Good Habits, Bad Habits summary

Have you ever made a New Year’s resolution? Most people have. Whether you promised yourself that you’d quit smoking, start jogging, or save a few grand over the coming year, you probably woke up January 1 brimming with confidence and enthusiasm.

But did it last? If you’re like most of us, not really. Bit by bit, your eagerness faded. You failed once, and then twice, and pretty soon you stopped trying altogether. 

If you’ve ever streamed a TV show on a site like Netflix or Hulu, then you probably know what happens whenever you finish an episode. As soon as one ends, another immediately begins to load – and without lifting a finger, you’re propelled into the next installment of your favourite series.

Maybe you find yourself watching more TV as a result. Maybe you develop the habit of binge-watching TV shows, going through a season or more in a single day.

So step one is out of the way. You’ve redesigned your environment to make good habits easier to fall into and bad habits harder to practice. You’ve hidden your phone and displayed your fruit bowl. So what comes next? How long will it take for your new behavior to become habitual?

Not 21 days – although that’s a popular answer. The truth is a little more complex.

There’s one other key factor in helping habits to grow: rewards.

The idea that rewards can make a habit stick is actually grounded in recent neuroscientific research. That’s because dopamine, a neurotransmitter crucial to the experience of reward, plays an essential role in forming habits. 

Stress seems difficult to escape these days. The majority of Americans say they experience more stress than is healthy, and almost a quarter actually report extreme stress. It seems the lives we’re living often bring us to the brink of crisis.

Chronic stress is more than just unpleasant. In fact, one consequence of stress is that it interferes with what are called the executive processes of our minds. These are the higher-order types of thinking we make use of when we think about the future, make plans, and weigh up decisions.