In
Atomic Habits,
James Clear 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. 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. 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." , in 2010|299x299px == Publication history ==