Habit Forming

Habits seem to be a hot subject these days, perhaps because on more-or-less lockdown we feel we should be using our time wisely for self-improvement. I don't think I have formed any new habits while staying close to home, although I suppose there's still time to apply myself! But it's not the fault of this book that I haven't conquered my inertia.

In The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Charles Duhigg does a nice job of laying the groundwork on how habits work and methods of cultivating them. He organizes his chapters by individuals, by organizations, and by societies, weaving in stories to serve as examples of the science he reports. It's a very effective method and keeps the book moving along.

It was particularly interesting to read -- in case study fashion -- how Starbucks and Target use the power of habit to create profitable businesses. Starbucks creates a company culture through training. The Starbucks manager that Duhigg describes gives credit to Starbucks for teaching him "how to live, how to focus, how to get to work on time, and how to master his emotions," all in a way that the willpower required for those skills has become automatic. The habits are so ingrained that they have become who he is, not just what he does. And those good work habits turn into good habits for life skills across the board. It's fascinating stuff.

Target, in contrast, uses customer habits and data mining to know what the shopper wants before the shopper knows. That was downright creepy. If you're buying sheets and towels, cutlery, pots and pans, and frozen dinners? That suggests a new residence and maybe a divorce. They know your kid is going to summer camp from the seemingly random combination of bug spray, a flashlight with batteries, kids' underwear and a bottle of Chardonnay. Five packs of washcloths, baggy jeans, DHA vitamins, "sensitive" laundry detergent, and moisturizers means Target knows you're pregnant, even if you haven't told anyone yet. This information made me want to make a habit of using cash when I go to Target, although I defy them to find a theme in my cart items. 

Occasionally this book gets a little heavy on the data and the details, but it more than makes up for that in the Appendix, which contains useful suggestions on how to apply habit research to your everyday life. By juggling the elements of Urge, Routine, Reward, and Plan -- which were explored in depth in the early chapters -- you become your own science experiment, adjusting the elements to customize making your habits work for you. For example, if your usual episode of mid-afternoon fatigue involves a sweet snack that's bad for your waistline, try substituting another kind of snack. Or a chat with a colleague. Or a short meditation session. Then repeat until it becomes a habit, not letting any lapses throw you off track -- and soon the new (positive) habit will blot out the old (negative) habit. No willpower required!

Excerpt (after the president of Alcoa insists on a new safety program):

Then O'Neill pounced.

"I want to congratulate everyone for bringing down the number of accidents, even just for two weeks," he wrote in a memo that made its way through the entire company. "We shouldn't celebrate because we've followed the rules, or brought down a number. We should celebrate because we are saving lives."

Workers made copies of the note and taped it to their lockers. Someone painted a mural of O'Neill on one of the walls of a smelting plant with a quote from the memo inscribed underneath. Just as Michael Phelps's routines had nothing to do with swimming and everything to do with his success, so O'Neill's efforts began snowballing into changes that were unrelated to safety, but transformative nonetheless.