James Clear's Blog

Another year complete. Here's a quick recap of 2019, which also happened to be one of the craziest years of my life.

As always, this Annual Review will answer three questions.

What went well this year?
What didn’t go so well this year?
What did I learn?

Before we begin, it is worth noting that every Annual Review is a personal process. This is simply an overview of what my year looked like, not advice for how you should live your life. (That said, you are always welcome to use this general format for your own Annual Review.)

1. What went well this year?

I had a lot to celebrate this year.

Book sales. Atomic Habits launched in October 2018, which meant that 2019 was the first full calendar year it had been available. I came in with big aspirations, but I think it's fair to say that book sales have outpaced my expectations.

As of December 2019:

Over 1.3 million copies sold worldwide
12 consecutive months on the New York Times bestseller list
4.8/5 stars on Amazon with over 1,800 reviews
4.8/5 stars on Audible with over 25,000 ratings
Over 15 national TV segments in the United States, Canada, and Australia
Translated into 40+ languages

This has been a wild ride to say the least.

Of course, the greatest reward has been hearing from readers. It seems like nearly every day someone tells me that Atomic Habits helped them lose weight or start a business or make some positive change in their life. People are finding real value in the ideas and it feels great to produce something useful.

3-2-1 Newsletter. My new project for 2019 was launching the 3-2-1 newsletter, which shares 3 ideas from me, 2 quotes from others, and 1 question to ponder each week. I had been struggling to write consistently during the first half of the year (discussed below) and this new format offered something I knew I could stick with despite a busy schedule. (Sometimes I have to take my own medicine and scale my habits down.)

I didn't realize it at the time, but it turns out to have been a good idea. I feel good because I'm producing new work each week and the response from subscribers has been quite favorable. Many readers tell me it's the only newsletter they actually read as soon as it hits their inbox.

Audience growth. I didn't write many new articles this year, but thanks to the buzz generated by Atomic Habits and the momentum of the 3-2-1 newsletter, audience growth remained strong.

Here's what the year looked like:

5 new articles published this year (fewest ever; discussed in next section)
353,970 new email subscribers in 2019
586,638 total email subscribers as of December 31, 2019
10,848,250 unique visitors in 2019
47,308,712 total visitors since launching on November 12, 2012

Even after doing this for a few years, the scale of the internet still blows me away. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to share my work with so many people.

Twitter and Instagram. I didn't put much energy into social media for a long time, but the web has evolved in the last five years and social media plays an important role now. This was the first year I put consistent effort into Twitter and Instagram, and it paid off. My audience doubled on both platforms this year. Feel free to join the fun and follow me on Twitter and on Instagram.

Travel. This was the craziest travel year of my life and, in all likelihood, the craziest I will ever have. I spent a total of 158 nights away from home this year, which means I spent 43% of the year not sleeping in my own bed. It’s a pace I will probably (hopefully?) never match again.

Here's the rundown…

18 states (0 new) – Arizona, California (5x!), Colorado (2x), Florida (2x), Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois (2x), Indiana (3x), Maryland, Nebraska (2x), Nevada, New York (5x!), Ohio, Pennsylvania (3x), Tennessee (2x), Texas (2x), Utah, and Virginia.

14 countries (7 new) – Australia (2x!), Canada (2x), Croatia, Denmark, Greece, England, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, and the United Arab Emirates.

While I love traveling, I did feel a bit guilty about the number of flights I took this year and the resulting pollution. In response, I decided to buy carbon offsets not only to cover my flights, but also to be entirely carbon neutral for 2019. I bought mine through Project Wren, and it wasn't nearly as expensive as I expected.

New restaurants. Whenever I travel to a new city, I like to ask for restaurant recommendations on Twitter. Oh man, did you all set me up this year. I had so many great meals thanks to reader suggestions.

I feel compelled to repay you all by sharing some of my favorites (in no order):

Los Angeles, CA — fundamental LA
Denver, CO — Mercantile Provisions
Honolulu, HI — Marukame Udon
New York, NY — Manhatta (my meal of the year)
Philadelphia, PA — Zahav (runner up)
Melbourne, Australia — Chin Chin
Sydney, Australia — NOMAD
Sydney, Australia — Mr. Wong
Toronto, Canada — PAI
Dubrovnik, Croatia — Pantarul
Dubrovnik, Croatia — Taj Mahal
London, England — Nopi
London, England — Dishoom
Athens, Greece — Atitamos
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — Village Park Restaurant
Singapore — Artichoke
Singapore — Maxwell Food Court
Madrid, Spain — El Charrua
Madrid, Spain — Ten Con Ten

For more ideas (including specific dishes), check out my full list of recommended restaurants.

Speaking. I delivered 31 paid keynote speeches in 2019. This is far and away the most I’ve ever given in a calendar year. Obviously, this is tied directly to the success of Atomic Habits, but I've improved my speaking skills as well. My biggest takeaway is that if you write about a topic for years and are forced to clarify your thinking in a well-structured book, then speaking about that topic for one hour becomes much easier to do. (Note: If you'd like me to speak at your company or event, you can submit a request here.)

2. What didn’t go so well this year?

Many wonderful things happened in 2019, but I suffered plenty of growing pains as well.

Writing. For years, my business was built on the consistency of my writing. I published a new article every Monday and Thursday from 2012 to 2015. From 2016 to 2018, I spent most of my time writing Atomic Habits. Overall, those six years were filled with writing.

Then 2019 arrived and the book began to sell far and wide. My attention shifted to promotion mode: interviews, speeches, book signings. It was all great, but there was very little time left for writing. Honestly, I probably wrote more words on Twitter last year than in new articles.

Thankfully, I began to course correct during the second half of the year by writing the 3-2-1 newsletter (as mentioned previously). We'll see what things look like in 2020, but if I'm going to write another book at some point, I will need to carve out more time to write.

Weightlifting. Everything has a tradeoff. It turns out that it is hard to maintain consistency in the gym when you are on the road for nearly half the year. In 2019, I completed 91 workouts for an average of 7.6 per month, which is better than nothing, but a steep drop off from previous years.

Workouts per month in 2019:

January – 16
February – 6
March – 4
April – 8
May – 4
June – 2(!)
July – 12
August – 8
September – 9
October – 15
November – 1(!)
December – 6

When looking at these numbers, the thing that sticks out to me is that my worst months were the months I had lots of international travel (March, June, and November). I'll need a better plan for exercising in foreign locations in the future.

Given how inconsistent things were, I didn't bother with max lifts this year and just did rep work most days. As a result, my best lifts of the year were:

Back Squat – 330 lbs (150 kg) for 5 rep
Bench Press – 245 lbs (111 kg) for 5 rep
Deadlift – 415 lbs (188 kg) for 5 rep

This marks the second year in a row when I failed to hit an all-time PR in any major lift. Admittedly, it's unlikely you're going to reach a personal best every year anyway, but nonetheless I have a lot of catching up to do in the gym in 2020.

Email. I joked earlier this year that my email response time is either 3 minutes or 3 months. Problem is… it's not really a joke. I'm terrible at answering email. Honestly, this wouldn't bother me except for one reason: it bothers other people.

My poor email response times came back to burn me multiple times this year. Sometimes it was a missed opportunity due to a delayed reply. Other times people became annoyed or frustrated, or thought I was intentionally ignoring them.

I'm not sure the best way to handle this. I get more email than I can manage and answering emails is certainly not as important as writing the next article or book. And yet, people expect responses within a day or two. One thing is for sure, I'll probably need a new email approach in 2020.

3. What did I learn this year?

Some of my major lessons from this year include:

Move fast. The importance of moving fast was clarified for me over the last year. The original release date for Atomic Habits was set for March 2019. I pushed to move the date forward six months to October 2018 because I didn't want to miss out on holiday sales around Christmas. My publishing team agreed, everyone worked their tails off, and we had a fabulous launch in October.

What happened next was even more important: The book was available in January when everyone was thinking about New Year's Resolutions. As a result, Atomic Habits jumped out to a very strong start during the fall and winter. By the time we arrived at the original launch date in March, we had already sold nearly 500,000 copies.

In this case, the difference between waiting and acting was massive. We all know exactly what would have happened if we had waited: time would have flown by, somehow planning the launch would have expanded to fill all of that time, and six months of sales would have vanished.

