Notes on Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
We get what we repeat. Overeating once might not be a reason to worry, but doing it regularly over an extended period of time leads to obesity. By the same token, reading one book has a negligible effect on one’s knowledge, but a lifetime of learning results in something remarkable.
Mastery is not achieved overnight. It takes time, persistence, and motivation. Therefore, it is advantageous to build habits that drive us in the direction we want to go. But how?
One of the problems with the so-called investment goods, such as exercising, eating healthy food, and flossing, is that we bear their costs immediately, but we have to wait for the benefits. Throughout most of our existence, favoring instant gratification over delayed results has been meaningful in terms of survival. Nowadays, however, food is no longer scarce, and the world has become a much safer place. At least for the most part. In other words, our environment has changed, but our brains have not had time to adapt. This is why it takes effort to resist a piece of cake.
James Clear suggests a structured approach to habits. First, we should make the habit we want to develop obvious. For example, we can put our running shoes in a visible place. Second, we should make it attractive: befriending other runners would give us a feeling of belonging to a group. Homo sapiens is a gregarious species, after all. We could also devise a motivational ritual such as going for a run after listening to our favorite song. Thus, we will connect the habit of running to something we already like.
Third, we should make the habit easy. Picking a nearby location and starting with a short duration can do wonders. Finally, we should make the habit satisfying. An activity tracker might be the way to go.
Conversely, a bad habit can be broken by making it invisible, unattractive, difficult, and unsatisfying. James Clear provides numerous examples of how to do that as well.
On the whole, Atomic Habits is well-written and easy to digest. It builds on a host of similar books such as How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams, but it offers much clearer steps for making or breaking habits. It is ideal for readers who want to immediately implement what they learn from a book. And I enjoyed it.
