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Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

James Clear (Goodreads Author)

4.32 · Rating details · 35,217 ratings · 3,343 reviews

The instant New York Times bestseller

Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results

No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.
< The instant New York Times bestseller

Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results

No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Here, you'll get a proven system that can take you to new heights.

Clear is known for his ability to distill complex topics into simple behaviors that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. Along the way, readers will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.

Learn how to:
  *  make time for new habits (even when life gets crazy);
  *  overcome a lack of motivation and willpower;
  *  design your environment to make success easier;
  *  get back on track when you fall off course;
...and much more.

Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal. ...more

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Kindle Edition, 319 pages

Published October 16th 2018 by Avery

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· 35,217 ratings · 3,343 reviews

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Oct 25, 2018 Simon rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction

This book does a great job of laying down the framework of how habits are formed, and shares insightful strategies for building good habits and breaking bad ones. Even though I was already familiar with research behind habit formation, reading through this book helped me approach habits I’m trying to adopt or break in my own life from different angles.

But the book suffers from the same problems that seem to plague all self-help books. In the chapter about tracking habits, the author This book does a great job of laying down the framework of how habits are formed, and shares insightful strategies for building good habits and breaking bad ones. Even though I was already familiar with research behind habit formation, reading through this book helped me approach habits I’m trying to adopt or break in my own life from different angles.

But the book suffers from the same problems that seem to plague all self-help books. In the chapter about tracking habits, the author shares an anecdote about Benjamin Franklin’s habit of carrying a journal everywhere to track thirteen virtues. If you care to know more about that story, Franklin tried to make a habit of his thirteen virtues by turning it into a thirteen week course where he would work on a different virtue every week and track his progress. The author conveniently leaves out the fact that Franklin quickly found this method impractical and abandoned the project before getting through all thirteen virtues. There’s a lot of irony in including this anecdote in a chapter that talks about the importance of not “breaking the chain”. So while the author isn’t entirely wrong, I found it off-putting that he would retell this story in a manner that fit his narrative. This is a vice that is found all too commonly in self-help and pop science books that make you question the author’s intellectual rigour.

Another criticism I have of this book is that it could have been even shorter. The last few chapters under “Advanced Tactics” that deal with the topic of mastery were the weakest in the book. While there is an obvious connection between habits and mastery, trying to tie in a topic as complex as mastery was perhaps too ambitious.

The three star rating I am giving this book doesn’t reflect how important I consider habits to be. I completely agree with the author that habits are the cornerstone of your life. If you want to change your life in any meaningful way, the only dependable way I know is to build good habits. If you need convincing that habits are important, I would strongly recommend this book. If you are already convinced but struggling to adopt or break habits, racing through this book will give you some good ideas about how you can make changes stick.
...more

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May 13, 2019 Annie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: recommend

Before starting this book, write down some good habits you want to build and some bad habits you want to break. This book is filled with practical steps and examples. Yes, there are plenty of habit-building books out there (just as there are plenty of diet books but yet there are still more new books published every year). Plenty of people are seeking the right book that resonates with them. The key points in this book are:
* Compound Effect - Very small changes over time will have a big im ...more

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Aug 21, 2018 Kaytlin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads

I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway yesterday and immediately settled down to read it. I am always very skeptical of self help books because they often do no get to the root of issues. This one did. James Clear's main arguments are that habits are the compound interest of self improvement and that your identify emerges out of your habits. So, you must expereince a shift in identity for your habits to hold. This made a lot of sense to me, but I do think that Clear should have addresses d ...more

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Jan 20, 2019 abigailscupoftea rated it it was amazing

My 2019 girl boss recommendation. 💕

“Habits do not restrict freedom. They create it. Building habits in the present allows you to do more of what you want in the future.”

