"Atomic Habits" by James Clear

 

This book is a reliable guide to develop good habits and break bad ones. Taking the help of four laws, the author explains how insignificant, incessant, everyday habits compound into huge, effective change with time. This special book will change your approach towards habit building with a plethora of practical advice and references. I liked it even more because it does not include any imbecile, you-can-do-it type of approaches, but insightful ways to improve your lives. I applied many of the approaches written in the book and they work !!

The author begins the book by recounting his accident — a baseball bat swung onto his face during a match and He slipped into a coma — and his struggles after recovery to lead a normal life. He realized that developing good habits was the only way out to lead a better life after his accident. Six years after he started implementing good habits in his life, He was awarded the highest academic honor by his university and even selected as the top male athlete of his university.

The quality of our lives often depends on the quality of habits

He acknowledges that all these years he did nothing extraordinary but was just sticking to his habits consistently. The quality of our lives usually depends on the quality of our habits; with the same habits we end up with the same results. This book is written from his personal experiences, experiments, and a lot of research.

HOW CAN HABITS CHANGE OUR LIFE:

We often convince ourselves that substantial success requires great efforts — be it building a splendid physique, losing weight, studying, or achieving any goal in our lives — and are often compelled to struggle hard diligently towards the goal and expect results to show up within a brief span, or else get into a valley of disappointment and hesitate, procrastinate or sometimes even stop pursuing the habit without immediate tangible results. This is the reason it takes so much to develop a habit.

Since evolution human brains are conditioned in such a manner that it often sways us towards bad habits — which yields immediate results — rather than good habits which yield results in the future. But we need to be consistent with our good habits despite the results, as it takes a certain time to cross the threshold for the habit to be a part of our subconscious and unlock a new level of potential. Consider being 1% better every day for 365 days rather than being persistent with a habit for a brief period or being 1% worse every day for a year.

1% good everyday success, 1% bad failure

You will be 37 times better than what you were at the beginning of the year if you work to improve yourselves by 1% daily. Conversely, if you are getting worse by 1% every day (when you repeat 1% errors, day after day, by replicating poor decisions, duplicating tiny mistakes, and justifying paltry excuses, your poor choices compound into pernicious results. It’s the accumulation of many blunders—a 1% decline here and there — that ultimately leads to a problem) you’ll almost come to zero by the end of the year.

Habits differentiate winners from underdogs, not goals.

But how to get through the valley of disappointment? Simply forget about goals and focus on the system instead. Usually, people try to align their habits with their goals, but this isn’t the correct approach because winners and losers have the same goals but what sets them apart is their system (habits), developing a system of continuous improvements leads them to their goals.

You are your habits.

Many people modify their habits by focusing on what they wish to achieve (goals) but what happens is they just have a new goal and plan, but their identity remains the same. So, focusing on who you wish to become rather than what you want to achieve is the most practical approach to change your habits.

HOW TO CREATE A GOOD HABIT:

Habits can make or break your life. That is why understanding how habits work benefits in cultivating the right habits.

The author explains the science behind how habits work, how our brain automates (rather escapes) the process by setting up habits and a list of four laws — for good habits — to make them look attractive, obvious, easy, and satisfying and four laws — to break the bad habits — to make them look invisible, unattractive, difficult and unsatisfying. He explains each law in great detail, capturing real-life examples of different professionals in a variety of fields (science, arts, business, research, medicine, etc..,) and how they became successful by implementing these laws in their respective lives. You can view the cheat sheet here.

Some productive tips, among the laws, for developing good habits are:

      1.  To-Do list: Planning the day by making a To-do list, including the place and time, so that the habit is remembered better rather than hoping to remember it.

I will study (HABIT) at my desk (PLACE) at 4:00 pm (TIME)

2. Habit stacking: Combining a new habit to your present habit

After my present habit, I will do my new habit

After having my morning coffee (PRESENT HABIT), I will make my to-do list (NEW HABIT)

3. Temptation bundling: Associating a want to do the habit with a need to do the habit

Particularly after studying for 2 hours (NEED TO DO), I will watch Netflix (WANT TO DO)

4. Two-minute Rule: If you are struggling to stick with a habit, make it as simple as possible so that the habit gets established in your system in the first place before mastering it.

If you cannot build a reading habit, then read for just 2 minutes every day and later accumulate your capability. Being consistent is more prominent. The better your habit becomes consistent, the more it becomes a part of your system.

HOW TO BREAK A BAD HABIT:

A good or a bad day is just your choice of habits.

Sometimes success is less about making good habits comfortable and more about making bad habits hard. Contrary to popular belief, breaking a bad habit doesn’t call for high willpower & self-control. You just need to make sure that you cut down the exposure to the cues which provoke the bad habits - Spend less time in tempting situations - for example, if you're wasting too much time on mobile then it’s prudent to have your mobile in the next room until you’ve accomplished your work (an average human spends about 145 minutes on social media every day, Roughly 900 hours per year).

The author in the 18th chapter answers a very intriguing question “Do genes matter for success?”. This is a very practical and engaging book. I liked the experience of reading this book and it was very easy to read. I would recommend this to anyone interested in understanding the psychology behind habit formation, establishing good habits, and breaking the bad ones.

Tiny changes, remarkable results. Happy reading !!