Atomic Habits Notes

 Chapter 4:

This chapter begins with an amazing story. A woman had worked for years as a paramedic.  She arrived at a family party one day and said her father in law didn't look right.  She told him to head straight to the hospital.  They found that he had a blockage to a major artery and would likely have had a heart attack had they not done immediate surgery.  Such a blockage causes the body to send blood to critical organs and not to peripheral locations.  This changes the way blood is distributed in the face, and while the paramedic couldn't have explained what she was seeing, she knew that something was wrong.  

Similar examples of people developing these types of skills exist in other fields:  hairdressers that can tell a client is pregnant by the feel of their hair or military analysts who can tell which blips on the radar are enemies and which are part of their own fleet despite there being no noticeable difference.  

A surprising thing about habits is that you don't need to be conscious of a cue for a habit to develop.

A helpful method to make the unconscious become conscious is to "point and call"...to articulate what you are doing.  The Japanese railway system uses this system, and it is one of the safest in the world.  Each operator must go through a ritual of pointing at objects and calling out commands.  This reduces mistakes significantly because it uses your eyes, ears, hands, and mouth.

The suggestion is to make a list of your everyday behaviors/habits and decide which are good (+), bad (-) and neutral (=).  Of course your marks are subjective.  What you consider good or bad will depend on what your goals are and what you value.  

When about to make a choice, state aloud what you are doing and what the outcome will be.  "I'm going to brush my teeth which will help my teeth and gums be healthy and keep my breath fresh."  "I'm going to eat some chocolate which will make my skin break out."  "Tomorrow I will go to the post office after lunch".  

Create a scorecard of your habits to see how many positive and negative habits you have.  Which habits need to be changed?  What are the cues that initiate this negative habit?  (My students go to recess, so I grab a quick --usually unhealthy--snack.)