Book Review: "Atomic Habits" by James Clear

Atomic Habits is well worth the time needed to read - even as someone who felt self-assured in his “system” of productivity, I found myself picking up small things which helped contribute to my overall system of productivity.

The title of the book “Atomic Habits” alludes to the idea of habits being atomic in nature - but truly gigantic when compounded. A good habit is simple, easy, and quick to accomplish, but it pays dividends and compounds over time. As a result, one action which takes at times less than 2 minutes to accomplish daily, can set an individual on a completely different life trajectory.

The book points out that one reason people tend to drop habits early on, is that the rewards for diligently practicing a habit take a while to show up. There is a threshold, before which your work at a habit appears to have little effect - however once you cross that threshold, you begin to see the power of compounding habits. An example from my life of this was the practice of journaling - when I first began it seemed like a chore to whip out my journal every night. Sometimes I tried to speed through the day’s entry quickly so I could get to bed. But after a few weeks of keeping this practice up, I definitely noticed some tangible benefits - I had the ability to see the arc of my progress. I experienced greater clarity of thought - my intentions were clearer. I learned to expect more from my day - I learned what made a good day.

You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.

Everyone can have a lofty goal - but the truth of the matter is that much more depends on your system of attacking those goals. It’s very difficult to keep everything in your head, you need to leverage your system (environment, tools, small habits) to help you achieve what you want to achieve.

Your identity emerges out of your habits. Every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.

Habits really do form a massive part of your identity. One off events and interactions rarely leave a lasting impact, it is the things we do each day, without fail - which have the potential to form a large part of who we are. It is important to truly think about the kind of person you want to be - because you’d be surprised at how easy it is to alter habits once they fall in line with the version of yourself you wish to portray.

The book raises four basic laws of habit formation: make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisfying. I’m going to loosely cover them below.

1st Law: Make it obvious

Many people think they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity. It is not always obvious when and where to take action.

Once you make a pre-determined plan with respect to your habits/schedule, there is very little decision making which needs to be done in the moment. You are simply following your pre-determined plan. For me, I find that it is useful to create a pre-determined plan of the things I want to get done the night before. I use Things 3 to quickly jot down a few tasks or events which would make my day a success. Then in the morning, I tackle those first.

When your dreams are vague, it’s easy to rationalize little exceptions all day long and never get around to the specific things you need to do to succeed.

I think this is a really important point. It is also why I’ve started to adopt system-wide goals instead of results-based goals. For example, instead of saying, I want to have a sub 7 minute mile time, I would say instead, I want to go running every day. These system level goals are often far more valuable, because they prevent disappointment from getting in the way (when you inevitably fail to meet an arbitrary benchmark)

I also think that in life, we need to be more specific about not just what we want, but also what we are willing to forego to achieve that end. For example, wanting to write a novel is all well and good, but it is important to contextualize that desire within the list of all your other priorities. Ask yourself what you’re willing to sacrifice or forego to publish a novel. Being specific about a plan and what you’re willing to give up, removes the nebulous nature of big goals into something more concrete - it also prevents you from lazy flexibility (pushing deadlines) in the moment.

The book introduces a concept known as Habit Stacking - inserting a new habit right before or after a habit you already practice. This works by giving you a specific time/place to practice the habit - removing ambiguity, making the habit more obvious to follow.

Self Control

One viewpoint the book takes which I haven’t seen so much in the past is that self-control is the wrong trait to optimize for. Self control is not sustainable in the long-run, as humans we are naturally easy-route seeking animals - the much more effective strategy is to modify your environment. When you’re trying to break a bad habit, instead of staying in silent resistance to it, change your environment to limit your exposure to its cues (the sights, places, sounds, and smells which remind you of it).

2nd Law: Make it attractive

The crux of the 2nd law of behavior change, is that habit forming behaviors are tied with a dopamine response. Further, this dopamine response is often released in anticipation of the event, not necessarily the event itself. As a result, if we are truly to build habits that last, it can be helpful to pair habits we want to build with an action we want to do (temptation bundling)

Desire is the engine that drives behavior. Every action is taken because of the anticipation that precedes it. It is the craving that leads to the response.

3rd Law: Make it Easy

The book introduces the Two-Minute rule, which states that new habits should be quick, simple, and take less than two minutes to perform.

If you can make your good habits more convenient, you’ll be more likely to follow through on them.

The book also sub-divides habit formation into two distinct steps: adoption, and mastery. Before you can even attempt to master a habit, you must first show up, be consistent, and put your reps in.

The truth is, a habit must be established before it can be improved. If you can’t learn the basic skill of showing up, then you have little hope of mastering the finer details.

If you can build up the consistency, then the major battle has been won already - once you’ve got the routine, it is much easier to work on improving.

We rarely think about change this way because everyone is consumed by the end goal. But one push-up is better than not exercising. One minute of guitar practice is better than none at all. One minute of reading is better than never picking up a book. It’s better to do less than you hoped than to do nothing at all.

I often fall into the trap of all-or-nothingness. Meaning, if I don’t meet my initial benchmark, I completely write off even trying. For example, if I had intended to wake up early for a 6:00 AM jog around the neighborhood, and I see my alarm clock has hit 8:00 AM while I’m in bed, in the past I’ve simply given up on the initial goal. The book is arguing we think more incrementally, small progress is better than no progress at all - showing up, putting in our reps, and being consistent is all that is needed to build long-term consistent goals.

4th Law: Make it satisfying

You live in what scientists call a delayed-return environment because you can work for years before your actions deliver the intended payoff. The human brain did not evolve for life in a delayed-return environment.

Because the benefits of habits are often more nebulous and in the future, it is very hard for the human mind to comprehend the worth of them. This is why other tactics such as tracking your habits or reps can be beneficial - in a way they make the action of performing the habit satisfying in the moment. For example, if you wanted to make daily exercise a part of your routine, you might start by tracking your cumulative pushup count - this helps make each individual workout more satisfying (you can see the count of your total pushups slowly going up, even though the physical results from your workouts haven’t shown themselves yet). Habit tracking also helps to shape your identity - lending credence to the idea that you’re the kind of person who follows through on their habits.

If you’re willing to wait for the rewards, you’ll face less competition and often get a bigger payoff. As the saying goes, the last mile is always the least crowded.