Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

8 min
5 Key ideas
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What is it about?

James Clear first experienced the power of habits when he was seriously injured during a high school baseball game. Struck in the face with a baseball bat, he fell into a coma. He was determined to play baseball again one day, and went through painstaking physical therapy. When he was able to walk again, he made a habit of going to the gym and sleeping early. At college, he continued going to the gym and sleeping early—and eventually, these habits paid off. James Clear joined the college baseball team, and he was named to the ESPN Academic All-America Team at the end of his college career. Taking painstaking notes, Clear saw the true power of minute habits. In his bestseller, Atomic Habits, Clear synthesizes everything he’s learned about habits, how to keep the good ones and lose the bad ones, and illuminates the transformative power of tiny everyday habits.

Key idea 1 of 5

Habits are compound interest gains.

On its own, an action like flossing your teeth or buying a cup of coffee seems pretty insignificant. After all, one missed night of flossing won’t immediately give you a cavity. And, one cup of coffee, even a fancy $5 latte, won’t break your budget.
But what if you got a five-dollar coffee every day for a month? What if you got one every day for a year? That adds up to more than eighteen hundred dollars a year to feed your coffee addiction! When actions become habits, they gain exponential power.
Say you wanted to improve yourself in some area of your life, and you were able to get one percent better at that activity every day. After a year, you would be 37 times better at it. On the other hand, if you got worse at that thing by one percent a day, you would pretty quickly hit zero.
In isolation, small actions may seem pointless. But when they become regular habits their power compounds over time, and their impact on your life — for better or worse — becomes enormous.

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Key ideas in this title

  1. Habits are compound interest gains.

  2. True behavior change is identity change.

  3. Make good habits obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying to make them stick.

  4. Make bad habits invisible, unattractive, difficult, and unsatisfying.

  5. Reflect on your progress to master your skill.

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