The 10 Best Habits Books of All Time (2024)

Atomic Habits by James Clear is about how small 1% improvements in our daily habits can lead to remarkable results and change your life. This is a practical guide to building good habits and breaking bad habits. The Four Laws of Behaviour Change say to make good habits: obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying.

Why should you read it? When I picked up "Atomic Habits," I didn't expect much. I've read tons of self-help books for my website over the last several years, and they often say the same things. But this book was different. James Clear basically summarizes ALL the best strategies on habit formation in a way that is incredibly... well, "Clear." Best of all, he focuses on making tiny improvements, not big leaps, showing how small daily changes can really add up. I was surprised how much I liked it. It's a book I plan to read again every few years. 📈

The Power of Habits by Charles Duhigg is a deep dive into the science of how habits work. If you want to change your habits but don't know where to start, this book can help you. It provides a simple 3-step formula called "The Habit Loop" to break bad habits and build better ones.

Why should you read it? Charles Duhigg's book first popularized the habit loop - the idea that all our habits follow a cycle of "cue-routine-reward." More importantly, he gave practical ways we can "hack" the steps of this loop to take back control of our habits and our lives. Before Atomic Habits, this was THE go-to book on habits and it is still well worth reading. (For psychology nerds, the habit loop was actually based on the psychologist B.F. Skinner's work that described a 3-step process of stimulus, response, and reinforcement. Basically, his theory explains why your dog turns into a slobber machine the second you rustle their treat bag. 🐶

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is about becoming more effective at reaching our goals and leading others. Stephen Covey says his teachings are based on timeless principles like personal responsibility, empathetic listening, and treating others with fairness.

Why should you read it? This book teaches 7 key principles that you can apply to almost any area of life, kind of like a Swiss Army knife for personal development. Stephen Covey shifts focus from the surface-level pursuits of busyness and status to the character ethic - which says true success is about who we are, not just what we achieve. After all, being busy isn't a personality trait, no matter how much we pretend it is on social media. 🤷‍♂️

Dopamine Nation explains how to break bad habits using the neuroscience of dopamine, the "pleasure molecule" in our brains. If you want to retrain your brain to like doing hard things, Dr. Anna Lembke shares tools that may help like dopamine fasting, self-binding, truth-telling and leaning into pain.

Why should you read it? Imagine a book that helps you understand why we're all seemingly addicted to things like coffee, Instagram likes, or that that sweet, sweet rush of completing a to-do list. Dr. Anna Lembke takes us on a journey through the neuroscience of pleasure and pain, proving that sometimes, too much of a good thing is exactly as bad as it sounds. 🍩

Deep Work is about focusing deeply so you can thrive in your professional career. Cal Newport says reducing distractions and increasing our ability to concentrate will allow us to learn new skills faster and produce higher quality work.

Why should you read it? In a world where the siren song of distractions is almost impossible to resist, Cal Newport's "Deep Work" emerges as the lighthouse guiding us back to productivity and meaningful work. Newport champions the invaluable skill of deep work: the ability to focus without distraction on cognitively demanding tasks. He teaches us that in the age of superficiality, the depth of your focus determines the depth of your success. 🏆

"Eat That Frog!" by Brian Tracy is a guide to stop procrastinating, increase productivity, and master time management. It teaches you to tackle the hardest tasks first, helping you get more done and make each day more focused and productive.

The 5AM Club is about learning to wake up at 5 a.m. and follow a morning routine, so we can become more self-disciplined, productive, and happy. Robin Sharma wrote this self-help book as a story, with a Billionaire mentoring an Entrepreneur and Artist, who were struggling with distraction and procrastination.

The Mountain is You by Brianna Wiest is a guide to stop self-sabotage and build the life you want. It shows how to change emotional habits blocking growth, let go of the past, imagine your future self, and separate good intuition from bad intrusive thoughts.

Essentialism by Greg McKeown is a productivity book that helps you get more done by doing less. It teaches you to focus only on what’s really important and say no to things that distract you. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by too many tasks, you'll learn how to prioritize and concentrate on what truly matters in your life and work.

The ONE Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan emphasizes focusing on the single most important task in any area of your life to achieve extraordinary results. The book teaches the power of prioritization, guiding readers to simplify their approach by identifying and acting on the "one thing" that will make the biggest impact in their goals, careers, or personal lives.

Why should you read it? I read The ONE Thing, and it completely shifted how I think about productivity. Instead of trying to juggle everything at once, this book taught me to focus on what truly matters—what will drive the biggest results. If you feel overwhelmed with too many tasks or unsure where to start, The ONE Thing will show you how simplifying and narrowing your focus can lead to extraordinary success.