Growing up takes time. For the last three years my business has been stuck in that awkward pre-teen stage where one minute it acts like a full-fledged adult and the next minute you realize it's covered in pimples and doesn't know how to control all four limbs at the same time.

But in 2019—maybe!—it turned a corner. The to-do list is still endless, but that's what running a business is like. It does feel like I'm starting to find my footing, however. The strategy is becoming more clear. The products are gaining a foothold. The fog is lifting ever-so-slightly. I have spent nearly a decade as a full-time entrepreneur, but I'm finally uncovering a clear roadmap of what the future of the business looks like.

A life well-lived is a life well-edited. My biggest area of growth this year was prioritization. I had to become much better at saying no— and I'm still not very good at it!

In short: Prune away the inessential. Pour yourself into what remains.

That's it! As always, thanks for reading. Happy New Year! 1
The Annual Review Archives

This is a complete list of Annual Reviews I have written.

My 2019 Annual Review My 2018 Annual Review My 2017 Annual Review My 2016 Annual Review My 2015 Annual Review My 2014 Annual Review My 2013 Annual Review
Footnotes

Thanks to Chris Guillebeau for inspiring my Annual Review format.

One year ago today, Atomic Habits was born.

The last 12 months have been a wild ride:

1.1 million copies sold worldwide
12 consecutive months on the New York Times best seller list (currently #3)
Repeated appearances on the Audible, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller lists
Over 20,000 reviews on Audible (4.8/5 stars)
Over 1,300 reviews on Amazon (4.9/5 stars)
Translated into 40+ languages (browse international editions)
35+ keynote speeches in 13 countries

…and so much more.

I'm incredibly thankful for your support. I've been given so much this year and to celebrate Atomic Habits' 1st birthday, I put together 3 special bonuses for you.

3 GIFTS FOR YOU

I. Price drop.

Now you can get my best work at a lower price. This week, Amazon dropped the price of Atomic Habits. If you’ve been thinking of grabbing a copy (for yourself or someone else), but haven’t pulled the trigger yet, then right now is a great time to do it.

You can currently get the hardcover for:

40% off in the US
33% off in the UK
24% off in Canada
International: 38% off worldwide (with free international shipping)

The audiobook is also on sale through Audible.

 

II. Special interview with Cal Newport.

Cal Newport is the author of popular business books like Deep Work, Digital Minimalism, and So Good They Can't Ignore You. Many readers have told me that Cal's work pairs nicely with Atomic Habits.

The two of us recently recorded a 1-hour discussion on topics like focus, habits, and productivity.



III. Birthday Bundle! 

To finish off this special celebration, we partnered with Baron Fig to create a “birthday bundle” featuring some of our best habit-building products.

The bundle includes:

Atomic Habits
The Clear Habit Journal (now available in two sizes!)
Habit Squire pen (voted #1 pen by New York Magazine)

It's the ultimate habit-building package and makes a beautiful birthday or holiday gift.

Click here to see the full bundle.

Finally, let me close by saying thank you and reaffirming my commitment to you and all of my readers.

Time is precious. As always, I appreciate you sharing some of your day with me by reading my work. I will do my very best to send useful and valuable ideas your way.

The ultimate productivity hack is saying no.

Not doing something will always be faster than doing it. As I heard one computer programmer say, “Remember that there is no code faster than no code.” 1

The same applies in many areas of life. There is no meeting that goes faster than not having a meeting at all. This is not to say you should never attend another meeting, but the truth is that we say yes to many things we don't actually want to do. There are many meetings held that don't need to be held. There is a lot of code written that could be deleted. In work and personal life, there is a lot of wasted time and energy.

The Default Reply

When an opportunity arises, saying yes seems to be the default reply. Sometimes this is out of social custom, sometimes out of habit, sometimes due to a lack of clear priorities.

To a certain degree, we appear wired to say yes. For most of human history, our ancestors lived in a world where opportunities were scarce. The human mind had to say yes to each opportunity to find food and water, seek shelter, and secure safety, or it wouldn't survive.

But the modern world is one of abundance, not scarcity. Most of us have more calories, more choices, and more information than we know what to do with. Despite the fact that we could pick and choose activities more carefully than ever before, we still seem to jump at any opportunity as if it would be hard to find something to do with our time. As the author Nassim Taleb has noted, “Abundance is harder for us to handle than scarcity.”

NOTE: The stuff below referencing explore/exploit relates to this and hints at a real-world example (starting a career and needing to say “yes” to everything at first). Maybe group all this together.

Whether out of evolutionary wiring or simple habit, nobody seems to question things. How often do people ask you to do something and you just reply, “Sure thing”? Three days later, you're overwhelmed by how much is on your to-do list. We become frustrated by our obligations even though we were the ones who said yes to them in the first place.

We are particularly bad at saying no to what we have already started. Saying no to the rest of a bad movie. Quitting a terrible book. Stopping a project that no longer serves you. We seem adamant about finishing a task once it has been opened.

Even worse, people will occasionally fight to do things that waste time. “Why can't you just come to the meeting? We have it every week.” Just because it's scheduled weekly doesn't mean it's necessary weekly.

It's worth asking if things are necessary. Many of them are not, and a simple “no” will be more productive than whatever work the most efficient person can muster. I am reminded of the famous Peter Drucker quote, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

The Difference Between Yes and No

The words “yes” and “no” get used in comparison to each other so often that it feels like they carry equal weight in conversation. In reality, they are not just opposite in meaning, but of entirely different magnitudes in commitment.

When you say no, you are only saying no to one option. When you say yes, you are saying no to every other option. Once you have committed to something, you have already decided how that future hour will be spent. As Brent Beshore put it, “Saying “no” is so powerful because it preserves the opportunity to say “yes.” 2

Saying no gains you time in the future. Saying yes costs you time in the future. No is a form of time credit. You retain the ability to spend your time however you want. Yes is a form of time debt. You have to pay it back at some point.

In short: No is a decision. Yes is a responsibility.

Earning the Right to Say No

In most fields, you have to go through a period where you say yes to nearly every opportunity before you can earn the right to say no to nearly every opportunity.

Learning to make this switch is hard. At least, it was very hard for me.

This tradeoff between yes and no is something I felt very acutely during the year after publishing Atomic Habits. It was my first book and I felt like I needed to say yes to every opportunity to give it a chance to be successful. I did over 200 interviews in 6 months. I reached out to every person I could imagine being interested in the book. I took any speaking gig. I did whatever I could.

And then, almost overnight, I had more than I could handle. I had to start turning down interviews. I had to be selective about which speaking engagements I accepted. I had to learn to say no.

But saying no isn't a privilege reserved for the successful among us. It's a practice that can actually help you become successful. Even in the beginning, you need to learn to say no to whatever isn't leading you toward your goals. Most of the time we refer to this by another name: staying focused.

The people who do valuable work often have a remarkable willingness to say no to distractions and focus on one thing. Nobody embodied this idea better than Steve Jobs, who said, “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.” 3

If you lack the ability to say no to distractions, then achieving something meaningful is an uphill battle. As one reader told me, “If you broaden the definition as to how you apply “no”, it actually is the only productivity hack (as you ultimately say no to any distraction in order to be productive).” 4

NOTE: Maybe add a paragraph or two about how to know what to focus on / what to say no to. I'm reminded of this article: https://jamesclear.com/values-choices

Getting Better at Saying No

Saying no is useful at any time, but generally it becomes more important as you grow older. You have less time left and you're more clear about what matters to you, so you should be saying no to more things and doing what you enjoy most.

In the beginning, you have to say yes more frequently so you can discover what works and what you enjoy. You have to try things out. As you experiment, you come to learn what you enjoy and what actions get the results you're looking for.

Once you know what matters, you should increasingly say no to anything that doesn't.

