Name: Manisha Agarwal

Minor: A2.2
Chapter: The 2nd Law and the 3rd Law

The 2nd Law: Make It Attractive

This law involves temptation bundling. Actions that are "attractive" are more likely to become
habits. Dopamine, a hormone associated with happiness, is released by the brain when we
anticipate receiving a reward from an action, which makes us more likely to repeat that action.
Combining an action, we want to take with an action we must take is known as temptation
bundling. For example, eating salads (need to do) while bingeing our favorite series (want to do)
would help to associate eating salad with being happy.

Another way to make a habit seem attractive is to reframe your habits to highlight
their benefits rather than their drawbacks. Clear gives a great example of this, “I once heard a
story about a man who uses a wheelchair. When asked if it was difficult being confined, he
responded, ‘I’m not confined to my wheelchair—I’m liberated by it. If it wasn’t for my
wheelchair, I would be bed-bound and never able to leave my house.'”

Being a part of a group where our desired behavior is accepted behavior would also encourage us
to repeat them. Our desire to "fit in" is the basis for this. We begin to appreciate a behavior that
makes us fit in with the group.

Similar to this, trying to make an action unattractive will aid in reducing it. This can be
accomplished by enumerating the "benefits" of forgoing the activity and associating those
benefits with unfavorable emotions.

The 3rd Law: Make It Attractive

This law talks about how there is a distinction between motion and action. When you're in
motion, you're strategizing, learning, and planning. Action is the type of behavior that delivers
an outcome. Motion is helpful on occasion. But most of the time, we choose motion over action
because we want to feel like we're moving forward without taking a chance on failure. You feel
like you're accomplishing things when you're in motion. But in reality, all you're doing is getting
ready to do something.

The secret to mastering a habit is to start with repetition rather than perfection. Habits develop
over time, but they are based on frequency.

"How long does it take to form a new habit?" Incorrect question. What should be asked is, "How
many does it take to form a new habit?"
Clear talks about how humans naturally gravitate toward the option that requires the least amount
of effort when choosing between two similar options, according to the Law of Least
Effort. Making things easy is not just about doing things that are easy. Making decisions that will
benefit you in the long run as easy as you can in the present is the goal.

This book further talks about how to stop procrastinating by using the Two-Minute Rule. The
"two-minute rule" states that any new habit you form should take no more than two minutes
to complete. Reduce new behaviors until they are absurdly simple. For instance, "Read before
bed every night" is changed to "Read one page."

Making your habits simple to establish is the goal. It is much simpler to carry on doing the right
thing once you've started. Your gateway habit may be putting on your running shoes, even
though your ultimate goal is to run a marathon. Before it can be improved, a habit must be
formed. You have little chance of mastering the more intricate concepts if you can't learn the
fundamental ability of showing up. Standardize first, then improve.

Lastly, in this this law, Clear talks about how to make good habits inevitable and bad habits
impossible. He talks of a Commitment Device, that is, a decision you make today that guides
your future behavior. Making a bad habit impossible to continue is the best way to do it. Increase
the resistance until you are completely without choice. When you automate as much of your life
as you can, you free up time to work on things that machines can't yet do.