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Book Review: Atomic Habits

Isaiah Castillo
Jul 28, 2020
2 min read

Updated: Nov 24

Need to better understand how I review books? You can review my book review criteria here.

Overview

Title: Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

Author: James Clear

Genre: Self-Help

Themes: Behavioral Psychology, Habit Building

Publish Year: 2018

ISBN-10: 0735211299

Amazon: Buy Here

Utility: 5/5

Readability: 5/5

Storytelling: 2/5

Literary Quality:4/5

Pace: 4/5

Impact: 5/5

Favorite Excerpt/Quote

"Once you adopt an identity it can be easy to let your allegiance to it impact your ability to change. Many people walk through life in a cognitive slumber, blindly following the norms attached to their identity" (Clear, 35)

Review

I don't often read prescriptive self-help books, for I've always found them a bit self-centered and vague; James Clear's Atomic Habits resembles nothing of such books. Atomic Habits dives into the why and how of habit building and lays out a practical model for readers to utilize. What makes Clear's book so compelling is the focus on human behavior and the psychology of habit building. Rather than using a list of boastful examples, Clear takes a less anecdotal, more scientific approach. The science is presented beautifully—simple and to the point—making it understandable and digestible for any reader.

The book dives right into definitions and wide-sweeping concepts that lay the foundation for the strategies presented. The book then lays out a concise strategy for understanding and building habits. At the end of each chapter, Clear provides a recap of the highlights and most important concepts. Succeeding the final chapter, Clear provides a sweeping review of the concepts and recaps the steps and strategies needed for the reader to adopt his habit-building model.

Clear's model is divided into many digestible pieces, allowing the reader to understand the concepts from various angles. The book is divided into four laws, two being part of the "Problem Phase" and two being the "Solution Phase". Within these laws Clear breaks down the concepts with several strategies, presenting information that exemplifies both how to create a good habit and how to break a bad one. By the end of the novel, the reader is equipped with numerous practical strategies for building habits.

There is one small drawback to Clear's method, for the book's strength is also its most fatal flaw. Clear's scientific approach makes little use of anecdotes—he barely mentions his own story aside from his personal introduction and a few short examples. I preferred the lack of stories, however, I also recognize that those stories carry a persuasive potential that some readers may need to better understand and relate to the science of Clear's strategies.

Overall, Atomic Habits is one of the more practical self-help books I've picked up. The strategies are easy to follow and digestible in a way that anyone could pick up Clear's book and have a plan for building better habits by its close.