How to Say No

Learning to say no is a powerful skill because it retains the most important asset in life: your time. As the investor Pedro Sorrentino put it, “If you don’t guard your time, people will steal it from you.” 5

You might be thinking, “Sure, man. That sounds great, but you try saying no to my boss tomorrow morning.” In cases like this, I like the approach recommended by the author Greg McKeown. In his book, Essentialism, he writes, “One effective way to do that is to remind your superiors what you would be neglecting if you said yes and force them to grapple with the trade-off. For example, if your manager comes to you and asks you to do X, you can respond with “Yes, I’m happy to make this the priority. Which of these other projects should I deprioritize to pay attention to this new project?” Or simply say, “I would want to do a great job, and given my other commitments I wouldn’t be able to do a job I was proud of if I took this on.” I know a leader who received this response from a subordinate. There was no way he wanted to be responsible for disrupting this productive and organized employee, so he took the nonessential work project back and gave it to someone else who was less organized!” 6

Be gracious in your response. I think most people are afraid to say no because they don’t won’t be seen as rude or arrogant. So take the time to give a gracious response that thanks the person for thinking of you. If you know someone who is still in the stage of their career in which they’re saying “yes” to everything, maybe you could even recommend that person for the project you’re being asked about. Everyone wins.

Learning to say no doesn't mean you'll never say yes. It just means no is the default. By saying no to almost everything, you can say yes to the things that matter most to you. You say no to most things life tosses your way so you can say yes to your kids or watching Netflix or whatever it is that you actually want to do with your time. Each experience has to justify becoming a yes. You don't have to agree to something just because it exists.

NOTE: Most people will probably be thinking of the application of this article in one of two ways: 1) as a way to free up time to spend on important life stuff like family or hobbies, or more likely 2) in terms of productivity. Add some more tangible productivity examples.)

What you say no to will shape your day, your career, your family, and your life.

Say no, more. Say yes, carefully.

###

Say yes early, say no late.

Default to no. Earn a yes.

Start with no.

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As productivity writer Mike Dariano has pointed out, “It’s easier to avoid commitments than get out of commitments. Saying “no” keeps you toward the easier end of this spectrum.” 7

###

“One trick is to ask, “If I had to do this today, would I agree to it?” It’s not a bad rule of thumb, since any future commitment, no matter how far away it might be, will eventually become an imminent problem. Here’s a more extreme version of the same principle. Adopt a rule that no new task can be deferred: if accepted, it must be the new priority. Last come, first served. The immediate consequence is that no project may be taken on unless it’s worth dropping everything to work on it.” -http://timharford.com/2015/01/the-pow... (Note: This whole article is pretty good)

Footnotes

Taligent's Guide to Designing Programs. https://twitter.com/KevlinHenney/stat...

https://twitter.com/BrentBeshore/stat...

Jobs had another great quote about saying no: “I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying ‘no’ to 1,000 things.”

https://twitter.com/brandonousey/stat...

https://pedrosorren.substack.com/p/st...

Hat tip to my friend, Shane Parrish, at Farnam Street who shared this insight from McKeown in the article, “Eight Ways to Say No With Grace and Style.”

Shane Parrish has a rule of thumb for meetings: “If you wouldn’t do it right now, say no.” A similar philosophy could be extended to many areas of life. If it's exciting enough to drop whatever you're doing, then it's a yes. If it's not, then think twice.

Another useful heuristic is the well-known “Hell Yeah or No” method from Derek Sivers. If an opportunity does not elicit a “Hell Yeah!” reaction, then it should be a no. [footnote]https://sivers.org/hellyeah

https://medium.com/@mikedariano/start...

In this article, I'd like to share 30 “one-sentence stories” about building better habits. (They are not all exactly one sentence, but they are very short.)

None of these stories are mine. They were sent to me by readers of Atomic Habits. My hope is that these examples will illustrate how real people are putting the book into practice. They will show you what people are actually doing to build good habits and break bad ones. And hopefully, they will spark some ideas for how you can do the same.

I have divided the stories into categories that roughly correspond to different sections or ideas in the book.

Identity-based habits

One of the central ideas in the book is the concept of building “identity-based habits”, which essentially recommends focusing on the type of person you wish to become rather than the outcome you wish to achieve.

One reader named Robert employed this idea to help him quit smoking. He wrote, “I recently stopped smoking and the difference between “I don't smoke” and “I can't smoke” is a powerful trainer of my brain. The positive message of “I don't smoke” is that I have not “given up” anything. I am not sacrificing a pleasure; I am investing in my future happiness and wellbeing.”

Another reader named Roland used the idea to improve his eating habits. “I stopped eating unhealthy food via identity change. I tried many times in the past, but it became easy — natural — only after I had made the conscious decision that I want to be someone who eats healthy. Instead of aiming for “I want to stop eating bad food,” try changing the mindset to “I am/want to be someone that eats healthy/lives a healthy life”; it changes how you approach things.”

Like most strategies in the book, the concept of identity-based habits can be combined with other habit building tactics. For instance, one reader used an external reward of $10 to reinforce the desired identity. “I told myself I am no longer a drinker. Then, after each day of non-drinking, I gave myself $10 to buy something nice rather than poison (like clothes and household items). Today, I no longer need the allowance and I'm six years sober.”

Chapter 2 of Atomic Habits covers these ideas in much greater detail.

Changing the Cues

Another way you can change a habit is by identifying and altering the cues that prompt your behavior. This is precisely what many readers have done.

One woman named Lisa, cultivated a reading habit by increasing her exposure to read cues. “I've read more books by continually having 20-30 books on hold at the library,” she said. “It saves time on browsing for books. I always have new things to read with a three-week deadline.”

Heather used a similar strategy to reinforce the simple habit of drinking more water. “I use color and placement for visual reminding and motivation. I poured water in a bright aqua water bottle – my favorite color – and placed it on my nightstand so I couldn’t miss it when I woke up.”

Other readers have done the opposite. They reduced exposure to negative cues. One man named Max managed to eliminate his e-cigarette habit. “I quit e-cigarettes with a combination of determination and also quitting coffee at the same time, which was a trigger for me as I'd smoke and drink coffee together in the morning.”

And still others have identified the cue that prompts their habit and then used it as a signal to perform a substitute behavior. One reader told me, “At home I would go out to my back yard to smoke, so I put a weight bench out there and every time I wanted to smoke I'd go out and do some reps instead. After that, my craving was reduced.”

Habit Stacking

Another popular tactic in the book is something I call “habit stacking.” It's strategy I first learned from Stanford professor BJ Fogg. He refers to it as “anchoring” because you anchor—or stack—your new habit onto a current habit.

I loved this strategy for learning a new language that one reader shared with me. “When I first moved to China and started to learn Mandarin, I committed to strike up a conversation with the taxi driver whenever I went into a cab (I took a lot of cab rides, 5+ daily). No matter the time of day or how tired I was. I did it for 2 years. I now speak fluent Chinese.”

Similarly, a reader named David told me, “I meditate for 20 minutes after brushing my teeth in the morning. Linking new habits onto a keystone one seems to work.”

You'll find all sorts of examples in Chapter 5 of Atomic Habits.

Environment Design, Part I

I have written about the power of the environment and the importance of choice architecture in the past. The simple truth is our environment often shapes our behavior. Many readers are using this fact to their benefit by installing some of the environment design strategies I share in the book.

For starters, you can increase the friction in your environment. This can be a helpful way to break bad habits.

One woman named Cyd curtailed her snacking habit with the following strategy. “My husband still loves his Pringles, as do I, but they’re now kept in a locked car that’s parked in the cold. It works!”

And multiple readers are learning to wake up earlier. Daniel told me, “I jump out of bed every morning without any hesitation. The reason: The only way to turn off my alarm is to scan a QR Code in the bathroom. This worked wonders for me.”

And as I have mentioned already, you can combine this strategy with other tactics. Chris utilized both environment design and habit stacking to stop sleeping in. He wrote, “I have a bad habit: Hitting snooze. To eliminate it, I “made it hard” and put phone in the bathroom, which was a habit stack to the first thing I do when I wake up (go to bathroom, brush teeth, etc.).”

Typically, we think of designing physical spaces, but you can use the same principles to shape your digital environment as well. For instance, a reader named Matthew wrote to me and said, “I significantly cut down on mindless Instagram time. Simply logging out of the app makes a big difference.”

Another reader named Viet went even further. “I used my own laziness to my own advantage [with my bad habit of browsing Facebook]. Deleting Facebook and having to go through the one extra step of going to website and logging in manually was enough barrier for me to not get back on.”

And Rahul did something similar to kill his video game habit. “For gaming addiction, I removed my graphic card. For excessive net surfing on mobile, I uninstalled apps and removed the Chrome browser.”

