Buffy McDonald, Reference Librarian, recommends The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.
Have you ever wondered how habits are created? Well, Charles Duhigg has written a book that digs into the science behind how habits are formed. He describes the process with interesting and illuminating stories that help you to understand how habits work—both how to acquire new habits and how to eliminate old ones.
Over time our habits have an enormous impact on our health, productivity, financial security, and happiness. To begin to understand how new, life-enhancing habits are developed, it is important to know how a decision becomes an automatic behavior.
The Habit Loop:
New habits are formed by cultivating a craving that drives the habit loop. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!
- The cue is the first step in the habit loop. It is the trigger that begins the set of behaviors that make up the habit. Things like getting up and taking a shower or getting up and checking email show how this trigger works. Getting up in the morning is the cue.
- The routine is the set of behaviors that make up the bulk of the habit—the showering, checking email, brushing teeth, etc.
- The reward is what comes after the routine is completed. An example might be feeling hungry at 3:00 p.m. and grabbing a candy bar from the vending machine. The enticing reward helps your brain remember this routine and therefore set the habit. Over time this routine becomes automatic.
- The craving comes as an anticipation of the reward. This craving is key to setting new habits.
If you understand how habits work, you can then change existing habits or build new ones.
If you want to break the daily candy bar habit, for example, you’ll want to keep the reward, but change the routine.
This will take a little bit of planning on your part. Let’s say you stash an apple and some pretzels in your backpack.
So when the 3:00 p.m. “I’m hungry” cue happens, you’ll still get a yummy reward, but you’ll reach into your backpack for a healthy snack instead of automatically heading for the sugar-soaked vending machine.
Reading the book will help you better understand how this process works and help you to set better habits.
The Power of Habits is available in CD and eaudiobook.
To access the eaudiobook version, download the Libby app and start listening. If you need help doing this, let us know.
You can also get a good overview of the book in this audio interview with David Allen.
