Why You Need Atomic Habits with James Clear

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This week on the podcast, I speak with James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones. James is an expert on habit formation who offers not only theories backed by science, but also practical strategies that will help you achieve powerful, atomic-level results. On this episode, James and I had a really productive discussion on a range of topics from the journey of putting the book together, how alarm clocks fail me (or I fail alarm clocks), turning off the internet router at 10 PM to keeping the beer at the back of the fridge and Crossfit. Talking Points Designing and Defining Atomic Habits: Two main lenses to look the book through  The two-minute rule in scaling down a habit and actually making it stick Importance of slowing down and awareness for effective behavioral change  Having a variety of small things organized toward the same goal  Solutions for setting up efficient timing  Strategies for building good seasonal habits  Tools to make habits stick and break through biases  The three reasons/meanings behind the use of the term “atomic”  Creating a journal that makes it easier to build habits that is useful but not fixed  Quote “Many of our behaviors are socially reinforced… When the social reinforcement is so strong, we overcome the obstacles in our environment. The key insight there is you want to join a tribe, a group where your desired behavior is the normal behavior. Because if it’s normal in that group, then it’s going to seem attractive to you to do it even if it’s not convenient.” Relevant Links Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich | Amazon The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris | Amazon Baron Fig’s Clear Habit Journal Use Freedom to Block Websites, Apps, & the Internet Facebook Newsfeed Eradicator Distraction-free YouTube (Chrome extension) Trello.com James Clear @jamesclear on Twitter @james_clear on Instagram James Clear on Facebook I learned a lot from reading Atomic Habits and through my conversations with James and I’m sure you will too. And make sure to catch the next episode where I have Joey Cofone as my guest for a back-to-back habit tracking and intentionality goodness. Want to discover some of the books mentioned on the podcast? Check out Scribd, my reading app of choice. If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. Also don't forget to check out all of our podcast sponsors found on our podcast sponsors page. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using.

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If this episode resonated, I’m exploring ideas like these more deeply in my upcoming book, Productiveness. You can follow along as it takes shape at mikevardy.com/productiveness.