This book has helped me build a more productive morning routine and I love it! ☀ Being a morning person has always been a struggle for me, but this book gives you very clear and very easy steps to create the life you’ve always imagined.
When going through your daily habits, ask yourself, “Does this habit c ...more

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Feb 17, 2019 Hampus Jakobsson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

TLDR;
- "You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."
- The best way of building a habit is making it part of your identity.
- Make it easy to start: Habits are the entry point - not the goal. "Read 30 books" ⇒ "Read before bed every night" ⇒ "Read one page". Reduce a habit into a 2-minute first step.
- Stick to the plan: "Professionals stick to the schedule, amateurs let life get in the way." Don't be a "fair weather runner" if you want to r ...more

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Jan 05, 2019 Romanas rated it really liked it

This is a dual review of two books about habit. Habits are important things in one’s life and there are numerous books on the subject. The classic book, a must read, is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. Another two popular books about habits are The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and Atomic Habits by James Clear, that came out very recently. Having read all three of them I combined my notes for the last two in this post. No matter what stage in life you are, it is al This is a dual review of two books about habit. Habits are important things in one’s life and there are numerous books on the subject. The classic book, a must read, is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. Another two popular books about habits are The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and Atomic Habits by James Clear, that came out very recently. Having read all three of them I combined my notes for the last two in this post. No matter what stage in life you are, it is always good to review one’s habits and behaviour – these books provide a good framework for doing it.

One of the habits I’m struggling with is to get rid of the reading of self-help books. Thus, reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and parallelly Atomic Habits by James Clear became a sort of a meta enterprise. Would these self-help books about habits help me to get rid of the habit of reading self-help books? There’s nothing wrong with the self-help genre per se. I believe, everybody should strive to become a better version of themselves. Evidently, there’s a lot of great wisdom in this type of books – many prominent figured refer to them when they tell the story of their success. However, having read tons of them, one would usually circle around the same known stuff and shabby ideas wrapped in different narratives and supported by different anecdotes. The trick here is to know when to stop and, actually, go out and do something by using the knowledge and inspiration gained.

My own habit of falling back to self-help books is, obviously, grounded in the alluring products of the habit loop driven by the craving for knowledge on self-improvement. We can use the basic members of the habit loop – cue, routine, and reward – well covered in the Duhigg’s book and analyse the situation with the reading of self-help books. For this type of products, the cues (triggers) are everywhere, and who can ignore the wish for excellence? Then, the routine is easily carried out – the messages in those books are straightforward that doesn’t require a very deep thinking and reading between the lines. It just assumes the acceptance in many cases, and, finally, the reward is instant – the feeling of getting something very valuable – a digested wisdom and not seldom a bit of inspiration. It can be compared to junk food (which by the way is almost gone from my life thanks to this kind of books). However, my point is not to pick on this genre, but rather to stress the importance of not getting stuck in it, as in my previous point.

Habit as a phenomena humans and other living creatures are equipped with is one of my favourite subjects. I strongly believe, in the end, habits defines us and our destiny. The subject of habit covers several interesting areas as neuroscience, biology, psychology, and more. The basic mechanics of habit system can be described through the theory of operand conditioning, a term coined by B.F. Skinner back in 1930. It is a technique of learning that occurs through reward and punishment for behaviour. Through operand conditioning, an individual makes an association between a behaviour and a consequence. A relatively simple feedback loop forming habits of an individual can be described in terms of drive, stimulus, response, reward with different kind of reinforcers – positive or negative.

What was lacking in the model of operand conditioning was other influencers like feelings, thoughts, and, very importantly – beliefs. Moreover, human behaviour is so complex that factors as the environment and group psychology are of crucial importance when it comes to the habit science. Modern behavioural science takes these terms into account and they are very important in the habit theory. The authors of both books did a great job addressing these factors in their respective methodologies.

Based on the early theory of operand conditioning, different models around habits and behaviour (in my interpretation, behaviour is a series of actions evoked by habits) are developed and fundamental terms are just called different names. Charles Duhigg in The Power of Habit grounds his model on the habit loop consisting of cue-routine-reward parameters which are driven by craving. James Clear in Atomic Habits suggests his model consisting of four steps called cue, craving, response, and reward. These factors are systematically analysed by respective author and the steps how to build good habits and remove the bad ones based on these models are suggested. In both books I found some valuable and interesting points as well as good tips on how to keep one’s habits on the right track.

