Read "Atomic Habits" without Reading It

A quick guide to an important book

“Atomic Habits” by James Clear is an important book. It offers a fresh take on building habits: leveraging small, digestible changes that become powerful results. Although I didn’t research the statistics, my estimate is that it’s been a New York Times Bestseller for roughly nineteen years and has sold roughly 7.5 trillion copies. As such, when I started reading it, it felt like an important book.

I had to take notes.

Really, really good notes.

Below, you will witness the fruits of my labor. However, in the interest of digestibility, I’ve prepared a summary of James Clear’s “Atomic Habits” in three different forms. Select your level, player:

• Easy: An Infographic Summary of “Atomic Habits” (1 picture)

• Medium: Quick-hit bullet points summarizing the book (1,600 words)

• Hard: A more detailed, chapter-by-chapter breakdown (7,400 words)

Since I don’t want to clog your inbox with 9,000 words, I’ll just leave you with those links. And since you’re subscribed to my Substack, I’ll share this little tip with you and no one else:

I did all of this just because I wanted to absorb the book itself.

Every time I took down a note for Atomic Habits, it went into this upcoming blog post. I knew I was killing two birds with one stone: absorbing the book, of course, but also creating an asset that anyone with Google can check out for years.

When I reviewed my notes to create my “bullet points” and even my infographic, same thing: I told myself I was multi-tasking. I was absorbing the notes and creating a resource I could use in the future.

What can you do to create resources for other people that will also serve as resources for yourself? You may find it’s exactly what the market needed, but never could articulate.

Happy reading—or skimming,

Dan