brenticus reviewed Hello, Habits by Fumio Sasaki
None
4 stars
Most self help books talk about habits, at least in terms of "once you make this one life-changing trick a habit your whole life will be better with no effort!" But habits, while central to the proper functioning of their whole concept, aren't given much attention.
There are other books on habits out there, many of which are already wildly popular, but something about the way Sasaki writes makes it feel so simple. When he talks about willpower and motivation and stuff, you read it and think "yeah, that tracks." When he's walking through he gigantic list of things to keep in mind while you're trying to form habits, you think "yeah, seems straightforward." He isn't trying to sell you on a system or convince you his way of life is the best, this feels more like a discussion of how forming habits works for him and here's some research …
There are other books on habits out there, many of which are already wildly popular, but something about the way Sasaki writes makes it feel so simple. When he talks about willpower and motivation and stuff, you read it and think "yeah, that tracks." When he's walking through he gigantic list of things to keep in mind while you're trying to form habits, you think "yeah, seems straightforward." He isn't trying to sell you on a system or convince you his way of life is the best, this feels more like a discussion of how forming habits works for him and here's some research and anecdotes to help back it up. And, in the end, you're left with some good general concepts easy to take to your next attempt at self-improvement.
I wouldn't say that this is quite as solid as Goodbye Things was, where he talked about the changes extreme minimalism caused in his life, but it's still a very good look at habit formation and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a fairly light read on the subject.