As one can see from the parameters in each model, there’s a difference in the arrangement of them making some differences in application of the methodologies of habit treatment. Duhigg sees the term craving as a driving force for the members in the habit loop – cue, routine, reward. Clear suggests that craving is simply a second stage in his model of habit. This is the main difference, and I need to admit I haven’t put enough time to analyse which model is right – both make sense. We would need some deeper diving in relevant disciplines and get help from ontology of the actual things here. Anyhow, I tend to believe that a craving lies above cue, routine, and reward. Cues alone without craving are meaningless. Nevertheless, both models are very useful for working on one’s habits. Duhigg argues that the way of changing or replacing of habit is to focus on the routine parameter, or the response part according to the terminology or Clear. Clear gives a lot of examples on how the cue and reward steps can be worked on. I completely agree that even these parts can be influenced, whereas Duhigg argues that the most important thing is to focus on routine leaving cues and rewards unchanged. I believe, we can remove unwanted triggers. Like making the tempting things like candies hard to reach and out of sight, etc. This has been well researched in a very interesting work by Richard H. Thaler for which he was awarded the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2017. Then, we can reprogram our brain to think about rewards differently – change the mode of them or reinforce the distant rewards requiring immediate sacrifice by some direct reward. Clear has a lot of good examples how to do it.

Habit should be seen as one of the essential parts forming an individual. A brilliant quote by Margaret Thatcher shows the operational importance of habits: “Watch your thoughts, for they will become actions. Watch your actions, for they'll become... habits. Watch your habits for they will forge your character. Watch your character, for it will make your destiny.” If we put those terms it in a different order, we can see that habits are very important, perhaps more important than one’s thoughts, because they are operational tools defining which actions one will take and what destiny those actions will form.

In summary, if you are somehow unsatisfied with any of your habits and would like to actively and effectively change them and thus become an individual you’d like to be, I strongly recommend both books. I would read The Power of Habit book first, this book is longer, has more stories, and has more research behind it. Atomic Habits book is easier to get through, especially after reading Duhigg’s book. Both books, as you might have guessed, are clear, easy to read and grasp. They will give you the right mindset to approach your behaviour and provide valuable tools to shape your personality. ...more

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Sep 12, 2019 Britt / Basically Britt rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019

Randomly started listening to this one because I'm trying to get out of my reading slump and I reaaaally enjoyed it! Some tips were super helpful!

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May 03, 2019 Acordul Fin rated it did not like it

Shelves: audiobooks, in-english, non-fiction, where-personal-dev-goes-to-die

“The more pride you have in a particular aspect of your identity, the more motivated you will be to maintain the habits associated with it. If you’re proud of how your hair looks, you’ll develop all sorts of habits to care for and maintain it. If you’re proud of the size of your biceps, you’ll make sure you never skip an upper-body workout. If you’re proud of the scarves you knit, you’ll be more likely to spend hours knitting each week. Once your pride gets involved, you’ll fight tooth and nai

...more

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Nov 13, 2018 Mark Kater rated it really liked it

This book is what I expected "The power of habit" to be. Where TPOH mostly is a collection of stories/anecdotes, Atomic Habits actually goes over practical ways of implementing your own system. It's great! Here's to stop reading and to start doing... :)

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Nov 12, 2018 Mehrsa rated it really liked it

This is basically reinforcement for Duhigg's books on habits. There is some good advice--get rid of obstacles, use cues of things you like to do with things you need to do (i.e., everytime you check facebook, do pushups or whatever). It's good advice, but nothing new or unique.

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Apr 30, 2019 Laura Noggle rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction, 2019, improvement

Enjoyed this one much more than The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, as it's more to the point.

Some great takeaways and excellent reminders. Each chapter succinctly summarized at the end, very quotable. Highly recommend.

1-Sentence-Summary: Atomic Habits is the definitive guide to break bad behaviors and adopt good ones in four steps, showing you how small, incremental, everyday routines compound and add up to massive, positive change over time (via Four Minute Books' excellent review).

