Thread by @Johnny_Uzan

This thread is a Twitter-friendly summary of "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg. It's not a comprehensive review - just some of my key takeaways and thoughts.

If people enjoy this I can post stuff like this reguarly.

We are creatures of habit. Our brains are constantly seeking new ways to save effort by automating our behavior. Trying to fight this automation is an uphill battle. We’re much better off using conscious effort to design habits that work for us. 1/12

Habits usually follow has a 3-part loop: cue, routine, reward.

The cue is what signals to your brain to initiate the habit. The routine is the activity that we consider as the habit. The reward is something desirable that is accomplished by the routine. 2/12

Whenever we try to break a bad habit, we should think about the cue: What signals your brain to initiate the habit?

For example, if you want to quit smoking – look for any cue that triggers you to crave a cigarette. 3/12

Almost all cues fall into one of five categories:

Location: I smoke whenever I’m at a bar.
Time: I smoke around 1PM every day.
Emotional State: I smoke when I’m stressed.
Other People: I smoke when I'm offered by a colleague.
Preceding Action: I smoke after I eat.

4/12

Once we’re aware of the cue, we can either eliminate it or train ourselves to link a new behavior to that cue.

For example, I had a time+location cue to mindlessly surf the internet when I’m home after 11PM, which I eliminated by going to bed at 22:00 unless I'm out.

5/12

Thinking about rewards is also important for habit design. If you can reward your good habits in a healthy way, it could help to reinforce them. Our brains are very sensitive to rewards and are more likely to wire behaviors that produce them. 6/12

A reward that I like is printing a 90-day calendar and tracking my streak of following the habit. I put the calendar on my whiteboard at my home office, so I see it multiple times a day and become attached to it. Keeping the streak feels good. 7/12

An anti-reward can be just as effective. If there’s a punishment for not following the behavior, your brain will try to avoid it. With the streak calendar, marking your progress feels good, but more potent is the fear of losing that streak you’re so invested in. 8/12

To increase your chances of adopting a new habit – find a simple and obvious cue, and clearly define the reward for completing the habit. 9/12

A keystone habit is a habit that getting right makes it easier to adopt other good habits or drop bad ones. Those are the highest ROI habits and we should identify and adopt them first. 10/12

Going to bed early is a keystone habit because it makes it easier to eliminate habits like excess alcohol intake & mindless browsing.

You’ll also wake up earlier & feel more energized, making it easier to follow through on any other good habits you’re trying to install. 11/12

The 80/20 of the book:

1. Use willpower to design good habits, not to control discrete behaviors.

2. Be mindful of cues and rewards when designing habits.

3. Look for and pursue keystone habits aggressively.

RT to reward this behavior and turn it into a habit. 😎

12/12