The Power of Habit

Synopsis

Pulitzer-winning journalist Charles Duhigg traces how habits form at the level of individuals, organizations, and societies — and how identifying the cue and reward of an existing habit allows you to substitute a new routine while preserving the loop.

Editorial review

Duhigg made habit science legible to a mass audience. The 'cue–routine–reward' loop he popularized is the simplest useful model of habit formation, and his case studies (Alcoa, Target's pregnancy prediction model, Rosa Parks) are some of the most durable in the genre.

Key takeaways

• 1

  Habits are loops: cue → routine → reward. The routine is the only piece you can reliably swap.

• 2

  'Keystone habits' (e.g. exercise) reorganize many adjacent behaviors.

• 3

  Organizations have habits too, often invisible until a crisis exposes them.

• 4

  Belief, especially in groups, is what makes hard habit change stick.