Atomic Habits Summary (James Clear) - Book Summary

12/11/23, 12:22 PM Atomic Habits Summary (James Clear) | Book Summary & Review
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Atomic Habits Summary
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 November 29, 2018 (https://fourminutebooks.com/atomic-habits-summary/)  Niklas Göke
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1-Sentence-Summary: Atomic Habits

(https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40121378-atomic-habits) is
the definitive guide to breaking bad behaviors and adopting good ones
in four steps, showing you how small, incremental, everyday routines
compound into massive, positive change over time.
Read in: 4 minutes
Favorite quote from the author: 
✕
What is your goal?
I want to get rich. 💸

I want to have better habits. 👟
I want to be happier. 🙂
https://fourminutebooks.com/atomic-habits-summary/ 1/10
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Table of Contents [Hide]
Video Summary
Atomic Habits Review
Audio Summary
Who would I recommend the Atomic Habits summary to?
Video Summary
One of the best keynote speeches I’ve seen is Seth Godin’s

presentation (https://youtu.be/PJ6eZIYZsyg?t=2104) for his book
Linchpin (https://fourminutebooks.com/linchpin-summary/). On one ✕
What is your
of the slides, he shows a baseball goal? into the stands, with
bat flying
people ducking away and raising their arms in terror.

While Seth uses the picture to make a point about our irrational
🤫
✕
Pssst!
fears These 12 of our 1,000+ books are the best about happiness!
(https://fourminutebooks.com/abundance-summary/), in
some rare cases, those fears come true. James Clear was one of
those cases. When he was in high school, a loose bat smashed right
into his face. Broken nose, dangerous brain swellings, dislocated
eyes, fractures, his recovery took months.
To get his own baseball career back on track, he had no choice but
to rely on the power of small gains. In college, he slowly
accumulated good habits and eventually managed to become one
of 33 players for the All-American Academic team. Wow!
Today, he is one of the most popular habit researchers, reaching

millions through his blog at JamesClear.com
(http://jamesclear.com/). His first book, Atomic Habits
(https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40121378-atomic-habits), is
now the definitive guide on the topic and has quickly become a New
York Times bestseller!
Here are 3 lessons to help you use everything he’s learned to break
bad habits and form good ones:

1. Every time we perform a habit, we execute a four-step pattern:
cue, craving, response, reward.
2. If we want to form new habits, we should make them obvious,
✕
attractive, easy, and satisfying.
What is your goal?
3. You can use a habit tracker as a fun way to measure your
progress and make sureI want get rich. 💸
youto don’t fall off the wagon.
want to have better habits. 👟
Let’s see what it takes to Iform new habits by learning from a true
habit master! I want to be happier. 🙂

✕
Pssst!
If you want to save this summary for later, download the

free PDF and read it whenever you want.
Download PDF 
(https://pages.convertkit.com/faf1929641/8e85b3e2c4)
Lesson 1: All habits are based on a four-step pattern,

which consists of cue, craving, response, and reward.
In 1776, Adam Smith laid the foundation of modern economics in
his magnum opus, The Wealth of Nations
(https://amzn.to/2Qw5vZu). One of his most famous observations is
that, in a free market system, all workers naturally maximize their
own society’s welfare, even if merely acting in their own best
interest:
“…he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote

an end which was no part of his intention.”
When it comes to habits, James suggests that environment is the


invisible hand that shapes human behavior. That’s why a prompt
is always the first step in performing any habit
(https://fourminutebooks.com/tiny-habits-summary/). It may not
✕
always be external, but, most of the time, it will be. Then, three more
What is your goal?
stages follow to complete the four-step pattern:
1. Cue. A piece of information that suggests there’s a reward to be
found, like the smell of a cookie or a dark room waiting to light
up.
2. Craving. The motivation to change something to get the

