Consistency is adaptability. Don't have enough time, do the short version. Don't have enough energy, do the easy version."

• Adaptability ensures continuity in habit practice, fostering resilience.

• Habits should align with the desired identity, reinforcing the kind of person one wants to become.
• Casting votes through actions for a desired identity strengthens commitment to habits.

"Every action you take is like a vote for the type of person you wish to become."

• Identity-based habits create a deeper, more intrinsic motivation for maintaining behaviors.

• Having stakes or competition can enhance motivation and drive for habit formation.
• Public accountability and feedback can improve the quality and commitment to habits.

"Sometimes it really helps if things have stakes. I find that it's actually quite hard for me to care if there are no stakes."

• Creating meaningful stakes can increase engagement and persistence in habit practices.

• The discussion emphasizes the importance of practical application of ideas, rather than solely relying on academic credentials or theoretical knowledge.
• The merging of academic knowledge with real-world application is seen as beneficial, but not necessary for the validation of ideas.
• The focus is on whether ideas are right and effective in practice, rather than their origin or the credentials of the originator.

"It's about are the ideas right. That's that Midwest sensibility practicality that I think really resonates with people."

• This quote highlights the importance of practicality and effectiveness of ideas over academic prestige or theoretical origins.

"And if the ideas are right then great and if the ideas are wrong then I have some learning to do."

• Emphasizes a growth mindset and the willingness to learn from mistakes, focusing on the correctness and applicability of ideas.

• Discusses the concept of viewing effort and struggle as beneficial and rewarding in personal growth and development.
• The analogy of exercise, particularly resistance training, is used to illustrate how effort leads to tangible progress.
• The idea that the brain learns through experiencing friction and challenges, not just through performance or success.

"This pain is good. This is me getting better."

• This mindset reframes struggle and effort as positive and necessary for growth, similar to the physical feedback from exercise.

"The brain learns by experiencing friction. It doesn't learn by experiencing performance."

• Highlights the importance of challenges and failures in the learning process, as they drive change and development.

• The conversation explores the role of mental rehearsal and visualization in habit formation and achieving goals.
• Techniques such as previsualization and emphasizing positive experiences are discussed as methods to increase motivation and likelihood of success.
• The importance of reflecting on past experiences to reinforce positive behavior and outcomes is emphasized.

"Emphasize the positive parts of the experience that are about to happen."

• Encourages focusing on positive aspects to create a more motivating and empowering narrative for upcoming experiences.

"What are you emphasizing each day? You know what story do you carry with you when you go into the next experience?"

• Stresses the importance of focusing on positive narratives to enhance motivation and performance.

• Reflection on past experiences is shown to enhance learning retention and understanding.
• The practice of self-testing and reflecting on what went right or wrong is highlighted as a powerful tool for learning.
• The importance of revisiting material through reflection or spaced repetition to reinforce learning is discussed.

"Anything that we reflect on later we learn faster and we retain longer."

• Reflecting on experiences and material improves learning speed and retention, emphasizing the role of reflection in education.

"The students that actually test themselves or that ask for some the best students always ask for like a pre-quiz quiz."

• Indicates that self-testing and seeking feedback are key strategies for effective learning and retention.

• The importance of balancing effort with relaxation is discussed, emphasizing the need to switch between intense focus and rest.
• The concept of "turning it on and off" is introduced as a way to manage work-life balance effectively.
• The role of relaxation in allowing for reflection and better decision-making is highlighted.

"Balance might actually be turning it on and turning it off really well."

• Suggests that true balance comes from the ability to fully engage in work and then completely relax, rather than maintaining a constant moderate state.

"If you're just working, if you're just sprinting all the time, you don't have the space to see the larger picture."

• Highlights the necessity of relaxation for gaining perspective and making informed decisions about priorities and focus.

• The discussion touches on how identity can both aid and hinder personal growth and development.
• The challenge of moving beyond established identities to embrace new roles and opportunities is explored.
• The importance of finding through lines from past identities that can serve in new contexts is emphasized.

"The tighter that you cling to any given identity, the harder it becomes to grow beyond it."

• Warns against becoming too attached to a specific identity, as it can limit growth and adaptation to new opportunities.

"It's just about finding the parts of the experience that you can hold on to and feel proud of and carry into your next chapter."

• Encourages identifying and carrying forward valuable aspects of past identities into new phases of life.

