This month I finally finished reading another book. No, it was not Franz Kafka’s The Trial. I started reading that because I am a fan of absurdism, and based on the synopsis it was right up my alley. So I did start it but never finished it. I don’t know if this was the case with the original first edition, but the copy I have has a quality that makes it very difficult to read; it has virtually no line breaks. There are breaks between paragraphs, but after a dialogue line, for example, the text just keeps on going on the same line without a break. This may sound like a minute problem, but trust me, it keeps adding up and the book turns into a wall. It was such a slog to get through so I never finished it.

After giving up on The Trial I looked for something different. The online book store that I order my books from had updated their Top 10 Most Popular Books list recently, and this time it featured a book called Atomic Habits. A self-help book, focusing on how one can improve their life by adjusting their routines. I’ve never been a person particularly fond of self-help literacy, but since it was on the list and had a nice cover, I decided to give it a go.

After finishing reading it, I must say I enjoyed it. It is not a long book and it is not preachy like some other books of its kind. Even though I consider myself a man of established routines, I got some good tips and even motivation from the book. It also made me think about my own habits and how they fit into the templates the book used to illustrate its points.

For example, I eat the same breakfast every day, which I have done for years. Occasionally there are periods when I have to switch to cheaper alternatives like oatmeal when money is tight, but most of the time I eat the following: two slices of rye bread, toastered, topped by a layer of plant-based spread, two slices of poultry cold cuts and four slices of cucumber, six even if I’m feeling frisky. This complemented by two cups of coffee is what I eat every morning and have eaten for as long as I can remember. Some people would consider this insane and ask me why I don’t mix up my choices. Variety is the spice of life, after all. See, I don’t even think about that, because this breakfast is a habit for me, and like the book says, you have to make your habits appealing if you want to execute them long-term. See, it may not look like it, but my breakfast is actually crafted to be culinarily appealing.

I toast my bread slices because it makes them nice and crispy. This, combined with a butter-like spread, creates a contrast of textures.Cold cuts have a softer and dryer meat-like texture and cucumber slices are crunchy but also very moist. When you combine all these layers you get a whole that has different oral sensations with every bite. This, I have found, is the key that makes me not get bored with my breakfast. You have to make your habits stimulating to make you keep upholding them, if you see what I mean.

One of the points the book makes is that to be successful at anything that requires habits or repetitive routines is that you have to fall in love with boredom. Successful athletics may get a head start with the right genes, but only the best ones are the ones who can keep exercising time and time again without getting bored of it. I am a hobbyist swimmer, far from a professional one or what people usually consider an athletic body, but I still run into the problem of getting bored in the pool. There are very few stimuli in the pool; the only things my eyes see are either the bottom tiles of the pool or the feet of the person swimming in front of me. I don’t have water-resistant earphones, so I can’t listen to music or podcasts as I swim. The only audio I hear are the background noises of the swimming hall. I admit, it gets really boring after the first thousand meters, but I still haver to push through. Same with professional bodybuilders who have to do the same reps over and over again.

The book has some tips how to get your motivation up. One example was adjusting your habit to make it stimulating, see my breakfast above. One other idea is to keep track of your habit. I always wear my sports watch to the pool, which helps me keep track of different stats of my performance. Heart beat, distance swum, stroke-to-distance ratio, things like that. It also keeps a calendar of the days I go swimming, which makes it easier to track. All of my swims are converted into numbers, which I enjoy seeing go up. The downside is that tracking your habit can easily become a goal in itself, which can make you lose motivation. I swim because I want to have a healthy heart and weigh less. I do weigh myself on a scale and note down the numbers, which I enjoy seeing go down, of course, but I do not set the numbers going down a goal, if that makes sense. If I did, and after a month didn’t see a significant change in the numbers, I think it would make me lose motivation, since what’s the point of trying to lose weight if it’s not going down after a month’s worth of exercise.

Atomic Habits also mentioned that to keep yourself motivated you have to make the habit a part of your identity. You don’t study a new language because you want to learn a new language, you study a new language because you are a person interested in languages. A tiny difference, sure, but very essential. Now, this part of the book I was very iffy about, because I am very wary of building my identity based on something external. I just don’t think it’s a good idea. I even wrote a thing titled Personality Lich on that subject; basing your sense of self on external phenomena. But after finishing the book, I must admit there might be a kernel of truth in the claim. After thinking about it, I might be more hesitant to skip my exercise if I considered myself a swimmer. Do swimmers skip swimming exercises? No. Do those guys who like pandas skip swimming exercises? Maybe.

At the end of the day, I do recommend Atomic Habits. It’s 20 percent actual useful information and 80 percent anecdotes, but it gets the points across. If you are like me and want to improve yourself as a swimmer, this book might be for you. If you want to improve yourself as a Schwimmer, however, better start by enrolling in an acting class for neuroticism and destructive co-dependence.