The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

I was looking for something more substantial, but this very much a run of the mill, formulaic pop-psychology book. Buying it is not necessary. Essentially the book says "when you are triggered to do a bad habit, recognize that trigger and do a good habit in its place." There; you just read the book.

I really wanted to like this book...But what I wanted more than that were clear and concrete tactics or strategies to "hack" my habits...Strategies and tactics that were groundbreaking, clear, repeatable, and effectively "life changing"...Nope. Not so much.I grade content quality by number of under-linings, margin notes, and folded pages I've set at the end of the read...It scored extremely low in all of those categories. So it's not particular dense with usefulness.A few other things I didn't like...This book is 95% story, or anecdote. I'm not really into stories. I'd read a novel for a story. I read non-fiction to learn something useful- and prefer to do it quickly.The stories themselves are delivered non-sequentially...For example:story A beginningstory B beginningstory C beginningStory D beginningTo understand story A we need to story B. To understand story B we need story C. To understand story C we need story D.Then story A's middle or endingThen story B's middle or endingThen story C's middle or endingThen story D's middle or endingIt might be interesting to write this way, but it's an irritating read. Who wants their thought sequences disparate like this?This distracting structure could have been redeemed if there were meaningful conclusions or anything actionable amidst the mire.But there was not.Overall, is it worth reading? Yes...if you have nothing else very interesting to read.

Two halves coexist within this book’s covers. One is outstanding; the other is a bit sloppy. Part one is the heart of the book; it explains what habits are about, where they come from, how they’re hard-wired into our brains, and how they can be enormously powerful —both to enslave us and to free us if we only we learn how to handle them well (the book’s mission). I found this part of the book to be truly outstanding: well-researched, engagingly written and extremely persuasive. It combines scientific research, personal life-stories and journalistic interviews to great effect.While the 1st part is circumscribed to the individual level of analysis, on parts 2 and 3 the author takes the analysis from the micro to organizations (meso-level) and societies (macro-level). The author describes “the power of weak ties” of social networks, and claims that it helps understand the rise of social movements —which it clearly does. But in his explanation, networks are rebranded as “the habit of peer pressure”. Networks —as well as peer pressure, or culture— can be powerful forces for change, undoubtedly. But networks are not habits —as per his own definition. Different phenomena are conflated into the concept of habits, and in doing so the concept loses elegance and consistency.Intellectually, the book is revealing. On a personal level, it is incredibly useful —and I’m thankful to the author for writing it. I would have limited the book claims to the phenomena it can explain beyond any reasonable doubt. By taking the concept of habits beyond what it can solidly explain, parts 2 & 3 detract a bit of value and credibility from the book. Were it not for that, I would have given 5 stars to the book. In balance, this is still a great book that --with the caveat expressed-- I strongly recommend.

Use the Power of Habit to make the changes that you've wanted to make but haven't gotten around to.I've learned to exercise regularly, wake up early, and make healthier food choices. My habits and systems have improved my wellness, and if it worked for me, then it can definitely work for you.I've also picked up a positive habit of reading at night before bed instead of mindlessly scrolling on my phone.

Its a ok book, however I thought it would be much more practical.There are a lot of examples of companies tracking peoples buying habits and implementing new habits in the workplace. Wasn't a fan of some of the long drawn out stories that make a single point, most of them could be explained much more succinctly, sometimes it seems as though the writer is a frustrated story teller trapped writing a factual non fiction book.There are a couple of techniques in here that you can use in your day to day life,but its pretty lacking in that regard,I thought that would be the main focus of the book.It's primarily a vague overview of habit research, really not enough practical information that you can use in your own life, which is what I feel the the book has been marketed as.

