Atomic Habits: An Simple & Confirmed Strategy to Construct Good Habits & Break Dangerous Ones

Walking Toward Good Habits: One Step at a Time
Atomic Habits is one of the most interesting books I have ever read. Every page I learned something new, or a new way to think about something. There are many instances when I read a sentence and then thought to myself “Wow, I have never thought of that in that way.” I also found myself guilty of a lot of bad habits. For example: I get an impulse to clean my room and I clean it. It stays clean for 2-3 days and then it goes back to being messy. Clear describes this as “treat[ing] the symptom without addressing the cause.” If you don’t make it a habit to clean your room, it will become messy again and will remain dirty until another burst of energy makes you decide to clean it again. It would be easier if you just made a habit of cleaning your room every day, so you don’t need a burst of energy to clean your room and use your energy for something else in your life.I really think this book is great for all ages. I am eighteen and I learned a lot of things that I could apply to my life and how I can change some of my habits. I think someone 20 or even 60 years older than me can learn a lot from this book because everyone wants to change some of their habits and want to learn better ways on how they can stick to their goals.The format of the book makes it an easy and pleasurable read. I like how most of the chapters start off with a story of a specific person that corresponds with the topic of that chapter. Also, the real life examples of an everyday average person really helps this book make sense to the average person and makes it easier for people to relate to the topics talked about. I also thought the habit cheat sheets were extremely useful and a great way to capture what was talked about in the chapter. I also think someone could copy one of those cheat sheets for their own goal and put it on their own desk computer, refrigerator, or bathroom mirror. It would definitely be an easy way to remember your habit goals if it was right in front of you reminding you what to do.There are a couple strategies to make good habits that I am going to try to apply to my own life. For example: I really liked the idea of having a buddy or partner change all your passwords to social media for the weekdays. I feel like it creates so much free time to explore or find new things when you do not have a choice to go on social media when you are bored. I thought it was a great way to limit you from going on social media during the weekdays. Also, after you stop having someone change your passwords, it creates a habit of not going on your phone so much because you are not used to it anymore. I think this is a really good habit that a lot of young people should try out because teenagers usually can’t separate from their phone and social media very easily. Another habit that I found very interesting was about the business man who moves a paperclip to a separate bowl every time he made a sales call and would not stop until all 120 paperclips were moved to the other bowl. I couldn’t believe how much that paper clip strategy helped his productivity. It was amazing to see such a small change to his work day (or a small habit) made such a huge difference for his entire life.I would strongly recommend this book to any person of any age. I believe this book can really teach many different people from different backgrounds a lot about how to develop good habits, but also learn how to get rid of the bad habits. Lastly, I think the author did a great job of motivating people in this book. He calls people out for being lazy if they are on their phone for more than 20 minutes scrolling through social media, but then he gives tips on how to change that bad habit. I remember reading that the average person spends 2 hour on their phone per day. That is over 700 hours per year spent on your phone. I found that statistic very powerful!I would rate this book a 5/5 stars and would definitely recommend taking the time to read it!

Includes author’s story for writing this book
It was a nice surprise to read about the reason behind the writing of this book.Another refreshing aspect is that the book covers how habits are formed, whether good or bad and how to keep the good ones.As is my custom, when reading most books, is to read through the table of contents. When I came upon chapter 20 titled “The Downside of Creating of Creating Good Habits”. So that’s where I started but certainly not where I finished.Although I’m only at the beginning of chapter 4, entitled “The Man Who Didn’t Look Right”, I’m finding it a very interesting and helpful read.Atomic Habits consists of 306 pages which includes the index.Another interesting aspect of this book is the Notes section. It contains a detailed list of notes, references and citations towards the back that covers each chapter.Would I recommend this book. Yes and no. This should not be considered a quick read. It’s a book that takes time to imbibe and practice otherwise, why bother.I bought the book because of a friend’s recommendation. I needed something more in changing my eating habits. To be certain, this isn’t a diet book but rather an explicit way in going from bad habits to good ones. As I once heard, life’s a journey because a trip is too short.The only reason I gave it a four star rating is because I prefer hardback books without dust jackets. They only serve to getting in the way. I do read them but then off to the trash they go.

All too often the advice given to people is of the order: ‘To a depressed person – “Just Cheer Up”.’ Or perhaps to a person trying to lose weight, “Eat less and move more”. While ultimately correct, has no real benefit to the person hearing or reading the advice.Atomic Habits is exactly the opposite. It provides many different ways to create those habits within you. When I bought the book about this time last year, it was supposed to be a Christmas present to myself – one gift among the clutter (isn’t that the correct collective noun for Christmas gifts?) just to surprise everyone else, i.e. Santa does make deliveries to adults. Anyway . . .I opened the book during the holidays and could not find that lump of time to read it. Skimming through the book I got one essential point. Reading a book in one lump might not work so well for people, but could you find 15 minutes every morning to do this? At this moment in time, that made all the sense in the world to me. I simply can not find the time to read the book in a lump or two. This is actually something that has worked against me for years. It has limited my progress and my development for the past decade. I do read quickly and on occasion will find that lump of time, but nothing like the 15 minutes every morning. That 15 minutes is the time it takes to boil water for my pour-over coffee maker. I do cheat a little here because I could get my coffee in about 11 or 12 minutes, but let’s run with this habit creation.Starting January 2, 2023, the book was completed by the end of the month. Doing the mathematics on this, I found 29 days with 1/4 of an hour each day. This works out to over 7 hours of reading. That was my first read, and I shared this with a friend. We work together on a political executive. Like the “Walking Dead”, he changed too. Looking at people who have not read or acquired the skills of Atomic Habits, is much like seeing a person from Mars with two heads. There is an oddity to blaming the lack of time.Everyone reading this book will from the same common point develop their own habits, and develop along their own path, but it will not be for lack of time. Realize what I said, you will never be able to say that there is insufficient time.Here is another example of what happened to me during the past year. I drive 33 minutes to see a dear friend. I treasure the time we have discussing things for he generates ideas and helps me generate those ideas. He does not really know how very important he is to me. But, I then need to drive 33 minutes back. In that hour, I listen to an Audible title – it is a new habit. My obvious caveat here is that the route I take is rather mundane and there are few traffic lights and the posted speeds are not that fast. It is a pleasant drive and now a productive one.So, keeping up with these two habits, let’s see how much reading I get done now?Waiting for coffee time: 0.25 hours x 365 = 91 hours of reading!Driving to my buddy’s 60 minutes x 50 = 50 hours or reading !!The total amount of reading is now 140 hours of reading in one year. Just those two atomic habits, and on average that could mean 28 books per year if I need 5 hours per book, but only 14 books if I read at the other end of average which is 10 hours per book. On average, a good approximate FOR YOU MIGHT be 7.5 hours per book and therefore 21 books per year.If you have read my review this far, congratulations! You have exactly what it takes to master this one Atomic Habit and become a much better (I don’t mean moral) person. Buy the book! Read it in manageable chunks as I suggested. Get Audible (no! I do not work for Amazon) to find those times when you have wasted chunks of time.Buy the book and make a positive difference in yourself. Let that difference infect others (there is that Walking Dead theme again) and together make a difference in your lives and your world.Leo Oja, M.Ed.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book,as it proved to be a valuable resource, and I have implemented it into my personal and family life.