[Book 15] Atomic Habits by James Clear

Atomic Habits deconstructs tremendous accomplishments into a series of tiny compounding habits and reveals how to implement a system to achieve similar results. James explains the science of habit through four intuitive steps: 1) cue, 2) craving, 3) response, and 4) reward. He then describes the optimal actions for each step to make it easy for good habits to flourish and hard for bad habits to persist. The lessons from this book remind me to focus on smaller components within a larger goal and show me how to diagnose and remedy a situation when I get off track.

You should read this book if you…

• want to improve how you set and stick to habits and/or break bad ones
• struggle deconstructing audacious goals into small components
• seek a stronger connection between who you want to become and what you do daily

Additional Information

Year Published: 2018
Book Ranking (from 1-10): 10 – Superb – Changed the way I live my life
Ease of Read (from 1-5): 1 – A breeze

Key Highlights

1. Outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. You get what you repeat
2. Results are not linear over time, it’s exponential
3. Focus on systems, not goals. Winners and loser have the same goals, not systems. You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your system
4. Outcome: what you want to achieve, Process: how you want to achieve it, Identity: who you want to become. Start with your identity and work towards outcomes
5. Science of habits: Cue – trigger to initiate, Craving – motivational force, Response – perform habit, Reward – habit goal
6. Creating Good/Breaking Bad Habits: Cue – Make it obvious/invisible, Craving – Make it attractive/unattractive, Response: Make it easy/difficult, Reward: Make it satisfying/unsatisfying
7. Motivation is overrated, environment matters more. Self control is less about will power, more about less time in tempting situations
8. Attractive habits drive dopamine which makes you feel good and reinforces the habit. Released both when you anticipate and when you accomplish. Serves as motivation to first act 
9. Our natural motivation is to be lazy. Make the habit as easy as possible to maximize likelihood of doing/repeating it
10. Maximize talent: find a game where the odds are stacked in your favor based on your abilities