Atomic Habits — notes for an analyst who loves systems

I read Atomic Habits between Power Query refreshes. The core idea is simple: you don't rise to your goals, you fall to your systems. As a data analyst, that landed.

1% in the cleaning room

Clear argues for 1% daily improvements. My 1% looked like this: one Power Query step properly named, one DAX measure with a comment, one commit message that actually explains why. No heroic refactors — just is_numeric_series handling StringDtype today, duplicate_row_count tomorrow.

"Every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become." I started voting for "person who writes tests before features."

Identity, not outcome

The book reframes habits around identity. I'm not trying to "finish StatLab Zim." I'm becoming someone who ships small, tested, documented tools. That identity made it easier to choose a handful of CSS variables over a framework, light-only over dark-mode complexity, and a single-column work stack over a card grid.

System for reading

My system now: 30 minutes each morning, one chapter, one note in a CSV (yes, a CSV): book,chapter,insight,action. No Goodreads streak, just a file I can query with pandas. Analyst's habit.

If you've read it — what 1% are you voting for this week? Tell me.

Next up: Deep Work — because warm paper needs focus.