Day 4 — Make it simple
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together” — Vincent Van Gogh
It’s day four. In this article, I will continue to discuss the strategies of James Clear in his book “Atomic Habits” on how to build a habit effectively.
In the previous articles, we have discussed two things to set up to maintain a good habit, which is: to make it seen and to make it attractive. However, just because we make the habit becomes attractive and visible enough for us, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to be a smooth ride.
At some point, we lose the motivation in maintaining this new habit because it looks difficult. The perception of how hard it is to maintain, makes us tend to delay the activity or worse, abandon it.
I had experienced this situation often in the past, where I was so motivated at first to build a writing habit. However, along the way, I found it too difficult to make the quality writing I expected. As I was too focused on the barriers, I overlooked my initial intention, which is not about how good the article I should make but on how consistent I should be in writing.
The desire to do it perfectly in building a habit might be too exhausting in the long term, especially for something quite new in our life. Interestingly, there is a study regarding this issue and that leads us to the discussion of quantity versus quality.
Quantity leads to quality
Jerry Uelsmann, a lecturer at the University of Florida, divided his photography class into two groups. The first group is those who were rated based on the number of pictures they submit within one semester. Students who submit with the most quantity will get the highest score and students who submit the least will get otherwise.
Meanwhile, in the second group, Uelsmann graded his students based on the quality of one picture they submit. The students were given one semester period to create the best quality as they can.
At the end of the semester, he was surprised that those who have the best quality of pictures are coming from the first group. It was found that during the semester, students in the second group were busy making a lot of pictures. They were not afraid to make some experiments with a new kind of composition and brightness, to test different methods in the darkroom, or to evaluate what pictures they were not satisfied with.
However, students from the second group were struggling to make any good quality-pictures. They were too afraid to make any innovation or to testify some of the theories being taught because their grade was dependent on a single picture at the end of the semester. As the consequence, most students in the second group only submitted ordinary results.
The lesson learned from the study above is that it takes numerous practices to make a good result. Everything we plan at first doesn’t have to be great according to our initial expectations. Thanks to Uelsmann, the first group was striving because they were not afraid of the bad grades. They were not pressured by making some new things or evaluating their pictures because their focus was to make as much as they can.
Just do it
James Clear believes that the easiest way to maintain a good habit is by making it simple. If we make it simple, it’s easier for us to do it without having to worry about the quality. The mental pressure that we have to do it perfectly sometimes becomes the barrier that leads us to be unmotivated.
I think it’s plausible to say that when we imagine something heavy and consume much energy, our mental state instead gives us the alternative to do something easier as we feel like we have to prepare for such activity. Conversely, we tend to delay the habit we want to maintain and end up doing something easy, which is our old habit.
In Motion and Action
James differentiates the two kinds of activities when building a habit. One is in motion and the other is action. In motion is the kind of activity where we prepare to do the habit such as making a strategy or a schedule, or researching, or creating a good mood before doing the habit. Meanwhile, action is the actual activity we do and resulted in the quantity of our action.
For example, if we want to create a habit of going to the gym regularly, in motion is when we research some of the articles on what are the best effective way to get ripped while at the gym. Meanwhile, action is when we are exercising.
No matter how many times we prepare for the habit we want to build, it won’t progress if we don’t do it. In motion is only good when it’s paired with the activity. Activity can be independent and we don’t have to prepare before doing it. In other words, less talk more action.
In my case, I am committed to writing every day without thinking about how many words should I write or how many grammar mistakes I should correct. I should not spend my time and energy thinking on how great the quality of my writing frequently because it only gives the perception to my brain that it is a hard thing to do. I should write, even if it’s only 100 words, or only talk about one idea at a time.
There is a great quote from James Clear in his book the Atomic Habits: If we want to master a habit, the key is to start it with repetition, not imagining perfection. We don’t have to make a detailed plan for every activity. The best thing to do is to practice. If we make it simple by doing it, then the rest of ideas will eventually come to make it better.
To end the article, let’s watch a speech by Mark Zuckerberg in establishing Facebook. I think it’s pretty relevant to what we discussed earlier.
Till we meet again.
