The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
Written by Charles Duhigg
Narrated by Mike Chamberlain
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
In The Power of Habit, award-winning business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed.
Distilling vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives that take us from the boardrooms of Procter & Gamble to the sidelines of the NFL to the front lines of the civil rights movement, Duhigg presents a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential. At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, being more productive, and achieving success is understanding how habits work. As Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.
Editor's Note
New classic…
Charles Duhigg’s book on the impact of routines quickly became a bible for anyone interested in improving their work or personal life. A must-read for anyone interested in self-improvement tactics that really, actually work.
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Reviews for The Power of Habit
3,120 ratings256 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I heard the author interviewed and decided to read the book. I hoped that having a better understanding of triggers and goals would help me reestablish a workout routine. I got the theory and know what I need to do, now I just have to put it in practice. I lost interest after finishing the first part of the book, which deals with individuals. The latter part of gets into how businesses use habit.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Some interesting information.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Clearly written and informative.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was listed as one of Amazon's top 10 business books of 2012. I wouldn't list it as a business book, but it was very interesting and there are several takeaways that I will try to incorporate into my own life.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How do we create - or break - a habit? In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg uses current research about habit forming and many interviews to illuminate just what is going on in our brains, taking us through the habits of individuals, organizations, and society.This was a really fascinating, meaty account that read smoothly and kept me entertained and intrigued throughout. In the first chapter, Duhigg introduces the habit loop: there is a cue, a routine, and a reward that becomes ingrained in our brain, forming a habit until we follow the loop without thinking. To change the habit, you change the routine. As subsequent chapters show, of course, there are many other elements that complicate those habits, but in a nutshell if you can identify the three items of that loop and change the routine - say, when you want to grab a cookie from the cafeteria, spend a few minutes talking with a co-worker instead. And that's really just scratching the surface. Duhigg blends recent scientific studies with illustrative case studies such as Starbucks and Saddleback Church to explain how we create habits in our lives, work, and socially as a community. Highly recommended.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fantastic analysis of what makes a habit, well... a habit. While it certainly borders in the realm of pop-psychology (which is not itself a bad thing), it feels like it's well backed up with evidence and substantive references. I suspect I'll be revisiting this to better understand some of the habits I've developed and, most importantly, how to undo some of them.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great - read it in Morocco on holiday and *****almost**** managed to get my non-reading husband to finish reading it also!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I was assigned to read this book as part of a training class. I read it as an ebook. The theme and discoveries presented were generally good. On the other hand some of the conclusions seemed simplistic and obvious. Overall however a worthwhile read as it focuses on something that all of us could become much better at if applied, habit.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Best book I've read all year
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I enjoyed this book and kept finding things I could use with my students, from goal setting skills to good points of discussion for the civil right movement.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Research focus on studies of individuals and the habit formation model seems of most value in this book whereas the sections focusing on organizations (e.g. Procter & Gamble, teams of Toby Dungy) not well supported nor particularly helpful given all variables not available to objective analysis.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great story teller. Makes clear concepts and motivations. I'll recommend this book to people.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I have kind of mixed feelings about this book. It talks about a lot of things that are, in themselves, pretty interesting, from how marketers convinced people to use toothpaste and Fabreze, to how a lack of inter-departmental communication was responsible for a deadly fire in a London Underground station, to why Rosa Parks' unwillingness to give up her seat proved so pivotal to the civil rights movement when others before her had done the same thing with no results. But I'm not sure all of these anecdotes really add up to anything coherent. Duhigg's concept of what constitutes a "habit" -- basically, a prompt leading to an action leading to some expected reward or benefit -- is so broad as to encompass practically all of human behavior, and, rather than a close examination of the concept of habits, the book feels more like a loose collection of stories drawn semi-randomly from the fields of psychology, business and sociology. Which is interesting enough, but not really very satisfying.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I can't comment on the scientific accuracy or the strength of the conclusions, but I can say that I found the book engaging, entertaining, and thought provoking. It lines up with my belief that we are much less the product of thoughtful and deliberate choices than we like to think we are or than we like to think others are. In reality, we are creatures of reaction and habit.
But this book also reminds me that we have some say in what we do. Not through force will power, but by setting ourselves up for the right reactions or habits to kick in at the right moment. In other words, it's not about how skillfully you set off the mousetrap, but how well you build it before the time comes.
This isn't just a book about how to change your habits - in fact I would say it's mostly not about that at all. It's about how the human brain works. About the difference among learned behavior, habits, and cravings. It's about how retail stores and casinos learn way too much about you and actually manipulate your behavior (and you were worried about Facebook). There's also a really interesting section on the Montgomery bus boycott and how that became a movement instead of just a couple of protests (relevant, eh?).
