Atomic Habits by James Clear

Let me start with a quick introspection: How many times have you thought of picking up a new skill? or perhaps achieving a goal? or maybe lose/gain weight? I bet we all have such desires and we do put in a lot of effort to achieve them. We start with resolutions on every new year eve and start working towards them with a lot of zeal. But then, slowly, something unexpected happens. We start deviating from our new commitments and we often end up quitting sometime mid-journey. Why does this happen? How can we stick to our goals? Through motivation? hardwork? perseverance? focus? Although all of the above factors are necessary, there’s still some missing magic that can help us become successful in our endeavors. Atomic Habits is a book that explores that magic - habits.

Atomic Habits is not just another book on the subject of habit formation or the psychology behind that. This is more of a handbook, or a work-guide on how to become better at sticking to habits in a simple and easy way. This book starts off with a quick introduction to habits themselves and specifically what is an ‘Atomic Habit’. The author then moves on to lay the foundations of habit formation - the ‘cue, craving, respose, reward’ cycle. These phases of the habit formation and retention should be familiar to you if you’ve read ‘The Power of Habit’ by Charles Duhigg. But, instead of reiterating the same concepts, James Clear takes on a journey of putting these phases into a very practical framework to master any habit.

The beauty of this book is that it not only talks about forming a new habit, but also provides effective approaches to get rid of old habits. If reducing the TV time is your priority, this book has you covered. And it does so by not giving lengthy lectures on self-control, but by practical tips which will definitely work for you. For each of the above habit phase mentioned earlier, there’s a chapter on habit formation and there’s one on habit reduction. At the end of each section, you will find a handy one-liner summaries of each of the chapters covered so far.

Atomic Habits builds upon the foundations laid by some of the most famour books on human behaviour - ‘The Power of Habit’, ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’, ‘Outliers’, ‘Blink’, ‘Flow’ and others. If you’ve read the above books, some of the contents of Atomic Habits will remind the deeper concepts in each of these books; which I believe provides a good segue into picking up your next book to read.

Some of my favorite lines from the book:

• Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.
• Success is the product of daily habits - not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.
• The biggest barrier to positive change at any level - individual, team, society - is identity conflict.
• The most practical way to change who you are is to change what you do.
• Identity change is the North star of habit change.
• Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior.
• The people with the best self-control are typically the ones who need to use it the least.
• You can break a habit, but you’re unlikely to forget it.
• Desire is the engine that drives behavior.
• Nothing sustains motivation better than belonging to the tribe.
• Running against the grain of your culture requires extra effort.
• Once we fit in, we start looking for ways to stand out.
• Desire is the difference between where you are now and where you want to be in the future.
• Habits are easier to build if they fit into the flow of your life.
• What is rewarded is repeated, what is punished is avoided.
• Incentives can start a habit. Identity sustains a habit.
• Missing once is an accident. Missing twice is the start of a new habit.
• Pain is an effective teacher.
• Professionals stick to the schedule, amateurs let life get in the way.

Happy reading!