The Power of Habit - by Charles Duhigg

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg is twice as long as it should have been; the first three chapters are worth the read - subsequent chapters can be skipped - they talk more to institutional/organizational habits of NFL teams, and consumer goods companies.  The research in the first three is pretty solid, but the rest is very anecdotal.  The last chapter (appendix) is a recommended plan on how to change habits - could be very useful.

The Habit Loop.  New habits can be formed even in people whose brains have been damaged to the point of having profound amnesia after damage to the medial temporal lobe.  Though the patient could not form new conscious memories after the damage occurred, they could form new habits (learn a walking route), but have no conscious memory of it.

Craving.  Habits are formed through a 3 part process - Cue - routine - reward.  Research in monkey brains wired into the reward centers show that pulling a lever after seeing a shape on a screen, the reward neurons fire at first after the monkey gets the juice (reward), but after learning to pull the lever when presented with the shape, the reward neurons fire just after the stimulus (shape presented), but before the reward is given.  This defines a craving that the stimulus (shape) induces.  This craving is the essential component of addiction and operant conditioning (B. F. Skinner).

The cue is the stimulus, the routine is the action, followed by the reward.

The cue could be anything - this is interesting.  It could be an internal feeling (hunger, anxiety, boredom), or a external stimulus (email alert, bell, person, place, or time of day).  It doesn't have to related to the routine or the reward except by proximity in time.

Changing Habits.  In the Appendix, Duhigg provides a framework for changing habits.

• Identify the routine
• eat a cookie, get a drink, smoke, etc. 
• Experiment with rewards
• try alternate routines - have a conversation (call somebody?), go for a walk, read.  
• Isolate the cue
• awareness training: become aware of how you feel when you get the craving; write it down.  Awareness alone can help make changes.  
• write down 3 things you feel after trying each reward experiment.  "relaxed" "saw birds" "not hungry"; do this each time you use different rewards - and again (set a timer) 15 minutes after the daily trial ends.  
• Look for a pattern in the post-experiment reward trials.  
• Most (all?) cues fit into 5 categories (so answer 5 questions each day when the urge hits): 
• Location - (Where are you?)
• Time - (What time is it?)
• Emotional State - (What's your emotional state?)
• Other people - (Who else is around?)
• Immediately preceding action (What action preceded the urge?)
• Have a plan - use the same cue, but substitute a better routine.  Now it takes repeated focus to make the new habit into a routine.  Don't go back to the old routine.  Harder than it sounds.   

This compares (from the notes, p 305 #68) to CBT, cognitive behavioral therapy.  Steps in CBT:

• Learning. therapist explains ilness to patient; patient learns to ID symptoms. 
• Monitoring. (self awareness) pt uses diary to record behavior and what is triggering it. 
• Competing response. pt. cultivates new routines to offset problematic behavior. 
• Rethinking. therapist guides pt. to reevaluate how pt. sees situations. 
• Exposing. therapist helps to expose to situations that trigger behavior.  

Decide ahead of time how to respond to negative cues (angry customer -> discount; painful muscle -> relax/rub muscle).