I’m someone who has a love-hate relationship with habits.
I mean, hands up if you also struggle with building healthy habits. You do your rituals solidly for a week, and then they begin to slip.
This shit is hard.
But Atomic Habits makes building habits easy and fun.
Here’s everything I’ve learnt and gained from Atomic Habits by James Clear
The lowdown on Atomic Habits by James Clear
Just as the title says, Atomic Habits is all about habits. How to build good ones and break bad ones.
You might be thinking, how can a book on habits be so popular?
Because James Clear shows us that habit-building can be easy and fun. It’s not as boring or arduous as you might think.
And by making these tiny changes daily, you are setting yourself up to achieve remarkable results in the long run.
But why do we need to build habits in the first place?
As James Clear puts it, “Success is the product of daily habits.”
If you truly want to live a “successful” life (placed in quotation marks here as success is subjective and its definition is up to you), then you need to put in the time and effort daily to build healthy habits that support your goals and productivity.
Ok, so I bet you’re dying to find out how we can build habits that actually stick!
James Clear puts it down to a 4-step pattern:
- Cue = Make it obvious
- Craving = Make it attractive
- Response = Make it easy
- Reward = Make it satisfying
These “4 laws” act as “The backbone of every habit, and your brain runs through these steps in the same order each time.” (jamesclear.com)
By implementing these four behavioural changes, you are well on your way to becoming more productive, motivated and happy.
So think of Atomic Habits as your step-by-step guide that takes you through these four fundamentals and shows you how to apply them to your life so you can successfully build habits that stick.
“Achieving a goal only changes your life for the moment. That’s the counterintuitive thing about improvement. We think we need to change our results, but the results are not the problem. What we really need to change are the systems that cause those results.”
James Clear | Atomic Habits
Is Atomic Habits easy to read?
Even though Atomic Habits is essentially a personal development book, it’s still super easy to read.
And it didn’t take me long to read it at all, but I kept going back to recap the main points.
I made a heck of a lot of underlinings, which are now all neatly typed up in my Notion workspace so I can keep going back and forth.
Atomic Habits is also really well laid out and makes reading about the science of habit-building simple and digestible.
The book includes some great diagrams, and James summarises each chapter, which is super helpful when you are reading productivity books like this.
Everything in this book is also extremely actionable!
The one downside, though, was that I found the book too drawn out. I feel like James Clear could have condensed his points into a shorter book. I also felt that some of the stories he mentions weren’t really relevant or needed, but nevertheless, it was a joy to read.
The 3 biggest key points and takeaways from Atomic Habits
1 | Get super specific with the habit you are trying to build
James Clear delves into why we fail to build habits in the first place. And this comes down to the fact that we aren’t being specific enough with the habits we are trying to build.
And because we are making habits too difficult to achieve, we aren’t motivated enough to continue them.
So the trick is to be more precise and obvious with the habit(s) you are trying to build.
Instead of saying “I’m going to read more this month” you need to be clearer with your action.
State when you are going to read. What will you read more of?
So the habit you want to build would be, “I will read 5 pages of ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ every night this month as soon as I get into bed after having brushed my teeth and before I fall asleep.”
2 | Use habit stacking
Ok, so according to HubSpot, S.J. Scott coined the term “habit stacking” in 2014 but our guy James Clear put it on the map.
Habit stacking basically means stacking one habit on top of another habit – preferably one that is already a permanent fixture of your daily routine.
So if building the habit of doing the plank every morning is your jam, then you could “stack” this on top of brushing your teeth to ensure you actually do it.
In short, habit stacking is meant to make it EVEN easier to build habits.
Use this formula to implement habit stacking into your life;
- After/Before {Old Habit} I will {New Habit}.
For example, after brushing my teeth in the morning, I will do the plank for 1 minute adding on 5 seconds every day.
Good luck!
3 | Build habits to suit your personality
… and habits that are in line with the person you want to become.
Wait… what…? This idea is mind-blowing, right?!
Honestly, my head nearly exploded when I read this because I’d never even considered this before.
I have a tendency to build habits because they seem trendy. But the thing I didn’t do was ask myself whether I even wanted to build this habit in the first place and did this habit even match me and my lifestyle?
So when I struggled to wake up every day at 7 am I just assumed there was something wrong with me and it would get me down.
But James Clear implies there’s nothing wrong with you if you can’t build a habit.
It’s just not the right habit for you.
And I’ve since applied this rule, not only to my habits but to my productivity as well.
I now build my daily schedule and wellness habits to work for me rather than against me.
So if you are struggling to build habits that stick, take a look at the habits you are trying to build. Do they align with your values? Do they suit your personality? Are they habits you even want to be building?
For example, don’t force yourself to do yoga every morning if you prefer high-intensity exercise. Choose another workout that suits your likes and needs.
In short, build habits that work for you.
You’ll also find that building habits in this way, will make you more likely to stick to them. And this in turn will make the whole habit-building process easier and more enjoyable!
“There is a version of every habit that can bring you joy and satisfaction. Find it. Habits need to be enjoyable if they are going to stick… tailoring your habits to your personality is a good start.”
James Clear | Atomic Habits
Final thoughts
Atomic Habits has literally changed the way I view habits. I now build habits to work for me rather than against me.
And in all honesty, Atomic Habits was actually the motivating factor behind my blog.
Before I read this book, I was constantly comparing myself to others online and copying what female entrepreneurs were doing to be productive. Long story short, the hustle culture didn’t work for me and I thought there was something wrong with me.
But when I read Atomic Habits, James Clear made me feel less alone. It wasn’t the fact that there was something wrong with me, it was the fact that these “productivity hacks from others” didn’t suit my personality.
So I applied his advice on building habits to my own work ethic. I then started to view productivity as unique to the individual and build it around my own personality and lifestyle.
My mindful approach to productivity was born and so was the basis of my blog. I wanted to show others that there is a more sustainable way of working and this is where it all started.
So yes, as the cover says, Atomic Habits is truly life-changing!
Until next week,
Thalia xx
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