power of habit
by charles duhigg 

The Habit Loop – How Habits Work
This chapter discusses in depth the cycle all habits form, which Duhigg calls the ‘habit loop.’ All habits follow a certain cycle- they start with a cue, which is anything that serves as the reminder of the habit and triggers it; they then move on to the habit’s routine; and end on enjoying a certain reward you seek from that habit.

For example, if you smoke every time you are stressed, stress is the cue of this habit. If you smoke 3 cigarettes consecutively and listen to sad songs while smoking, this is the habit’s routine. The temporary relief you experience after smoking is the reward you seek from this very habit.

How to change a bad habit
To break any bad habit, you need to be aware of what triggers it, the routine and the rewards it provides you. You then need to find positive substitutes of that habit and engage in them every time you experience the bad habit’s trigger so you seek that reward from a positive activity and nurture its habit. So the cue will be the same, you need to change the routine and have a similar reward. So if the cue is stress, instead of smoking you could go for a walk, the reward would be the relief you feel from a walk.

Keystone Habits – Which Habits Matter Most
There are certain habits that matter more than others and if you implement just a few strong keystone habits they can have knock on effects in other areas of your life. 3 Keystone habits that will really change your life are reading or listening to audiobooks more, meditation and exercise. Reading or listening to audiobooks will help give you better ideas on how to tackle problems in your life, Exercise will elevate your mood and keep you fitter, meditation will help to keep you calmer and happier. It’s best to focus on these simple keystone habits because these lead to the biggest changes.

Arguably, the key take away from the book is that we create habits to save our time and effort because through habits, we mostly function on auto-pilot and don’t have to think a lot before doing something. Our habits create our reality more than we realise so if you change your habits you really can change your life.