Atomic Habits
by James Clear
This is an extremely lean book; it’s almost almost pound-for-pound substance. It gets straight to the point and maintains interest with a steady flow of interesting knowledge that’s easy to consume. I can see care was taken to make sure ‘quotable quotes’ are lined throughout the book.
Here’s the only bit of spoiler in this review: the reason why the book is titled ‘Atomic’ is because of the author’s proposition of habits being made up of tiny, ‘atomic-sized’ components (which he deconstructs and shares very clearly). This runs counter to how many folks regard habits, and is also one of the core reasons why they might not successfully form their desired new habits.
It’s a ‘how-to’ on habits, that’s balanced with a gratuitous amount of research, mostly presented anecdotally. There’s lots of latitude in these areas, with JUST enough depth to make the point. It’s purely my guess, but I think said research is largely 2nd-hand.
If you happen to be well-read in topics relating to psychology, neuroscience, human performance and effectiveness, you might find the writing a tad shallow… like reading a collection of short internet articles. But even if you do, there’s no denying what an impressive job the author did in pulling such a diverse body of literature together into a coherent narrative. By way of this integration I did get some value out of it.
This isn’t the best book on habits and productivity that I’ve read. But I think it may be the most comprehensive one I’ve come across. Will the book TEACH you to see and tackle habits in new ways? Yes. Will it MOVE you to do so? This I’m not sure.