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The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business Paperback – 7 January 2014
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NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Wall Street Journal - Financial Times
In The Power of Habit, award-winning business reporterCharles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. Distilling vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives that take us from the boardrooms of Procter & Gamble to the sidelines of the NFL to the front lines of the civil rights movement, Duhigg presents a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential. At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, being more productive, and achieving success is understanding how habits work. As Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.
With a new Afterword by the author
"Sharp, provocative, and useful."--Jim Collins
"Few [books] become essential manuals for business and living. The Power of Habit is an exception. Charles Duhigg not only explains how habits are formed but how to kick bad ones and hang on to the good."--Financial Times
"A flat-out great read."--David Allen, bestselling author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
"You'll never look at yourself, your organization, or your world quite the same way."--Daniel H. Pink, bestselling author of Drive and A Whole New Mind
"Entertaining . . . enjoyable . . . fascinating . . . a serious look at the science of habit formation and change."--The New York Times Book Review
- Print length416 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherDuhigg, Charles
- Publication date7 January 2014
- Dimensions13.18 x 2.39 x 20.32 cm
- ISBN-10081298160X
- ISBN-13978-0812981605
- Lexile measure1150L
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Product description
Review
"Few [books] become essential manuals for business and living. The Power of Habit is an exception. Charles Duhigg not only explains how habits are formed but how to kick bad ones and hang on to the good."--Financial Times
"Entertaining . . . enjoyable . . . fascinating . . . a serious look at the science of habit formation and change."--The New York Times Book Review
"Cue: see cover. Routine: read book. Reward: fully comprehend the art of manipulation."--Bloomberg Businessweek
"A fresh examination of how routine behaviors take hold and whether they are susceptible to change . . . The stories that Duhigg has knitted together are all fascinating in their own right, but take on an added dimension when wedded to his examination of habits."-- Associated Press
"There's been a lot of research over the past several years about how our habits shape us, and this work is beautifully described in the new book The Power of Habit."--David Brooks, The New York Times
"A first-rate book--based on an impressive mass of research, written in a lively style and providing just the right balance of intellectual seriousness with practical advice on how to break our bad habits."--The Economist
"I have been spinning like a top since reading The Power of Habit, New York Times journalist Charles Duhigg's fascinating best-seller about how people, businesses and organizations develop the positive routines that make them productive--and happy."--The Washington Post
"An absolutely fascinating . . . book [that explores] a startling and sometimes dismaying collision between the increasingly sophisticated scientific understanding of habits--how they're formed, how they can be disrupted and changed--and, among other things, companies' efforts to use that knowledge to steer your habits and money their way."--Wired
"If Duhigg is right about the nature of habits, which I think he is, then trying to get rid of these bad habits won't work. Instead, what is needed is to teach the managers to identify the cues that lead to these bad habits and rewards, and then learn alternative routines that lead to similar rewards, i.e. business and personal success."--Forbes
"The Power of Habit is chock-full of fascinating anecdotes . . . how an early twentieth century adman turned Pepsodent into the first bestselling toothpaste by creating the habit of brushing daily, how a team of marketing mavens at Procter & Gamble rescued Febreze from the scrapheap of failed products by recognizing that a fresh smell was a fine reward for a cleaning task, how Michael Phelps' coach instilled habits that made him an Olympic champion many times over, and how Tony Dungy turned the Indianapolis Colts into a Super Bowl-winning team."--Los Angeles Times
About the Author
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Product details
- Publisher : Duhigg, Charles; Reprint edition (7 January 2014)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 416 pages
- ISBN-10 : 081298160X
- ISBN-13 : 978-0812981605
- Dimensions : 13.18 x 2.39 x 20.32 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 9,307 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

My name is Charles Duhigg, and I'm a reporter for The New York Times. I'm also the author of The Power of Habit, about the science of habit formation, as well as Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Productivity in Life and Business (which is available for sale on Amazon on March 8, 2016!)
I've worked at the Times since 2006. In 2013, I was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for a series about Apple named "The iEconomy". Before that, I contributed to NYT series about the 2008 financial crisis, how companies take advantage of the elderly and national violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act. (For those series, I won the National Journalism Award, the Investigative Reporters and Editors' Medal, the National Academies' reporting award and other recognitions.)
But let’s be honest, you aren’t visiting this page so I can brag about series and awards. (Unless you’re my mom. Hi mom!)
I’m also a native of New Mexico. I studied history at Yale and received an MBA from Harvard Business School. I now live in Brooklyn with my wife and two children and, before becoming a journalist, was a bike messenger in San Francisco for one terrifying day.
I would love to hear from you. I'm at charles@charlesduhigg.com.
Customer reviews
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Top reviews from Australia
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In my original review talked about how I felt the book didn't cover the "how to change" part of the title. I later discovered that it did in the Appendix to the book. I read this book in the form of an eBook on the kindle reader which requested the review before I got to see the appendix.
So. How to change is covered in the appendix, and it collects all the information together in a short example of changing a habit. This tied up the loose ends for me and I felt that I now had some tools to help me deal with all my unwanted habits.
In the end I would recommend the book, but be ready to stick at it through some of the chapters.
------ original post ------
I found this book in parts interesting and in parts a chore to read. For me the content dragged on at times, and a maybe in too much detail that was not needed.
At the end of it all I feel the "why we do what we do" was covered, but the "how to change" was not. Or at least "how to change" was not clear enough to me.
Maybe another read through the book will make a difference.
Top reviews from other countries

I’m a 20 y/o pretty normal male, living in England
And this book has completely changed my life.
I was a regular smoker of both tobacco and cannabis, and the routine change taught in this book, and the methods of distraction taught in this book has helped me so much. I just want to say Thanks to Charles for making such an enjoyable book, which has taught me a lot about habits.
10/10 would read again.
Callum

Habit is a book that is extremely useful. We start off with some obvious but solid reminders of how what we perceive as excellence is habit. It’s not about “grit” as some other books would say.
Simply setting a reminder to go to bed and putting your trainers next to your bed every night is a better way to get exercising than watching motivational videos on YouTube. Humans look for the way way out. Make things easy. Create a reward loop and you will develop a habit.
After a solid start the book falters and diverges quickly. Stories become way too drawn out and - I would argue - not relevant to the reason most people buy this book. We get a long chapter on how supermarkets are monitoring our shopping habits via reward cards and can tell if your are pregnant from your food grocery list.
We have a chapter that massively drags on how a cassino kept a gambler coming back but stimulating her habit and reminding her of the rewards (debt in this case).
Like many self help books, you want to throw it out the window at times. But it’s got a solid thesis. I now keep my trainers next to my bed and have created a habit I never thought feasible. Thus the book is worth it’s weight of gold. It’s just got a core of lead to go along with it.

Quickly I found myself engrossed by the ideas explored in this book. Lots of examples and research is examined to look at how habits form and how they can be changed.
The book is split into three sections - individuals, organisations and society in general. I found the first two sections extremely engaging but thought that the society narrative was slightly less well defined and held my interest less.
Very cleverly, real people are used to prove theories and familiar companies are used as examples of habit changes.
I was surprised how interesting I found this book and have talked about it to various people whilst I was reading.

This book is divided into three parts. Each part explains a different aspect of why habits exist and how they function.
The examples used in this book are so powerful and relevant that reader will feel a lot of wow moments. This is one of the books which we need to read again and again.