• Reflection is seen as crucial for understanding past successes and failures, and for guiding future actions.
• The conversation emphasizes the importance of reflecting on the stories we tell ourselves about our experiences.
• Reflection is linked to maintaining motivation and ensuring alignment with personal values and goals.

"I think that creating space to rest, to reflect and review allows that opportunity to arise."

• Highlights the role of reflection in creating opportunities for growth and ensuring alignment with goals.

"Are we working on the right things?"

• Encourages regular reflection to ensure focus on the most important and impactful activities.

• Developing habits that align with personal understanding and motivation is crucial for maintaining mental health and achieving success.
• Feedback should not alter one's intrinsic motivation or identity; individuals must take control of their thoughts and goals.
• Success without understanding can be destructive, as seen in the lives of artists and entrepreneurs.

"You want to achieve these milestones and the feedback, but when the feedback comes to be very cognizant of like that doesn't change why you did it."

• Feedback should be acknowledged but not allowed to change the core reasons for pursuing goals.

"It clearly destroys artists when they achieve success, but they're not understood."

• Lack of understanding from others can lead to destructive outcomes for successful individuals.

• Success can lead to multiple interpretations, and creators must accept that they cannot control others' perceptions.
• It's important to separate identity from success to maintain a healthy relationship with one's work.

"It's been an interesting learning experience with Atomic Habits. There really there is no one version of Atomic Habits. There are 25 million versions."

• Success leads to varied interpretations, and creators must accept they cannot control these perceptions.

"I can just trust that it's good now. Is it a perfect book? No, there's no perfect book."

• Accepting imperfections in one's work is crucial for moving forward and maintaining mental well-being.

• Public failure is a significant learning experience that helps individuals develop resilience.
• The ability to rebound from failure is crucial for long-term success in any field.

"In a lot of ways, the secret to winning is learning how to lose. It's learning how to bounce back from a loss."

• Resilience and the ability to recover from setbacks are key to achieving success.

"The people who have never had a story of failure or trauma or difficulty, they're the most terrified and they are actually the most vulnerable."

• Experiencing and overcoming failure builds strength and reduces vulnerability.

• In today's digital age, public failures are more visible, making it essential to practice and prepare in private.
• Creating spaces for experimentation without public scrutiny is important for personal and professional growth.

"The act of being online for like a middle school kid is a very scary thing, right?"

• The visibility of public failures can be daunting, especially for younger individuals.

"You need a lot of reps. But then maybe now in modern society, you need to be a little more careful about how you structure the spaces to make those reps possible."

• Structuring spaces for private practice is crucial in a world where public scrutiny is prevalent.

• Splitting the day into quarters can help manage setbacks and maintain productivity.
• Consistency and quick recovery from slip-ups are vital for sustaining habits.

"If you lose the first quarter, well that's all right. You can still come back and win the next quarter."

• Viewing the day in segments allows for recovery and continued productivity despite setbacks.

"Never miss twice is an idea that it's an encouragement. It's an attitude, right? That you show up and you know, you've been following a new diet for eight days and then on the ninth day you binge eat a pizza."

• The focus should be on quick recovery from mistakes rather than striving for perfection.

• Timing can influence the success of habit formation, with earlier times in the day often being more effective.
• Understanding which hours are within one's control can aid in habit development.

"As a general rule, I think the earlier in the day you do something, the better odds are that it's going to happen."

• Early hours are generally more conducive to successful habit formation.

"The question is not like do you have enough time, the question is which of your hours are within your control."

• Identifying and utilizing hours that are within one's control is key to effective time management.

• The quality of inputs (e.g., reading material, social media) significantly influences the quality of creative outputs.
• Balancing consumption and creation is essential for sustained creativity.

"Almost every thought that you have is downstream from what you consume."

• The inputs one chooses directly affect the quality and nature of their thoughts and creativity.

"If I read something that's relevant to what I'm working on, I almost can't stop myself from writing."

• Relevant and high-quality inputs can naturally lead to productive and creative outputs.

• A balance between focused work and broad exploration leads to more effective learning and achievement.
• Having a clear objective or project helps channel broad exploration into productive outcomes.

"If you want to learn, wander. If you want to achieve, focus."

• Both wandering and focusing are necessary for learning and achieving, but they must be balanced.

