‘each context will become associated with a particular habit’ – Atomic Habits, Chapter 6 Notes

Posted on: June 26, 2022

Last Updated on: June 27th, 2022

Post Category: Book Notes

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About #onepageonepoint

#onepageonepoint aims to summarise new ideas from books on personal and professional development – with (approximately) one point for each page. Read more about this project here.

Today for #onepageonepoint, we have summary notes for Atomic Habits – for chapter 6: ‘Motivation is Overrated; Environment Often Matter More’.

If you are interested in getting yourself a copy or learning more about the book, click here.

Chapter 6: Motivation is Overrated; Environment Often Matter More

• At a hospital, a primary care physician introduced water at every refrigerator that previously only offered soda, and placed baskets of bottled water next to all food stations. It was observed that sales of bottled water rose and soda sales dropped – ‘because the amount of water in the environment was increased, behaviour shifted naturally without additional motivation’ (Clear 2018, p. 82).

• Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behaviour, so every habit is context dependent. For example, food items that are placed at eye level at a store tend to sell better than those that aren’t – ‘many of the actions we take each day are shaped not by purposeful drive and choice by the most obvious option’ (Clear 2018, p. 83).

• The most powerful sensory ability in humans is vision – visual cues are the greatest catalyst when it comes to human behaviour, so a small change in what you see can lead to a big shift in what you do.

• Hence, to take advantage of this, you will need to be the architect of your environment – to enable the (positive) habits you want to build.

• One way you can redesign your environment may be: placing your guitar stand in the middle of the living room if you want to work towards being a guitar player.

• To make the habit a big part of your life, make it a big part of your environment; sprinkling triggers throughout your surroundings will increase the likelihood of performing the habit during the day.

• ‘The cues that trigger a habit can start out very specific, but over time your habits become associated not with a single trigger but with the entire context [e.g. social setting, time, location] surrounding the behaviour’ (Clear 2018, p. 87). For example, one person might interact with a couch by watching TV for an hour, another might interact with a couch by reading for an hour.

• ‘We mentally assign our habits to the locations in which they occur: the home, the office, the gym. Each location develops a connection to certain habits and routines’ (Clear 2018, p. 87).

• ‘Stop thinking about your environment as filled with objects. Start thinking about it as filled with relationships. Think in terms of how you interact with the spaces around you’ (Clear 2018, p. 87).

• The power of context also means that habits can be easier to change in a new environment. It helps to escape the triggers and cues that nudge you toward your current habits; this helps you associate new habits with a new context without competing cues. For example, for more creative thinking, take a break from the space where you usually do your daily work.

• A method you can use to expose yourself to new contexts is to have one space for one use. When you cant manage to get an entirely new environment, redefine or rearrange it e.g. having the office for work only (or professional life) and the couch for leisure (or personal life).

• ‘Whenever possible, avoid mixing the context of one habit with another. When you start mixing contexts, you’ll start mixing habits – and the easier ones will usually win out’ (Clear 2018, p. 89). For example, if you use your phone for many different things, you will be presented with competing cues, and you will tend to spend most of your time on social media and other relatively unproductive tasks.

• This principle can be applied for small spaces, where small rooms have different zones for different activities, and digital spaces can be created, where specific devices are used for specific (types of) tasks e.g. a reading chair, a computer for writing and phone for only texting and social media.

If you are interested in getting yourself a copy or learn more about the book, click here.

Interested in reading more? See my notes for Chapter 7.