These steps sound small, but I can tell you from personal experience that they can be effective. For a period of time, I would log out of social media apps after each use. And when that was enough, I would log out and delete it after each use. If I wanted to get on Instagram again, I would have to ask myself, “Is it worth downloading and logging in?”

One of my favorite examples was sent to me by J. Money, the personal finance blogger. He wrote, “I brush my teeth right after putting my kids to bed every night (8pm), which has prevented me from eating or drinking (alcohol) at night for years… ‘Cuz who wants to re-brush them again!”

It's a great example of creating just enough friction to keep your bad habits at bay.

Environment Design, Part II

Of course, you can also rearrange your environment to make cues more visible and reduce the friction of taking action. This is a great approach for building good habits.

Natalie started picking up her cluttered clothes and building better cleaning habits by making a simple change. “I quit leaving my socks all over the floor by putting a little basket beside the door to collect them in.”

Similar strategies can be particularly useful for building new exercise habits. One reader named Justin sent me the following message. “I started going to a gym that was less than a mile from my house. This took away the time and inconvenience excuses. I was never consistent at exercise and now I work out 8-10x a week. Crossfit, running, and cycling. Being going strong for 2.5 years.”

Another reader wrote, “I've been running at 6 A.M. for the past two years. I always put my running gear (Garmin, compression sleeves, shoes, etc.) into a neat pile the night before. When I get up, I just get dressed and go out the door.”

I've even heard from readers who go to sleep wearing their running clothes. All they have to do is stumble out the door in the morning.

For more on environment design, see Chapters 6 and 12 of Atomic Habits.

Habit Tracking

Now it's time to cover one of my favorite strategies: habit tracking. Here's how a few readers are using it…

Cindy sent me an email saying, “I purchased a large wall calendar and started building the chains. This really works for me. I like to build that chain. There are 6 months of red X's on my calendar. I am healthier, have lost 30 pounds, feel stronger, exercise more, garden, read more, work on my small business, and practice my French.”

Damn, I'd say Cindy is on the right path. I wish I did half of those habits.

As I explain in the book, you don't have to track your habits on a calendar. For example, Qiana used a little math and a clever visual trick. “I stopped drinking soda,” she wrote. “I added up all the sodas I drank for the week and counted how many tablespoons of sugar were in those soda cans and bottles. I began to scoop the amount of sugar into a enormous bowl … The visual did it for me. Had to break that habit.”

The easiest way to start tracking your habits is to use the templates provided in the Habit Journal. It will make the whole process a breeze.

Habit Substitution

In many cases, it is helpful to replace the bad habit with a good habit.

I significantly cut back on beer consumption. Used flavored sparkling water to replace and asked the wife to stop having beer in the fridge for a while. Once I replaced the habit (was mostly stress drinking after work), I was able to add beer back into my life.

– Mark, Twitter

I was addicted to drugs and alcohol. To beat my addiction, I started working out. Now I am planning to compete in powerlifting meets.

– Suraj, Twitter

I replaced drinking beer every day in a succession of replacements, going through fruit juice, then iced tea, then seltzer water. I did it over about nine months by having one less drink a week. Once I finally quit, I got past the cravings in only two weeks. I haven’t had a drink in over a year now.

– Marc, Facebook

I decided to quit smoking and used fun-sized Snickers candy as a substitute until the major cravings went away. Still smoke-free years later.

– Shawn, Facebook

“I stopped biting my fingernails mostly by making sure clippers were always close at hand – especially at work.”

– Anonymous, Twitter

Make it easy

“I've done a simple workout every day for over half a year now. I managed to stick to it by changing the scope: when I don't have time for a full set or don't feel like it, instead of skipping altogether, I do an abbreviated session. I also mark it in my calendar according to Seinfeld.”

– Günter, Twitter

Reframe your mindset

“I quit smoking by saying a mantra out loud every time I wanted a cigarette (“your brain tricks you”) which I think changed my thinking from the subconscious part of my brain to the logical part.”

– Anonymous, Twitter

“I quit smoking by assigning my cheat days progressively farther in the future. I never quit “for good,” I only quit until my next cheat day. This helped with cravings, because the choice wasn’t between “right now” or “never,” it was “right now” or “later.”

– Caelan, Twitter

“I started small with quitting bad habits (eating McDonalds all the time and drinking soda). I told myself I’d take a week off, then said two weeks. That continued until I made it four years this month without McDonalds and 15 months without soda.”

– Ken, Twitter

This article includes an excerpt from Atomic Habits, my New York Times bestselling book.

If you want to stick with a habit for good, one simple and effective thing you can do is keep a habit tracker.

Here's why:

Elite performers will often measure, quantify, and track their progress in various ways. Each little measurement provides feedback. It offers a signal of whether they are making progress or need to change course.

Gabrielle Hamilton, a chef in New York City, provides a good example. During an interview with the New York Times, she said, “The one thing I see that consistently separates the chef from the home cook is that we taste everything, all the time, before we commit it to the dish, right down to the grains of salt. We slurp shot glasses of olive oil and aerate them in our mouths as if it were a wine we were trying to know. We taste the lamb, the fish, the butter, the milk before we use it… we chew salt to see how we like it in our teeth, on our tongues, and to know its flavor, its salinity.” 1

For the chef, tasting the ingredients tells them whether they are making progress toward their desired end goal. It provides the immediate feedback they need to get the recipe just right.

Like a chef improving a recipe through trial and error, we often improve our habits through trial and error. If one approach doesn't deliver the desired effect, then we adjust—like a chef tweaking the amount of an ingredient.

However, there is an important difference between getting feedback while cooking a meal and getting feedback while building a habit: When it comes to building better habits, feedback is often delayed.

You can easily imagine what this might look like. Perhaps you've been running for a month, but you still don't see a change in your body. Or maybe you managed to meditate for 16 straight days, but you still feel stressed and anxious at work. 2

Habit formation is a long race. It often takes time for the desired results to appear. And while you are waiting for the long-term rewards of your efforts to accumulate, you need a reason to stick with it in the short-term. You need some immediate feedback that shows you are on the right path.

And this is where a habit tracker can help.

The Habit Tracker: What It Is and How It Works

A habit tracker is a simple way to measure whether you did a habit.

The most basic format is to get a calendar and cross off each day you stick with your routine. For example, if you meditate on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, each of those dates gets an X. As time rolls by, the calendar becomes a record of your habit streak.

***IMAGE: Habit tracker with X's

To make this process as easy as possible, I created the Habit Journal, which includes 12 habit tracker templates—one for each month. All you have to do is add your habit and start crossing off the days.

Placing an X on each day is the classic look. I prefer something a little more design-oriented, so I shade in the cells on my habit tracker. You could also use checkmarks or fill your habit tracker with dots.

***IMAGE: Habit tracker styles.

No matter what design you choose, the key point is your habit tracker provides immediate evidence that you completed your habit. It's a signal that you are making progress. But that's not all it does.

Habit tracking is powerful for three reasons:

It creates a visual cue that can remind you to act.
It is inherently motivating because you see the progress you are making and don’t want to lose it.
It feels satisfying whenever you record another successful instance of your habit.

Let's break down each one.

Benefit #1: Habit tracking reminds you to act.

Habit tracking naturally builds a series of visual cues. When you look at the calendar and see your streak, you’ll be reminded to act again.

Research has shown that people who track their progress on goals like losing weight, quitting smoking, and lowering blood pressure are all more likely to improve than those who don’t. One study of more than sixteen hundred people found that those who kept a daily food log lost twice as much weight as those who did not. The mere act of tracking a behavior can spark the urge to change it.

Habit tracking also keeps you honest. Most of us have a distorted view of our own behavior. We think we act better than we do. Measurement offers one way to overcome our blindness to our own behavior and notice what’s really going on each day. When the evidence is right in front of you, you’re less likely to lie to yourself.

Benefit #2: Habit tracking motivates you to continue.

The most effective form of motivation is progress. When we get a signal that we are moving forward, we become more motivated to continue down that path. In this way, habit tracking can have an addictive effect on motivation. Each small win feeds your desire.

This can be particularly powerful on a bad day. When you’re feeling down, it’s easy to forget about all the progress you have already made. Habit tracking provides visual proof of your hard work—a subtle reminder of how far you've come. Plus the empty square you see each morning can motivate you to get started because you don't want to lose your progress by breaking your streak.

Benefit #3: Habit tracking is satisfying.

