Vincent Waldron's Reviews > Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

Atomic habits is James Clear's attempt to help the reader understand what is going on with bad habits and how to replace them with better practices. Apparently, James Clear is a blogger and speaker, whose work can be found on jamesclear.com -- he mentions this several times in the book.

On the negative side, I think most of the ideas in this book are available online in various forms -- even on Mr. Clear's website. I can't say that there was some specific item that he brought to the forefront that I was shocked by, or even thought that it was going to significantly alter my life.

Clear begins by talking about systems -- that is our focus should be to change the systems that lead to bad behaviors rather than simply through brute will power change bad behaviors. He talks about identity as well -- making a conscious decision about the sort of person you want to be and then asking yourself the question, "Would a 'x' person do this thing I'm about to do?" is helpful in turning off behaviors that aren't helpful to build that identity.

Over time, you tend to become that identity more and more and your System 1 guides you through those better choices unconsciously.

I wonder if it is a misnomer to call good habits "habits." The thing is that with many bad habits, there is a dopamine boost that comes with them, whereas with good habits, there is a feeling that we have to do them because they are good for us -- not that we get some instantaneous improvement in our happiness or feeling of well being from doing them.

Because of this, he suggests things like habit stacking (tying a good habit to some activity that you already are doing regularly) and generally working hard to make the good activities easier and more satisfying, while putting obstacles in your way to doing the bad activities. He suggests that part of the difference between people with strong will power and those without is simply the willingness of people with strong will power to stay away from situations where their bad habits will happen and their ability to struggle on through boredom on days when you just aren't feeling it.

I do wonder about the ability of people to implement these strategies. He talks about someone cutting back on TV watching simply by asking themselves questions about their TV watching patterns and making it harder to watch TV. Putting the TV in a closet and having to pull it out when you want to watch a show would certainly cut down on your consumption of programs, but it doesn't seem likely that most folks would be willing to do this.

Overall, I liked the book and would recommend it. While you might be able to find this information in other places online, you won't find it organized in any kind of a careful fashion. If you are struggling to change for the better, I think this book will help you to understand things that you can do that will help you improve your patterns of behavior in ways that will help you achieve the goals you want to.