Important Lessons From ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear

For a very long time, I have wanted to read this book. It’s consistently a best-seller, always highly recommended and frequently pops up on many peoples’ list of best books.

Recently, I had the opportunity to read this long awaited title. While the majority of what the author says did not seem ground-breaking to me, it is always nice to have a reminder of what you already know, in a very nice and concise form. The book is full of amazing tips on how to break bad habits and build new ones, and there are lots of summaries and cheat sheets on the author’s website.

Below are some of the most crucial lessons I picked up from the book. This is not a summary, but just a quick list for those who don’t have access to the title.

Here are some of the main lessons I picked out from this book:

-Habits that everyone does seem subconsciously attractive to us -Every behaviour has a surface level craving and an underlying motive -Our behaviour is heavily predictive rather than reactive -Feelings and emotions affect our view of the cues we use for our predictions

-Associating hard habits with rewards making them easier -Shifting our view from burdens to opportunities makes us more likely to enjoy them -Distractions are useful for teaching us how to return to our normal -Key to break bad habits is to reprogram the associations we have with them

-Write your current habits -Make goal habits and be specific (I will do this activity in this location at this time) -Do things you enjoy before good habit -Repetition is the best form of change -Amount of time is not as important as number of times

-Making things easier is one of the fastest ways to build a new habit -That doesn’t mean we can’t do hard things, just means we are more likely to stick to habits on a difficult day -Removing friction and redesigning environment are great ways to maintain consistency -Standardise before you optimise -Use technology to automate and make habits as easy as possible for you -Bad habits feel good in short term and the reward of good habits is only visible in the long term so it’s very hard to stay focused on good habits now -Identity the values to sustain a habit (not motivation needed) -Reward yourself appropriately to your values -Habit track in a satisfying way -A great player creates their own game. By specialising you can create your own environment and overcome barriers (genetics etc) -Rather than asking ourselves if we have the passion to do something or not, we should instead ask ourselves whether we have the will to persist through the constant repetition and boredom that comes with being consistent on the way to achieve something.

If you are pushed for time like myself, but would still like to read more books, consider listening to audiobooks on services such as Audible to help you overcome time restraints and still enjoy some good books!

Atomic Habits on Audible: https://amzn.to/3zlpOwc

Humza K | Linktree