Favorite Quotes:

“Every a/>“Every/>Favorite ...more

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Dec 05, 2018 Les rated it it was amazing

I was enlightened by "Willpower" and got some great takeaways from "The Power of Habit", but this is next-level in terms of practical steps and also generating pivotal mental shifts both for the immediate and long terms. Important note: it gets better with each successive chapter - something critical to know since the opening is understandably crucial to the author, but not so much to many readers. Read it.

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Jan 15, 2019 David Laing rated it really liked it

In an episode of the North Star Podcast with David Perrell, the software entrepreneur Daniel Gross said something that I thought was very wise:

The definition of a habit, for me, is something that doesn’t require willpower. How can I build a large collection of habits that are healthy—that are correct—and save them to RAM in my head so that I don’t have to think about them? I would like to have that done by the end of my 20s. I’d like to be in a good place in terms of body composition, in terms of/>

The ...more

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Oct 16, 2018 Stephen Lubin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

8/10

Atomic Habits is a useful book. It’s a practical guide to identifying and changing your habits. It’s something you can actually put into practice in your life.
I think that all of the concepts in the book are good and useful to know but some of the action points I think are slightly oversimplified. If you take the action points in some chapters and modify them to your specific situation you can still apply most of them but you do have to do some critical thinking with the materia 8/10

Atomic Habits is a useful book. It’s a practical guide to identifying and changing your habits. It’s something you can actually put into practice in your life.
I think that all of the concepts in the book are good and useful to know but some of the action points I think are slightly oversimplified. If you take the action points in some chapters and modify them to your specific situation you can still apply most of them but you do have to do some critical thinking with the material.
I like that the book is simple and straightforward. James Clear doesn’t bog you down with a lot of conceptual material. He starts each chapter with an example (some are better than others), gives you the concept plainly, and then gives you concrete actions to apply the concept in real life. It’s a nice formula. Each chapter is roughly 15-20min.
This book is worth reading. It’s easy to apply the knowledge and action steps. Even if it doesn’t completely change your behavior, it will make you more aware of yourself. It provides a good lens that you can use to view yourself and others. I would recommend it to anyone who is trying to really set an airtight routine. If you follow the book you can definitely make something a habit.
I’m a fan of James Clear. I have read his newsletter for about 2yrs now. His newsletter is one of the best I’ve read because it’s interesting and well researched and always has some take away for me. His book is really an expansion on a lot of things he’s covered in his newsletter. There are some chapters that I was already very familiar with because I had read his previous material on it. This doesn’t detract from the book. He expands on most things he’s written about before. The book is laid out like a road map and builds upon itself, which is something you don’t really get from the newsletter.
The intro is pretty graphic. It’s about a personal injury the author has faced. I recommend being prepared for that. Once you get through that it’s all good.
...more

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Jan 26, 2019 Matias Andina rated it did not like it

Reading this book feels like reading a homework assignment. James Clear wanted to read a lot of books and make a summary of the concepts he would implement for self-improvement. He also made a point in improve himself in the most hacky way possible. Instead of keeping the summary as personal notes, he published it. The fact that the author boasts about being a writer only makes it worse. You can actually smell the cheap tools he uses to put words into text and build chapters out of thin air. I w ...more

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Jun 20, 2019 Farah Shamma rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is exactly what I needed to read. A perfect book on establishing habits and teaching your goals one tiny change after another through a personalized system.

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Apr 04, 2019 Mariana Vieira rated it really liked it

This is THE book for habit building and tracking. James Clear provides clear insights on various aspects regarding habits and the four laws are simple and easy to remember. Definitely recommend!

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Nov 20, 2018 Katie (katieladyreads) rated it liked it

I would recommend this to fans of the Power of Habit, it was easy to read and quite interesting but nothing life changing.

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Dec 10, 2018 Jay Pruitt rated it really liked it

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.”

I've read a number of books on how to form positive habits, including The Power of Habit by Duhigg, and in my opinion, Atomic Habits by Clear ranks as the best. It covers what could be considered as ideas of common sense, but presents these ideas in a well organized and logical way.

