#atomichabits

Motion Vs. Action

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“Motion makes you feel like you’re getting things done. But really, you’re just preparing to get something done. When preparation becomes a form of procrastination, you need to change something. You don’t want to merely be planning. You want to be practicing.”

-James Clear

I love this idea so much by James Clear in Atomic habits. Reading it for the first time was a lightbulb moment for me. I do love my motion so much. I spend so much time planning and tracking. Being aware of the difference, however, helped me realize I may be acquiring clarity but not actually making progress towards my goals.

This week, after a super first quarter of the year, I gave myself permission to enjoy motion only. I spent my mornings doing the first quarterly review of the year on 2 different planners, mind you, plus re-thinking and re-writing of my goals for the second quarter, and simply reading. I did not record a new podcast episode. I did not create a mid-week post for Instagram. I just enjoyed the motions.

This on-purpose break is the exact thing I needed. I’ll make it happen more often, maybe this is how each quarter should actually start. As a result, I am definitely feeling more ready to jump into action again.

Motion Vs. Action

Weekend Writing

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Two months into my daily writing habit and I still feel challenged to write in weekends more than other days. Simply because my writing habit context changes.

In weekdays I write in my work office right after I arrive. In weekends I don’t have a time for the habit. In the morning I do my long morning routine and sometimes I work on my pdacast.

Last weekend I made it a point to write as soon as I finished my routine and it felt good to get the writing done all day. This weekend I didn’t and it is 11pm.

I will make it a point to write my blog always at the same time to keep my consistency. Learning about habit contexts shifted the way I perceive my commitment to any habit and I am better able to fix any issues I face with this knowledge.

Weekend Writing

Streaks & Chains

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I’ve talked often in this blog about the power of chains as a way to track habits, simply because It works. Crossing off any habit as “done”  is the exact kind of short term reward that enforces commitment to an action until it becomes a habit. Seeing the chain of daily wins growing is powerful to keep at it.

James Clear mentioned the example of his father who swims daily, and to keep himself motivated , crosses off the day on his calendar after. Why? because on a day-to-day basis he can’t see the impact of committing to his habit, however,  every time he crosses off that calendar he feels progress towards becoming healthier.

This is a key idea in James’s book Atomic Habits; every time we commit to a habit we cast a vote to the identity of the type of person we want to become. We need to ask ourselves 2 questions to form the right habits for us:

  1. Who is the type of person we want to be?
  2. What choices does this type of person make?

For example, if healthy is our new chosen identity, we need to ask ourselves what would a healthy person do? What meal would he/she pick? What would they say when offered dessert? Every time we work out we also strengthen our new identity as healthy people, our chain would prove it even if we still can’t or feel the results yet. Seeing visual progress helps us keep going instead of quitting.


I enjoy how some applications and platforms also use the concept of chains, Readwise keeps a streak of how many days users read their selection of book highlights.  Akmibo workshops keep streaks of how many days students show up in the workshop in a row and notify them every now and then and also post their names on a board for all streak keepers. As their student, this makes me want to show up even more to keep and grow my streak, this is the funny and lovely thing about our beautiful human brain, it gets so motivated by all this tracking and rewarding. 


Make the magic of streaks work for you too. Start a chain of a new daily habit and keep showing up every single day. Remember to ask what kind of person you want to be, then do what that person does and track it everyday.

Streaks & Chains