PDF Summary:The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg

In The Power of Habit, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charles Duhigg draws on extensive research to explore how habits develop into automatic behaviors that influence personal lives, businesses, and communities. He explains why unhealthy habits are notoriously difficult to break and provides a practical framework to help you understand and change any habit.

In this guide, we’ve restructured Duhigg’s key ideas to focus on how your habits form and what you can do to change them. We’ve also compared and contrasted each key concept with updated research on habit formation and expanded on Duhigg’s advice with actionable methods from other self-improvement authors and psychologists.

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(Shortform note: Psychologists warn that your brain’s tendency to operate in autopilot mode when shopping may save you time but it doesn’t save you money. Retailers manipulate their environments to accommodate your habitual purchases and trick you into making impulsive and unnecessary buying decisions. Research indicates that you’re more likely to make impulsive purchases when you shop without a list, walk through more aisles, feel hungry, or when your store rearranges its layout (which they deliberately do periodically). Psychologists recommend that you write a shopping list and go straight for these items to avoid falling into the trap of making impulsive purchases.)

The Influence of Collective Habits

According to Duhigg, businesses and communities rely on automatic routines just as much as you do to save time and energy. However, what’s interesting here is that, by their nature, these entities rely on the collective habits of multiple people to determine how they operate. We’ll explore this further throughout the rest of this section.

How Habits Impact Businesses

Duhigg argues that businesses rely on automatic routines so that managers and employees can get things done without having to question every action they take. However, many of these collective habits grow organically from an accumulation of individual decisions taken by different managers and employees. Over time, the company loses track of the individual decisions that initiated the habits that are now deeply ingrained in the company’s culture. As a result, they end up acting out these automatic routines without knowing why. New employees quickly adopt these habits to fit in, and the cycle of automatic routines perpetuates.

Duhigg argues that, when a company is unaware of the automatic routines that underpin its organization, it can easily fall into the trap of adopting deconstructive habits that undermine its operations.

Businesses Fail to Align Collective Habits With Their Overall Goals

Management experts explain that many organizations fail to take control of their collective habits because they assume that what worked historically to bring them success will continue to work in the future. However, this strategy falls short because business priorities—the goals that determine what types of customers the business serves and how it intends to provide value—evolve over time, and the collective habits they rely on must adapt, too.

Experts argue that businesses must continually assess whether their collective habits support their overall priorities, and take the necessary steps to align employee behaviors with the organization’s goals. However, they warn that managers and employees tend to resist change for the same reasons that they develop habits in the first place: to save mental energy. Learning to do things differently increases the amount of effort that they need to apply to carry out their daily tasks and often creates resentment. Organizations can help smooth the transition to new collective habits by ensuring that managers and employees understand why they need to change their behaviors.

How Habits Impact Communities and Societies

Duhigg argues that every major movement that has impacted communities and societies has been fueled by a particular type of habit: social habits. These habits define how you relate to and behave around other people. According to Duhigg, social habits influence the way you identify with and act on the information you’re exposed to.

(Shortform note: Research backs up Duhigg’s claim that the choices you make about the movements you support are influenced by social habits. While you may think that your opinions about all of the issues you hear about are solely your own, social psychologists confirm that your perceptions and behaviors are heavily influenced by other people. You think a lot about other people, allow them to impact your emotions, and feel motivated to adapt your behaviors to please others. Consequently, the movements you choose to follow are an extension of this social influence.)

Duhigg explains that successful social movements rely on social habits in three ways:

1) The movement begins with the social habits of close friends: Someone is afflicted, and the people close to them immediately help.

(Shortform note: While taking action to help a friend in need feels like a natural and selfless response, James Clear (Atomic Habits) argues that your underlying motivation to belong affects all of your behaviors, including this one. He claims that there are three groups of people that greatly influence how you respond to situations: the close (family and friends), the many (the general public), and the powerful (the people you perceive as successful.)

2) The movement grows from the habits of a community: The social ties that combine loosely affiliated people create social pressure to join the cause.

(Shortform note: In How Behavior Spreads, behavioral expert Damon Centola explains that you’re more influenced by the percentage of people that are doing something, rather than the total number. If a high percentage of people in your community support a cause, you’ll naturally feel like it’s the right thing to do.)

3) The movement endures because the participants engage in new social habits: The participants identify with the movement and take on habits that reflect their belief in the cause.

(Shortform note: While Duhigg focuses on the endurance of movements due to participants engaging in new social habits, he doesn’t mention another vital factor: Eventually, collective individual habits influence business habits, making these new habits even more visible and accessible to potential participants. For example, when animal rights activists decided to become vegetarians, stores and restaurants changed their offerings to cater to this demand. This visible change brought vegetarianism to the attention of shoppers, some of whom then adopted the cause.)

