Hello Habits: A Minimalist's Guide to a Better Life

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

This thread is to discuss Hello, Habits: A Minimalist's Guide to a Better Life by Fumio Sasaki.

Pages: 304 pages

Length: 1 month (January)

Participants: Elaine, Beth

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Here are some questions to help get the conversation started! Feel free to look up discussion questions specific to this book or come up with your own. Just make sure any questions that contain spoilers are under spoiler tags.
Discussion questions are not required but may be a fun way to talk about the book and get to know each other!

Prior to starting:
What prompted you to join this buddy read?
Have you read this author before? What do you think of their other books?

Mid-read:
What character or ideas do you relate to the most and why?
Do you have any favorite quotes or scenes?

After reading:
What was enjoyable or not-so-enjoyable about this book?
Did this book change your perception about anything, either within the book (character development) or in real life?

[Elaine]

I read this at the end of 2024 and found it to be an easy and practical read. I read this authors first book Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism a few years ago and enjoyed his writing then as well...

I don't know if this book covered any new ground, but I did enjoy the practical ideas to help break down old habits and instill new ones. I haven't put any of them into use but may give it a go.

[Beth]

Starting this one today. I'm looking for some tips, tricks, and motivataion to do some downsizing in my own life. I'm not really a minimalist person, so I'm eager to see how much (if at all) I can relate to what he talks about.

This author is new to me.

[Beth]

I'm about halfway through. It may be the quality of the translation, but I'm finding this author choppy and difficult to read. A lot of the phrasing and ideas don't seem to logically flow.

A lot of his suggestions are worthwhile, but they don't seem practical unless you're in a situation such as his... single, no kids, etc. He can get up, do yoga, meditate, clean, shower, etc. as a "flow" routine. Someone with kids would be really challenged to accomplish that. (I realize what he says about this life are his examples because they do work for him; anyone wanting to put these practices in place would need to figure how to do so in a way that worked for them.)

Mostly, this reads like a rehash of a lot of other work and suggestions I've seen before.

That said, there is a lot here that resonates with me... getting bogged down in thinking about "should I do something right now or do it later" that really saps getting things done.

This paragraph is a mini therapy session for me. I'm putting it under spoiler tags so you only read it if you really want to. 😉 (view spoiler)[As I was reading the section about performing habits every day, I thought about my experience with that in the past. Saying I'm going to do something every day winds up becoming obsessive for me... that no matter what I have going on or how I feel on any given day, I will do that thing, even to my detriment. As long as I can keep up doing that thing every day no matter what, at any cost, I can keep that habit going. But the first day I miss, I find it's really tough to resume the following day... my brain tells me I've broken the record, disturbed the sequence, so if I also miss tomorrow, that won't be horrible because I've already broken the streak. The next thing I know, it's been 4, 6, 10 days since I've done that thing, and I have to start all over again. (hide spoiler)]

[Beth]

Finished.

Enjoyable: very small nuggets at a time, easy to read through and digest

Un-enjoyable: whether the translation or the writing style, the writing was stilted and didn't flow well in all places.

I don't think it really changed my perspective. As I mentioned earlier, he basically took a lot of other people's thoughts and concepts and synthesized them into a program that works for him. He does say that everyone needs to take these ideas and develop their own personal plans rather than trying to follow his.

3 stars overall