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Below are my personal notes of Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results. These highlights were what I used to write my personal development book, Wiser Next Week, a condensation of many different self improvement books.

Mini Habits: 

• A very small positive behavior that you force yourself to do every day, so small that it’s too small to fail. (Use it to understand and work on the basics)

Forming New Habits:

• The 2 keys to habit change as far as the brain is concerned is repetition and reward. 
  • Your brain will be more likely to repeat something if there is a reward

Motivation:

• Unreliable as motivation is based on how you feel and feelings are fluid and unpredictable
  • (too many external factors not in control)
• Enthusiasm is great, but see it as a bonus rather than a cue for taking action
  • (build on a solid base, not on the whims of emotions)
• A mistake people often make is not taking into account that their motivation and energy will fluctuate dramatically
  • When you set something “stupid small”, your brain is less likely to resist

Willpower

• Unlike motivation, willpower can be strengthened like a muscle
• You can improve your ability to take action despite feeling resistance due to emotional trauma, lack of confidence, bad mood or low energy levels. This is willpower

Resistance Barriers to New Habit Formation:

• Effort: Mini Habits require minimal effort, it forces you to start, but its flexible after that, allowing you to decide how much extra you want to do
• Perceived Difficulty: Setting mini goals is the best way to drop the perceived difficulty in any project.
  • The total intention is so small, there is no risk of quitting too early
• Subjective Fatigue: A big factor in subjective fatigue depends on how you see yourself stack up against a goal, small goals look less daunting. 
• One small step + desired behavior = high probability of further steps

Integrating Mini Habits into Your Life

• Look at mini habits as your day’s foundation, these things must get done, but they only take a few minutes total to do. After that, you can do anything you want, whether its “bonus reps” or other activities

Mini Habits: 8 Small Steps to Big Change

1. Choose Your Mini Habits and Habit Plan
   1. One Week Flexible Plan: Choose 1 habit and use the Mini Habit system for 1 week. After a week, assess the difficulty and stick with it or add more. 
      1. The more mini habits you have, the less likely you are to overachieve in them
      2. Imagine the hardest days. If you can do something on the day you’re tired, stressed and busy, you can do it everyday
      3. As no one likes to be micromanaged, the low commitment threshold grants freedom that increases performance
2. Use the Why Drill on Each Mini Habit
   1. Once you have your habits, identify the why, continue to ask why until you’ve found the core (begin with the end in mind)
3. Define Your Habit Cues
   1. Time based: Performed at a set time
   2. Activity based: Performed after another activity
   3. Set a deadline only before you sleep, an earlier deadline means you’ll discontinue the habit for the rest of the day. 
4. Create Your Reward Plan
   1. Stimulate endorphins via laughter/crossing off items, that coincide with the habit
   2. Rewards restore willpower
5. Write Everything Down
   1. You are more likely to follow through on tasks if a sense of accountability is set up
6. Think Small
   1. Repeated performance of small, achievable tasks strengthen willpower
   2. Small consistent doses over time strengthen the willpower muscle, which allows you to do more. Let the extra come from you, not your requirements
7. Meet Your Schedule and Drop High Expectations
   1. Keep your goal small on paper and in your mind
   2. Instead of quantity, seek consistency that’ll be embedded in your subconscious mind
8. Don’t Jump the Gun
   1. Doing too much too quickly results in burnout, be consistent and patient
   2. Start small, and remove the pressure of expectations
   3. Burnout is willpower exhaustion, it occurs when people try to do too much for too long
   4. If you encounter resistance that is strong, start smaller and build from there

If these brief notes, peaked your interest in Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results, you can check it out on Amazon here.

And be sure to check out my book, Wiser Next Week.

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