Finally, tracking can be it's own form of reward. It is satisfying to cross an item off your to-do list, to complete an entry in your workout log, or to mark an X on the calendar. It feels good to watch your results grow—the size of your investment portfolio, the length of your book manuscript—and if it feels good, then you’re more likely to endure.

Habit tracking also helps keep your eye on the ball: you’re focused on the process rather than the result. You’re not fixated on getting six-pack abs, you’re just trying to keep the streak alive and become the type of person who doesn’t miss workouts.

Alright, those benefits sound great. But what should you measure in your habit tracker?

Habit Tracker Ideas

I don't think it's necessary to fill your habit tracker with every habit that makes up your day. In fact, if you're already sticking to a habit, then it seems like extra work to me to track it as well.

However, habit tracking can be very helpful to either kickstart a new habit or keep you on track with behaviors that you tend to forget or let slide when things get busy.

Some common daily habits to track:

exercise
take a walk
sleep 8 hours
wake up by [TIME]
go to bed by [TIME]
journal 1 sentence
read 1 page
meditate 1 minute
do 1 push up
write 1 sentence
make your bed
take a shower
weigh myself
play instrument
take medication
walk the dog
take vitamins/supplements
write 1 thing I'm grateful for
floss teeth
contact 1 potential client
study 10 minutes
prioritize to-do list
say “I love you”
stretch for 1 minute
all dishes put away
call mom

Most habits are of the daily variety, but it can also be useful to track things that occur with less regularity.

Common weekly habits to track:

water the plants
take out trash/recycling
vacuum
publish blog post
do the laundry (or daily if you have children)
tidy up the house
write a thank you note

Monthly habits:

review finances
transfer money to savings account
pay off credit cards
pay bills
deep clean the house

Other ideas

days spent traveling
conduct weekly review
conduct monthly review

You can also track habits of avoidance (that is, not doing something).

For example:

no alcohol
no Netflix
no online purchases
no soda
no sugar
no caffeine
no smoking

Again, the habit journal offers a proven template and the fastest way to create your habit tracker. No need to spend an hour drawing your own grid. Just write your habits down and you're ready to go.

Of course, despite all of the benefits, a habit tracker is not something that makes sense in every situation.

When Keeping a Habit Tracker Isn't Necessary

Many people resist the idea of tracking and measuring. It can feel like a burden because it forces you into two habits: the habit you’re trying to build and the habit of tracking it.

Keeping a habit tracker isn't for everyone and there is no need to measure everything in your life. But nearly anyone can benefit from it in some form—even if it’s only temporary.

What can we do to make habit tracking easier?

First, manual tracking should be limited to your most important habits. It is better to consistently track one habit than to sporadically track ten. I tend to keep my habit tracker simple and limit it to my three or four most important habits.

Second, record each measurement immediately after the habit occurs. The completion of the behavior is the cue to write it down. (This is a twist on the “habit stacking” approach I discuss in Chapter 5 of Atomic Habits.)

Here's the basic formula: After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [TRACK MY HABIT].

For example:

After I hang up the phone from a sales call, I will move one paper clip over.
After I finish each set at the gym, I will record it in my workout journal.
After I put my plate in the dishwasher, I will write down what I ate.

These tactics can make tracking your habits easier.

How to Recover Quickly When Your Habits Break Down

Every habit streak ends at some point. Perfection is not possible. Before long, an emergency will pop up—you get sick or you have to travel for work or your family needs a little more of your time.

Whenever this happens to me, I try to remind myself of a simple rule: never miss twice.

If I miss one day, I try to get back into it as quickly as possible. Missing one workout happens, but I’m not going to miss two in a row. Maybe I’ll eat an entire pizza, but I’ll follow it up with a healthy meal. As soon as one streak ends, I get started on the next one. I can’t be perfect, but I can avoid the second mistake.

Generally speaking, the first mistake is never the one that ruins you. It is the spiral of repeated mistakes that follows. As I write in Atomic Habits, “Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit.”

Too often, we fall into an all-or-nothing cycle with our habits. The problem is not slipping up; the problem is thinking that if you can't do something perfectly, then you shouldn't do it at all.

Sure, a perfectly filled-in habit tracker looks beautiful and you should strive to achieve it whenever possible. But life is messy. Do what you need to do to get back on track.

How Long Do I Need to Track My Habits?

One of the most common questions I get is “How long does it take to build a habit?”

You'll see all kinds of answers: 21 days, 30 days, 100 days. One popular answer right now is 66 days because there was one study that found that, on average, it took 66 days to build a habit. However, even within that study the range was quite wide depending on the difficulty of the habit.

I find that people are really trying to get at something else when they ask, “How long does it take to build a habit?” What they often mean is, “How long until it's easy? How long until I don't have to put much effort in anymore?”

Look, all habits get easier with practice. But this line of questioning ignores the real purpose of building better habits in the first place.

How long does it take? The honest answer is: forever. Because once you stop doing it, it is no longer a habit.

A habit is a lifestyle to be lived, not a finish line to be crossed. You are looking to make small, sustainable changes you can stick with for years. And a habit tracker is one tool in your toolbox on the road to behavior change. It is an effective way to prove to visualize your progress and motivate you to show up again tomorrow.

This article is an excerpt from Chapter 16 of my New York Times bestselling book Atomic Habits. Read more here.

Footnotes

“The Wonder of Three Ingredients,” New York Times, March 23, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/23/ma....

Sure, there are some habits that lend themselves to more immediate signs of progress. Even if you haven't hit retirement yet, you can still watch your savings grow with each deposit. And while your book manuscript may need more work, you can see the word count increasing after each writing session. But even in these cases, it can be helpful to have a simple way to take stock of where you stand.

From 1986 to 2011, Oprah Winfrey hosted The Oprah Winfrey Show. It was the highest rated talk show of all-time and familiar to nearly anyone who owned a television set in North America at that time.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the “Queen of All Media” built a brand that stretched far beyond the television screen. She went on to become a billionaire, a well-regarded philanthropist, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And as she was busy working toward these otherworldly accomplishments, Oprah relied on a simple habit: journaling.

Journaling is simply the act of thinking about your life and writing it down. That’s it. Nothing more is needed. But despite its simplicity, the daily journal has played a key role in the careers of many prolific people.

As you might expect, journaling is a favorite habit of many writers. From Mark Twain to Virginia Woolf, Francis Bacon to Joan Didion, John Cheever to Vladimir Nabokov. A journal was rarely far from any of these artsists. Susan Sontag once claimed that her journal was where she “created herself.” 1

Journaling has been utilized by scores of brilliant thinkers and inventors. Charles Darwin. Marie Curie. Leonardo da Vinci. Thomas Edison. Albert Einstein. Similarly, leaders and politicians throughout history have kept journals in one form or another. People like Thomas Jefferson, Winston Churchill, and Marcus Aurelius. In the sporting world, athletes like Katie Ledecky, winner of multiple gold medals, and Eliud Kipchoge, the world record holder in the marathon, rely on journals to reflect on their daily workouts and improve their training.

Why have so many of history's greatest thinkers spent time journaling? What are the benefits?

What Journaling Can Do for You

Nearly anyone can benefit from getting their thoughts out of their head and onto paper. There are more benefits to journaling than I have time to cover here, but allow me to point out a few of my favorites.

Journaling provides the opportunity to learn new lessons from old experiences. When looking back on her previous journal entries, Virginia Woolf remarked that she often “found the significance to lie where I never saw it at the time.”

Reading your old journal entries is a bit like reading a great book for a second time. You pick up on new sentences and see the past in a different way. Only this time, you are re-reading the story of your life.

Journaling sharpens your memory. When Cheryl Strayed wrote her hit book, Wild, she relied heavily on her journal. She recalled, “My journal provided the who, what, how, when, and why with a specificity that memory might have blurred, but it also did something more: it offered me a frank and unvarnished portrait of myself at 26 that I couldn't have found anywhere else.” 2

Time will change your face without you noticing, but it will also change your thoughts without you realizing it. Our beliefs shift slowly as we gain experience and journal entries have the ability to freeze your thoughts in time. Seeing an old picture of yourself can be interesting because it reminds you of what you looked like, but reading an old journal entry can be even more surprising because it reminds you of how you thought.