🤫
✕
Pssst! These
reward, 12 of our
like tasting 1,000+
the bookscookie
delicious are the
orbest about
being ablehappiness!
to see.
3. Response. Whatever thought or action you need to take to get
to the reward.
4. Reward. The satisfying feeling you get from the change, along
with the lesson whether to do it again or not.
There are several popular methodologies that try to predict how
and why we do what we do, such as Charles Duhigg’s habit loop
(https://fourminutebooks.com/the-power-of-habit-summary/),
Gretchen Rubins four tendencies
(https://fourminutebooks.com/the-four-tendencies-summary/), or BJ
Fogg’s Tiny Habits behavior model
(https://betterhumans.coach.me/how-to-create-any-habit-with-
advice-from-the-four-greatest-habit-masters-9b96528db259). James
offers a more refined version of what Duhigg described in The Power
of Habit (https://fourminutebooks.com/the-power-of-habit-
summary/) and while all of these approaches are different, none of
them are mutually exclusive.
Lesson 2: To form habits, you must make them obvious,

attractive, easy, and satisfying.
From the four-step pattern he suggests, James then derives four 
laws of behavior change, which correspond to one part of the loop

each. Here they are, along with some ideas for how you can use
them to facilitate good behaviors and make bad ones harder: ✕
What is your goal?
1. Make it obvious. Don’t hide your fruits in your fridge, put them
on display front and center.
want to have better habits. 👟
2. Make it attractive. IStart with the fruit you like the most, so
you’ll actually want to eat
I wantone when🙂you see it.
to be happier.
3. Make it easy. Don’t create needless friction by focusing on

🤫
✕
Pssst! These
fruits that 12hard
are of our
to1,000+ books areand
peel. Bananas theapples
best about happiness!
are super easy
to eat, for example.
4. Make it satisfying. If you like the fruit you picked, you’ll love
eating it and feel healthier as a result!
You can apply these to all kinds of good habits, like running, working
on a side project (https://fourminutebooks.com/side-hustle-
summary/), spending more time with family, and so on. Conversely,
do the opposite for bad habits. Make them invisible, unattractive,
difficult, and unsatisfying. For example, you could hide your
cigarettes, add financial penalties, get rid of all lighters, and only
allow yourself to smoke outside in the cold.
Lesson 3: A habit tracker is a fun and easy way to

ensure you stick to your new behaviors.
With a framework like this, making and breaking habits becomes
fun. You’ll likely want to tackle multiple things sooner rather than
later, but it’s important to not take on too much at once. An easy
way of keeping yourself accountable without becoming
overwhelmed is to track your habits with a habit tracker
(https://niklasgoeke.com/habit-tracker/).

The idea is simple: You keep a record of all the behaviors you
want to establish or abandon and, at the end of each day, you
mark which ones you succeeded with. This record can be a single ✕
piece of paper, a journal, aWhat
calendar,
is youror a digital tool, like an app.
goal?
I want to get rich.

This strategy is based on what’s sometimes called the Seinfeld
💸
productivity hack (https://fourminutebooks.com/the-habit-blueprint-
summary/). Comedian JerryI wantSeinfeld 🙂
apparently
to be happier. marked his calendar
with a big ‘X’ every day he came up with a joke. Soon, his goal was to
🤫
✕
Pssst!
not These
break the 12 ofIt’s
chain. oura 1,000+
simple,books are the best
but effective about
strategy tohappiness!
help you
build good habits.
And since habits are the compound interest of self-improvement

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1Xm_MA2NwA), that’s a
process we should all start today.
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(https://fourminutebooks.co 
m/go/eop/)
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What is your goal?

Atomic Habits Review

🤫
✕
Pssst!it comes
When Theseto12changing
of our 1,000+ books arewe
our behavior, theall
best about
need happiness!
to find out
what works for us. That said, there are several scientifically proven
strategies we should all try first. Atomic Habits
(https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40121378-atomic-habits) is a
complete, fun, engaging, and simple to understand compendium of
those strategies. I highly recommend you make it your first stop
when wanting to learn about the science of habits.
Audio Summary
Listen to the audio of this summary with a free reading.fm
account: (https://reading.fm/en/user/registration?
rfid=CZM3gG4Koemnk-a7)
Who would I recommend the Atomic Habits summary 

to?
The 17 year old high school athlete, who wants to go pro in college,
the 43 year old overworked creative, who struggles with finding time ✕
for sports, and anyone who’s never
What written
is your goal? down a list of their
habits (https://fourminutebooks.com/habit-books/).
Last Updated on November
I want13, better habits. 👟
2023
to have
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Pssst!This These 12 ofan
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12/11/23, 12:22 PM Atomic Habits Summary (James Clear) | Book Summary & Review

🤫 These 12 of our 1,000+ books are the best about happiness!

1-Sentence-Summary: Atomic Habits

Read in: 4 minutes

Favorite quote from the author: 

I want to get rich. 💸

One of the best keynote speeches I’ve seen is Seth Godin’s

I want to have better habits. 👟

Today, he is one of the most popular habit researchers, reaching