Habit - louis030195

#personal-growth # [[Epistemic status]] #shower-thought # Habit >Spend more time making the big decisions. There are basically three really big decisions you make in your early life: where you live, who you’re with, and what you do. >~ [[Naval Ravikant]] [[Socrates]] says that a man's soul indicates the man: the man indicates his speech: his speech indicates his actions: his actions indicate his life. >The most valuable [[Philosophy/Epistemology/Knowledge|knowledge]] is always discovered last: but the most valuable [[Philosophy/Epistemology/Knowledge|knowledge]] consists of [[Mental model|method]]s. ~ [[Nietzsche]] **Habits** are methods, systems, models, algorithms, that you repeatedly apply to reach some goals. The important difference between a random action and a **habit** is the consistency property of it. The advantage of habits over any actions is that it is automatic. Even though I have extreme belief in the [[Philosophy/Rationality/Models/Lindy Effect|Lindy Effect]], I would still affirm that the book [Atomic Habits](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40121378-atomic-habits), which is not [[Philosophy/Rationality/Models/Lindy Effect|Lindy-proof]], provides interesting [[Brain nutrition]] in that area. Before thinking about your **habits**, you need to establish your life broad [[Personal growth/Goal|goal]]s, but then, paradoxically, it is better to think in [[Philosophy/Rationality/Hack/System|system]]s, say, I want to be fit, you need to learn to like working out, eating [[Philosophy/Humans/Transhumanism/Transhumanism|health]]y... **An arrow need a direction**. >The mind that has no fixed aim loses itself, for, as they say, to be everywhere is to be nowhere. >~ [[Montaigne]] ## Atomic habits <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40121378-atomic-habits" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1535115320l/40121378._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40121378-atomic-habits">Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7327369.James_Clear">James Clear</a> My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2988554470">4 of 5 stars</a> A good explanation of aggregated decades-old wisdom James Clear use decades-old models and wisdom for the sake of habits, for example: - Friction - Velocity - Principle of the least effort - Exploration versus exploitation - Zen philosophy - Less is more - etc. I believe that to fully grasp the ideas of these book, you have to first understand the fundamental concepts manipulated here, i.e. understand physics, philosophy (Stoicism, Zen...), biology, psychology, etc. I liked the reference to Benjamin Franklin habits, how he tracks his ethical actions ... Great book for people having difficulties building, and maintaining habits. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/103091881-louis">View all my reviews</a> ![[Screenshot 2022-05-27 at 10.17.05.png]] | The 1st Law | Make it Obvious | | ----------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | 1.1 | Fill out the Habits Scorecard. Write down your current habits to become aware of them | | 1.2 | Use implementation intentions: “I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].” | | 1.3 | Use habit stacking: “After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].” | | 1.4 | Design your environment. Make the cues of good habits obvious and visible. | | The 2nd Law | Make It Attractive | | 2.1 | Use temptation bundling. Pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do | | 2.2 | Join a culture where your desired behavior is the normal behavior. | | 2.3 | Create a motivation ritual. Do something you enjoy immediately before a difficult habit. | | The 3rd Law | Make It Easy | | 3.1 | Reduce friction. Decrease the number of steps between you and your good habits. | | 3.2 | Prime the environment. Prepare your environment to make future actions easier. | | 3.3 | Master the decisive moment. Optimize the small choices that deliver outsized impact. | | 3.4 | Use the Two-Minute Rule. Downscale your habits until they can be done in two minutes or less. | | 3.5 | Automate your habits. Invest in technology and onetime purchases that lock in future behavior. | | The 4th Law | Make It Satisfying | | 4.1 | Use reinforcement. Give yourself an immediate reward when you complete your habit. | | 4.2 | Make “doing nothing” enjoyable. When avoiding a bad habit, design a way to see the benefits. | | 4.3 | Use a habit tracker. Keep track of your habit streak and “don’t break the chain.” | | 4.4 | Never miss twice. When you forget to do a habit, make sure you get back on track immediately. | ## HOW TO BREAK A BAD HABIT | Inversion of the 1st Law | Make It Invisible | | ------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | 1.5 | Reduce exposure. Remove the cues of your bad habits from your environment. | | Inversion of the 2nd Law | Make It Unattractive | | 2.4 | Reframe your mindset. Highlight the benefits of avoiding your bad habits. | | Inversion of the 3rd Law | Make It Difficult | | 3.6 | Increase friction. Increase the number of steps between you and your bad habits. | | 3.7 | Use a commitment device. Restrict your future choices to the ones that benefit you. | | Inversion of the 4th Law | Make It Unsatisfying | | 4.5 | Get an accountability partner. Ask someone to watch your behavior. | | 4.6 | Create a habit contract. Make the costs of your bad habits public and painful. | ## Pro-habits Patterns that favour changing habits: - [[Book]] - [[Signal]] - Solo travelling / [[Philosophy/Rationality/Models/Exploration vs exploitation|exploration]] - [[Status game]]s: if you want to be fit, wear exercise clothes, put a yoga mat in your room, elastic band, etc. you'll receive social pressure to execute what you show - If you want to learn math, leave math on paper sheets everywhere in the environment, math books etc. social pressure again ## Anti-habits Patterns that prevent changing habits: - Social interactions (your social links expect you to be consistent, [[Philosophy/Rationality/Models/Exploration vs exploitation|exploration is often prioritized over exploitation]], the trick is to use [[Intermittent relationship]] or just announce publicly your incoming change) - Poor health - [[Noise]] >What is rooted is easy to nourish. What is recent is easy to correct. What is brittle is easy to break. What is small is easy to scatter. Prevent trouble before it arises. Put things in order before they exist >~ [[Lao Tze]] ## My habits ![[Pasted image 20221104085632.png]] ![[Pasted image 20221104085653.png]] %% ### Hard printed habits Habits that I never skip. #### Chronological - Aligned with my [[Personal growth/Goal|goal]] of [[Philosophy/Epistemology/Knowledge|knowledge]], the first thing I do in the morning is read a [[Book]], ideally accompanied by a matcha green tea, but sometimes I'll just drink water if I don't have access to such luxury. - Aligned with my [[Personal growth/Goal|goal]] of [[Health|health]], I always workout before taking a shower, usually with audio[[Book|book]] or podcast/video about my usual interests, otherwise I do not shower. And [[Cold shower]]. - A cup of sun if available, it's the healthiest food (with water) - Night: read before sleeping. (the hack is to always "go to bed" early, to not be too tired to read). #### Non-chronological - ~16/8 intermittent [[Fasting]] (i.e. I never eat breakfast, [[Breakfast vs intermittent fasting]]) - Stretching (a lot) - Typically, the main things I do during a day, that is usually thinking and [[Programming]] (computers or humans), [[How to build the future|building the future]] ### Experimentation - 24 hour [[Fasting]] once a week -> the difficulty is social, we eat as a social activity, not as a need, so the trick is either to be anti-social, or fast socially (never tried this one). - long thinking walks with audio[[Book|book]] or nothing ([[Meditation|meditative]]) - Yoga / stretching / Wim Hof-like at night %%