Journaling motivates you to make the most of each day. There is something about knowing that your day will be recorded that makes you want to make at least one good choice before the sun sets. I will sometimes find myself thinking, “I want to have something good to write down tonight.”

Journaling provides proof of your progress. Writing down one sentence about what went well today gives you something powerful to look at when you're feeling down. When you have a bad day, it can be easy to forget how much progress you have made. But with a journal, it's easier to keep a sense of perspective. One glance at your previous entries and you have proof of how much you have grown over the months and years.

Of course, despite the numerous benefits of journaling, there is one problem.

Many people like the idea of journaling, but few people stick with the act of journaling. It sounds great in theory, but making it a habit is another matter.

This is where we return to Oprah's story.

The Challenge of Making Journaling a Habit

In November 2012, after wrapping up her 25-year television career, Oprah wrote, “For years I've been advocating the power and pleasure of being grateful. I kept a gratitude journal for a full decade without fail—and urged you all to do the same. Then life got busy. My schedule overwhelmed me. I still opened my journal some nights, but my ritual of writing down five things I was grateful for every day started slipping away.”3

She picked up one of her old journals.

“I wondered why I no longer felt the joy of simple moments,” Oprah said. “Since 1996 I had accumulated more wealth, more responsibility, more possessions; everything, it seemed, had grown exponentially—except my happiness. How had I, with all my options and opportunities, become one of those people who never have time to feel delight? I was stretched in so many directions, I wasn't feeling much of anything. Too busy doing.”

She admitted, “But the truth is, I was busy in 1996, too. I just made gratitude a daily priority. I went through the day looking for things to be grateful for, and something always showed up.”

Most people know that journaling is helpful, but they never get around to making it a priority. How can we make journaling frictionless? What is the simplest way that to get the benefits of journaling without it feeling like another obligation?

How to Make Journaling Easy

I've spent a fair bit of time thinking about how to make journaling easy over the past year. In fact, I thought so much about it that I partnered with the premium notebook maker Baron Fig to create the Clear Habit Journal—a combination dot grid notebook, daily journal, and habit tracker that not only makes it easier to journal, but also easier to build any habit.

But before I start hawking my wares, let's get something straight.

Here's the truth: There’s no one “right” way to journal. You can do it wherever you want and in whatever way you want. All you need is a piece of paper or a blank document. However, although there is no right way to journal, there is an easy way to journal…

Write one sentence per day.

The primary advantage of journaling one sentence each day is that it makes journaling fun. It's easy to do. It's easy to feel successful. And if you feel good each time you finish journaling, then you'll keep coming back to it.

A habit does not have to be impressive for it to be useful.

Journaling Prompts That Make Journaling Easy

Let's talk about the process I designed to make journaling a cinch.

Every Habit Journal is designed to make the process of keeping a daily journal as easy as possible. It starts with a section called One Line Per Day.

At the top of each One Line Per Day page is space for a journaling prompt. Here are a few examples of journaling prompts you could use:

What happened today? (Daily journal)4
What am I grateful for today? (Gratitude journal)
What is my most important task today? (Productivity journal)
How did I sleep last night? (Sleep journal)
How do I feel today? (Mood journal)

Underneath the prompt are 31 lines. One line for each day of the month. This is where you'll write your one sentence each day.

To start your journaling habit all you have to do is write your prompt for the month and jot down a few words each day. Once the month is complete, you can look back on 31 beautiful journal entries. The entire experience is designed to make journaling so easy that you can't help but do it each day.

That's it. You can see a picture of the One Line Per Day section on this page.

Where to Go From Here

When a habit feels like an annoyance, you’re unlikely to stick with it.

Journaling doesn’t need to be a big production. Just write one sentence about what happened during the day. Whether you use the my habit journal or not is beside the point.

What matters is that you make it easy to show up. As Madeleine L’Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time, put it: “Just write a little bit every day.” 5
Footnotes

Technically, Sontag's quote was, “In the journal I do not just express myself more openly than I could to any person; I create myself.”

Source: https://www.powells.com/post/guests/a...

Quotes in this section are from: http://www.oprah.com/spirit/oprahs-gr...

I also like a slight variation on this, which I learned from Shawn Blanc who uses “Highlight of the Day” as his prompt.

Source: http://explore.brainpickings.org/post...

It's time for a little reflection and review. Each December, I conduct my Annual Review (this is my sixth year) and I've found the process useful every time.

As always, this Annual Review will answer three questions.

What went well this year?
What didn’t go so well this year?
What did I learn?

Feel free to use this format for your own Annual Review.

1. What went well this year?

Let's start with the good stuff.

Atomic Habits. I feel like I've told everyone within earshot at this point, but in case you haven't heard: I published a book this year!

Longtime readers will know that this has been a multi-year battle. I announced the book deal in my 2015 Annual Review, shared my writing struggles in my 2016 Annual Review, and was (finally) nearing completion in my 2017 Annual Review. I was still battling with the manuscript in January and February of this year and if you had tapped me on the shoulder in the middle of my frantic final edits and told me the book would be a bestseller before the year was over, I'm not sure I would have believed you.

As 2018 draws to a close, Atomic Habits has been out for 11 weeks (published on October 16, 2018). I did every single thing I could to make this book a success (starting with spending 3 years writing the best book possible), but the reception has outpaced even my high hopes.

Highlights include:

New York Times bestseller (#3 in Business, #5 in Advice/How-To)
Wall Street Journal bestseller
USA Today bestseller
Publisher's Weekly bestseller
Audible bestseller
Top 10 Most Sold on Amazon
4.9/5 stars on Amazon (350+ reviews)
4.8/5 stars on Audible (2,200+ ratings)
Finalist for “Best Nonfiction Book of the Year” on Goodreads

I don't know what else to say, so I'll just say “Thank You.” It means so much to me that you are finding the book useful, sharing it with others, and that my work is making some small difference in the world. If you're interested in buying a copy, click here to see the different options.

Travel. Holy moly, did I travel this year. Travel is important to me and after not visiting a new country in 2017, I decided I would make it a priority in 2018.

My travel highlights for 2018 include:

7 countries (5 new): Argentina, Brazil, Chile, England, France, Japan, United States.
15 states (2 new): Arizona, California (4x), Florida (3x), Illinois (2x), Kansas, Massachusetts (2x), Nebraska, Nevada, New York (5x!), North Carolina (2x), Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington (2x).

I continue to follow many of the strategies mentioned on my Ultralight Travel Guide, but I've also begun to implement some new approaches to accommodate for the number of speaking engagements I have do while traveling. I'll update that page soon.

I've now visited more than 30 countries, which feels like a big milestone for an Ohio farm boy like myself. Overall, I feel incredibly lucky to be able to travel like this in a single year. I get to see the world (mostly on my terms and on my schedule) and enjoy different foods, cultures, and scenery. It's a good life.

Speaking. I'm definitely a better speaker and presenter at the end of this year than I was at the beginning of it. Most of that is just due to practice. Thanks to the success of the book, I'm being asked to speak much more than I was previously. The other area of improvement is in my content. I have now spent six years researching and writing about the science habits and human behavior. The process of writing Atomic Habits forced me to clarify all of these ideas into one cohesive framework. The natural result of that work is more clarity in my ideas, more practical examples, and ultimately a much better live presentation on those topics as well. I'm excited to do more of this in 2019. I even put together a page with upcoming events. If you'd like me to speak at your company or event, you can submit a request here.

2. What didn’t go so well this year?

And now the not-so-fun stuff.

Weightlifting. In 2018, I exercised 141 times for an average of 11.8 workouts per month. Those numbers might look alright at first glance, but both are a fair step down from last year (I completed 188 workouts in 2017).

Workouts per month in 2018:

January – 18
February – 7
March – 12
April – 14
May – 10
June – 16
July – 14
August – 14
September – 12
October – 8
November – 11
December – 5

My best lifts of the year were:

Back Squat – 400 lbs (181 kg) for 1 rep
Bench Press – 280 lbs (127 kg) for 1 rep
Deadlift – 500 lbs (226 kg) for 1 rep

I believe this is the first time I have conducted an annual review and not hit a PR at some point during the year.

Growth trajectory. “Because I spent nearly all of my time writing the book, I had virtually no time to work on the other aspects of my business, which, you can imagine, also happen to be fairly important.” I wrote that sentence in last year's annual review, but I might as well copy and paste it here.

