James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, learned the importance of habit building after a traumatic injury in his youth.

He learned that if you focus on improving yourself by developing good habits, you'll be able to achieve your goals.

Key Idea

YOU CAN DEVELOP POSITIVE HABITS THROUGH SMALL INCREMENTAL CHANGES

Small changes, though they may seem unimportant now, can add up. Eventually, they can lead to drastic results.

These small changes are what Clear calls atomic habits. An atomic habit “refers to a tiny change, a marginal gain, a 1% improvement.”

If you improve by 1 percent each day for a year, you’ll be thirty-seven times better by the end of the year.

The reverse is also true — if you get 1 percent worse each day for a year, you’ll end up basically at zero.

The way we build habits can be divided into four steps: cue, craving, response, and reward. Together, these steps are known as the habit loop.

1. Make it obvious. Attach new habits to old habits you already have.
2. Second Law: Make it Attractive.The more that you like doing somethin...