Basic concepts include the notion that yo ...more

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Jul 16, 2019 Kaytee Cobb rated it really liked it

Shelves: kindle, 2019-read-your-shelves, non-fiction

Goodness, I love habit reading. And this title definitely included some new ideas that I hadn't thought of before. I felt this was a short/easy read overall and truly inspired me to take a look at my habits and find ways to maximize the ones I want to encourage!

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Jan 16, 2019 Otis Chandler marked it as to-read

Brian Johnson recommends

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Aug 21, 2019 Leah Nadeau rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-fav-self-help

Impactful book, practical too which is nice. Great book on how to create of break habits.

I Atomic Habits useful as I did with the book Deep Work by Cal Newport in the sense that both are about improving productivity. Deep Work was more impactful to me though as some things in Atomic Habits were repeated from other books I've read like The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. Power of Habit was more so the importance and impact habits have on you, as oppose to Atomic Habits which I found ...more

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Mar 03, 2019 Ahmad Abugosh rated it it was amazing

There are a lot of books on habits, but this is the best book on habits I've ever read! It breaks things down in a way that is based on research and actionable. A few things that stuck with me are:

1) Whenever you do a habit, you are casting a vote for the person you want to become
2) When you slip up, it's ok. You just have to make the next action you take, be one that is an action you want your ideal person to take
3) A 1% improvement a day, can lead to a 37x improvement a ...more

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Jun 10, 2019 Marta rated it it was amazing

Shelves: psychology-medicine, audio, nonfiction

This was excellent. Full of common sense advice on how to change your habits, one tiny step at a time. The ideas are simple and easy to follow, and he gives concrete examples and even templates for things like habit tracking and evaluating your habits. James Clear also explains the psychology behind his system, sprinkled with interesting, but not too many, real life examples.

For example, we are wired for immediate satisfaction, but most good habits have delayed gratification - so he suggests fi ...more

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Mar 19, 2019 Raúl Yslas rated it did not like it

I’ve got to this book to look for new ideas I could use for a class I’m preparing. I’ve found nothing new. It’s full of really lame interpretations and ideas simplified to the extreme taken from other authors (The Power of Habit - Duhigg, Flow - Csikszentmihalyi) mixed with clearly made up or modified stories (that you’ve read many times before) if you want an unchallenging self-help step by step manual to help you to improve habits and understand their nature in the simplest way possible, this ...more

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Oct 10, 2018 Scott Barngrover rated it it was amazing

A life changing book. I was lucky to get an advanced copy.
James gives great advice on how to build good habits and how to break bad ones. He gives very interesting real life examples and charts that explain his points in an entertaining way. Each chapter has a summary and there is an overall summary of the key principles (laws). I highly recommend this book.

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Oct 21, 2018 Gabriele rated it it was amazing

After watching an interview with James Clear, I had to read this book. In only 200 pages he explains everything you need to know in order to work on your habits. Plus, I also got the feeling that he is a nice and fun person in general.

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Jan 12, 2019 Angie Dokos rated it it was amazing

Very helpful

This book is very helpful. Lots of great tips. I hope I can put them to good use. Seems simple enough.

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Sep 16, 2019 Shannon rated it really liked it

Shelves: practical-and-practices, non-fiction, read-in-2019, via-audiobook

Wow, I really enjoyed this one. Practical advice and great examples, really inspired me to have a look at my habits in a different way which is very cool.

One of my favourite things ever was that was a chapter summary at the end of each chapter going over the main points. I read this via audiobook, and was this helpful to reaffirm what had been just discussed, which is great for memory retention. But also, and specifically about listening via audio, is that it gave me an audio cue/hea ...more

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Sep 05, 2019 Cheese rated it really liked it

There are a gazillion self help books out there, but as self-help books go this is up there for being unique, clear, concise and practical.

I'd recommend this for not just breaking habits and forming new ones, but changing negative things in your life and replacing them with positive direction.

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About James Clear

James Clear

1,449 followers

James Clear is the author of "Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones"

He writes about habits, decision-making, and continuous improvement at jamesclear.com. His website receives millions of visitors each month and hundreds of thousands subscribe to his popular email newsletter.

His work has appeared in the New York Times, Entrepreneur, Time, an ...more