Here's what the year looked like:

9 new articles published this year (browse my best articles)
241,539 new email subscribers this year
452,051 total email subscribers as of December 31, 2018
10,592,376 unique visitors this year
36,551,106 unique visitors since launching on November 12, 2012

I get it. These numbers are still crazy high.

I only wrote 10 articles last year, which was my lowest total ever. I managed to lower the bar even further this year.

3. What did I learn this year?

Some of my major lessons from this year include:

To do your greatest work, you have to ignore your good work.

That's it! As always, thanks for reading. Happy New Year! 1
The Annual Review Archives

This is a complete list of Annual Reviews I have written.

My 2018 Annual Review My 2017 Annual Review My 2016 Annual Review My 2015 Annual Review My 2014 Annual Review My 2013 Annual Review
Footnotes

Thanks to Chris Guillebeau for inspiring me to do an Annual Review each year.

This article is an excerpt from my book, Atomic Habits.

While researching Atomic Habits, I came across a story that immediately struck me with its simplicity and power. It was the story of Oswald Nuckols, an IT developer from Natchez, Mississippi, and his simple strategy for making future habits easy.

Nuckols refers to the approach as “resetting the room.”1

For instance, when he finishes watching television, he places the remote back on the TV stand, arranges the pillows on the couch, and folds the blanket. When he leaves his car, he throws any trash away. Whenever he takes a shower, he wipes down the toilet while the shower is warming up. (As he notes, the “perfect time to clean the toilet is right before you wash yourself in the shower anyway.”2)

This might sound like he's just “cleaning up” but there is a key insight that makes his approach different. The purpose of resetting each room is not simply to clean up after the last action, but to prepare for the next action.

“When I walk into a room everything is in its right place,” Nuckols wrote. “Because I do this every day in every room, stuff always stays in good shape . . . People think I work hard but I’m actually really lazy. I’m just proactively lazy. It gives you so much time back.”

I have written previously about the power of the environment to shape your behavior. Resetting the room is one way to put the power back in your own hands. Let's talk about how you can use it.

The Power of Priming the Environment

Whenever you organize a space for its intended purpose, you are priming it to make the next action easy. This is one of the most practical and simple ways to improve your habits.

For instance, my wife keeps a box of greeting cards that are presorted by occasion—birthday, sympathy, wedding, graduation, and more. Whenever necessary, she grabs an appropriate card and sends it off. She is incredibly good at remembering to send cards because she has reduced the friction of doing so.

For years, I was the opposite. Someone would have a baby and I would think, “I should send a card.” But then weeks would pass and by the time I remembered to pick one up at the store, it was too late. The habit wasn’t easy.

There are many ways to prime your environment so it’s ready for immediate use. If you want to cook a healthy breakfast, place the skillet on the stove, set the cooking spray on the counter, and lay out any plates and utensils you’ll need the night before. When you wake up, making breakfast will be easy.

Here are some more:

Want to draw more? Put your pencils, pens, notebooks, and drawing tools on top of your desk, within easy reach.
Want to exercise? Set out your workout clothes, shoes, gym bag, and water bottle ahead of time.
Want to improve your diet? Chop up a ton of fruits and vegetables on weekends and pack them in containers, so you have easy access to healthy, ready-to-eat options during the week.

These are simple ways to make the good habit the path of least resistance.

The Path of Most Resistance

You can also invert this principle and prime the environment to make bad behaviors difficult.

If you find yourself watching too much television, for example, then unplug it after each use. Only plug it back in if you can say out loud the name of the show you want to watch. (Which prevents you from turning on Netflix and “just finding something” to watch.) This setup creates just enough friction to prevent mindless viewing.

If that doesn’t do it, you can take it a step further. Unplug the television and take the batteries out of the remote after each use, so it takes an extra ten seconds to turn it back on. And if you’re really hard-core, move the television out of the living room and into a closet after each use. You can be sure you’ll only take it out when you really want to watch something. The greater the friction, the less likely the habit.

Whenever possible, I leave my phone in a different room until lunch. When it’s right next to me, I’ll check it all morning for no reason at all. But when it is in another room, I rarely think about it. And the friction is high enough that I won’t go get it without a reason. As a result, I get three to four hours each morning when I can work without interruption.

If sticking your phone in another room doesn’t seem like enough, tell a friend or family member to hide it from you for a few hours. Ask a coworker to keep it at their desk in the morning and give it back to you at lunch.

It is remarkable how little friction is required to prevent bad behavior. When I hide beer in the back of the fridge where I can’t see it, I drink less. When I delete social media apps from my phone, it can be weeks before I download them again and log in.

These tricks are unlikely to curb a true addiction, but for many of us, a little bit of friction can be the difference between sticking with a good habit or sliding into a bad one. Imagine the cumulative impact of making dozens of these changes and living in an environment designed to make the good behaviors easier and the bad behaviors harder.

Where to Go From Here

Whether we are approaching behavior change as an individual, a parent, a coach, or a leader, we should ask ourselves the same question: “How can we design a world where it’s easy to do what’s right?” Reset your rooms so that the actions that matter most are also the actions that are easiest to do.

When you master habits of preparation, habits of execution become easy.

This article is an excerpt from Chapter 12 of my book, Atomic Habits.

Footnotes

Oswald Nuckols is an alias, used by request.

Saul_Panzer_NY, “[Question] What One Habit Literally Changed Your Life?” Reddit, June 5, 2017, https://www.reddit.com/r/get‐ disciplined/comments/6fgqbv/question_what_one_habit_literally_changed_your/diieswq.

This article is an excerpt from my book, Atomic Habits.

The Japanese railway system is regarded as one of the best in the world. If you ever find yourself riding a train in Tokyo, you’ll notice that the conductors have a peculiar habit.

As each operator runs the train, they proceed through a ritual of pointing at different objects and calling out commands. When the train approaches a signal, the operator will point at it and say, “Signal is green.” As the train pulls into and out of each station, the operator will point at the speedometer and call out the exact speed. When it’s time to leave, the operator will point at the timetable and state the time. Out on the platform, other employees are performing similar actions. Before each train departs, staff members will point along the edge of the platform and declare, “All clear!” Every detail is identified, pointed at, and named aloud.

This process, known as Pointing-and-Calling, is a safety system designed to reduce mistakes. It seems silly, but it works incredibly well. Pointing-and-Calling reduces errors by up to 85 percent and cuts accidents by 30 percent.1 The MTA subway system in New York City adopted a modified version that is “point-only,” and “within two years of implementation, incidents of incorrectly berthed subways fell 57 percent.”2
Pointing-and-Calling Your Habits

Pointing-and-Calling is so effective because it raises the level of awareness from a nonconscious habit to a more conscious level.3 Because the train operators must use their eyes, hands, mouth, and ears, they are more likely to notice problems before something goes wrong.

My wife does something similar. Whenever we are preparing to walk out the door for a trip, she verbally calls out the most essential items in her packing list. “I’ve got my keys. I’ve got my wallet. I’ve got my glasses. I’ve got my husband.”

The more automatic a behavior becomes, the less likely we are to consciously think about it. And when we’ve done something a thousand times before, we begin to overlook things. We assume that the next time will be just like the last. We’re so used to doing what we’ve always done that we don’t stop to question whether it’s the right thing to do at all. Many of our failures in performance are largely attributable to a lack of self-awareness.

One of our greatest challenges in changing habits is maintaining awareness of what we are actually doing. This helps explain why the consequences of bad habits can sneak up on us. We need a “point-and-call” system for our personal lives. That’s the origin of the Habits Scorecard, which is a simple exercise you can use to become more aware of your behavior.

The Habits Scorecard

To create your own Habits Scorecard, start by making a list of your daily habits.

Here’s a sample of where your list might start:

Wake up
Turn off alarm
Check my phone
Go to the bathroom
Weigh myself
Take a shower
Brush my teeth
Floss my teeth
Put on deodorant
Hang up towel to dry
Get dressed
Make a cup of tea

… and so on.

Once you have a full list, look at each behavior, and ask yourself, “Is this a good habit, a bad habit, or a neutral habit?” If it is a good habit, write “+” next to it. If it is a bad habit, write “–”. If it is a neutral habit, write “=”.

