Who is the author of Good Habits, Bad Habits?

The author of Good Habits, Bad Habits is Wendy Wood.

Psychology

Good Habits, Bad Habits Book Summary - Good Habits, Bad Habits Book explained in key points

Listen to the Intro

00:00

Good Habits, Bad Habits summary

Name: Good Habits, Bad Habits
Rating: 4.5 (678 reviews)
Author: Wendy Wood

Wendy Wood

The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick

4.5 (678 ratings)

17 mins

Brief summary

Good Habits, Bad Habits by Wendy Wood uncovers the science of how we form habits and shows practical ways for shaping our behavior to help us become our best selves. Wood describes how to rewire our neural pathways and cues through her findings.

Topics

Routines & Habits Self-Help

Table of Contents

Good Habits, Bad Habits
Summary of 6 key ideas

Audio & text in the Blinkist app

Key idea 1 of 6

What’s in it for me? Learn how to make your habits work for you.

Every day, approximately 43 percent of our actions are performed out of habit. That means that rather than actually thinking about our behavior and consciously deciding how to act, we live almost half of our lives habitually – behaving automatically in the very same ways we’ve behaved before.

Whether it’s the things that you eat, the way you interact with others, or even your tendency to exercise, habits determine some of the most important aspects of our lives. So why not take advantage of them, and make them work for us?

Drawing on cutting-edge research into the psychology of habit, these blinks lay out what you need to do to make your habits work with you, not against you.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

why uncertain rewards can be better than reliable ones;
why self-control is misunderstood and overrated; and
how long it really takes to cement a new habit.

Habits control our lives – whether we notice them or not.

What are the first things you do when you wake up? If you’re like most people, your morning routine is probably fairly fixed.

You might just shower, dress, and hit the road. Or maybe you have to feed and dress your kids before you start your own day’s work.

Whatever the case, you probably didn’t actually decide to do many of the things you found yourself doing this morning.

There was no inner debate about whether to shower, or whether or not to make a coffee. Without any conscious thought, you just went ahead as you always do – showering, dressing, and brewing yourself a drink. In other words, you acted out of habit.

The key message here is: Habits control our lives – whether we notice them or not.

Whether it’s our morning routines or our exercise regimens, habits influence our behavior more than most of us know. So why do we so often overlook them? Because habits operate below the level of conscious thought.

You see, habits differ from other mental processes, like decision-making and willpower. These occur at the conscious level of the mind. When you hem and haw about which cereal to buy, you’re fully aware of the thought process you’re experiencing – it’s a thoughtful cognitive process.

Habits, on the other hand, work below the level of conscious awareness. They don’t really involve thought. Instead, they’re nonconscious repetitions of actions you’ve performed many times before.

Many of the things we do from day to day – both good and bad – are habits. It’s habit that makes you signal before you turn. It’s habit that makes you kiss your spouse when you get home from work. And it’s habit that keeps you eating the junk food you’ve been meaning to cut down on for months.

Recognizing the outsize role that habits play in our lives doesn’t strip us of agency, though. After all, habits are malleable – you can always lose the ones you don’t like and gain a few you do.

In order to do that, however, we need to take a look at how habits work.

Habit influences our actions more strongly than self-control does.

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.

Your environment can shape the habits you develop.

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.

Consistently repeating an action is a key step in forming a habit.

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.

In order to form a habit, you need to experience a sense of reward.

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.

When we’re under stress, we naturally rely on our 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.

Want to see all full key ideas from Good Habits, Bad Habits?

Key ideas in Good Habits, Bad Habits

More knowledge in less time

Read or listen

Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.

Find your next read

Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.

Shortcasts ^New

We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

What is Good Habits, Bad Habits about?

Good Habits, Bad Habits (2019) lays out the workings of human habits, drawing on groundbreaking new research into the psychology of human behavior. Combining the insights of neuroscience and lab-based experiments, it shows how we can harness our habits to change our lives for the better.

Good Habits, Bad Habits Review

Good Habits, Bad Habits (2019) by Wendy Wood is an insightful book that explores the science behind our habits and how they shape our lives. Here's why this book is worth reading:

Packed with compelling research and evidence, it offers practical strategies to help us understand and change our habits for the better.
Using a combination of real-life examples, experiments, and personal stories, the book provides a deep understanding of how habits influence our behavior.
With its fascinating insights into the psychology of habits, this book is anything but boring, engaging readers with every turn of the page.

