Wendy Wood

Good Habits, Bad Habits

1. IDEA 1

   Daily life runs mostly on habit

   Wood reports research suggesting that a large share of what people do each day is done out of habit, often while thinking about something else. Because so much happens automatically, changing behaviour means changing habits, not just intentions.

2. IDEA 2

   Habits work apart from conscious goals

   Wood describes habit as a separate mental system from deliberate decision-making. Knowing what you want and actually doing it are handled by different processes, which is why good intentions alone so often fail to change behaviour.

3. IDEA 3

   Context triggers habitual behaviour

   Habits are cued by context: places, times, people and earlier actions. Wood explains that the same situation repeatedly linked with an action eventually starts that action automatically, so shaping your surroundings shapes your habits.

All 8 ideas from Good Habits, Bad Habits →