You wake up. You grab your phone. You make coffee. You brush your teeth the same way as yesterday and the day before and the day before that...
Most of the things you do are not conscious choices. They are habits. Automatic patterns your brain has stored because they save energy.
Your brain is lazy. Not as an insult, but as a fact. It wants to use as little energy as possible, and habits are how it does that. The more often you do something, the more automatic it becomes. The more automatic it becomes, the less energy it costs.
That works for good habits, but (unfortunately) for bad ones too.
What James Clear says in Atomic Habits
James Clear wrote one of the most widely read books about habits. Atomic Habits. The core of his message is simple.
You do not become what you want to become. You become what you do every day.
It is not the big decisions that shape your life. It is the small, daily things you barely notice. One percent better every day may seem like nothing. But after a year, you are 37 times better than where you started.
That applies to exercise. To eating. To your relationships and yes, to sleep too.
How a habit works
James describes every habit as a cycle of four steps.
First comes a cue. Something that triggers the habit. The alarm goes off, your phone is next to your bed, you see your workout shoes by the door.
Then comes the craving. The desire to do something. Scroll, snooze, work out.
Then comes the action. What you actually do.
And finally the reward. The feeling you get after the action. That feeling is what your brain remembers. It is the reason you go through the cycle again next time.
Want to build a good habit? Then you work with these four steps.
How to build a good habit
Make it easy. How less effort a habit takes, the more likely you are to do it. Want to go to bed earlier? Leave your phone outside the bedroom. Want to get outside for daylight in the morning? Put your shoes by the front door.
Link it to something you already do. You make coffee every morning. Great. Drink that coffee outside. You brush your teeth every evening. Great. Put your phone away right after that. New habit, existing moment.
Make it visible. Lay out your workout shoes. Put a glass of water on your nightstand. Put a book on your bed. What you see, you do.
Start ridiculously small. Not two hours of exercise if you never work out. Start with 15 minutes. Not eight hours of sleep if you currently sleep six hours. Go to bed thirty minutes earlier. Small enough that you have no excuse not to do it.
Reward yourself immediately. Your brain learns from immediate rewards. Feel good after those five minutes of movement. Notice how calm you are without your phone before sleeping. Those small positive feelings are what lock the habit in.
A list to choose from
These are habits that directly affect your sleep and your energy. All small. All doable.
- Go outside for daylight within half an hour of waking up.
- Leave your phone outside the bedroom in the evening.
- Go to bed at the same time every night.
- Drink a glass of water as soon as you get up.
- Walk for ten minutes after dinner.
- Keep your bedroom cool by keeping the curtains closed during the day.
- No alcohol on weekday evenings.
- Five minutes of calm breathing before sleep.
The habit for this week
Pick one. Not two, not three. One. (or make up your own)
Do it seven days in a row. Every day. Without exception.
Only once it feels automatic do you move on to the next. That is how you build something that lasts. Not sleeping better for a week, but for a lifetime.
Every Night 1% Better.
Guy Veeke
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