“Atomic Habits” is a nice, short read. Sometimes you need a break from hefty books like Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Antifragile, or Walter Isaacson’s Leonardo da Vinci. Nonetheless, I found the book interesting and informative.
James Clear brings a really good mix of his own personal experience, and relevant science – probably not as thoroughly as Matthew Walker’s Why We Sleep, but then again the latter author is a sleep researcher.
Some of my key takeaways were:
- Habits are a way to make actions somewhat autonomic – imagine how much easier your life would be if all the necessary, tedious things were autonomic.
- You can’t just stop a habit, you have to redirect/replace it.
- Habit stacking is a useful technique to give habits more weight. For example I have some medication I must take every day. When I wake up, I’ve built a habit of having a glass of water, and onto that habit I stack taking said medication.
The book is written in a very approachable, first-person voice, and as mentioned earlier, it is quite a quick read. I thoroughly recommend it for you’re week’s commute, or a shortish flight.
guysherman.com 
Hey Guy,
Loved the review. I’ll definitely have to check out the book. Have you had a chance to check out Charles Duhigg’s book, The Power of Habit? They seem to cover a lot of the same ground, so the two might synergize well together for a more solid understanding of the material. I covered some of Duhigg’s material in an article lately, and I’d love to get some feedback. In the article I try to ground our understanding of habit in a manner that is useful in business. Maybe you’d have more insight into the topic with what you’ve learned from Atomic Habits. It’s always nice to hear a fresh perspective.
If you’re interested, here’s the link to my article: http://etsocialum.com/habits-in-the-workplace/