Book Review
Atomic Habits
“ In the long run, the quality of our lives often depends on the quality of our habits”
Begins James Clear in his book Atomic Habits. What follows is the groundwork for many practical and constructive ideas put forward by Clear for building good habits as well as getting rid of the bad ones. Being one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, Clear has decided to take a completely different approach, a practical one, as opposed to a book like ‘The Power of Habit’, which on paper bears a close resemblance to Atomic Habits. Of course, the book does not provide any revolutionary ideas that were previously unheard of but he attempts to build on some rather simplistic concepts to give us the key steps that go behind the psychology of habit formation.
One of the pivotal concepts that the book probes into at the very beginning is the four-step model of habits — cue, craving, response, and reward.
To summarise this concept, your habits depend on something called a cue or a hint that triggers a craving in the individual, which then motivates a response, this response, in turn, provides a reward and the reward again satisfies the craving and ultimately associates with the cue. This is what Clear describes as The Habit Loop, which often drives most of our choices and decisions. He goes on to state some real-life instances of the Habit Loop which almost any reader can relate to.
To create a good habit, Clear recommends four Laws which builds on the above Habit Loop:
- Law 1: Make the Cue Obvious
- Law 2: Make the Craving Attractive
- Law 3: Make the Response Easy
- Law 4: Make the Reward Satisfying
While to the casual eye these may seem overly simplistic, but Atomic Habits not only explores these laws comprehensively but also describes how the same laws can be reversed to break bad habits.
The concluding part of the book, ‘Advanced Tactics’, on the whole, focuses on the strategies one can use to maximize the odds of success in adapting to these habits, which arguably is the highlight. One can easily associate themselves with the references he makes, find abundant psychological information on how to stay motivated, and find actions to implement in their quest for building good habits in the long run.
To wrap it up, right from the onset Atomic Habits puts a clear emphasis on starting with a habit, taking it one day at a time, and less on sticking to them, as he states
“It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis.”
He mathematically points out that small habits are like compound interest. If you keep investing, even just a little bit, over time, the returns are exponential. This statement does not seem thought-provoking until you comprehend the math behind it. Simply put...
1% worse every day for one year. 0.99^365 = 00.03
1% better every day for one year. 1.01^365 = 37.78
Being 37 times better than you started, after a year will surely be a motivating factor to any singleton. To make progress, Clear states that we need to continue taking these tiny steps forward: 1% improvement, like appending 1 more minute of exercise each week, or 1 more paragraph of writing.
As Clear puts it
“Professionals stick to the schedule, amateurs let life get in the way.”
All things considered, the book does a very good job with the practicality of its examples though at times they tend to get a bit monotonous. The book is simple and straightforward for its audience with scientific references kept at the bare minimum. Clear does not spend a lot of time bogged down on the theoretic notions, instead, he approaches every concept in Atomic Habits with the same formula, an example, the concept plainly, and then the detailed actions to apply the concept in real life.
The book is worth a shot solely because of the clarity in its suggestions and steps, which are quite easy to implement, with a constant reminder that self-improvement does not build up overnight but is a continuous long term process.
