I get excited when I stumble upon profound insights in unexpected places. Reading widely is a fun way to connect abstract dots, especially if your genre of choice is non-fiction “textbooks” as my wife lovingly calls them (sorry, honey, I haven’t caught the #BookTok bug yet).
While reading Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli, I came across a concept that gave me a lightbulb moment (pun intended) on habits. Building on Max Planck’s work, Einstein proposed that:
“…the energy of a light ray spreading out from a point source is not continuously distributed over an increasing space but consists of a finite number of “energy quanta” which are localized at points in space, which move without dividing, and which can only be produced and absorbed as complete units.”
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli (p. 15).
When I turn on a flashlight, that beam isn’t a continuous blast; it’s countless photons (tiny packets of energy called “quanta”) traveling through space. Quanta (the plural of “quantum”) are like the Lego blocks of energy. They’re small, discrete pieces that build up to something bigger. Although we see light as a continuous beam, it’s actually a rapid stream of these independent photons moving through space. Each photon travels on its own, but together, they stack to create a beam of light. Visualizing light this way helped me understand how small, independent actions can accumulate to create significant change.
Connecting the Quantum and Atomic
I read Atomic Habits by James Clear a few years back. It’s a quick read and one I highly recommend. Clear’s focus on small, repeatable actions has been something I think about often.
Clear references BJ Fogg’s habit stacking formula: “After I [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT] (p. 74).” Then he proceeds to demonstrate how that works:
“After I pour my morning cup of coffee, I will meditate for sixty seconds. After I meditate for sixty seconds, I will write my to-do list for the day. After I…”
Clear’s approach links behaviors sequentially. This is a great approach, but what I’m advocating is a little more modular. Can we stack seemingly unrelated habits and use them to intentionally build a larger, complete practice?
Building Habit Quanta Across Life
Clear addresses how to build the habits well, so I won’t be revisiting that here. Let’s talk about how we can stack them like quanta to build a new routine. Here’s a personal example:
In my 20s, I was very active and always in the gym. As life started happening, injuries accrued, surgeries happened, commutes, kids, work, and life got in the way. Before I knew it, I was sedentary and couldn’t see a path to getting back in shape unless something drastic happened.
So, if I had these limitations, to channel the Stoics, how could I control the controllable? What could I actually do?
- First, I needed to get up earlier. So, I started waking up early just to drink coffee and read.
- Once I had the wake-up habit, I would go into the garage for a few minutes to hop on the stepper or lift some weights before I started reading.
- It’s hard to do only a little bit of working out. It’s like Pringles, but healthier. Now, I was able to wake up a little earlier so I could have enough time for my coffee, reading, and a longer workout or run.
- On the days I didn’t work out, I still got up early to have my coffee and read. I would wake up at the same time regardless of if I worked out or not.
- With my consistent wake-up routine, I was able to build up to working out 4-5 days per week.
- Then, I noticed that my gains were being held back by my diet. I was able to adjust my wakeup routine a little earlier to give me time to prepare a healthy breakfast and prep food for lunch.
- And so on…
These changes didn’t happen overnight. Instead of sequentially chaining together habits, I built a cluster that supported whatever I was feeling each day. It wasn’t a race, and over time, the habit quanta formed into a complete wellness routine.
To reference Clear again, “Every action requires a certain amount of energy. The more energy required, the less likely it is to occur” (p. 152). Starting with low-effort actions allowed me to build a routine naturally and let each small habit add up over time.
I didn’t try to do everything at once. It’s a common thing to get super motivated, spend all your energy forcing yourself to do something, then your plan dissolves after an inconvenience, injury, or something shiny appears.
Final Thoughts
You can use the concept of habit quanta for a host of things.
Want to improve as a public speaker? Identify some of the things that dynamic public speakers do: they probably lead meetings regularly, are able to make small talk in public, regularly speak in low-stakes environments, etc.
How can that apply to habit quanta? Find a way to lead a meeting at work once per week, make it a habit to comment on things in public to strangers, make it a habit to be prepared for your meetings so you can speak up confidently. There are a lot of ways to assemble this light beam of communication.
There are many things that can be accomplished if you have the right habits in place.
Change doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By approaching habits as small, independent actions, habit quanta allows us to zoom out to realize life isn’t a continuous stream, and that we have control over what we build.