Atomic Habits
An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones
Ratings745
Average rating4.2
This thing was churned out of a productivity book factory. A paint by numbers self-help book.
Step one: Open the chapter with a bit of anecdata.
“It's 1940 and Dutch scientist Niko Tinbergen would win the Nobel Prize for his research on herring gulls... ““Or, 1965 and Laszlo Polgar is embarking on a grand experiment in creating a squad of child chess geniuses... “
This segues into a habit shaping method reinforced with a few requisite paragraphs and then a bullet-pointed chapter summary while noting our ongoing progress on the 3 laws of creating a good habit. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I get it, it's a self-help book, repetition is important but it feels like the bookish equivalent of someone speaking slower and louder to me after assuming that English isn't my first language.
Still I like the idea of “you do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems” and the simple rule “never miss twice.” That's enough to make me gloss over some of the more painful habit tropes gussied up with fancy terms like “temptation bundling”. The “I will do 10 burpees, THEN I will check Facebook” which manifests in so many futile ways when you're trying to quit smoking and does nothing to eliminate the bad habit itself as a long-time quitter will tell you.
A great practical guide to a millennia old truth, habits are the key to everything. Some people build them without needing to be told, those people are successful.
The rest of us need to learn it.
I rarely read non-fiction. This one was recommended to me by a stranger. I loved it. It's a practical and easy to read book. Most importantly there were lessons that were immediately actionable
3.5 stars
pros:
- very insightful practical strategies on how to form good habits and break bad ones
- I did feel inspired to be more productive and found myself integrating some tips (allocate spaces to certain behaviours, change environment, verbalize actions)
cons:
- lots of self promo (at least in the audiobook) (“go to website to see graphs/media/template/etc.” and the only way to view the graphs/media/template is to enter email and sign up to newsletter)
- couldn't really stay focused during some info dumping over audio, probably would be better if I read the physical copy
TW: can trigger people with eating disorders (offhand comments about diets, cutting calories, food and weight tracking as “good habit” examples)
Amongst others from Derek Siver's book list.
Want to read: intermittent fasting and hopefully no-electronics before sleep are tiny habits that have a positive effect. What more can habits do?
Fairly good read. But I feel like it did not make as much as an impact to my “habits” as I was expecting.
Best self-help book out there, and most practical as well, which many self-help books fail at doing.
Ok. I'm going to be honest. I do not know why this book is lauded as one of the best in the “self help” genre. It reads very similar to plenty of other books and more importantly doesnt have a unique take to it. I find it very difficult to recommend
Sugiro realizar a leitura fazendo anotações e montando um plano de ação. É aplicável no dia a dia.
Will need to refer to the atomic habits.com website for additional tips and information. But over, a really good book with great ideas. Different ways to think about changing your current habits and becoming who you would like to be.
Purchased the Kindle version of the book as well.
Contains spoilers
Do a thing for 10,000 hours and you'll eventually be a master at it. But instead of doing it for 10,000 hours straight, just do a little at a time over a long period of time. Don't believe me? Here's an entire book explaining why. 3/5