Habits

Today’s post will be quite a bit different from normal. I received a book as a present a while ago called “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg. I have started reading the book as a way to try to analyze my own habits and see what I can do about changing them. Part of the idea of this blog for the summer was to learn better study habits. While this went okay at the beginning I have had a harder and harder time sticking with what I should be doing.

In an effort to change some of my habits I have started reading this book. Duhigg describes habits as having three parts, a cue that initiates the habit, a routine that is what we do, and a reward that is what we get. In learning to change your habits you need to be able to identify these three things about your habits.

Duhigg tells a lot of stories in his book about people who have changed their habits and about just how powerful habits can be. He even relates them to advertising in business and gives examples as to how habits and cravings are used there.

While I am looking to change several of my habits the book recommends starting with just one. He gives the example of a woman who stops smoking and in doing so changes her entire life. This is an example of a keystone habit that can make a big difference.

For myself probably the biggest habit that I have is of procrastination. It is something that affects my entire life, from not getting enough exercise to not getting my schoolwork done. This is something that I really want to work on changing and I think I will try to follow here as I read through the book, the small steps that I am taking towards doing that.