Publisher’s write-up:
‘World-renowned habits expert
James Clear has discovered a simpler system for transforming your life. He
knows that lasting change comes from the compound effect of hundreds of small decisions
– doing two push-ups a day, waking up five minutes early, or holding a single
short phone call. He calls them atomic habits.
In this ground-breaking book,
Clear reveals how these tiny changes will help you get 1 percent better every
day. He uncovers a handful of simple life hacks (the forgotten art of Habit
Stacking, the unexpected power of the Two Minute Rule, or the trick to entering
the Goldilocks Zone) and delves into cutting-edge psychology and neuroscience
to explain why they matter. Along the way, he tells inspiring stories of
Olympic gold medalists, leading CEOs and distinguished scientists who have used
the science of small habits to stay productive, motivated and happy.
These small changes will have
a revolutionary effect on your career, your relationships and your life.’
Atomic Habits is a self-help book
that helps its readers build effective habits. I read the book The Power of
Habit by Charles Duhigg a few years back which was along similar lines.
James Clear, the author of this book has drawn inspiration from The Power of
Habit; the issue was that much as I read the book from Charles Duhigg, the
implementation was not easy. I was suggested by some of my friends that this
book helps us implement the changes that leads to building habits.
The author starts by introducing
himself and about a terrible accident that had occurred while playing baseball;
and went on to build habits that helped him excel in the same sport post
recovery. The title is then explained – that the focus ought to be on the
systems and processes that drive our habits – and what we need to do is several
atomic changes to our way of working, which would eventually lead to
better habits.
To go about this, the author
proposes four laws – make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy and make
it satisfying. The author has a dedicated section to each of these ‘laws’ and
proposes methods to implement them. He also brings about the important point
that the ‘atomic habits’ process applies even for undesirable habits,
the reason why we are unable to change several things about our way of doing
things which we are unable to change.
I could relate to almost
everything that the author had written in the book and I believe most of you
would be able to do it as well. I made the same mistake of focusing on the goal
(example: like keeping my place organised and clean) instead of focusing on the
process that is involved. We tend to load all the activities required for
achieving a goal at once, which inevitably makes it a difficult task; thereby
making it less attractive. And if I do such an activity once in a while, I am
going to end up with an unorganised room in no time since I did not focus on
the process.
I liked the way the author
presented the book – where he wanted the reader to have the takeaways and at
the end of each chapter, there was a summary and also links to his website
where we could download resources to implement the methods he had laid out.
For a quick verdict, as on the
date of writing this review, it has been a month since I have read his book and
a lot of his suggestions seem to have worked. The long-term impact remains to
be seen; and I would need to take into account the author’s caveat – that
negative habits have the same rules as positive habits and we could plunge into
negative habits the same way we create a positive routine.
To conclude on the book, I was
very satisfied with reading the book and the suggestions that the author
presented – they are simple, easy to read and possible to follow. I wish I had
read this book earlier. On that note, I would award the book a rating of nine
on ten.
Rating – 9/10
Have a nice day,
Andy
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