Atomic Habits

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.

In 1776, Adam Smith laid the foundation of modern economics in his magnum opus, The Wealth of Nations. 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. It may not always be external, but, most of the time, it will be. Then, three more stages follow to complete the four-step pattern:

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. Craving. The motivation to change something to get the reward, like tasting the delicious cookie or being able to see. Response. Whatever thought or action you need to take to get to the reward. 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, Gretchen Rubins four tendencies, or BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits behavior model. James offers a more refined version of what Duhigg described in The Power of Habit and while all of these approaches are different, none of them are mutually exclusive.

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: Make it obvious. Don’t hide your fruits in your fridge, put them on display front and center. Make it attractive. Start with the fruit you like the most, so you’ll actually want to eat one when you see it. Make it easy. Don’t create needless friction by focusing on fruits that are hard to peel. Bananas and apples are super easy to eat, for example. 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, spending…