The book Atomic Habits by James Clear contains all of his knowledge and self-experiments about human habitual behaviors. It was published on October 16, 2018. Since then it has piqued the interest of millions of people from all around the world with more than 50 translated languages. With over 15 million purchases as of now and is still increasing by the day.
The book starts with Clear telling his story on how he got into a near-death accident when his classmate took a full swing and it accidentally slipped out of his hands hitting Clear right directly between his eyes causing a broken nose, multiple skull fractures, and two shattered eye sockets. After that, he was carried to the nurse’s office, to the local hospital, and then finally to a larger hospital in Cincinnati where they discovered that there were more injuries as his brain was swelling rapidly. The next morning Clear woke up and recovered 8 months later where he continued his passion for baseball until going into college where he attended Denison University where it all started.
Just 2 years after his injuries he received a lot of awards like how he was elected as the top male athlete at Denison University and named to the ESPN Academic All-America Team. He was also listed in the school record books in eight categories and the university’s highest academic honor, The President’s Medal when he graduated. He achieved all this just 6 years after that incident that almost cost his life through “atomic habits” like working out for a couple of days a week and some other stuff which tantamount to tiny changes in his habits that resulted in remarkable results.
He began writing articles around November 2022 on his personal email where at first it was just a way to share his experiments with habits. He would publish every Monday and Thursday and gained a thousand email subscribers within just a few months then he continued to upload every Monday and Thursday through the years. Fast forward to 2023, James Clear still uploads articles but this time with a whooping Over 2 million email subscribers and over 10 million visitors per year. Now do you all see what he meant by getting 1 percent better every day? In just a decade he was able to build what he has now. Compared to doing nothing where do you think he would be if he didn’t upload every Monday and Thursday consistently and just uploaded “IF HE WANTED TO OR FELT LIKE DOING IT”? Yes maybe he would be somewhere BUT he won’t be anywhere than he is now.
There are a total of 4 Laws that he wrote on how to improve your habits and get rid of or reduce the bad ones. These are Make It Obvious, Make it Attractive, Make It Easy, and Make It Satisfying with each of them having their corresponding solutions to negative habits such as Make It Invisible, Make It Unattractive, Make It Hard, and of course Make it Unsatisfying. The one thing that integrated with me the most is The Law Of Least Effort which is part of Make it Easy. I mean I’m sure all of us here want to do something with minimal effort but still get the result when not doing so. As I, am someone who always chooses the method with the least effort when doing something which as we all know always gives us minimal results. This Law gave me insights on how to do something with least effort but with a much better result.
To do this you first need to create an environment where doing the right thing is as easy as possible. Let's say that you want to do your homework but you keep on procrastinating because of your phone. A great example of this is when you want to do your homework but can't get off your phone the first step would be to put your phone away (put it in the living room or something it just has to be away from you) from your reach and grab your pen and homework only ever getting your phone after a specific period time. Do this for at least an hour a day, every day. This will tell your brain that “You have to do this first for at least 1 hour so you can go scroll through social media all day”. You see when friction is low it makes the habits easy whether its a good or bad one. Therefore increasing the friction for bad habits and doing the opposite for the good one is the way to go for The Law Of Least Effort.
Before I used to procrastinate a lot but now, well I cannot say that I don’t procrastinate anymore but at least it’s become less and less now with just what? 1 year or so of progress? That’s pretty much if you ask me. I’ve learned a lot since I read this book ever since then and it changed my life. Making me a better person than I was before. Now you might ask how it changed your life. How was your life before reading this book? You see back then during the quarantine, I used to sleep in and procrastinate so that I sometimes couldn’t pass my module on time. This book not only covers the things I’ve experienced before like procrastination and stuff but it can also be used in various other stuff that your dealing with right now like phone addiction, corn addiction, and some other stuff.
In this book, Clear mentions that habits Shape Your Identity. At first, I was dumbfounded by what he meant but as I read through the following pages I clearly understood what he meant by that. An example of this is if you make your bed every day, you are reinforcing the identity of someone who is organized and tidy. If you exercise regularly, you are reinforcing the identity of someone fit and healthy. Clear argues that the best way to change our identity is to focus on changing our habits. By starting with small, easy habits, we can gradually build up a new identity that is more aligned with our goals.
This book changed my life as a whole so I think that you should read this book as it improved mine so will it yours. Especially for those of you who are suffering from burnout, procrastination, or anything that hinders you from in from in fromndoingou have or would love to do but don’t have the time like playing basketball, going on walks, hiking, playing an instrument, or just anything that you’ve wanted to do for a long time now but can’t due to some reasons. Maybe you want to bond with your family and friends a lot morejoyouslyouusy with your work or something else. In this book y, you can change that for the better. You'll have more than enough to bond with your families and friends.
As James Clear said, getting 1% better every single day for a year makes you at least 37% better thatthan were before you started. On the contrary, ge getting a worse day a year will make you decline nearly down to zero with a possibility of getting worse at something you were once good at.