Anyway, if you want a how-to self-help book, you might be disappointed. If you like learning about how brains work, dig in! - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Based on how the book is organized, it might appear that this book is more suited for a business environment. Don't be fooled. All three sections provide relevant lessons even if you're just looking at habits from an individual level. This is not a business book - it's a book for anyone who wants to change their habits.Note that I said change habits, not create new ones. The author's premise is that it's easier to change an existing habit than to try and create a new one. Duhrigg breaks down habits into their components and provides ideas for changing the components to improve habits. It's a deceptively simple method that leaves you shaking your head, wondering why you hadn't figured out the formula earlier. But he breaks down the ways to improve your habits into small bites, improving your confidence that you can succeed.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fascinating look in to why people do what they do and how one can change their life by slightly tweaking "habits."
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5One excellent chapter/story (the turnaround of Aloa) buried in others of varying quality. Overall, a collection of vignettes and ideas, looking for a theme that really ties it together. 'Habit' doesn't.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I loved this book, because it answers the question why do we repeatedly do things that we haven't consciously decided to do. Performing actions that I haven't decided to do but still do, is unsettling for me. Earlier in my life, I would deny that such thing exists. Today, I'd rather learn something about it.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Interesting. Duhigg addresses habits of individuals, organizations and societies. I thought the part about individuals was packaged quite well. The organizational habits section was an eye opener and most definitely not for conspiracy theorists. What Target (the store chain) does to track people is disturbing (I wonder what my Guest ID is in their monster database), but all the more interesting to me because whatever they think they are doing fails with me - I never think of Target as a place to shop. Oh, I do shop there, but I see them as more expensive than their competitors. Anyway, the bar dropped significantly in the last section on societies. I thought he was reaching a bit with his stories.
A few good references to studies and a LOT of anecdotes. If you don't have time to read the whole book, go for the first couple of chapters and the appendix (a method for changing personal habits) - the rest is fluff; not bad, but still fluff. (Note: each chapter covers at least two story lines, and Duhigg breaks them up as one would a television drama that uses flashback. I thought the connections for a few of them were a little tenuous, but the flow might take some a bit aback.) - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I really enjoyed this book. I love finding out about how we work, and as I get older I find that more and more fascinating. My copy of this book was a pre-release copy and so the "how to put this information into practice" section was missing. Never the less, I found the book completely engaging and a very interesting read. Some of the information about how data about us is gathered and used is eye opening as well. The bottom line is if we don't like things about ourselves, we can change them and if we don't we have no one to blame but ourselves.I absolutely recommend this book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is the kind of book that is right up my alley. It's about what makes us tick. I can imagine in many instances how to use the info to make myself tick better. I'll admit, I'm not quite done with the book. It's in the current rotation with a few others. When I've finished I'll say a few more things about it.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Notes: willpower is in limited supply -- it is like a muscle that has to be exercised. Habits have a form: craving, stimulus, behavior, reward. It is easiest to modify habits rather than eradicate them.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Very helpful in understanding behavior and what is involved in changing our habits.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One more interesting thesis-book I read while ago around Habits & conditional Addictions ... The Power of Habit is definitively a nice pill you should administrate to all people looking to get ride of bad things which too often poisoned the life ! Well - useless to say how our life are conditioned by habits hence understanding these ones would help to jump over new direction - and therefore new better life ...Saturday, March 10 - 2012
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Everyone should read this book. I am not exaggerating here - - I found this book to be a framebreaking look at habits, how they are formed, how they impact our lives, and how they can be changed. The lessons of this book have resonance in so many different areas of my life, I found myself constantly head nodding and making notes to myself as I worked through the book. I was so taken with the book that I recommended it to my partner, who is likewise finding the book impossible to put down. A powerful, well written book, I highly recommend this book.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This was an informative and mostly interesting look at habits and how they affect the decisions that we make. When I first started reading this I found it to be easy to read and really loved all the examples that the author mentioned about 'cue-routine-reward'. However the further I read in this book the more I started losing interest in it. I enjoyed that the author shows how you can change your habits (if you work on it) but some of the other parts of the book seemed a bit unorganized. I would recommend this book to people wanting to learn more about why we do the things we do or to those wanting to learn how to change their habits.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Interesting but could have been 50 pages max and gotten the same message across. We briefly talked about this book in one of my marketing classes and I'm not sure how much more I got from reading it.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sporadically interesting survey of the state of research in this important field.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I thoroughly enjoyed this analysis of habits on a personal, organisational and social level. Very descriptive and engaging, it gives both theory and concrete examples of how little habits and little changes can turn into big results. Although the premise is very simple, the analysis is not, as demonstrated in his various scenarios and requires a clear and, as much as possible, objective outlook. Because we are engrossed in our habits, we often fail to detect them.The research in the field is absolutely fascinating and one can only wonder at the applications it can have beyond the commercial examples Duhigg gives. I'll be curious to try out the simple five question survey he gives in the annex to see if I can actually detect certain habits I may have, and see if they are applicable in a wider context of, say, a family or a team.An intriguing and compelling read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I've had some friends and myself included undergo dramatic habit changes in regards to weight loss, eating, working, etc that this book intrigued me from the moment I saw it. I always though I had an idea why I for one had undergone some major habit changes, but this book placed another viewpoint on it and a lot of it makes completely sense. This should be a book to be studied and built upon for anyone interested in creating change and sticking to it.