Before I begin my book review, for those who are planning to purchase this book, they must know what this book WILL NOT offer you (in case you’re looking for below points):1. This book will not help you inculcate habits or help you in forming new habits2. This book will not dramatically change your life (in case you were hoping so. If you wish to change your life dramatically, you’ll have to help your own self)3. This book will not help you get rid of your bad habits.Now that we’re clear with what this book doesn’t offer, let us look at what this book offers:1. The book will tell you how habits work and how are they formed (the scientific approach). So it does not directly help you in forming new habits or getting rid of bad ones, but you can try applying the scientific approach described in the book and see if it helps you or not.2. The book will help you understand the power of habits among individuals, organizations and societies through powerful and impactful examples3. The book will describe various instances and stories around products, instances, and individuals etc, to emphasize on the importance of habits and how we can use habits to our advantage.The book helps you understand why habits are at the very core of anything you do, how you can change them (scientific approach), and what impact that will have on your business, life and society.The book is primarily divided into 3 partsPart 1 – Habits of IndividualsPart 2 – Habits of Successful OrganisationsPart 3 – Habits of SocietiesThe book is written by Pulitzer-prize winning author Charles Duhigg, and was first published in 2012. It is one of the bestseller in the ‘Self-help’ category. Duhigg wrote this book when he got fascinated by the intelligence of a US army major in Iraq, who controlled numerous riots by persuading the town’s mayor to keep food vendors away from gatherings. When people couldn’t satisfy their hunger with food, as they usually did (put of habit), they just left. Duhigg published this book after a lot of research, 8 years after this incident.Now that you know what led to creation of this book, let’s look at the book summary:1. Habits work in 3-step loops: cue, routine, reward. The cue is what triggers you to do the habit. The routine is the behavior you then automatically engage in. Lastly, you’ll receive a reward for completing the routine. Example: You get up every morning (Cue), make coffee (routine) and have a rich tasting coffee with a great aroma (reward).2. You can change your habits by substituting just one part of the loop, the routine. The trick to changing a habit then, is to switch the routine, and leave everything else intact.3. Your most important habit is willpower, and you can strengthen it over time in 3 ways. These three ways are:- Do something that requires a lot of discipline. - For example a tough wake-up regimen or strict diet will make you constantly practice delaying gratification and thus give you more willpower- Plan ahead for worst-case scenarios.- Preserve your autonomy - When you’re assigned tasks by someone else, which you must do, your willpower muscle tires much quicker.4. Keystone Habits are those habits which help you transform other habits. Figuring out these habits and working on them can create great transformation. Example – Getting up early can be a keystone habit that can have a positive impact on your other spheres of life such as having breakfast daily without skipping it, reaching work on time, having more time throughout the day for various tasks etc.The author describes this with wonderful example of Alcoa’s transformation by Paul Neill.5. Every small habit is like a small win. And a series small wins will help you form a routine/habit. Small wins are a steady application of a small advantage. Once a small win has been accomplished, forces are set in motion that favors another small win. Small wins fuel transformative changes by leveraging tiny advantages into patterns that convince people that bigger achievements are within reach.The author describes this with the story Michael Phelps, the world renowned swimmer.6. Transformation is always easier in groups, rather than alone or in isolation. Example – If you have a gym buddy, you’re more likely to hit the gym, than skip it.7. Good leaders seize crises to remake organizational habits. In fact, crises are such valuable opportunities that a wise leader often prolongs a sense of emergency on purpose. The author describes this with transformation of a subway station after a major fire broke out killing many people.8. People’s habits are more likely to change when they go through a major life event. To encourage people to practice new behavior, it needs to take advantage of patterns that already exists within them. Author uses example of the hypermarket chain Target, and how it uses customer’s demographics and spending habits to extract key inferences that help them sell relevant products to these consumers.9. Social change and movement only happen with the existence of the weak link – the change as a whole within a group of people without a direct connection – and the strong link – the change of people around with close relationship (peer pressure). The author describes the movement in Montgomery against racial discrimination and how the movement gathered momentum.10. Habits emerge within the brain and often, we don’t have the ability to control them, but we’re conscious and aware of them. With that said, it’s still our responsibility to cultivate our own habits and take charge of our own life.The book is filled with multiple stories and instances that reiterate how important habits are and how we can use them to our advantage. I hope this was helpful! Thanks.Favorite Quote from the book:“The difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do.” – Charles Duhigg

Believe me or not, but everything i’m Writing here is true.I’m a 20 y/o pretty normal male, living in EnglandAnd this book has completely changed my life.I was a regular smoker of both tobacco and cannabis, and the routine change taught in this book, and the methods of distraction taught in this book has helped me so much. I just want to say Thanks to Charles for making such an enjoyable book, which has taught me a lot about habits.10/10 would read again.Callum

I bought this book so I could learn more about habits within an organisation. I quickly realised those habits were too deep and moved on so the book became less relevant. Picking it up again several months later, I see that it explores habits of individuals and society rather than just organisations so I decided that it might be interesting.Quickly I found myself engrossed by the ideas explored in this book. Lots of examples and research is examined to look at how habits form and how they can be changed.The book is split into three sections - individuals, organisations and society in general. I found the first two sections extremely engaging but thought that the society narrative was slightly less well defined and held my interest less.Very cleverly, real people are used to prove theories and familiar companies are used as examples of habit changes.I was surprised how interesting I found this book and have talked about it to various people whilst I was reading.

“Self-help books” are like chain restaurants. There are too many of them, most of them are rubbish, but you can’t deny that they are useful.Habit is a book that is extremely useful. We start off with some obvious but solid reminders of how what we perceive as excellence is habit. It’s not about “grit” as some other books would say.Simply setting a reminder to go to bed and putting your trainers next to your bed every night is a better way to get exercising than watching motivational videos on YouTube. Humans look for the way way out. Make things easy. Create a reward loop and you will develop a habit.After a solid start the book falters and diverges quickly. Stories become way too drawn out and - I would argue - not relevant to the reason most people buy this book. We get a long chapter on how supermarkets are monitoring our shopping habits via reward cards and can tell if your are pregnant from your food grocery list.We have a chapter that massively drags on how a cassino kept a gambler coming back but stimulating her habit and reminding her of the rewards (debt in this case).Like many self help books, you want to throw it out the window at times. But it’s got a solid thesis. I now keep my trainers next to my bed and have created a habit I never thought feasible. Thus the book is worth it’s weight of gold. It’s just got a core of lead to go along with it.

Habit is a choice that we deliberately make at some point and then stop thinking about it, but continue doing, often every day. Author in this book examines why some people and organizations struggle to change while others seem to rediscover themselves by building a compelling argument around the power of habits.This book is divided into three parts. Each part explains a different aspect of why habits exist and how they function.The examples used in this book are so powerful and relevant that reader will feel a lot of wow moments. This is one of the books which we need to read again and again.