Atomic Habits by James Clear is an eye-opening book. Disclaimer: This post contains an Amazon Affiliate Program link

I initially approached this book with hopes that it will be practical, but also doubts about its #1 New York Times Bestseller status. I’ve been recommended this book by several peers and personal finance gurus, so I figured I’d finally read it (and I was also gifted this book by Yingyi Ma for my birthday: thank you!).

The book is organized well, making it easy to read with real life examples to support the four main laws of creating/breaking a good/bad habit. Clear begins the book with an enticing intro; his own story on how small, tiny habits led him to where he is now from experiencing a near-death experience.

Clear also provides several resources, the one below: The Habits Cheat Sheet, is my favorite. It shows the practical steps for each segment: Make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisfying. Clear provides more worksheets and resources if reading through the whole book isn’t in your book list (although I’d highly recommend reading the entire book): atomichabits.com/cheatsheet.

Application to my life

While reading this book, I took notes throughout each chapter/segment to help me figure out a habit that I would actually attempt to form through the steps from the book. Two main habits I want to create is coding everyday and reading everyday.

Coding

• Make it Obvious (Cue): Have a Leetcode Tab open.
• Make it Attractive (Craving): I want to solve the problem because the tab is open.
• Make it Easy (Response): Give myself only 10-15 minutes to look at the question, 30 minutes max. to spend on the question, and have the tab open from the night before.
• Make it Satisfying (Reward): I’ll let myself play a video game for 30 minutes.

This example isn’t perfect, I am still trying to make things work, but part of the book also includes refining and making adjustments.

Reading

Another example that I have already seen results from is to read everyday.

I just started this a week ago, but I was able to finish this book by reading just 10 minutes a day.

Prior to this book, I always told myself that I hated reading. Even if I wanted to read, I would fall asleep mid-read or just avoid it altogether. When I told myself: I am a reader, after reading the section where Clear says it is important to set some sort of label that encourages a new mindset, it helped me frame my day to day a little better.

Between my graduation and a week ago, I told myself I’d finish this book, but I wasn’t taking any action to do so. My actionable steps were too vague and without a timeline. Once I told myself, I will read for 10 minutes everyday, I started to make progress: slow but still progress. With my brother as an accountability partner (also to help him reduce his screentime), reading everyday for 10 minutes became so much easier, and at times, I’d end up reading for an additional few minutes just because I was in the zone.

Overall, I am very pleased with this book! Purchase a copy for yourself here: https://amzn.to/4iRuUWE (currently 50% off!)