Review: Atomic Habits by James Clear

For many of us, the beginning of 'lockdown' was filled with fear and confusion and panic. The thought of having no job to get up for, no sports to train for and no events to go to frightened me and left me panicking about how I was going to fill my days. So, I turned to my phone for comfort and mindlessly scrolled on Instagram tik tok for days. That was until I stumbled across a post by an influencer I have been following for quite a while - Sinead Hegarty (https://www.instagram.com/sineadheg/). The post is a picture of her reading and in the caption, she said 'Accept the situation, if you're not accepting your resisting. Resisting strains your brain.⁣' and this really hit home. Although the caption was inspiring in itself, it was the image that really spoke to me. When I was younger, I adored reading. The thought of reading before bed made me giddy with excitement. And so I went onto Sinead's Blog (https://www.sineadhegarty.com/) and chose a book from her wide selection of reviews.

The book I chose was Atomic Habits by James Clear. As I was planning on using my time during lockdown to better myself both mentally, physically and spiritually, I thought this book might be useful in making these changes more and permanent. The book would go on to have a much greater effect on me than I could have imagined.

For one, the very act of reading improved my attention span immensely. In the beginning, I go more than 3 pages without my mind drifting off. Slowly but surely, I began reading more and more and within a week I had to limit myself to a chapter a day! James Clear's simple yet effective way of writing definitely helped with this as it was a very easy-to-follow read.

Secondly, the practicality of this book makes the thought of making a change less daunting and the prospect of it becoming habitual more possible. The book describes the ways in which tiny changes to our daily lives can over time produce life-changing results. Some of these 'atomic habits' include the art of habit stacking, temptation bundling and habit tracking. I really enjoyed the step-by-step nature of his chapters, especially the tables at the end of each chapter which show what you have learned and also what is to come.

As a naturally sceptical person. Clear's use of psychology, neuroscience and inspiring stories from Olympic gold medallists, CEO's and himself was very appealing to me. It kept me engaged while also reassuring me of the results that 'atomic habits' can have. Another intriguing feature was the authors use of physical activities within chapters which helped reinforce the message of that chapter.

This is a book I will come back to again and again. It is packed with wisdom and knowledge that I believe every person could benefit from. Atomic Habits is a book that has the capacity to change your life, so get reading!

Rating: 8/10