Net Out of a Book: Tiny Habits
I recently read the book called Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg. You can find the book on Amazon (not an affiliate link). The writer is a PhD holder and has helped several startups with designing their apps to gain more traction of user by making them understand human behaviours.
The entire book is based on a formula made by the author that is:
B=MAP
Behaviour is equal to Motivation, Ability and Prompt.
In order to design successful habits and change your behaviors, you should do three things. Stop judging yourself. Take your aspirations and break them down into tiny behaviors. Embrace mistakes as discoveries and use them to move forward. (pg. 2)
I’ve found that there are only three things we can do that will create lasting change: Have an epiphany, change our environment, or change our habits in tiny ways. (pg. 4)
The essence of Tiny Habits is this: Take a behavior you want, make it tiny, find where it fits naturally in your life, and nurture its growth. If you want to create long-term change, it’s best to start small. (pg. 5)
With the Tiny Habits method, you focus on small actions that you can do in less than thirty seconds. (pg. 5)
After you put your feet on the floor in the morning, immediately say this phrase, “It’s going to be a great day.” As you say these seven words, try to feel optimistic and positive. (pg. 6)
Keeping changes small and expectations low is how you design around fair-weather friends like motivation and willpower. When something is tiny, it’s easy to do — which means you don’t need to rely on the unreliable nature of motivation. (pg. 10)
A behavior happens when the three elements of MAP — Motivation, Ability, and Prompt — come together at the same moment. Motivation is your desire to do the behavior. Ability is your capacity to do the behavior. And Prompt is your cue to do the behavior. (pg. 20)
The easier a behavior is to do, the more likely the behavior will become habit. (pg. 26)
You can disrupt a behavior you don’t want by removing the prompt. This isn’t always easy, but removing the prompt is your best first move to stop a behavior from happening. (pg. 28)
It turns out that Person, Action, and Context are fundamental for understanding human behavior. (pg. 43)
Focus mapping is also another important point that the author talks about where we consider impact and feasibility.
The three approaches to making a behaviour easier to do (pg. 83):
- Increase your skills
- Get tools and resources
- Make the behaviour tiny
Simplicity changes behaviour (pg. 90)
The three different prompts (pg. 101):
- Person prompts
- Context prompts
- Action prompts
Chapter 2: Fogg Maxim #1: Help people do what they already want to do
Chapter 4: Fogg Maxim #2: Help people feel successful
Maui habit: multiplication of habit and can expect ripple effects (pg. 167)
A helpful way to think about habits is to put them into three categories. I’m talking about all habits here-good and bad. Uphill Habits are those that require ongoing attention to maintain but are easy to stop-getting out of bed when your alarm goes off, going to the gym, or meditating daily. Downhill Habits are easy to maintain but difficult to stop hitting snooze, swearing, watching YouTube. Freefall Habits are those habits like substance abuse that can be extremely difficult to stop unless you have a safety net of professional help. (pg. 200)
Modify the ability chain which consists of Time, Money, Physical Effort, Mental Effort and Routine. (pg. 214)
Steps in behaviour design which was iterated in all the chapters but comes to conclusion in pg. 236:
- Select a. Clarify the Aspiration b. Explore Behaviour Options c. Match the Specific Behaviours
- Design a. Start Tiny b. Find a good prompt
- Implement a. Celebrate Successes b. Troubleshoot, Iterate and Expand
This book has been a motivation to create small habits in my own life. You can break the old ones and create new ones. You don’t need to find a habit that takes a lot of time. You can start with something that takes 30 seconds and then compound it everyday which makes a lot of progress if you look from a higher level.
I encourage you to give it a read, it will be totally worth it! Keeping creating good habits! Peace out!
