Book review - Atomic Habits by James Clear

Since quarantine and all the corona stuff happened, I tried to spend/invest more time on myself. If the world is stopping, I am stopping with the world too; that’s what I thought. I started to investigate ways to efficiently develop work and ways to be more productive. I am an avid consumer of youtube, so the google algorithm did the work and it efficiently guessed what were my current interests. I topped with people that caught my attention like Ali Abdaal, Matt d’Avella, Nathaniel Drew, Kraig Adams, etc. There are a lot more, but those were the ones that mostly caught my attention. Regarding the productivity scope, I think Ali is a very good example of time management. He is a doctor plus writer plus podcaster plus youtuber plus runs a bussines plus a lot of other stuff. This dude really knows how to manage time.

First thing I wanted to do is to start reading again. And that’s what I did, I started reading every day before going to bed and here I am, with a book finished after few weeks. Also, I want to be more intentional about stuff I read and remember interesting insights I get from the book I am currently reading. So as Ali Abdaal, Nat Eliason and others do, I thought that writing a book summary after reading a book, will help me to remember the lessons and insights I got from the book back in time, and at some point in the future, I think that might be interesting to come back to it. So here goes my first summary.

The Book in 3 Sentences

1. Habits and consistency are the key that precedes any success.
2. Identify who you want to be, build an identity and then build a system.
3. Continuously review the system you have built

How the Book changed me?

The book showed me the potential of habits. How daily routines done day by day can lead to overcome challenges. How important it is to visualize the person you want to be in the future and then define a system to follow who you want to be, by just doing stuff that you truly feel motivated about, because that’s the most powerful engine. Finally, it showed me to always keep in mind to not overthink on planing, just start and build momentum.

My Top 3 Quotes

1. The real change in behavior is an identity change. You can start a habit because you have the motivation to acquire it, but the only reason you stick with it and cultivate it is because it becomes part of your identity.
2. The most effective way to learn is to practice, not to plan.
3. Staying motivated and curious counts more than being smart because the first one leads to action. Being smart will never produce results on its own because it doesn’t put you into action.

Summary

Atomic Habits, really have had an impact on me. It is a book that helped me to think about the power of habits, the importance of having a system and how small habits done day by day allow us to achieve goals that, a priori, look very challenging or almost unachievable. James Clear exposes an example regarding this idea applied to the British cycling team. Basically, it says that by improving 1% every day, you will be by 30% better by the end of the year you were before.

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. Source: jamesclear.com

Habits and identity

Another thing that really made an impact on me was the fact of doing small things that slowly will lead to make me become the person who I want to be. But an obvious fact not so obvious about that is to clearly define the person you want to be. If you can figure out the kind of behavior or skills you would like to have in the future, i.e the kind of person you want to be, then you can start to figure out the system and habits you should follow to became who you want to be. Then you will have a Why.

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how
Friedrich Nietzsche

This phrase holds an important truth about human behavior. If your motivation and desires are great enough (i.e, your why is acting), you will take action even when it is very difficult. Great longings promote great actions, despite tough resistance.

To conclude

This book is very easy and fun to read, but has a lot of life-changing insights. I could have made this post much much longer, but I just kept the lessons that, by now, resonated more with me. But I am sure I will read the book again in no longer future.