Best quote from Good Habits, Bad Habits

Our lives could be very different if we took advantage of the emerging science on how, when, and why habits work.

—Wendy Wood

Who should read Good Habits, Bad Habits?

Ambitious planners who lack follow-through
Serial dieters trying to change their eating habits for good
Anyone trying to kick a stubborn bad habit

About the Author

Wendy Wood is a professor of psychology and business at the University of South Carolina. A world-leading expert in the psychology of habit, she has spent 30 years advancing her field, and has published over 100 academic articles over the course of her career.

Categories with Good Habits, Bad Habits

Psychology Personal Development

Book summaries like Good Habits, Bad Habits

The Sleep Solution

W. Chris Winter

Why Your Sleep Is Broken and How to Fix It

Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation

The 7 Things Resilient People Do Differently (And How They Can Help You Succeed in Business and Life)

The Small Changes That Change Everything

How to Build Habit-Forming Products

21 min

4.6

Discipline Equals Freedom

Smaller Habits, Bigger Results

14 min

4.6

Willpower

Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney

Why Self-Control is the Secret of Success

Cultivate the Awareness, Boundaries, and Daily Upgrades You Need to Make Them Stick

A Scientifically Proven Process for Changing Your Life – for Good

The New Psychology of Success

Sharpen Your Message and Make Your Words Matter

How to Advocate for Your Needs and Claim Your Sovereignty

How to Talk to Anyone

Leil Lowndes

92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships

What the Rich Teach Their Kids about Money – That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

My Life After the White House

Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and the Best Possible Life

Stop Overthinking and Channel Your Emotions for Success at Work

16 min

4.3

13 Things Mentally Strong Women Don't Do

Amy Morin

Own Your Power, Channel Your Confidence, and Find Your Authentic Voice for a Life of Meaning and Joy

21 min

3.8

I Know What to Do So Why Don't I Do It?

Nick Hall

The New Science of Self-Discipline

Rest More, Stress Less, and Live the Life You Actually Want

17 min

The End of Alzheimer's Program

Dale Bredesen

The First Protocol to Enhance Cognition and Reverse Decline at Any Age

21 min

4.2

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

Mark Manson

A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

The Comprehensive Guide to Delay, Don't Deny® Intermittent Fasting

Detox Your Life, Crush Your Limitations, and Own Your Awesome

The Secret to Achieving More with Less

The Anxious Generation

Jonathan Haidt

How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness

Living a Quiet Life in a Noisy World

Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earth's Resources

20 min

Why We Sleep

Matthew Walker

The New Science of Sleep and Dreams

16 min

4.4

Lives of the Stoics

Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman

The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius

The Revolutionary Method to Work Smarter and Live Better

17 min

3.6

The Art of Talking with Children

Rebecca Rolland

Nurturing Kindness, Creativity, and Confidence in Kids

How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses

The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know

22 min

4.6

Winning

Jack Welch with Suzy Welch

How to successfully run a company, manage people and build a career

It's Time to Cheer for Yourself

Burn Fat, Heal Inflammation, and Eat Like the High-Performing Human You Were Meant to Be

How to Get Everything You Want – Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible

Dominate Your Day Before Breakfast

19 min

Eat That Frog!

Brian Tracy

21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

13 min

4.3

The Art of Explanation

Ros Atkins

How to Communicate with Clarity and Confidence

23 min

4.2

I Will Teach You To Be Rich

Ramit Sethi

The easy approach to smart banking, saving, spending and investing

17 min

3.9

Be Useful

Arnold Schwarzenegger

The Surprising Science of Human Goodness

17 min

4.3

The Science of Rapid Skill Acquisition

Peter Hollins

Advanced Methods to Learn, Remember, and Master New Skills and Information

16 min

4.2

Heal Your Gut, Save Your Brain

Partha Nandi

Five Pillars for Gut Health and Cognitive Optimization

18 min

4.4

People ❤️ Blinkist

Sven O.

It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

Thi Viet Quynh N.

Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

Jonathan A.

Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

Renee D.

Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.