"Creativity is very rarely is it actually an original thought. Mostly what it is is the synthesis of two things that had not been previously connected."

• Creativity often involves connecting disparate ideas, highlighting the importance of both broad exploration and focused effort.

• The speaker discusses strategies for reducing phone usage by creating friction, such as leaving the phone in another room or deleting apps.
• They emphasize the importance of visual cues on the phone's home screen to encourage desired behaviors, like listening to audiobooks.
• The speaker shares personal rules, like using social media only on a desktop and removing email from the phone to minimize distractions.

"If it's in a different room, I have a home office and so it's just down the hall. It's only like 30 seconds away, but I never go get it."

• Creating physical distance from the phone reduces the impulse to check it frequently, highlighting how small barriers can effectively manage habits.

"I downloaded Audible for audiobooks and I moved it to the home screen of my phone and I took all the other apps and I moved them to the second screen."

• Rearranging apps on the phone's home screen can serve as a visual reminder to prioritize certain activities, such as reading or learning.

"I've deleted social media entirely off of my phone. Um, and I can use it on the desktop. That's my my little rule."

• Removing social media from the phone and accessing it only on a desktop creates enough friction to discourage casual browsing.

• The speaker explores the psychology behind phone usage, suggesting it is more of a reflexive habit than a dopamine-driven activity.
• They discuss the four laws of behavior change: make it obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying, and how these apply to both good and bad habits.
• Strategies for breaking bad habits include making them invisible, unattractive, difficult, and unsatisfying.

"I don't think it's as uh, dopamine driven as we would like to believe. I think that's a convenient heuristic."

• The speaker challenges the common belief that phone usage is driven by dopamine rewards, suggesting it is more habitual and reflexive.

"A lot of people feel like they check their phone too much. Well, what do the four laws of behavior change look like?"

• The four laws of behavior change provide a framework for understanding why certain habits are "sticky" and how to apply these principles to form positive habits.

"To break habits or to decrease the odds that a behavior is going to occur, you just invert those four."

• By inverting the four laws of behavior change, individuals can effectively break unwanted habits.

• The speaker highlights the powerful role of social and physical environments in shaping habits.
• They discuss the importance of aligning personal habits with the norms of social groups to facilitate habit formation.
• Creating or joining groups where desired behaviors are the norm can support habit development.

"The impact of social environment on our behaviors is so strong and so dramatic."

• Social environments exert a significant influence on behavior, often without conscious awareness, impacting habit formation and maintenance.

"You want to join groups where your desired behavior is the normal behavior because if your desired behavior is normal now you can rise together."

• Being part of a group that shares similar goals or habits makes it easier to adopt and maintain those behaviors.

"Sometimes those spaces are readymade, like a yoga, there's tons of yoga studios. Not hard to find one."

• Readymade spaces like yoga studios provide environments conducive to developing and maintaining specific habits.

• The speaker reflects on how family upbringing and personal experiences influence habit development.
• They share insights from their parents and grandparents, emphasizing the role of positive mental attitude and consistent routines.
• The importance of creating conditions for success in habit formation is highlighted, using personal examples.

"In some ways, I feel like everything that I teach through Atomic Habits and the writing that I do is just me teaching what my parents taught me uh but to the public."

• The speaker attributes much of their understanding and teaching of habits to the lessons learned from their parents.

"The first is you are always teaching them. Uh you are teaching before you even think you're teaching."

• Parents and caregivers are constantly influencing their children's habits and behaviors, often before verbal communication begins.

"If the conditions are right then the habits form easily and I think that in a lot of ways one of the more important questions to ask is am I creating the conditions for success."

• Creating conducive conditions is crucial for successful habit formation, as it facilitates the desired behavior and reduces resistance.

• The speaker mentions upcoming projects, including an Atomic Habits workbook and daily calendar, designed to help individuals apply habit principles in daily life.
• They emphasize the value of daily reminders and structured tools to reinforce positive habits.

"I also have an Atomic Habits workbook that we're coming out with. So, it just helps you operationalize some of the things."

• The workbook aims to help individuals apply the concepts from Atomic Habits to their personal lives through exercises and practical application.

"The Atomic Habits Daily Calendar...it's a page a day...little reminders about how to build habits."

• A daily calendar provides simple, consistent reminders to support habit formation and maintenance, acting as a daily mindset primer.