Atomic Habits by James Clear

Introduction:

“All people are the same, only their habits differ”. Ever imagined, why are you unable to execute what you have in mind? What stops you from performing good habits and getting rid of bad ones. Habits might seem an easy to understand term. But I bet you have missed out on a ton of information and strategies related to habits!

Successful people and others only have one thing uncommon and that is habits. Allow this book to take you on an eye opening journey of understanding the tricks and hacks of habit formation. Habits are oceans made up of tiny atomic changes as droplets. Each droplet might seem insignificant in the beginning but when many such droplets accumulate with time and effort, an ocean is created!

About the book:

The book begins with an intense story from the author’s life. He explains how and why he wrote this book, how he made the most of his life with the magic of habits.

The book is differentiated into four parts explaining in detail the four magical laws for habit formation.

Each law is further differentiated into chapters and each chapter begins with a short story of someone who has already practised that particular habit.

Graphs and diagrams are added throughout the book to make concepts easier for readers to understand.

Each chapter ends with a chapter summary to make it easy for readers to revise what they have learnt.

Lessons from the book at a glance:

1st law- MAKE IT OBVIOUS

1. By making our cues obvious we can perform habits without consciously thinking about it.
2. Pointing and calling out loud raises awareness from a non conscious level to a conscious level.
3. A Habits scorecard is beneficial for tracking your habits.
4. Habits tracking helps in forming a new habit with the help of a current habit.
5. Motivation wears down after a while, environment matters more.

2nd law- MAKE IT ATTRACTIVE

1. Unless your reward is attractive you want to perform a habit.
2. Family and friends largely influence our habits.
3. Human behaviour is shaped by ancient desires.

3rd law- MAKE IT EASY

1. Habit forms when we repeatedly perform an action. Practice makes man perfect!
2. Make good habits easier and bad habits as difficult as possible to perform.
3. Use the two minute rule – when you start a new habit it should take less than 2 minutes to do.

4th law- MAKE IT SATISFYING

1. Habits tracking is an effective way to track your progress, it acts as a proof of your success and initiates feeling of satisfaction.
2. What is immediately rewarded is repeated, what is immediately punished is avoided.
3. We are more likely to repeat those actions which make us feel satisfied.

Apart from these four laws, extra information is shared towards end of the book for example:

How genes affect your habits?

The upside and downside of habits and much more…

Further the author talks about how we can apply the lessons learnt from the book to parenting and business.

Towards the end, a detailed list of notes, references and citations for each chapter is provided.

About the author:

James Clear is the author of this book which has sold over 5 million copies throughout the world. He is a former weightlifter and athlete, a speaker at fortune 500 companies, writer of 3-2-1 newsletter which is read by many people each week.

Conclusion:

“Habits are a two edged sword, they can either work for you or against you”.

One of the most practically approachable books of all time.

The content is so easy to understand and implement, you can begin right away.

The book is a well structured compilation of research and scientific proof.

Over 5 million people have already read this life changing book… where is your copy??