Atomic Habits

A fairly short book which I liked. Books like this tend to be too long and include too much useless information but Atomic Habits managed to stay on point for the most part.

There were a lot of good points here about habits that could be very useful for people. There were a few cases where analogies and examples weren't relevant to the author's message within the chapter (each chapter focuses on a specific topic related to habits) but that's a very minor issue. Another reviewer mentioned that the author's Benjamin Franklin story left out key details where Franklin actually gave up the habit of journaling because it wasn't helpful but the author here includes it anyway (omitting the crucial part) and using it as his example anyway in support of his point anyway.

In one of the later sections Clear is discussing boredom and habits, and makes the case that we shouldn't expect to find everything fun about it (e.g. lifting weights) but the people who are successful do it anyway each day despite the boredom, not because of some hidden passion they have. He cites a well-known trainer as his evidence. All fair points, and one of the key takeaways for me. However, Clear further talks about “loving” boredom which I found to significantly subtract from his argument.

I liked that the end of each chapter also includes a well-written summary, making it easy to double-check what each chapter discussed (something more books like this could implement). For the most part the writing is succinct and well-written with relevant and useful advice. 4-stars.