Review: Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Things which I appreciate about the book:
1. Atomic habits have useful, practical and implementable methods for habit formation, with anecdotes which keep you interested.
2. The author tries and keeps his methods simple, so that there is little friction when trying to implement them. At the end of each section, method or process, it is summarized in one line or process flow. Which I found easy to follow.
3. It explains why many people start with new habits, but aren’t always able to achieve success in implementing and internalizing them.
4. Methods which touch upon related concepts in behavior, cognition and learning (e.g. Willpower is a limited resource, which can run out during the day)
5. The author tries to cover all possible scenarios when it comes to the positives and negatives of habit formation. The book goes one step further, in trying to explain how our daily habits and cultivated ones eventually shape our personality and through it our identity.
6. By making your life structured the author instructs us how to cultivate beneficial habits and curb detrimental ones.
Aspects which I’d preferred were addressed better
1. The book could’ve been shorter. The last 100 pages are ‘Advanced tactics’, some plugins, Appendix and glossary. If you cut out the excess, there is in actual, barely 200 pages in terms of actual content. The message of the book is simple, it is just explained in an extensive way.
Some parts of the book are repetitive. It works at times, as a form of reinforcement. But it is tiresome in other places.
2. While the practical recommendations in the book work towards habit building, some of the more theoretical and speculative parts are less savoury to digest. For e.g. some of things mentioned which argue how genetics influence the habits we cultivate and how it can influence our success in life, while in places makes sense, often doesn’t.
3. In the end, what the books does is build upon earlier preceding material and research (which the author acknowledges) and presents them in a simple to understand step by step process. Taking a page out the book, by simplifying the process it is made easier to act upon.
4. Some of the instructions are conflicting. At one point in the book, the author mentions how, it is better to track one habit consistently, than a number of them sparingly; something which I agree with. Then however he goes on to mention Benjamin Franklin’s and how he used to track what was his 13 virtues, which at least to me seems to run counter to the earlier arguments.
The pith of the book
1. How habits (good & bad) are formed: The habit forming loop when it pays off in dopamine currency follows a four step feedback loop, which gets stronger upon each repetition. This loop is:
Cue → Craving → Response → Rewards.
2. Why habits are formed: In layman’s terms, habits allow the brain to automate and thus simplify repetitive tasks and fine tune it to perform without conscious input. This allows it to assign its limited processing space to other tasks. By leveraging this process, you can make or break habits.
3. A four step method for forming habits and breaking them
> Cultivating beneficial habits
-Make it Visible
-Make it Appealing
-Make it Easy
-Make it Satisfying
> Blighting toxic habits is doing the opposite of the above
-Make it Invisible
-Make it Un-appealing
-Make it difficult (more the better)
-Make it Un-satisfying (nauseating if you can)
4. By acting out our intentions and being specific with their execution we have a better chance of carrying them out. I.e. instead of just saying ‘I will start running from tomorrow’, write it down with details, i.e ‘I will wake up at 7, put on my running shoes and go for a 1 hour run along the coastal road’. Bute being deliberate and detailed in your intent you are more likely to carry through with it.
"I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION]."
By combining new habits with existing one, you increase the likelihood of acting them out. This was termed as ‘Habit Stacking’
“After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].”
5. Willpower & motivation is overrated: Our mind has a limited amount of energy in terms of processing power during the hours of our wakefulness. And taxing tasks can drain them fast. People who claim to have great self-control in fact shape their life in such a way which requires a minimum amount of motivation/ control to avoid their craving.
>If you are trying to deny craving for a ‘bad’ habit e.g. eating junk food, using up your limited mental energy trying to resist the urge will leave you exhausted. A better alternative is to design your environment (your home or office) in such a way that removes any temptation related to the habit. Out of sight, out of mind, with no mental energy cost
>Alternatively, building a new habit (e.g. eating healthy) would involve filling your environment with cues that nudge you towards performing it (i.e. making fruits and healthy snacks available in visible locations)
6. Temptation bundling: Making a habit attractive; To perform a habit that you need to do, bundle it with a habit you want to do.
7. A way to make habit formation easier: Figure out how much effort you can/ want to put into a new habit. On days where you don’t feel like following the habit, do bare the minimum, but maintain the consistent practise of the habit. (i.e. exercise for 5 mins instead of 50 on a bad day). It’s OK if you miss a day in your habit, just make sure never to miss it twice in a row. This 2 minute rule, and the 2 day rule can help you make your habit consistent.
8. Our daily habits, over a course of time chip in, to determine what our personality would be. Our personality formed such shapes to our identity. Hence, the habits you choose to prune and those you let wither can alter your personality, and through it your identity
9. Achieving mastery, how it runs counter to habit formation, and the pitfalls of habits: Habits allow us to automate repetitive tasks. While this is useful when it comes to getting dressed, riding a bicycle or getting to work, in other places this can lead to stagnation. If you get trapped in a habit, there is little room for improvements and creative insight. In order to turn your habit into a mastery, you need to add just the right amount of variability. By increasing the difficulty of the habit, doing it differently and such.
Habit + Deliberate practise = Mastery
10. Sorites Paradox: The effect of one small action when repeated enough times can be considerable.
11.Success is not a goal to reach, nor a finish line to cross. It is a system to improve, and an endless process to refine.
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