Since coming out six years ago, Atomic Habits has remained on several best seller lists, and for good reason. It’s a self-help book, yes, but it isn’t like so many self-help books that pontificate about things most people can’t control. James Clear’s observations and advice are based on solid social science and past experience. My most gratifying take away after listening to the audio version is that much of what I do already is right. More and more I kept saying to myself, “Hey, that’s exactly what I do!” I’m anxious to peruse the appendix of the book since throughout “Atomic Habits,” Clear, who is the narrator, pointed out that copies of various templates for tracking habits are available at AtomicHabits.com. I listened to the audio version of Clear’s book, and he narrated in a very effective way. I’m glad I took the time to listen to James Clear’s book, and I think there is something for just about everyone in it. ( )

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on ebook from my library.

Thoughts: I liked this and it does a great job of laying out a plan for developing good habits and getting rid of bad habits. Things are laid out step by step and very simply. I like that each chapter starts out with a historical anecdote about a historical figure and their habits. This made the book very fun and easy to read.

I was surprised at how readable this was. I speed right through it. It was entertaining and insightful. Nothing in here is rocket science and there are no huge revelations. However, there is some food for thought, especially around adapting your environment to support your habits. I realized I do a lot of that already without even realizing it. Just little things like laying out an outfit the night before so I can get going early in the morning without feeling stressed. Or laying my journal on my pillow in the morning so I don't forget to write in it before I go to bed.

I think the most intriguing part of this book to me was the portion about mind set. How you need to say "I am a person who..." rather than "I would like to be a person who..." I never really thought about how that would change your mindset, so that was interesting to me.

I also liked the idea of laying out your day as a list of habits. It lets you see what you actually do in a day and analyze that in a more objective way to see which parts of your day are sabotaging habits you want to develop and which parts are enhancing habits.

There is a lot of focus on organizing your surroundings, friends, and lifestyle around habits you want to enforce. All of this makes a lot of sense and, in general, this is just good common sense to follow. I think the points made about how developing habits takes time and you need to forgive yourself if you lapse are also important ones.

I think the hard part for most people is actually putting some of these skills into action and not just forgetting about this book as they move forward in life. Sticking with something consistently and long-term is always hard. It's especially hard with something like eating or exercise where you don't get the immediate gratification of instant success. This is discussed in this book as well.

My Summary (5/5): Overall, while there is nothing really new or earth-shattering here, this does lay out an easy to follow process for developing good habits in simple steps. There are some intriguing suggestions to help you analyze your surrounds and life to pinpoint why you continue with bad habits and have trouble developing good ones. I found this to be an easy and entertaining read and I think everyone would benefit from reading this because it does really make you sit down and think about your life and how you could improve aspects of it. I find myself thinking back to this book a lot in the weeks following reading it. ( )

This is another book that I listened to after a trial period of an audiobook provider. As I mentioned before, I picked this book because I felt I would not enjoy at all listening to a novel, and I admit I had some curiosity about this book.

This book is what I call a marketing product. This book gained a lot of attention and, after reading it, I really don't understand why. It is overrated, repetitive, boring and does not give you anything new at all.

A waste of time, in my opinion. ( )

Ausführlich und verständlich, ohne zu schwafeln. Das hat mir gut gefallen! ( )

"Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement."
This is a very inspirational book. It is also practical and user-friendly. Here are my major take-aways:
1. As you continue to layer small changes on top of one another, the scales start to move.... "small changes often appear to make no difference until you reach a critical threshold."
2. How to shape a good habit: make it easy, attractive, and satisfying.
3. How to discourage a bad habit: make it invisible, unattractive, hard, and unsatisfying.

This is a book I want to keep on hand for reflection and review...as the author has observed, "A lack of self-awareness is poison. Reflection and review is the antidote."

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