Atomic Habits

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

By: James Clear

Narrated by: James Clear

Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's Summary

The number one New York Times best seller. Over one million copies sold!

Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results

No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving - every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.

Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, listeners will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.

Learn how to:

• Make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy)
• Overcome a lack of motivation and willpower
• Design your environment to make success easier
• Get back on track when you fall off course
• And much more

Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits - whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.

©2018 James Clear (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

"Atomic Habits was a great read. I learned a lot and think it’ll be helpful to a lot of people." (Gayle King, co-anchor of CBS This Morning and editor-at-large for O, The Oprah Magazine) 

"In Atomic Habits, Clear will show you how to overcome a lack of motivation, change your environment to encourage success, and make time for new (and better) habits." (Glamour.com)

"Atomic Habits is a great book for anyone who is frustrated with the way they can’t seem to kick that one (or two dozen) bad habit(s) and wants to finally achieve health, fitness, financial freedom, great relationships, and a good life." (Medium.com)

Email collecting scam.

Every few pages the book references images hosted in the author's website. In order to view those images you are required to give out your email address. I already paid for the content, I don't want to sign up for anything.

Ugh

I was drawn in by the introduction, and then it became recycled Steven Covey stuff intermixed with plugs. Don’t bother.

Mediocre Strategies and examples, Book is a drag.

Author says change in environment is the secret to self control. A person could always use the environment as an excuse and keep on finding improvements in the outside world in the environment and hence barely progress. Author James says he does not know of any person who has kept good habits in a challenging environment. Dear James, please meet David Goggins. To the readers reading this review, if you really want to be something, read about David Goggins and watch his interviews. He will give you a mindset that will allow you to progress no matter what environment you're in.

New spin on old ideas with a complaint

Great book on habits. It contains information on how to create habits, keep them, and break them. I was skeptical about another habit book but this contains original content. My biggest gripe with the book is that the author constantly asks you to reference his website for more information. It often makes the book feel incomplete. I don’t like when it feels like a book is attempting to build an audience for another platform. That being said I still recommend the book.

Personal 2018.11

Two stars - meh three stars - good four stars - worth a second read five stars - life-changing - my top 50 of all time Went through twice sequentially - notations the second time. This summarizes the major topics of many of the books I've really enjoyed (Peak, Power of Habit) into a usable form. Break habits into small parts, and focus on not breaking the chain. Seems so obvious, but it really shines in this format. Examples of both positive(carrot) and negative(stick) ways to apply the principles. To change a behavior or establish a habit, make it: 1. Obvious 2. Attractive 3. Easy 4. Satisfying Don't set goals, focus on habits that you want to incorporate. Survivor bias - everyone who wins a gold medal has it as a goal, but so do all of the other competitors who didn't win. Every day you don't achieve the goal is a bit of a failure. Not so if the goal is the good habit itself. So - instead of losing weight, focus on the habit of not eating between meals, and then on meal composition. I'm the kind of guy who doesn't snack. I'm the kind of guy who eats healthy. The weight will happen. In the weight room - if you add only 1 lb per week, that's 52 lbs in a year. That certainly seems doable. Focus on the tiny habits. A must read for anyone interested in making long lasting changes.

This review is the only review you need to read

I'm usually a one-sentence reviewer... but I feel compelled to write more about this book. I decided to give a "self-help" book a try because people talk about them all of the time and this one had pretty good reviews. I was under the impression that all self-help books are essentially the same with nearly identical underlying messages (work hard, focus on the right things, get up early, etc.). This book proved me right. Aside from a couple decent tidbits of "habit forming" advice, this book was a serious waste of time. The first two chapters should be eliminated all together; the first chapter describes in gruesome and unnecessary detail a childhood skull injury. The second names about 50 metaphors for "small changes that big impacts." Unless you've never made one good decision in your entire life, please... skip these chapters. The remainder of the book could be summed up in a flow chart, but instead the author drones on citing metaphor after metaphor (and then some more metaphors) about habit formation. Like I said before- if you've never made ONE good decision and have ZERO good habits, this book may be for you. If you're a functioning member of society with enough sense to get through the day without eating a Costco size bag of Doritos, sleeping until noon, and playing video games until 3am, don't waste your time.

The most helpful book I’ve ever read

This book not only helped me learn how to create lasting habits, but it helped me to give myself some grace over the fact that I haven’t been able to maintain many of my good habits up until now. I have spent years and years becoming so depressed over the person I’ve become; mourning the loss of the driven, accomplished teenager I once was, and wondering “how did I turn into this?” I’ve spent way too much time thinking that I was just becoming lazy, unproductive, and incapable of success - wondering why I didn’t have the grit and willpower I did when I was younger. But this book clearly explained the science of human behavior in a way that made me realize - I’m just like everyone else, EVEN SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE. The difference is that they know how to create situations for themselves to allow themselves to succeed. Now I know how, and I can’t wait to get to work. Thank you, James, for this brilliant book, and for being the light I’ve been desperately searching for to pull me out of this dark place I’ve been in. I can’t tell you how much it means to me! Carli

Monotone performance and nothing concrete

I read or listen to a lot of self improvement books and was really looking forward to this one after seeing so many positive reviews. But this book totally missed the mark for me. For starters, the author narrated the book himself, and his narration was monotone, flat and devoid of ANY emotion or inflection. He droned on and on, making it difficult to stay focused (think of your most boring college lecture and multiply that by 10). Secondly, he had nothing new to say. I was expecting more substance and more examples of HOW to implement habits - but the book was mostly lists of what to do without any explanation of tips and strategies. For example, it’s pretty obvious that habits should be “attractive and easy and rewarding” (blah blah blah) to make them stick - but it was as if he was reading an outline to a book, even to the point that he would break down his rules into micro parts and list them as rule 1.1, 1a, 1b, etc. He would follow every list by saying “and for more on this, refer to my website”. But I painfully toiled through and finished the book so I could give an honest review. I can only recall one concrete example of habit implementation that he gave (a story about the British cycling team), and that was the only somewhat interesting part for me. He also spent the first part of the book talking about how great he was at sticking with his own habits. I would have had no problem with that (in fact I would have loved to hear it) if he had discussed specifics. But instead it went something like this - despite an accident he had in high school that he thought would end his baseball career, his incredible discipline and drive made him a star baseball player in college, where he got all A’s, worked out every day, and was awarded college athlete or the year. There was ZERO explanation or substance to offer the listener about the “how” behind his success. This book was a total waste of money and time for me.

Great book except for missing website...

One of the best habit books out there. But the author makes reference to an atomichabits.com repeatedly in his writing and it does not appear to exist! When you search for it you end up at jamesclear.com which is not the same. So some of the resources he mentions using are no where to be found.

Refreshing take on building good habits

This book was well written by James and presented in a way that anyone who applies the techniques to adopt good habits and stop bad habits can accomplish whatever they set their mind too. Some of the key takeaways for me are to start very small, whether it's doing 1 pushup on the way to doing 100, write for 5 minutes if you have trouble with writers block, start meditating for 1 min at a time if you cant sit still. All in all a fast read with very useful information.