Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily and Amelia Nagoski has been on my list for a while. Book Riot listed it as one of their Books of the Year, and a few different colleagues, podcasts, and blogs have recommended it. I was excited to hear it recommended as a counterpoint some of the more extreme productivity books. I appreciate how it gives advice that is grounded in research, and approaches the reader where they are with non-judgmental methods....
Falling Back in Love with Reading Through Lists
Reading isn’t a challenge in itself. I love reading. It’s a comfort to me. But a couple of years ago, I realized that I was only reading new releases by known favorite authors and re-reading past books I love. And it would feel like foreveruntil the next book came out. Despite being surrounded by books at my workplace, I reached a stretch where I didn’t trust just any book to be good....
The Checklist Manifesto
I love making lists: lists of things I like, lists of things I don’t, lists of things I need to do, lists of things I never want to agree to again. Part of this is because I am forgetful and easily distracted. It helps to offload the important things into a place I can reference, and the act of writing them reiterates that I want to remember these things. Although I use a habit tracker in the Clear Habits journal, it’s really a checklist of all the things I want to have done in the day that help keep my mental and physical health on track....
Atomic Habits: How I'm Using It
I was initially interested in the book Atomic Habitsfor the same reason I’ve been interested in bullet journals, planners, project management, etc. I wanted a way to push myself to be better, and to do the things that I imagine my ideal self does each day. While I read the book, I kept thinking what kinds of habits I would design, or what I would change based on the book....
Advanced Tactics
Wrapping up the book, Atomic Habits, James Clear includes a bit more information about habits beyond his behavior laws for change as listed below: While the previous chapters give great advice for designing habits, this section digs a little deeper into the questions that will arise after you’ve tried a few different things. Clear uses the comparison of swimmer Michael Phelps and runner Hicham El Guerrouj; they excel in sports that take advantage of their biological strengths–namely in height and build....
Fourth Law: Make it Satisfying
This is it! The fourth, last law of behavior change in Atomic Habits, as corresponding to the stages of habit change. Satisfaction can be difficult to put your finger on. It’s a blend of feelings: pride, relief, pleasure, somethings the result of effort and sometimes the result of an enjoyable status quo. Clear relates this law of behavior change to the reward, but ties it more closely to the timing of the reward....
Public Speaking for Psychologists: What I Learned
WMy work regularly involves presentations both internal and external to the organization. While the constant exposure makes it less nerve-wracking, public speaking is still an activity that causes me to stress until it’s done. My workplace also has a strong mentorship program, and this year I’ve been paired as a mentor to a new staff member. She experiences the same trepidation as I do when it comes to speaking and presentations....
Third Law: Make it Easy
My read-through of Atomic Habitsby James Clear continues with his third law of behavior change as corresponding to the four stages of habit formation below. In this chapter, Clear emphasizes action. It’s all about the verbs, and just as he cites Voltaire, perfect is the enemy of good. Practice and improvement depend on more than just thinking about it. However, he does warn against what I have heard referred to as productive procrastination....
Second Law: Make it Attractive
Continuing onward, Atomic Habitsnow addresses the second law of behavior change as corresponding to the four stages of habit formation below. This chapter does exactly what it says and talks about how we zone in on things that are attractive or exaggerated (supernormal stimuli). What I didn’t know was how exaggeration is used by the food industry. Mouth feel is known as orosensation, and along with this, companies are trying to increase the dynamic contrastwhich combines sensations so that you don’t lose interest....
First Law: Make it Obvious
The rest of Atomic Habitsis broken up by the four laws of behavior change that correspond to the stages of habit formation: This section discusses the first law of behavior change, Make it Obvious, in greater detail over four chapters. The chapter opens with a metaphor for visualizing habits. Clear reminds you that the adage “You’ll know it when you see it” hints at how our brains are great at recognizing patterns and their symbolic meaning, even if we can’t quite articulate what it’s looking for at the time....