As a new Manta Intern, I was tasked with reading the 2022 Summer Book Series novels that all concentrate on personal growth and stepping outside of comfort zones. Atomic Habits, by James Clear, surprised me with the amount of relatable content for someone who just completed their freshman year of college. After reading it, I realized that my life at college was defined by habits that I created over the years. 

Now, I’m not sure that many college freshmen would see hitting a snooze button more than once as a bad habit that could lead them down the wrong path, but this book did open my eyes to the benefits of creating a solid routine based on reward and repetition. 

Habits are a double-edged sword. Good habits can set someone up for success in the long run, whereas bad habits create a lack of motivation. I have had plenty of friends this year who slept through classes, partied too hard to get their work done on time, or simply weren’t interested in expanding their experiences.

My personal experience with Atomic Habits

Personally, after reading this book, I figured I would try defining a new habit for myself and following the steps that James Clear stated to see if his words hold any real merit. During my school year, I found myself struggling to find a balance between work and play. My parents like to joke that I am the epitome of a type-A personality due to my competitiveness and organizational skills. While this is a great thing most of the time, it kind of kicked me in the butt while I was adjusting to life at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). I would find myself getting sucked into the endless abyss of trying to make my homework assignments perfect and keep the same kind of GPA that I had in high school. If there is anything that you should know about RPI it’s that getting above a 3.0 GPA is next to impossible. My peers and I would spend hours in the library studying for tests or completing coding assignments that ranged anywhere from 300 to 500 lines of code. There were times that I literally forget to eat because I hated the idea of not getting a perfect score. It got to the point that I was so frustrated and fed up with schoolwork that I didn’t even want to try anymore. It wasn’t until my advisor pointed out to me that I should take a step back from wanting perfection and instead focus on creating a healthy work/life balance. 

A lot of these feelings that I felt over the course of my freshmen year resonated with some of the ideas that I found in James Clear’s novel. My goal for this summer is to take a step back from overachieving and take better care of myself while still being successful. I plan on starting small, like setting an alarm to remind myself when it’s time to take a break from work to eat or relax. I want to work up from there and slowly train myself to be motivated by other things than just grades. In the four career fairs that I have attended so far, not a single recruiter has told me that being perfect is necessary for me to get a job. I hope that through the steps below and my internship with Vertex11 I will learn new ways to value the work that I complete. I’m pretty sure that I am not the only student in college who feels this way, so maybe these steps can be of help to other people my age too. 

6 STEPS FOR CREATING ATOMIC HABITS

Step #1: Recognize Bad Habits

The only way to truly change the way you do things is to first become conscious of what you are doing. Whether it comes in the form of writing down all of the bad habits you have or simply acknowledging that they exist, this is the first step towards gaining atomic habits.

Step #2: Start small

Change doesn’t happen overnight. If you have trouble waking up before 11 am one day then it’s not going to be any easier to get up at 8 am if you’ve suddenly decided that you want to fix your sleep schedule. Start making smaller adjustments to your current habits that will ultimately lead you to your goals over time. 

Step #3: Make new and improved habits more tempting

It is human nature to want a reward for accomplishing something. By associating good things with new habits, you can literally train your brain to think positively about these habits and you will be more likely to continue doing them over time.

Step #4: Make old habits less appealing

This follows the same logic as above, simply just making your old habits less appealing so it no longer entices you to skip a habit for the convenience of your old schedule. 

Step #5: Change social environment

The people you surround yourself with make a huge impact on the person you want to be. If your friends stay up playing video games until 2 in the morning then you’re probably going to do the same thing. It doesn’t matter that you may have an exam the next morning or a class that you can’t miss from being sleep-deprived. If the people that you hang out with do not have the same life goals/values as you do, they are not helping you to become the best version of yourself. 

Step #6: Make a commitment to trying new habits for at least a month

The rewards of these habits may take a long time to become visible. If you only try a new habit for a week, there is no guarantee that it will cause immediate success or make you feel better. Atomic habits are beneficial over time, so you must give your body and mind time to reap the benefits of a healthier lifestyle. 

By doing all of these things, college students can put themselves in a position to do great things once they graduate.