Atomic Habits changed my life

Procrastination is almost unavoidable

I know:

• what I have to do.
• What's best for me.
• If I set my mind to it I'll reach my goals.

But even with these realizations I could not put in the required time and effort.

Don't get me wrong I love coding. However doing the right thing, the thing that'll set me apart from others who don't even seek mediocrity, is off-putting.

Sitting in front of a computer for many hours a day grinding is a soul-sucking experience and you most probably will be repelled before long and slack off.

So what is the remedy? What is the panacea that'll fend off human nature and turn one into a coding machine(or anything else for that matter)?

Introducing Atomic Habits by James Clear:

I initially didn't expect much from this book. I mean it's a book what can it do other than lighten up my lizard brain a bit?

This is where it becomes a game-changer.

To truly get the full of this book and turn it into a weapon, one must religiously follow its teachings.

Let me give an example(THE example better say, you'll see why):

As stated above, I like to code and have a career out of it; but there is nothing forcing me to keep the grind mode going. Even though I'd feel guilty and hate myself, I can slack off whenever I feel like it and forget my goals and ambitions.

The truth of the matter is, motivation and drive are not eternal, they don't push you forward ad infinitum. Just missing a single day can make you forget all the effort you've put and still have to put.

The magic formula

What if there was an external factor that could literally FORCE you to stick to the schedule and not miss a single day?

This is where Atomic Habits' teachings come into play.

I remember it was in one of the later chapters of the book. The author mention that you can make your goals and good habits INESCAPABLE and bad habits IMPOSSIBLE. It sounded like a dream come true.

But what was the secret sauce for making your good habits inescapable you may ask?

Simply pledge to doing them and assign a punishment for loafing. Crazy, right?

Now you're probably asking: "But what if I avoid the punishment itself? There's nothing stopping me right?"

Well that's true. But there are strategies to add weight to the pledge. One of which is writing a contract between you and someone close to you. It does not necessarily need to be super fancy. Just a sheet of paper, a written pledge, and your signature and optionally your fingerprint.

My contract was with my mom and in it I wrote something along the lines of "code for 7 hours a day minimum, else don't eat for the next 24 hours."

I also believe that the punishment has to be, in simple terms, bad for you. Upon hearing about my contract, one of my friends asked me "Why didn't you choose some other punishment like doing 100 push-ups?"

Push-ups are good for you, that's why. For me, a punishment is most repellent if it is:

1. Unattractive
2. Harmful

Doing a hundred push-ups could be hard and unattractive depending on who you are. But in any case they are beneficial and good for you so they don't qualify and you should do them on your own, not as a punishment.

In my case, not eating food for 24 hours is a decent punishment. It's unattractive and harmful at the same time considering I'm pretty skinny and gotta eat more. If you are fat then maybe it'd be beneficial for you and if you can stick to it, Great!

Simply find something that absolutely repulses you and run away from it by means of putting in the work needed.

Summary

We all have days when we feel down and doing the productive and right thing feels impossible. What truly matters is sticking to the schedule in such hard times(which is easier said than done.)

But there are strategies and ways to make your good habits and the grind effortless. Atomic Habits by James Clear does just that. So go ahead, give it a read and learn the game changing teachings of this masterpiece of a book.