Hello World Book Club
Ft., Atomic Habits by James Clear
The main goal of this workshop is to help you improve your overall command of the English language. As we discuss the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, you'll gain powerful tools for your personal development as well as take advantage of the benefits extensive reading brings about when learning a second language. As a result, not only will you communicate more effectively in English, but also you'll gain valuable knowledge for your personal development.
Below you'll find the dates and assignments for each session.
Are you ready? Let's get started!
Workshop Syllabus
Please, download the assignments for each class.
1
Date: January 11th
Class 1: Introduction + Fundamentals
During this class, we're going to learn about the author's personal story and how it affected him to the point of becoming one of the world's leading experts on habit formation. Then, we'll start to explore the fundamentals of his framework and the importance of constant tiny changes in the improvement of our behavior.
2
Date: January 18th
Class 2: Fundamentals
We'll continue exploring the fundamentals of his framework focusing on the importance of our identity and how it can help us build better habits. We'll get a glimpse of the backbone of his theory.
3
Date: January 25th
Class 3: The 1st Law: Make It Obvious.
In this class we start exploring some of the techniques used to change our habits. We will explore the first rule of his framework which is "make it obvious". We will take a look at our current routines and see how we can improve it by using the techniques called implementation intention and habit stacking.
4
Date: February 1st
Class 4: The 1st Law: Make It Obvious.
In this class we'll learn the importance of the environment in the process of building new habits and breaking old ones. The author shares clear examples about how we can intentionally design our environments for our advantage. We will also explore ways to increase our self-control and follow through the process of habit formation.
5
Date: February 8th
Class 5: The 2nd Law: Make It Attractive.
In this class we'll explore different techniques to make a habit more attractive and therefore, increase the chances to follow through until you adopt it. We'll also talk about the power of culture and how we can use that knowledge in our favor to build better habits and prevent those that are not aligned with our long term vision.
6
Date: February 15th
Class 6: The 2nd Law: Make It Attractive + The 3rd Law: Make It Easy.
In this class we'll cover how to make a habit unattractive by understanding key concepts underlying our behaviors. We'll also start discussing the third law which is make it easy and a key requirement often times overlooked, to successfully build positive habits.
7
Date: February 22nd
Class 7: The 3rd Law: Make It Easy.
In this class we'll learn how to use friction to our advantage or disadvantage. We'll revise the importance of the environment and how we can prime it to reduce friction for our future actions. We'll also learn a key concept, many times ignored by the impatient, which is to start small until the habit is instill. Once you've reached that point then you can optimize.
8
Date: March 1st
Class 8: The 3rd Law: Make It Easy + The 4th Law: Make It Satisfying.
In this class, we'll go over some ideas the author shares to lock in future behaviors. These are usually onetime decisions that have increasing returns over time and the use of technology to automate certain actions that will guarantee the right behavior. We'll also start discussing the fourth law which is making satisfying to increase the odds that a behavior will be repeated next time.
9
Date: March 8th
Class 9: The 4th Law: Make It Satisfying.
In this class, we'll deal with the most satisfying feeling we can use to keep on progressing in our journey to develop better habits. We'll learn a powerful tool to tap into it and use it to our advantage. We'll also talk about the importance of having an accountability partner when developing new habits or breaking bad ones.
10
Date: March 15th
Class 10: Advanced Tactics: The Truth About Talent + The Goldilocks Rule.
In this class, we'll cover the positive and negative role genes have in our success at developing certain skills and how we can take advantage of both case scenarios. We'll also learn how boredom affects our lives in general and habits in particular and what to do about it. Moreover, we'll see how professionals and amateurs deal with it.
11
Date: March 22nd
Class 11: The Downside of Creating Good Habits + Conclusion + Personal Takeaways
In this class, we'll discuss the last chapter and reflect on our personal takeaways from the book and workshop. You'll have a writing assignment due for the following class which will give you time and space to reflect and organize the content learnt and the implementation you've used so far. Remember even if you are not completely happy with your progress this is just the beginning, you'll always have that experimentation and readjustment time.
12
Date: March 29th
Class 12: Reflections, takeaways and what's next
I'll be doing this with you!
I'm so excited to start this workshop with you for two reasons. The first one being, how powerful extensive reading is when learning a second language, and the second one, the book we are going to read. I'm very passionate about self-development, and I'm a firm believer that we should become the best versions of ourselves and reach our full potential during this lifetime. When I read this book, I was amazed at the value it provided. I have read it twice since then, and I'm planning to do the workshop along with you. We are also going to design a plan to implement the strategies James shares with us in his book. I think it's going to be a great experience to mix learning English with self-improvement insights and techniques. I can't wait to share this with you!
María Victoria Pérez