James Clear is a writer, speaker, and thought leader best known for his work on habits, decision-making, and continuous improvement.
He is the author of Atomic Habits, a bestselling book that explores the science of behavior change and practical strategies for building good habits.
He bases his writing on psychology, neuroscience, and real-world experience, and gives both actionable and big-picture insight to everyday situations.
Meet
James Clear
Learn more at
jamesclear.com
@jamesclear
@jamesclear
What you can learn
from James Clear
Habit Formation
Productivity
Behavior Change
Decision-Making
Continuous Improvement
Motivation and Willpower
Focus and attention
Systems Over Goals
Environment Design
James Clear’s philosophy centers on incremental, effective change
How small daily habits can compound over time, and strategies to make good habits stick and bad habits fade (like his “Four Laws of Behavior Change” - see below).
How to make better choices consistently by understanding mental biases and designing your environment and routines to reduce decision fatigue.
The power of getting 1% better every day – focusing on steady, tiny improvements (instead of dramatic changes) and watching them compound into remarkable results over time.
Focusing on systems and processes rather than lofty goals – by building effective routines, optimizing your environment, and learning to “work smarter,” you can accomplish more in less time without overwhelming yourself
How our identity and beliefs about ourselves shape our habits, and vice versa. Clear argues that true behavior change is identity change – we become better by becoming the type of person who would achieve what we desire, through small wins that reinforce that identity
Building
Identity-Based Habits
“The key to building lasting habits is focusing on creating a new identity first. Your current behaviors are simply a reflection of your current identity.”
“Every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.”
Start with who you want to be
James Clear writes about identity-based habits, and how lasting change starts with understanding how your identity and actions are related.
If we who we are is made up of what we do, then our habits make up a large part of our identity. Every action is like a vote for who we want to be.
In order to change, make or break, our habits we need to focus on how our actions prove or disprove a certain identity.
This mindset helps us focus on the process, not just the outcome. Small, daily actions are the small wins to enjoy, and with persistence grander outcomes will follow.
“I want to run 3 times per week” becomes “I want to be a runner,” and it’s up to you to decide if you have that identity. Tiny, positive changes confirm and reinforce the identity. It counts even if it’s just 5 minutes.
The Four Laws of
Behavior Change
“How can I make it obvious? Attractive? Easy? Satisfying?”
“You want the cues of your habits to be obvious, available, visible”
Develop a framework to build (and break) habits
Any time you are looking to build a new habit, or break an old one, walk through this four part framework to improve your success.
Make it obvious - out of sight, out of mind is the principle here. If you want to take up a new habit, keep something front-and-center so you’re more likely to see it during the day. If you want to break a habit, make the habit invisible (if you can), to avoid unneeded temptation.
Make it attractive - changing a habit doesn’t have to be such a serious affair. Try to make new habits fun and attractive to pursue. This could be listening to your favorite podcast only when you make meals at home, so you’re more enticed to do so.
Make it easy - plan ahead of time to clear any roadblocks and remove friction from making your desired changes. James suggests trying the two-minute rule: if you’re struggling to get going, start with two minutes per day until you feel like doing more.
Make it satisfying - pair your positive habits with rewarding activities so your brain gets a bit of the “Pavlov’s dog” effect, and associates something enjoyable with the new habit. Pay yourself for small wins, and keep up the good work!
In the end, improvements come from small, consistent changes, and these four principles can help you make new habits stick.
Habit
Stacking
“One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify a current habit you already do each day and then stack your new behavior on top.”
“Habit stacking is a special form of an implementation intention. Rather than pairing your new habit with a particular time and location, you pair it with a current habit.”
Link new habits to established routines
Habit stacking is a surefire way to “make it obvious.” By piggybacking new habits onto existing activities, you can increase your exposure to the opportunity to keep up on the new habit.
Clear suggests using a framework like Before/After {current habit}, I will {new habit}. This allows you to tie your desired activities to a specific action rather than an abstract date and time.
Start small, using simple stacks like meditating while making the coffee or putting on gym clothes first thing after returning from work. Then, add more habits and prompts to your daily checklist.
How many automated habit reminders can you think of?
Consistent
Improvement
“It’s about dedication to making small changes and improvements every day, with the expectation that those small improvements will add up to something significant.”
“If you get one percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.”
The power of tiny gains
1% doesn’t seem like a lot, but when it’s applied day after day, these marginal aggregated gains can total a massive sum. Small, incremental wins accumulate over time to form noticeable lifestyle change.
It’s a slow-burning process that takes trust that the small efforts will materialize (spoiler alert: they do). It helps to focus on the process as well as focusing on the outcome. If you can establish small milestones throughout any step of the process, you’ll feel the satisfaction of progress on your way to achieving a loftier goal. This also helps you stay motivated once you reach a particular goal, because you can keep adding small steps to advance further.
The 1% rule applies to negative habits, too, so be careful. Small losses can add up into more substantial ones, and bad habits can be deeply ingrained with small, repeated actions.
James Clear’s core philosophy encourages sustainable, incremental change which can be achieved by developing long-lasting positive habits. Small habits, decided by the kind of person you want to be, lead to big results.
I like his style because he views self-improvement as a gradual, enjoyable journey. He offers a mix of storytelling, high-level concepts and actionable advice in his book, blog and newsletter (see more at jamesclear.com).
His writing is thoughtful and optimistic. It seems like he really believes that everyone has the capacity to improve and that no improvement is too small.
Thanks, James!
Thank you to the sources: