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Atomic Habits Part 1

Hey everyone! Today’s post is going to be quick. I am currently reading the book Atomic Habits and I wanted to share one tidbit from the first 100 pages or so that I think is helpful. The subtitle of the book is “An easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones,” so as I’m sure you can gather, this book is about forming useful habits.

Okay so let’s imagine you want to form a new habit of taking a vitamin every day. One of the practices this author talks about is called habit stacking. The idea is that you stack the new habit you are trying create right after a habit you already have. So it might look like this, make a cup of coffee (current daily habit) + take a multivitamin (new habit). The argument is that it’s easier to form that new habit when it is stacked on a current habit.

This example is really simple, but as I am reading this book I am brainstorming potential habits I want to implement using his system. I’ll jump on and give a full book review next week and then maybe get into an experiment of trying to add a new habit.

Thanks for reading and have a great week.

Comments

2 Responses

  1. Jason Thompson says:

    Adam, what other habits are you implementing and what are you implementing them around? I am really curious.

    My new habit is practicing gratitude. So every time I make fun of Jimmy, I’m going to say something nice about someone else. I think this will work really well.

    • Adam O'Donnell says:

      Ha! No shortage of opportunities for you to practice your gratitude.

      The one thing I am trying to do is be more flexible. So my current routine in the morning goes like this- make a cup of coffee (current habit), short stretching routine on the floor (new habit). We’ll see how it goes! My wife was making fun of me because it’s difficult for me to sit Indian-style on the ground (motivation).

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