How to build better habits?

We are all aware that good habits can drive you to immense success. The question is, how do we build better habits? As per the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, there are four laws to developing good atomic habits and breaking bad habits: Make it obvious, Make it attractive, Make it easy, and Make it satisfying.

The first law is to make it obvious. You should know when to make the habit and where to do it. You can use habit stacking when pairing a new one with a current one. The cues should make it obvious to maintain good habits. After a habit forms, it is less likely to be forgotten. The goal is also to make the bad habit “invisible.” As James Clear says, “The more automatic a behavior becomes, the less likely we are to think about it consciously…We’re so used to doing what we’ve always done that we don’t stop questioning whether it’s the right thing to do.” (p. 64)

The next and second law is to make it attractive. Here’s a way you can make it that way. You can associate your habit with positive feelings, such as eating candy after a workout. If you need to break a bad habit, you do vice versa. For example, you can force yourself to eat all veggies for dinner if you don’t do your chores. For instance, as Clear says, “The key to finding and fixing the causes of your bad habits is to reframe the associations you have about them. It’s not easy, but if you can reprogram your predictions, you can transform a hard habit into an attractive one”. (p. 133)

The third law of atomic habits is to make it easy to take action to initiate good habits. You should reduce the friction for making good habits and increase the friction for breaking bad habits. For example, to slow down procrastination, use a “chill” 2-minute activity list instead of a to-do list. The motivation is that a new habit should not take more than two minutes to start. As explained, “Habit formation is the process by which a behavior becomes progressively more automatic through repetition.” (p. 143)

And finally, there is the fourth law: make it satisfying. You want to be consistent when sticking with habits. Keep your streak going and, on the other hand, make the consequence painful or unsatisfying. A habit contract to write records of times you had bad habits are also helpful. As said, “A habit contract is a verbal or written agreement in which you state your commitment to a particular habit and the punishment that will occur if you don’t follow through. Then you find one or two people to act as your accountability partners and sign off on the contract with you.” (p. 208).

Here’s a similar way you remember performing and breaking habits: Cue, craving, response, and reward. Cue is the 1st law; for good (and bad habits), you must make them obvious(and invisible). The 2nd law, craving, is done by making attractive for good habits (and unattractive for bad habits). Response, the 3rd law, can be done by making it easy for good habits (and difficult for bad habits). And rewards or consequences(4th law) can be done by making them satisfying and unsatisfying, respectively.