Atomic habits by James Clear - Book Review by Priyanga R Annadurai
"Atomic habits" is the #1 New York Times bestseller, which has sold >8 million copies worldwide and has been translated into more than 50 language
‘Tiny changes, remarkable results’ - This is indeed the two line summary of this fascinating book.
The book starts with an interesting and inspiring story of the author himself. In the introduction, he narrates an incident from his life, when he had met with an accident that transformed his life to a great extent. It is that incident which made him the master of habits; and throughout this book, he has done justice to this title.
Structure of the Book - Atomic habits
The author has structured this book in a very beautiful manner which evokes the interest of the readers. In the first few chapters, he makes sure that the readers get the idea of what he means by the term “atomic habits”. Then he goes on to explain his 'Four step model' of building a good habit (which includes getting rid of a bad habit) - Cue, Craving, Reward and Response.
In every other succeeding chapters, he makes sure that the reader gets the nuances of each of these four laws. I assure that when we complete this book, we would have devised a timetable to catch up with our habits.
Ideas that inspired me:
- Various definitions of habit: Routine or behaviour that is performed regularly; they are the compound interest of self improvement; they are reliable solutions to recurring problems in our environment.
- The concept of compounding: If you can get one percent better each day for one year, you will end up 37 times better by the time you’re done.
- The concept of the aggregation of marginal gains: The philosophy of searching for a tiny margin of improvement in every thing you do.
- The four steps model of habits: cue, craving, response and reward. The cue is about noticing the reward; the craving is about wanting the reward; the response is about obtaining the reward.
- The difference between systems and goals.
- The three layers of behaviour change: Outcomes, process and identity.
- Idea of Feedback loop, Breakthrough moments, Value of disappointment, plateau of latent potential, etc.
My observations:
I liked the way the author had compared shifting an airplane’s route by few degrees to changing our habits. I was astounded by the way he differentiated between Goals and systems and how he stressed on making the system right to achieve one’s goals. He has lucidly explained and has won convincing that it’s important to build identity-based habits instead of outcome-based habits and start focusing on who we wish to become (working on one’s beliefs).
Throughout the book he has given so many examples and life lessons to do justice for the content - Dave Brailsford’s efforts with the British cycling team, Edward Throndike’s 1898 study on cats, etc. The book is supplied with graphical representations which imprints the authors ideas in our minds. He has hand picked various quotes and used it at right places that reinforces the content.
I totally agree with the author that, "the quality of our lives often depends on the quality of our habits". I do not want to divulge further details about this book as it might be a spoiler. And I would really recommend you to read this book.
About the Book - Atomic Habits
"Atomic habits" is the #1 New York Times bestseller, which has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide and has been translated into more than 50 languages.
Total number of Pages: 285
Price: Rs. 410 (English) | Rs. 293 (Tamil) | Rs. 213 (Hindi) | Rs. 225 (Marathi) | Rs. 339 Malayalam
About the Author - James Clear
James Clear have been writing at JamesClear.com about habits, decision making, and continuous improvement since 2012. Visit here and subcribe to author's newsletter.
About the Blogger - Priyanga R Annadurai
I am Priyanga R Annadurai, an IAS officer of the 2021 batch borne to Tamil Nadu cadre.
