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Match Mobiliteit - How to break habits from The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

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Author: Match Mobiliteit
Categories: Productivity
Tags: productivity
Views: 2 · Last viewed: 2026-10-16 13:00 UTC

Short Summary

Main recommendation: To change a habit, diagnose its cue, routine, and reward, then keep the cue and reward the same while swapping in a new routine. The speaker's own cookie habit was driven not by the cookie but by the social reward of talking with colleagues, so he replaced the cookie run with a short chat with a friend.

Key Points

  • Every habit follows a loop of cue, routine, and reward, and the cue can be a location, time of day, emotional state, other people, or a sequence of behaviors that consistently triggers a routine.
  • The speaker's cue was a specific time of day, roughly three to three-thirty in the afternoon, when the cookie craving always hit.
  • The reward is usually the most important part of the loop, because habits exist to deliver rewards, and it can be hard to identify without testing.
  • Changing the routine while keeping the same cue and reward allowed the new behavior to replace the old one, and the urge to get a cookie eventually disappeared.

Details Worth Noting

  • Concrete instructions: First, track when the urge to do the habit occurs for a few days and note the time, location, and circumstances to identify the cue.
  • Concrete instructions: Write out the routine, the exact sequence of behaviors you perform once the cue hits, such as standing up, walking to the elevator, going to the 14th floor, buying a cookie, and eating it while chatting.
  • Concrete instructions: To find the reward, run small experiments on different days by changing one element at a time, such as walking outside instead of going to the cafeteria, buying a candy bar instead of a cookie, or going to the cafeteria without buying anything, and notice which option still satisfies the craving.
  • Concrete instructions: Once the reward is identified, keep the same cue and reward and substitute a new routine that delivers that reward, such as walking to a friend, talking for about ten minutes, and returning to your desk.
  • The speaker reports that the cookie craving was driven by socializing rather than the cookie, and that the new routine led to a loss of about 12 pounds after he had gained eight.
  • The speaker states that studies have shown diagnosing your habits lets you change them, presenting this as an established finding rather than his own opinion.

Bottom Line

Habits are not changed by willpower alone; identifying the real reward behind a habit lets you swap the routine while keeping the cue and reward intact.