For example, the list above might look like this:

Wake up =
Turn off alarm =
Check my phone –
Go to the bathroom =
Weigh myself +
Take a shower +
Brush my teeth +
Floss my teeth +
Put on deodorant +
Hang up towel to dry =
Get dressed =
Make a cup of tea +

The marks you give to a particular habit will depend on your situation and your goals. For someone who is trying to lose weight, eating a bagel with peanut butter every morning might be a bad habit. For someone who is trying to bulk up and add muscle, the same behavior might be a good habit. It all depends on what you’re working toward.

How Do I Know if a Habit is Good or Bad?

Scoring your habits can be a bit more complex for another reason as well.

The labels “good habit” and “bad habit” are slightly inaccurate. There are no good habits or bad habits. There are only effective habits. That is, effective at solving problems. All habits serve you in some way—even the bad ones—which is why you repeat them.

When completing your Habits Scorecard, however, you can categorize your habits by how they will benefit you in the long run. Generally speaking, good habits will have net positive outcomes. Bad habits have net negative outcomes. Smoking a cigarette may reduce stress right now (that’s how it’s serving you), but it’s not a healthy long-term behavior.

If you’re still having trouble determining how to rate a particular habit, here is a question I like to use: “Does this behavior help me become the type of person I wish to be? Does this habit cast a vote for or against my desired identity?” Habits that reinforce your desired identity are usually good. Habits that conflict with your desired identity are typically bad.

Where to Go From Here

As you create your Habits Scorecard, there is no need to change anything at first. The goal is to simply notice what is actually going on. Observe your thoughts and actions without judgment or internal criticism. Don’t blame yourself for your faults. Don’t praise yourself for your successes.

If you eat a chocolate bar every morning, acknowledge it, almost as if you were watching someone else. Oh, how interesting that they would do such a thing. If you binge-eat, simply notice that you are eating more calories than you should. If you waste time online, notice that you are spending your life in a way that you do not want to.

The process of behavior change always starts with awareness. Strategies like Pointing-and-Calling and the Habits Scorecard are focused on getting you to recognize your habits and acknowledge the cues that trigger them, which makes it easier to discover which habits you should change and respond in a way that benefits you.

This article is an excerpt from Chapter 4 of my book, Atomic Habits.

Footnotes

Alice Gordenker, “JR Gestures,” Japan Times.

Allan Richarz, “Why Japan’s Rail Workers Can’t Stop Pointing at Things,” Atlas Obscura.

When I visited Japan, I saw this strategy save a woman’s life. Her young son stepped onto the Shinkansen, one of Japan’s famous bullet trains that travel at over two hundred miles per hour, just as the doors were closing. She was left outside on the platform and jammed her arm through the door to grab him. With her arm stuck in the door, the train was about to take off, but right before it pulled away, an employee performed a safety check by Pointing-and-Calling up and down the platform. In less than five seconds, he noticed the woman and managed to stop the train from leaving. The door opened, the woman—now in tears—ran to her son, and a minute later the train departed safely.

Audrey Hepburn was an icon.

Rising to fame in the 1950s, she was one of the greatest actresses of her era. In 1953, Hepburn became the first actress to win an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Award for a single performance: her leading role in the romantic comedy Roman Holiday.

Even today, over half a century later, she remains one of just 15 people to earn an “EGOT” by winning all four major entertainment awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. By the 1960s she was averaging more than one new film per year and, by everyone's estimation, she was on a trajectory to be a movie star for decades to come.

But then something funny happened: she stopped acting.

Despite being in her 30s and at the height of her popularity, Hepburn basically stopped appearing in films after 1967. She would perform in television shows or movies just five times during the rest of her life.

Instead, she switched careers. She spent the next 25 years working tirelessly for UNICEF, the arm of the United Nations that provides food and healthcare to children in war-torn countries. She performed volunteer work throughout Africa, South America, and Asia.

Hepburn's first act was on stage. Her next act was one of service. In December 1992, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her efforts, which is the highest civilian award of the United States.

We will return to her story in a moment.

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Audrey Hepburn in 1956. Photo by Bud Fraker.

Efficient vs. Effective

You get one, precious life. How do you decide the best way to spend your time? Productivity gurus will often suggest that you focus on being effective rather than being efficient.

Efficiency is about getting more things done. Effectiveness is about getting the right things done. Peter Drucker, the well-known management consultant, once encapsulated the idea by writing, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

In other words, making progress is not just about being productive. It's about being productive on the right things.

But how do you decide what the “right things” are? One of the most trusted approaches is to use the Pareto Principle, which is more commonly known as the 80/20 Rule.

The 80/20 Rule states that, in any particular domain, a small number of things account for the majority of the results. For example, 80 percent of the land in Italy is owned by 20 percent of the people. Or, 75 percent of NBA championships are won by 20 percent of the teams. The numbers don't have to add up to 100. The point is that the majority of the results are driven by a minority of causes.

The Upside of the 80/20 Rule

When applied to your life and work, the 80/20 Rule can help you separate “the vital few from the trivial many.” 1

For example, business owners may discover the majority of revenue comes from a handful of important clients. The 80/20 Rule would recommend that the most effective course of action would be to focus exclusively on serving these clients (and on finding others like them) and either stop serving others or let the majority of customers gradually fade away because they account for a small portion of the bottom line.

This same strategy can be useful if you practice inversion and look at the sources of your problems. You may find that the majority of your complaints come from a handful of problem clients. The 80/20 Rule would suggest that you can clear out your backlog of customer service requests by firing these clients.

The 80/20 Rule is like a form of judo for life and work. By finding precisely the right area to apply pressure, you can get more results with less effort. It's a great strategy and I have used it many times.

But there is a downside to this approach as well and it is often overlooked. To understand this pitfall, we return to Audrey Hepburn.

The Downside of the 80/20 Rule

Imagine it is 1967. Audrey Hepburn is in the prime of her career and trying to decide how to spend her time.

If she uses the 80/20 Rule as part of her decision-making process, she will discover a clear answer: do more romantic comedies.

Many of Hepburn's best films were romantic comedies like Roman Holiday, Sabrina, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Charade. She starred in these four films between 1953 and 1963, and by 1967 she was due for another one. They attracted large audiences, earned her awards, and were an obvious path to greater fame and fortune. Romantic comedies were effective for Audrey Hepburn.

In fact, even if we take into account her desire to help children through UNICEF, an 80/20 analysis might have revealed that starring in more romantic comedies was still the best option because she could have maximized her earning power and donated the additional earnings to UNICEF.

Of course, that's all well and good if she wanted to continue acting. But she didn't want to be an actress. She wanted to serve. And no reasonable analysis of the highest and best use of her time in 1967 would have suggested that volunteering for UNICEF was the most effective use of her time.

This is the downside of the 80/20 Rule: A new path will never look like the most effective option in the beginning.

Optimizing for Your Past or Your Future

Here's another example:

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, worked on Wall Street and climbed the corporate ladder to become senior vice-president of a hedge fund before leaving it all in 1994 to start the company.

If Bezos had applied the 80/20 Rule in 1993 in an attempt to discover the most effective areas to focus on in his career, it is virtually impossible to imagine that founding an internet company would have been on the list. At that point in time, there is no doubt that the most effective path—whether measured by financial gain, social status, or otherwise—would have been the one where he continued his career in finance.

The 80/20 Rule is calculated and determined by your recent effectiveness. Whatever seems like the “highest value” use of your time in any given moment will be dependent on your previous skills and current opportunities.

The 80/20 Rule will help you find the useful things in your past and get more of them in the future. But if you don’t want your future to be more of your past, then you need a different approach.

The downside of being effective is that you often optimize for your past rather than for your future.

Where to Go From Here

Here's the good news: given enough practice and enough time, the thing that previously seemed ineffective can become very effective. You get good at what you practice.

When Audrey Hepburn dialed down her acting career in 1967, volunteering didn't seem nearly as effective. But three decades later, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom—a remarkable feat she is unlikely to have accomplished by acting in more romantic comedies.

The process of learning a new skill or starting a new company or taking on a new adventure of any sort will often appear to be an ineffective use of time at first. Compared to the other things you already know how to do, the new thing will seem like a waste of time. It will never win the 80/20 analysis.

But that doesn't mean it's the wrong decision.

Footnotes

This phrase was coined by engineer and manufacturing consultant Joseph Juran.