Part 4: How to Change Your Habits

Duhigg argues that, while you can’t delete unwanted automatic patterns from your mind, through self-awareness and conscious control, you can override them with new automatic patterns that align with the habits you do want to practice. (Shortform note: Recall: Neuroscientists confirm that it’s possible to weaken these permanent patterns so that your brain no longer relies on them.)

Change an Existing Bad Habit

According to Duhigg, once you understand the cues and cravings that drive your habits, you’ll gain conscious control over the behavioral pattern you engage in. This allows you to disrupt your unwanted habit and override it with a new, more productive behavioral pattern. However, the cues and cravings that fuel your habits aren’t always as obvious as they appear to be. This is because the longer you engage in a habit, the less aware you become of the specific cravings that motivate your habit.

Mindfulness Helps to Uncover the Root Cause of Your Habits

Mindfulness experts agree that you’re often unaware of the specific cues and cravings that drive your habits. However, they argue that your emotions are the cause of your habits because they make you susceptible to cues and cravings. They explain that you’re often triggered by an emotional feeling that you seek to alleviate through the use of your habit. For example, if you smoke cigarettes, you're more likely to notice your cues (for example, the smell of tobacco) and give in to your cravings when you feel uncomfortable emotions such as fear or feelings of anxiety.

However, while engaging in the habit does provide temporary relief, it doesn’t fix the root of the problem—the uncomfortable feeling that you’re trying to overcome. To give yourself a better chance of successfully changing your habits, examine the root cause (your emotions) of the habits you seek to change before you attempt to change them.

Duhigg claims that all successful habit changes begin with experimentation to uncover the cues and rewards that drive your habits. He suggests following a four-step process that relies on identifying your routine and experimenting with different rewards so that you can effectively isolate your cue and understand why you engage in your habits. Let’s explore the process in detail.

Step 1: Write Down Your Habit-Driven Routine

The routine is the automatic behavior pattern that surrounds the habit you want to change. Duhigg suggests that you detail every step of the routine from beginning to end, even the steps you think aren’t important.

(Shortform note: Not all habits have a clear-cut routine, especially if they’re emotional rather than behavioral. For example, if you habitually feel anxious before you need to drive somewhere, it’s easy to pinpoint driving as a high-anxiety situation. However, you may feel low-level anxiety throughout your day in a number of other situations. This makes it difficult to define a specific start and endpoint for the routine that surrounds your habitual feelings of anxiety. In The Craving Mind, neuroscientist Dr. Judson Brewer suggests building self-awareness through mindfulness techniques such as meditation to help develop conscious awareness of the specific routines around your emotional habits.)

Step 2: Switch Out Rewards to Discover Your Craving

Duhigg suggests that each time you recognize that you’re about to engage in your typical habit, change the reward. This will help you to figure out what part of the routine you’re truly craving. Is it the reward you’ve habitually turned to, or is it something else? Each time you perform this experiment, write down the first three words that come to mind—this will encourage you to consciously acknowledge your thoughts and feelings. For instance, are you still feeling unsettled and like your craving is unfulfilled? If you’re not, your new reward satisfies your true craving—and you can discover what that craving is by considering what need the reward fulfills.

(Shortform note: According to Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, Duhigg’s method of changing the reward forces your brain to step out of autopilot mode and increases your awareness of how you feel. This process, coupled with writing down three words, encourages you to think about why you’re engaging in your habit, the feelings you’re chasing or trying to avoid, and the justifications you make for sticking with this habit. This awareness makes it much easier for you to avoid falling into your habitual routines.)

Step 3: Use Categories to Identify Your Cue

The purpose of this step is to figure out exactly what’s triggering you to engage in your habit. Duhigg claims that all cues fit into one of five categories: location, time, emotional state, other people, and what’s happening immediately before you engage in the habit. He argues that you can isolate the cue to your habit by considering these five categories the next time you feel a craving.

(Shortform note: It may seem that Duhigg’s method doesn’t work so well for habits that people compulsively engage in throughout the day, such as chain-smoking or nail-biting. It’s difficult to track and correlate the causes of something you unconsciously engage in. But, psychologists argue that, at their root, these compulsive behaviors are an attempt to relieve underlying anxieties or other negative emotions. Consequently, they argue that all of Duhigg’s categories help track the impact of different situations and people on your emotional state, making it easier to disentangle the subtle cues that trigger your habit.)

