Atomic Habits by James Clear

I read this book during the most dysfunctional phase of my life and it taught me that I do not necessarily have to have the motivation and the willpower to get things done.

Atomic Habits helped me understand that changing my environment in such a way that good habits become easier and more enticing to do than the bad ones can make a huge difference.

Key Takeaways from Atomic Habits

• Building habits is not more about motivation or willpower but more about the environment and system that you create for yourself.
• You get more productive by focusing on your systems and sticking to them instead of relying on sheer motivation to get things done.
• Design your systems in a way that good habits become the easiest option to do than the bad ones.

My topmost favorite quotes from Atomic Habits

• “This is a continuous process. There is no finish line. No permanent solution. Small habits don’t add up, they compound. That’s the power of atomic habits – tiny changes, remarkable results.”
• “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
• “When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running.”
• “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it—but all that had gone before.”
• “Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.”