Atomic Habits: An Easy & proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones is a 2018 self-help book by James Clear, a researcher of habit formation.[1] The book received acclaim from most critics, with a few strongly disapproving of its claims. It became highly popular among readers in the years following its publication; as of February 2024, it has sold nearly 20 million copies, and had topped the New York Times best-seller list for 164 weeks.
In Atomic Habits, James Clear, a researcher of how humans form habits, gives readers advice on breaking any habit which negatively affects them—such as procrastinating or succumbing to an addiction—as well as replacing it with a positive habit, such as working efficiently or abstaining from an addiction. He claims that if the reader often displays negative habitual behavior, it is not caused by "you"—in that "you" specifically are inherently predisposed to perpetuating the habit, as the reader may believe—but rather by "your system": the reader's network of previously self-imposed mental barriers which now prevent the personal growth they need to break the habit. Clear writes that this "system" can also prevent the reader from naturally displaying positive habitual behavior, but says that they can break their system down over time.[1][2][3][4]
Clear says that all habits are made of a "cue, craving, response, and reward”, which he exemplifies with people needing light to see: a person receives a "cue" that they need light to see inside of a room, they "crave" better vision and thus turn on a light in the room, they feel the "response" of better vision, and get the "reward" of seeing clearly.[5]
The book's "ethos" is that a reader's "lack of willpower" towards displaying positive habits is best fought with "getting 1% better each day": if they make a routine of displaying "atomic habits", positive habits which require little exertion, they builds up their ability to display larger ones which, otherwise, they would not have enough willpower to do routinely.[2] Clear says that "designing the right environment to build habits" is necessary for this; the reader should focus on the "deepest layer of behavior change"—changing their identity—which he simplifies by saying, "the goal isn’t to run a marathon, it’s to become a runner.” For this task, the reader should engage in self-actualization, finding out "who [they] want to be" and proving their new identity to themselves by solving the tasks required to become that person.[2][3]
Similar to other self-help books, but with his own terminology, Clear recommends "stacking", or starting a task immediately after finishing another; and then "temptation bundling", giving yourself a small reward for doing the "stacked" habits. He notes that positive habits come more naturally to some people than others; as an example, he says that people with higher oxytocin levels are more likely to be "high in agreeableness", so they "might be inclined to build habits like writing thank-you notes."[5]
Atomic Habits was first published by Avery Publishing (an imprint of the Penguin Group) on October 16, 2018.[1] The book was reissued in 2023 with a new cover design by George Griffiths, which won the Penguin Cover Design Award in 2024 for books in the adult non-fiction category.[6]
After the book's publication, Clear started selling the "Clear Habit Journal", a daily planner intended to aid in the development of good habits.[7] In 2024, he released a smartphone app named "Atoms", designed to help in the same way.[3]
Reception
Atomic Habits was not an instant success, only gaining popularity in the years following its publication.[5] In 2024, Omaid Homayum wrote for Forbes that the book had "caught fire", having sold nearly 20 million copies—faster-selling than famous self-help book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Homayum said that quotes from Clear's book had "broken the internet [sic]".[3] As of February 14, 2024, the book had topped the New York Times best-seller list of U.S. book sales for 164 weeks, and was the top-selling book on Amazon.[8]Slate wrote that Atomic Habits was the "self-help book of the decade".[9] In 2025, the book came #10 in The Sunday Times Bestsellers List of U.K. book sales.[10]
In Entrepreneur magazine, John Rampton listed Atomic Habits as one of the 17 best books ever written on management and productivity.[11] Dayana Aleksandrova wrote for Business Insider that the book was "unanimously recommended" by every person she questioned about how they achieved a "higher-performer" work ethic, and that reading the book "change[d] my life for the better": "So far, the lessons I've taken away from the book have worked at an 100% success rate — especially when it comes to addressing procrastination."[4] Nikk Cottrell wrote for The Independent that the book had positively "changed the course of my year".[12] For Literary Hub, James Folta that the book became a part of the literary canon among "business thought leader[s]" on LinkedIn.[13] Actress Rosamund Pike said that since reading the book, she had become interested in achieving "marginal gains".[14]Luigi Mangione, the accused murderer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, listed the book as one of his favorites on Goodreads.[13]
Some critics were skeptical or disapproving of Atomic Habits' theories. Anthony Lane wrote for The New Yorker that inevitably, "[a reader's] conscience rebels" against the advice of self-help books like Atomic Habits if a minor obstacle comes in the way of their own reading habit: "You were reading James Clear's [book and] doing well until you spilled half a bottle of Knob Creek over the last sixty pages. Now you’ll never know how it ends."[15] Steven Phillips-Horst strongly rebuked the book's theories and alleged usefulness in The Guardian, saying it is one of many trending "modern therapy [books] with pseudoscientific grand theories on human behavior"—like The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck and The Body Keeps the Score—that contain "comforting yet impenetrable" advice. He said the books "peddle feel-good Marvel movie versions of philosophy that don’t challenge our conceptions, but validate our feelings, often backing up their circular logic with dubious 'research' and 'experts'."[5]
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