Step 4: Head Off Temptation

Once you’ve completed your experiments and defined the cue, routine, and reward components of your habit, Duhigg suggests that you make a plan to overcome any temptations you might feel to give in to your old cravings. This involves designing your cues to trigger new behavioral routines and cravings for the new reward to come—it could be as simple as removing the cue that triggers your cravings.

(Shortform note: James Clear (Atomic Habits) adds to Duhigg’s approach by suggesting that you not only remove the cues for your unwanted habits but also add cues for your new habits. He explains that an effective plan involves shaping the visual cues within your environment to encourage only the new habits you seek to adopt. Visual cues are the biggest instigators for action because they trick your brain into thinking that it’s more convenient to act on them. For example, it’s convenient to drink more water when there’s a glass of water on your desk.)

Start a Ripple Effect by Changing One Core Habit

You may feel tempted to use the four-step process to tackle multiple habits and overhaul your life. Duhigg says that addressing and managing multiple automatic routines will be difficult and, as a result, likely end in failure. Instead, he recommends an easier way to change all of your habits: Leverage one core habit. According to Duhigg, when you feel the benefits of changing one core habit, you start a chain reaction that encourages you to change other existing habits or develop additional good habits. In other words, the rewards you feel from successfully changing this habit influence you to restructure the rest of your habits.

(Shortform note: Like Duhigg, Tony Robbins (Awaken the Giant Within) argues that making one beneficial change in your daily routine sets into motion a series of beneficial decisions and habits that improve your entire life. He explains that if you try to tackle all of your habits at the same time, you’re more likely to focus on how difficult it is, feel overwhelmed, and resign yourself to staying in the same situation. On the other hand, committing to change a single habit allows you to effectively focus your energy and produce successful results. These positive results naturally encourage you to feel more confident about your ability to take control of your behaviors, and they motivate you to improve all of your habits.)

Create an Entirely New Habit

Duhigg claims that you can also apply your understanding of how cues, routines, and rewards underlie habitual behaviors to create entirely new habits. He suggests three steps to establish new habits:

1) Decide upon your cue and your reward: Duhigg claims that new habits require a clearly defined cue and a reward to become automatic routines.

(Shortform note: James Clear (Atomic Habits) argues that the easiest way to implement this step is to specifically link your new cue and reward to an existing routine (for instance, your current morning routine). This way, you’ve already completed the hardest part of your new habit—deciding on the cue and reward—and you simply have to follow through with your intended action.)

2) Develop a craving for your reward: According to Duhigg, the more positive you feel about your reward, the more likely your brain will want to set up an automatic routine to support your new habit. Duhigg suggests that you find ways to actively develop a craving for your reward—visualizing, anticipating, or imagining this reward.

(Shortform note: In Awaken the Giant Within, Tony Robbins expands upon Duhigg’s claim that your reward must feel positive by arguing that neuro-associations—the way your brain links experiences with pain or pleasure—influence all of your habits. According to Robbins, your brain relies on these neuro-associations to direct your behavior toward feeling pleasure and away from feeling pain, and you have to reprogram these associations to create new automatic routines. Your brain’s more likely to create an automatic routine for your new habit if you remove all pain points from the routine and set it up to feel as pleasurable as possible.)

3) Make a plan to overcome obstacles: You might feel reluctant to engage in your new habits for a number of reasons. Duhigg claims that you’re more likely to stick to your new habits if you predict potential obstacles and plan ways to reduce your reluctance.

(Shortform note: Brendon Burchard (High Performance Habits), claims that the tendency to focus on obstacles and limitations occurs when you don’t have a clear purpose for your actions. This causes you to focus too much on the difficulty of overcoming your present circumstances (unwanted habits) to look to the future (the benefits of your new habits). Burchard encourages you to focus on your purpose—what you’ll gain from overcoming your obstacles—and use this to motivate yourself to move forward with your new habit.)

Believe That You Can Change Your Habits

Duhigg argues that belief is an essential part of overcoming your cravings and permanently changing any habit. Sometimes your cravings will feel unbearable and you’ll want to fall back into your old habits. During these times, it’s critical to believe that you can overcome your cravings and consciously decide how you want to act.

(Shortform note: Numerous studies prove that positive beliefs and expectations encourage you to rise above any limitations you face and focus on solutions that move you toward what you want. However, psychologists warn that unrealistic positive expectations—such as blindly believing that you’ll easily overcome your habits without effort—set you up for failure because they don’t prepare you to take proactive steps to counter the inevitable obstacles that you’ll face. On the other hand, realistic positive expectations acknowledge that the road to change requires effort and persistence, and they encourage you to take a proactive approach towards making the changes that you want.)