Atomic Habits book review

The book has all these little gems tucked into this tiny, perfect package, and that's part of it being atomic. Tiny, minuscule atoms combine, and they can change everything, right?

Atomic Habits is written by James Clear. The genre of the book is nonfiction, and the theme is self-improvement, psychology, and business.

So I'm three hours into reading the book, and I have a lightbulb moment.

Kyla, you've been doing this one thing. It's been detrimental to you. You need to stop. You haven't wanted to stop. Here it is plainly. You're listening to it, and you've got to make the change.

And that thing is working in bed.

I was always the person who said I never wanted a TV in my bedroom. I hear that it affects your relationship. You don't talk as much to your spouse, all this stuff.

Well, that has not happened.

For me, having a TV in the bedroom means trying to multitask and really being unproductive at everything.

I would go to bed, have my lap tray, sit there working, and try to watch TV. Then I'm thinking, "Okay, I can't focus on that. Let's turn to the Food Network."

So I either find myself missing the show and rewinding it while trying to edit a video, or I'm editing the video and then have to rewatch the entire episode because I missed it.

Completely unproductive.

I'm sitting up until 1:30 in the morning exhausted when the kiddo's up at 7 to get ready for school, eat breakfast, and all this stuff.

We would take the kiddo to daycare and come back home. I would sit on the couch with the news on because I had just started to enjoy TV. I had never been a huge TV watcher, but then I started enjoying it and had it on everywhere.

So I started reading the book and was like, "I'm not doing it again."

That night, I decided I wasn't taking my laptop upstairs.

The next day, we took the kid to daycare. I came back home and was like, "Okay, where am I going to work?"

Well, I have this whole desk. I have typewriters to remind me that I'm supposed to be working. This is my working space. This is not just my YouTube corner. This is literally your office. Why aren't you using it?

We also have this awesome living room space that isn't being used during the day because the kiddos are at school, my husband is upstairs working in his office, and this space is just here.

It's a beautiful table that we bought for Thanksgiving, chairs, and a couch. I can sit here. I can do my book outlines, write my notes, and be on the computer when I need to.

So the next day, the kiddo goes to bed, and I'm thinking, "Oh, I want to edit ahead. I'm changing my habits. Let's work ahead. Let's go upstairs."

I could not walk upstairs with my laptop and my tray just that quickly.

Atomic Habits will make you think about your actions, and you will make a change just that quick.

I was like, "No, you said you were never taking it upstairs again. You are never doing it. And that's it, period."

James Clear talks about having one purpose for one room. You might not have that luxury when you're working in an apartment. You're kind of working wherever you have to be.

I've certainly done that.

We came from a two-bedroom apartment. The living room space was an office, co-working space, eating space, all the stuff. But we moved into a house in September 2022.

I literally have the space to designate areas for work. I literally have the space to designate areas for sleep.

Then I get to a quote that meant a big deal to me, and I write it down:

"The mark of whether you're made for a task is not whether you love it but whether you can handle the pain that comes along with the task better than other people."

That was such a breath of fresh air because I am a podcaster. I love podcasting. I love talking to guests, finding guests, researching them, recording, and editing.

People come to me and say, "Hey, Kyla, can you talk to me about podcasting? I'm gonna start a podcast. Can you tell me how?"

I'm going through these calls and talking to them, and they're like, "Oh my God, it's so much work."

And I'm like, "No! Oh my, no. It's okay. It's fine. Here, use a worksheet that I have."

Then it's, "Oh, I can't do it. It's too much work."

I can handle the pain because this is a task I'm willing to do.

I always thought, well, everyone gets there, right? Everyone does it.

That's what James Clear talks about in the book. You have to enjoy what you're doing to get into a flow state.

For me to sit down and edit a video that is an hour and 20 minutes, get it down to about 32 minutes, and just be working for four hours, you forget to eat, drink, and all this stuff. You can deal with the pain of it.

This book, Atomic Habits, made me feel really grateful for my life.

I had just passed the one-year anniversary of being fired from a job, and that was very, very hard for me.

I was like, "Okay, I went to law school. I'm not practicing as a lawyer. I'm not even working in a law firm anymore. Who am I?"

I can be whoever I want to be, but I must have the atomic, teeny, weeny, weeny, tiny, small habits in place. It made me really happy to read the book and be like, "Okay, some of my habits work. Some don't."

James Clear says four things are really important for making a habit and establishing a new habit: make it obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying.

For me, the big focus was making it easy.

I've been telling myself that I was going to exercise. I'm like, "You have this house. You have a garage. Pull the car out of the garage, jump rope, and pull it back in. That's it. Easy."

It's not easy. I haven't done it. I was never going to do it.

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So now, I told myself and my husband, "We're gonna take the kiddo to daycare. We get back, we're gonna pull the car onto the driveway. I'm gonna go into the garage while it's empty and jump rope for a minute."

And I've done it. I've done it for the last five days!

For me, it's about making it easy. Don't even worry about moving the car. Do not even pull the car into the garage.

It's completely empty. It's cold outside. It's raining. That has nothing to do with you.

Jump rope, then go get the car and move it in.

That has really helped me as well.

The book has all these little gems tucked into this tiny, perfect package, and that's part of it being atomic. Tiny, minuscule atoms combine, and they can change everything.

One of the challenges in the book is to write down your daily habits and mark whether they are good, bad, or neutral. So I'm listening to the book, and I'm like, "I'm not going to do that. I don't care. My habits are fine. I get my work done."

But I'm also a rule follower. I'm a lawyer.

And I was like, "Okay, we're going to do it."

So I did it.

Seeing it on paper, most of my day is work-focused or neutral. But the bad things were really bad. I don't know when it switched, but thank God I was able to switch it back.

So, Atomic Habits. Would I reread this book?

Yes.

I will put Atomic Habits on the special list of books I will reread yearly, along with Big Magic. I absolutely read that every year. In fact, it's time for me to pick that back up.

Do you believe that your habits need to change?

I'm here to tell you, whether you don't need to change them or whether you need to change all of them, write them down. See them in plain view, and then let that be the deciding factor.

https://youtu.be/ZezLOEjKOhc

Until the next book review,

Kyla