The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

All of us are creatures of habit. We might not consciously know how they started but here they are, shaping our everyday and eventually our lives. For example, I make the bed in the morning (good), get coffee before starting work (neutral) and sleep around 2AM everyday (baaaad!).

We all want to establish new good habits and get rid of bad ones.  Most of the time we think it's only a matter of willpower, try very hard at the beginning and then give up eventually.  The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg explains the science of habits -- what they are, how they start, what makes them stick and more importantly, how to drop old habits and create new ones.  He has diagrams to help explain the cue, routine and rewards on some of the examples presented in the book. A key takeaway for me is that in order to create or break a habit, one needs to study and isolate the cue, routine and rewards.  That level of understanding then gives us the power to change.  Very useful and practical concepts.

Aside from personal habits, Duhigg also went into the habits of organizations and society.  This took on a more academic tone but still interesting.  I recommend this book.

I wrote down some goals/habits that I want to build this year.  One thing that really helps me is to regularly track how I'm doing.  I created an Excel chart that I check off everyday (nerd alert!) because I am a visual person and it helps me stay motivated, and also to identify which ones are really not doable for the present. Like getting to bed by 1AM.=)  I might drop the hard copy though because I recently installed an app called Habit Tracker.  The logs would be real time or as soon as I get to the phone.  It also records the time and not just the Boolean check or X, which is useful for habits that don't just happen once a day.

So far, so good.=)