Law 3 — Make It Easy
In this third law, James Clear begins to show more of his human side.
He admits to struggling with deadlines, social media distractions, and staying on track — even though he’s literally the “habit guy.” At one point, his assistant had to reset his passwords so he wouldn’t waste hours on Instagram.
This honesty is refreshing — but it also reveals something else: this law feels less refined than the first two. The psychological depth and clarity of previous chapters gives way to something a bit looser, more practical, but less profound.
That said, Clear still offers important insights. This law focuses on action — the “A” in the cue–craving–response–reward loop. And to understand action, we need to understand how humans behave in the real world.
We Do What’s Easy
Clear makes a powerful case: people tend to act in the direction of least resistance. It’s not laziness — it’s physics. And psychology. And behavioral economics.
We follow paths that require the least energy to activate.
If we can reduce friction, increase simplicity, and automate choices — good habits happen almost by default.
This leads to Clear’s central recommendation: design your environment to make good actions easy, and bad ones harder.
That might mean:
- Moving the remote out of reach.
- Removing batteries from a distracting device.
- Leaving your running shoes by the door.
- Prepping your piano and sheet music the night before.
I thought I had this figured out already (notifications off, no social media for years), but I realized calls and texts were still breaking my deep work focus. So now, I just leave my phone in the other room. One tweak. Huge gain.
Repetition Beats Time
One of the most valuable mindset shifts in this section is simple but powerful:
“Habits are not formed by time. They’re formed by frequency.”
It doesn’t matter if you’ve “tried” something for 30 or 60 days. What matters is how many times you actually did it.
Looking back, I realize I used to talk about “21 days” or “60 days” as if time would somehow engrain the habit. But Clear makes the logic undeniable: it’s not about the calendar — it’s about the reps.
The deeper insight?
You can accelerate habit formation by increasing how often you do something. In other words, habits aren’t slow by default — they’re just slow when you don’t repeat them often enough.
Quantity Beats Perfection
This section also includes one of Clear’s strongest metaphors: a photography class experiment.
Two groups: one graded on producing a single perfect photo, the other graded on how many photos they took. The quantity group ended up with better photos — because they gained feedback and improved through repetition.
It’s the startup mindset: ship, test, learn.
For me, this challenged an old belief — I used to think preparation mattered more than action. I resisted “just starting” because I wanted to get it right. But Clear’s point stands:
Action is the best teacher.
That said — I don’t fully agree with how Clear sometimes downplays deliberate planning. As Stephen Covey emphasized, action without direction is noise. We still need reflection and strategy — the key is finding a balance between doing and steering.
Reduce Friction Everywhere
This is where Law 3 becomes deeply actionable. The insight is simple:
Make good habits frictionless, and bad habits full of resistance.
Want to eat healthier? Chop vegetables in advance.
Want to avoid doomscrolling? Log out, uninstall, make it annoying.
Want to run? Put your clothes out the night before.
Our brains are built for automaticity — so the smart move is to design your surroundings to support your intentions. That means reducing the activation energy needed to start a good habit — and increasing the energy required to slip into a bad one.
It’s not about willpower. It’s about architecture.
The Two-Minute Rule
Clear introduces what he calls the Two-Minute Rule:
“When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.”
At first, it feels extreme — even silly. But then you realize: the hardest part of most actions is starting.
This reminds me of kaizen and the old saying, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” I’m not fully sold on some of his examples (like tying your running shoes and stopping), but I do see the logic.
Maybe the real point is this:
If something feels overwhelming, start so small it’s impossible to fail.
Commitment Devices: Outsmarting Future You
One of the strongest concepts here is that of commitment devices — things you set up in the present to protect your future self.
Why?
Because future-you isn’t some idealized hero. Future-you is you — tired, distracted, tempted.
So lock things in now:
- Schedule workouts with a friend.
- Pay upfront.
- Leave your gear ready.
- Use website blockers.
- Remove friction from good decisions, and inject it into bad ones.
This is where proactivity beats reactivity. You’re not just reacting to urges — you’re designing a system that protects you from them.
Final Reflection
This law may not have the philosophical punch of the first two, but it’s easily the most measurable:
- You can count repetitions.
- You can feel reduced friction.
- You can see saved time and energy.
It’s also the law where you become a designer of behavior.
Design your environment to reduce resistance for the habits you want —
and increase resistance for the ones you don’t.
It’s not just easier that way — it’s inevitable.
“You don’t rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
Build a good system — and let it catch you.