The Power of Habit - Why we do what we do in life and in business

Author:  Charles Duhigg

This book was featured in a NY Times article today.  The article was written by the author of the book.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html?ref=magazine

My favorite parts of the article:

Researchers have figured out how to stop people from habitually overeating and biting their nails. They can explain why some of us automatically go for a jog every morning and are more productive at work, while others oversleep and procrastinate.

The brain will try to make almost any repeated behavior into a habit, because habits allow our minds to conserve effort.

3 step process

Trigger

Routine

Reward

Habits aren’t destiny — they can be ignored, changed or replaced. But it’s also true that once the loop is established and a habit emerges, your brain stops fully participating in decision-making. So unless you deliberately fight a habit — unless you find new cues and rewards — the old pattern will unfold automatically.

Habits aren’t destiny — they can be ignored, changed or replaced. But it’s also true that once the loop is established and a habit emerges, your brain stops fully participating in decision-making. So unless you deliberately fight a habit — unless you find new cues and rewards — the old pattern will unfold automatically.

My thoughts on the article as shared on Facebook:

Very interesting article. It certainly makes me think about all of the information that is available out there about me that I'm not even aware of - though, honestly, I don't have a lot of habits, so I'm not sure any of the information they have about me is accurate. In fact, they probably think I have a brood of children considering what I buy at Target. Stew and I talk a lot about developing habits, like eating more healthy and exercising, cleaning the house on a certain schedule - it's interesting to see how habits are formed.

A quote from the article" Researchers have figured out how to stop people from habitually overeating and biting their nails. They can explain why some of us automatically go for a jog every morning and are more productive at work, while others oversleep and procrastinate." So, I want to know what researchers know and how to change those habits of overeating, oversleeping and procrastinating. I want to go for a job every morning and be more productive at work. I will definitely be buying this book when it comes out on the 28th.

Reminder to buy this book:  entered into my calendar - though it's competing with the new Showalter book.  Hmmmm.