Atomic Habits as a book is quite intriguing in terms of relating to the reader. The book is innovative way. Apart from motivating to break bad habits it also provides clear formula/path to form good ones. The summary at the end of each chapter helps retain the valuable part of the book. The table at the end of each chapter builds up with lessons drawn. The ability of the book to corelate the content with the psychology of reader is a strong point.

Weakness of Book. Number of pages are more. The target reader are most likely the students for whom this book would be the first book. Reading a complete set of more than 300 pages will be taxing for the students and first-time readers.

About the Author : James Clear is a writer and renowned author who has niche in continuous improvement, habits and decision making. He is a motivational speaker related to the habit forming by minuscule change in the routine. James was born on 22 Jan 1986 at Hamilton, Ohio. He studied biomechanics and graduated in 2008. His work on atomic habits is in Times as well.

Summary of the Book

The book is divided in 8 parts including Introduction at the beginning and Appendices at the end. There are 20 chapters in this book.

The Fundamentals

It explains why small changes can bring about some great differences. It cites the example of British cycling team of 2003. The cycling team management took small portions of the team infrastructure and kept on changing them regularly. This brought about great changes. The relative comparison is carried out between positive and negative compounding of habits.

Examples along with logical reasoning set a good base for the readers to hook on to the book. According to the book the commitment to the process will ultimately decide the progress. There are beliefs that have set in our mindset and have set in our mental grooves as own image in our mind.

The book tells about the idea of personality worship. One should have a role model and should always strive to be like that person. The requirement is to focus on who we want to be rather than what we want to achieve. The habits should be such that the decisions about habitual tasks should be effortless. James Clear teaches about the habit loop and four different parts of it.

The First Law

The point and call method is good and adequately deliberated upon. It is a great method to make our subconscious more alert. Unless we do it, we will call it fate. To be able to change the bad habits we need to be aware of them. Then we can prepare a scorecard to keep a track of their repetitiveness in our day.

When planning to adopt a habit, specific details are required. Details to the extent that when and where they are to be done. The implementation intent is easier with the stacking of habits. To create an environment of the desired habits will help a lot. It motivates to be a part of that environment. What we see is the most important part of our environment. A small change in what we see will surely help us with what we do. The idea is t have one space for one habit.

The Second Law.

How to make it attractive. Dopamine should be released when habits are performed. To anticipate an action is much better than experience. This culminates in temptation bundling and is a strategy in itself.

The family, friends have a greater role to play in framing our habits. The tribal behavior will often outshine the individual behavior. One can reprogram the habits in brain just by reframing the words.

The Third Law.

To be able to build a behavior one should repeat it. Its performance should come naturally. Therefore, the practice is very important. The quality group will be always outshined by the quantity group. To practice, take the path of least resistance. It will help to perform the desired habit with least energy. Prime or prepare the environment to break or form habits.

To stop procrastination, start by first minimum step. Just show up at the gym for some time and when it becomes easy, start the habit stacking. Leverage the technology to automate the habits.

The Fourth Law

If we are rewarded while performing a habit then we will most likely repeat it. Rewards should also be quick and not delayed. Immediate rewards are more useful in habit forming. The author suggests opening a savings account to deposit penalties for bad habits. For good habits the rewards should be short term and eventually lead to the long-term aim.

Keep a track of habits by the tick method or the clip method. Both the methods are deliberated upon in the book. Besides tracking a habit will urge us to change it or improve upon it. The idea is to never put up a zero. Never miss twice.

Advanced Tactics.

This part of Atomic Habits teaches us to build up on the acquired habits and achieve great results. Do the work that hurts you less than it hurts other people. That is the work that you are supposed to do. The idea is to fight boredom and still show up at the place of your habit.

Forming habits will eventually save your time for much better things. It is all about doing things right and to do them with less effort every time. Be flexible in your approach. Keep on checking whether your habits are still serving us. And if not then change the course at the earliest.

If you want to develop a habit that is

Hard to remember – make it obvious.
Hard to start – make it attractive.
Difficult to do – make it easy.
Not sticking – make it satisfying.

Recommendations. To make the best use of Atomic Habits book you must know the good habits that you want to adopt. And know your bad habits that are to be broken. One reading of the book will not suffice, make notes and go through them at regular intervals. Similarly we have other good effort for you to view – Psychology of Money.

The book Atomic Habits relates to the reader in an innovative way. It shows us how small changes can lead to life changing events. It will perfectly correlate with the psychology of the reader. – Tweet This

ATOMIC HABITS By JAMES CLEAR

Atomic Habits

Strength of Book