‘Standardise before you optimise’ – Atomic Habits, Chapter 13 Notes

Posted on: July 7, 2022

Last Updated on: July 8th, 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 13: ‘How to Stop Procrastinating by Using the Two-Minute Rule’.

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

Chapter 13: How to Stop Procrastinating by Using the Two-Minute Rule

• Twyla Tharp is widely regarded as one of the greatest dancers and choreographers of the modern era. She made this comment on her consistent routine of training and practice – the routine which allowed to her to secure a MacArthur Fellowship to tour the globe with her performances: “The ritual is not the stretching and weight training I put my body through each morning at the gym; the ritual is the cab. The moment I tell the driver where to go I have the completed the ritual.”

• ‘a habit can be completed in just a few seconds, but it can also shape the actions that you take for minutes or hours afterward… habits are like the entrance ramp to a highway’ (Clear 2018, p. 160).

• ‘Similar to Twyla Tharp hailing the cab, the ritual is changing into my workout clothes. If I change clothes, I know the workout will happen. Everything that follows – driving to the gym, deciding which exercises to do, stepping under the bar – is easy once I’ve taken the first step’ (Clear 2018, p. 160).

• These moments that deliver an outsized impact in the long-run are called decisive moments – moments that set up options available to your future self. For example, walking into a particular restaurant is a decisive moment that determines what you will eat.

• These little choices stack up, as they affect how you will spend your time. Hence, it is important to master favouring good choices and good habits.

• One way to make positive (and more difficult) habits easier to tackle is by leveraging the two-minute rule: “when you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes”. So scale down your new habits into two minute versions e.g. reading a page each night in order to be a reader who reads every night.

• Leverage gateway habits – or very easy habits that naturally lead you down a more productive path. For example, if your goal is to run a marathon, a gateway habit may be to put on your running shoes. If your goal is to write a book, a gateway habit may be to write one sentence.

• By completing these two-minute habits or gateway habits, you are practicing the art of showing up, and when you show up, those two minutes spent can become a ritual at the beginning of a larger routine. After it becomes a habit that you repeat, you can ramp it up and optimise it by spending more time and getting more done.

• This is called habit shaping. Once you master the first two minutes of the smallest version of the behaviour, you can scale your habit back up to your goal, while keeping your focus on nailing the first two minutes.

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 14.