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Book Review: Atomic Habits

The book Atomic Habits written by James Clear is a great guide for anyone looking to make impactful changes in their life by elevating their habits. Habits make up the structure of our lives and each habit you have no matter how big or small can impact your identity and overall health.


One of the major areas that habits are helpful is in health choices; always brushing your teeth right after breakfast or prepping your lunch the night before, or having a bowl of chips or popcorn when you watch a movie. Some habits are so ingrained we don't even notice that they are happening.


That is where James Clear recommends we start; looking at our current habits and deciding which ones are positively working towards the identity you want and which are working against that identity. The book includes templates, charts, and examples which help show how habits can impact your life. There is also a great workbook that applies these principle and provides simple and flexible templates to fill in created by James Henry.


The main laws for creating habits that will work for you are:

  1. Make it Obvious: this could include pairing habits together, having obvious cues for the habit, and really being aware of your habits by tracking them.

  2. Make it Attractive: using temptation and reward to your advantage by playing into the dopamine feedback loop. This also includes being sure your environment and culture support the changes you want to make.

  3. Make it Easy: Repetition of the action is key to making the habit more automatic. Again environment is important here to decrease friction to the habits you want and increase the difficulty to do the habits you don't want. Make a habit cue less than two minutes to keep it easy.

  4. Make it Satisfying: "What is immediately rewarded is repeated, what is immediately punished is avoided". Habit trackers are a great way to see your progress as you go along and encourage you to stick with it until you start seeing the longterm benefits as well as the short-term.


Changing parts of life can be quite intimidating and sometimes it is hard to tell where to start. This book is a great way to get going on looking deeper at your habits and making them work for you and your goals rather than against them.




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