Atomic Habits

by James Clear

Atomic Habits, as the cover proclaims, has sold over 8 million copies. That seems to hint at there being something that this book does well, then. It frequently pops up in bestseller lists, especially and unsurprisingly at the start of the new year. Many people look to books such as this for a kick to new year resolution motivation, but is it worth all the hype? Let’s find out.

The principle of atomic habits is a simple one in essence. Tiny changes add up, and compound, to have bigger outcomes. The main idea behind the eponymous name of the book is that the problem is often that people don’t fix their smaller daily behaviours, and don’t achieve the compounding interest of good practices to improve themselves.

The other key angle is that people strategize incorrectly when it comes to poor habits – something also emphasized in Katy Milkman’s How to change, another book I recently reviewed. People – myself included – often bang their head against a wall when it seems like their tactics, no matter how hard they try, don’t seem to change no matter the outcome. They see others not falling to the same pitfalls and think that they too should be able to replicate that through sheer will and determination. But often the issue is not the effort – it’s the strategy that needs changing. Often the person who was successful has a different strategy and systems in place to achieve that better result.

These are perhaps the core ideas from Atomic Habits, and it is a two-pronged attack on bad habits and implementing good ones and making them stick. To review the scope of the book, it is extremely practically focussed compared to other self-help books. It is written very much towards this. That’s not to say there are any stories in here, including that of the author, but they are brief and soon cut to the practical advice.

I was impressed both with the scope of the advice – which begins at origins, beliefs and what people want to become, to the micro-habits of how to make daily changes. The principles are two-directional. In this I mean to say that the principles for ‘good’ habits are simply inverted for the ‘bad’ ones. For example, with good habits we should ‘make it satisfying’ and bad ones ‘make it unsatisfying.’ This is useful since it becomes easy to remember without the need for any obnoxious acronyms.

A book all about advice…so the advice better be good?

It does feel like Clear attacks habits at every angle. From moving objects that tempt you out of sight, such as moving the games console into a cupboard when you’ve finished with it, to the classic advice of breaking bigger tasks into several smaller ones, it feels like a comprehensive set of tips. It’s presented in such a way that both makes sense and is easy to get your head around, too, with four ‘laws’ to follow. Similarly, Clear builds upon Charles Duhigg’s book that I also reviewed, The Power of Habit, with cue, response, reward, and mentions that this came from B.F. Skinner’s stimulus, response, reward. Clear adds in ‘craving’, which makes sense as craving or anticipation is really what stimulates dopamine, not ‘getting’ the object or activity driving the craving.

In a sense, books like this have to be slightly generalist, not knowing the personality of the reader or what tendencies they have. The simplicity and broad applicability of the advice is useful then. I could think of many ways that the advice would apply to aspects of my life, from organisation at work, fitness or social commitments.

To really test this book, I put some of the methods into practice. Using a schedule, moving distractions, tidying some rooms and ticking off tasks completed that day with a calendar. Although it’s early days, I have to say I seem more efficient and driven. Although it’s possible I will give up on the schedule or calendar as Clear says in the book often it’s more important to establish a routine of habits that you will do automatically without thinking, so the schedule becomes no longer necessary. One of the most useful ideas to me was ignoring perfection and just doing – say – 5 minutes of writing every day. This helps get you into the practice of doing it every day rather than thinking, deciding and procrastinating; instead it becomes just like brushing your teeth.

What's bad about the book?

Ok so it has good advice and keeps it relatively efficient in terms of writing. But what about the bad points? Well, in terms of what it seeks to do, this book is quite difficult to criticise. It contains the practical advice you want, the author makes it clear (pun intended) why it’s important, and it is not advice that is circumstantial in most cases, instead being able to be applied in a series of contexts. There is very little repetition or bloat. In fact, the ideas were presented in diagrams at certain points, where each new idea was incrementally added onto the diagram. This made it presentable and easy to understand – and you felt like you were learning as you progressed through the book.

It may be cold to say but I was less interested in the author’s personal story, but the sections where he talks about himself are quite brief. Some of the psychology examples are ones that people knowledgeable in this area (or out in many cases) will have heard of before – B.F. Skinner’s experiments, for example.

Final score

It’s hard to give this book anything less than the score I give it, because it achieves and surpasses exactly what it sets out to do: provide cogent and coherent advice on managing habits, both good and bad. There are some stories, psychological findings scattered within, but really these are simply colour to the atomic habit method. The application is not narrow, it’s broad, making it a practically useful way to manage and modify habits. I do think the colour, such as the psychological commentary, personal story or other stories could have been used more effectively and less generic, and there is the odd page which simply serve to promote a blog etc. For these reasons I don't think it gets a 10/10, but it does feel close. If you’re going to get a habit book, it looks like the hype is justified on this one.

9/10