Around 7 months back, I read and wrote a review on the book The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. After reading, Atomic Habits by James it felt more like the practical version of the Habit formation.
Before reading the review for Atomic Habits if you wish to read the review of Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg click on this link.

 

So, my first impression of the book is quite interesting. Book provided a clear picture of Habit Loop formation based on 4 cycles: Cue, Craving, Reward, and Response. The cue triggers some action that we crave and respond to reward ourselves with a sense of accomplishment. Book seems to answer the following queries:

  • What are habits and how they are formed?
  • What are good habits and bad habits?
  • How to add good habits and break from bad habits?



Aspects in the book

The book is divided into six major sections:

  1. The fundamentals where habits are introduced.
  2. The 1st Law (Make it Obvious) where guidelines to start with habit are presented.
  3. The 2nd Law (Make it Attractive) where the process of repetitively starting the habits is mentioned.
  4. The 3rd Law (Make it Easy) where the details to follow up with the habits is explained.
  5. The 4th Law (Make it Satisfying) where ways to stick with those created habits in long term are presented
  6. Advance tactics are covered which are more like writers’ thoughts on Habit and its correlation with other elements of life, truth, motivation, etc.

Each section covers three or four chapters that are simple to understand and connect with habit loop formation.

Who should read this book

This book can be a great handbook for Habit formation. So, this book can be good for students, employees, and managers. This is a great book to gift to your children or employees or a friend. The book is written in simple language and provides a clear outline of what habit is and how it can be altered for good. The Book can provide direction on how an individual can become better in their career or start something new or stop something they are struggling from a long time. So, it can be a book on your bucket list.

 

Personal Review

As I had read Book by Charles Duhigg on Habit formation, my thoughts were similar when I started. If I had to do a quick comparison then Charles Duhigg covers more research details on habit formation and Atomic Habits focuses more on the implementation side of Habit formation. If you haven’t read both books yet I would highly recommend reading the book by Charles Duhigg before beginning with Atomic Habits.

The most appealing thing about the book is the breakdown of the sections. The author provides a gradual process of how you can create a new habit. Also, the author has presented the cheat sheet to follow through with the new habit. The author explains the reason for the difficulties to start any habit and provides a way to get motivated. The primary motive of the author is to help us understand the natural process of rewards which are related to accomplishments.

I had presented the missing end of willpower formation in a previous review of the Book by Charles Duhigg which I felt answered in this book. The book is highly recommended and worth reading.