Atomic Habits Review: Change Your Life For The Better

This is a great book by James Clear that gives you a scientific view of what is core to everything you do in life: your habits. Here are some of the best lessons to take away from the book:

Compounding

The effects of small habits do compound over time is a big deal for you to observe.

The choices we make seem at some times to make little difference on any given day and yet the impact they deliver over the months and years can be enormous. A slight change in your daily habits can guide your life to a very different destination. Try it!

Make a choice that is 1% better or 1% worse seems insignificant in the moment, but over a lifetime these choices determine the difference between who you are and who you could be. Life is cumulative and it works both ways.

System for change

A system of atomic habits is what we therefore should create in our lives. If you’re having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn’t you. The problem is your system. You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. What a key point!

powerful

The habit loop

The cue triggers a craving, which motivates a response, which provides a reward, which satisfies the craving and, ultimately, becomes associated with the cue.

Habit stacking is one of my favorites.

Rather than pairing your new habit with a particular time and location, you pair it with a current habit. This method can be used to design an obvious cue for nearly any habit.

Motivation can be overrated — environment often matters more really.

Reflection and review

Enables the long-term improvement of all habits because it makes you aware of your mistakes and helps you consider possible routes for improvement.

We are more dependent on vision than any other sense. Visual cues are the greatest catalyst of our behavior. Designing your environment for success or engineering your environment specifically is how you get to the next level.

Stop thinking about your environment as filled with objects.

The less energy a habit requires, the more likely it is to occur. Friction is a major part on why some habits and catch on and others do not.

The Science

Start thinking about it as filled with relationships. Maybe try thinking in terms of how you interact with the spaces around you. The power of context also reveals an important strategy: habits can be easier to change in a new environment.

Mastery is the process of narrowing your focus to a small element of success, repeating it until you have internalized the skill, and then using this new habit as the foundation to keep advancing to the next phase of your development.

Habits + Deliberate Practice = Mastery

Conclusion

Try going to a new place perhaps a library, or a different cafe, a bench in the park, a corner of your room you seldom use — and create a new routine there.