Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Clear’s book utilizes a unique structure, where each new chapter has new page numbers.

• What does this unique structural choice communicate to readers? How does Clear’s writing pattern reflect his thinking patterns? (topic sentence)
• Point out and discuss other elements of the book that reveal how Clear thinks based on how he presents his ideas.
• In your conclusion, reflect on how your own writing, or that of someone you admire, reveals your unique pattern of thinking.

2. Clear’s work is popular because it makes complex ideas about habit formation accessible to people from all walks of life. It also includes new and interesting information about how we can all form better habits and stick to them.