The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Why the smallest actions can unlock the biggest change.
You might not remember walking from your kitchen to your desk this morning. Or replying to your first email. Or reaching for that snack during the 3pm slump. That’s not forgetfulness, it’s habit.
As Charles Duhigg explains in The Power of Habit, many of the decisions we think we’re consciously making each day are actually part of deeply ingrained behavioural loops. They’re not bad. In fact, they’re often incredibly useful. But when you want to change something, like moving more during the workday, it helps to understand how those loops work.
This is where the book becomes more than theory. It offers a way to make habit change feel less like self-discipline and more like strategy.
Understanding the Habit Loop
Duhigg’s core framework is what he calls the Habit Loop:
Cue → Routine → Reward
A cue prompts the behaviour. The routine is the behaviour. The reward is what your brain gets out of it (relief, satisfaction, energy, calm). And when this loop repeats often enough, it becomes automatic.
The trick? You don’t have to change the whole loop.
You can start by swapping the routine, keeping the cue and the reward the same.
Say you get an alert and automatically check your inbox, even when you’re in the middle of focused work. That’s a habit loop. Cue: alert. Routine: open email. Reward: sense of control or resolution.
Could you insert a different routine, say, a walk around the room or a standing stretch, to break that cycle while keeping the reward?
This is the kind of change The Power of Habit helps you make. Change, not by brute force, but by pattern recognition.
Keystone Habits: The Leverage Point
Not all habits are created equal. Duhigg introduces the concept of Keystone Habits, habits that, when changed, trigger a cascade of other positive changes.
For example:
At a metals plant, focusing on one keystone habit, worker safety, changed the entire corporate culture, from communication to leadership.
Michael Phelps followed a tightly scripted keystone routine before every race. It wasn’t just about physical readiness, it anchored his performance mentally.
Even Starbucks used keystone routines to help staff strengthen willpower under pressure.
What’s powerful here is that keystone habits often create ripple effects beyond the one behaviour they target. In the context of workplace wellbeing, adding even a small movement routine into the workday can unlock improvements in focus, energy, and sleep, not because you worked harder, but because you worked differently.
Movement and the Workday: Familiar Routines, Subtle Shifts
When we think about changing our activity habits, we often imagine needing to block out time for the gym. But habit change doesn’t require disruption, it needs anchoring.
That’s what makes Duhigg’s work so relevant to the Active Break approach. We’re not asking you to add something unfamiliar. We’re asking you to link short active breaks to routines you already have. Think:
A standing stretch while waiting for the kettle to boil
A lap around the office after each meeting
Five minutes of movement after finishing a report
You’re not inventing time. You’re attaching new routines to familiar cues.
That’s what habits are made of.
Willpower Is a Muscle (That Gets Tired)
One of the most surprising insights from the book was that willpower is finite.
We often assume we “should” be able to summon motivation at any time. But Duhigg shows how willpower gets depleted, especially when we’re making complex decisions, multitasking, or under stress.
But willpower can also be strengthened, with strategies, systems, and (you guessed it) habits. Journaling, planning ahead, setting cues, these are all ways to take some of the load off your decision-making brain and make action easier.
Crisis = Opportunity to Reset
Duhigg also explores how crisis creates space to rebuild habits. This was particularly clear during COVID-19, when so many of our routines were disrupted, it also gave us a chance to examine them. Some people built entirely new habits around home working, walking, or intentional rest.
The opportunity?
Every time your day shifts, even slightly, you have a chance to rewire. You don’t have to wait for a major overhaul. Even small interruptions (a new meeting time, a change in schedule) can be opportunities to insert a new habit loop.
The Organisational Angle
Duhigg doesn’t just focus on individuals. He extends habit thinking to teams, organisations, and cultures. He describes routines as the “institutional equivalent of habits”, patterns built over time that often go unquestioned.
In this sense, applying habit thinking to workplaces means:
Looking at cues baked into your team schedule (meetings, emails, breaks)
Identifying small levers for change (adding walking meetings, movement breaks)
Normalising rest and recharge, not just rewarding long hours and stressful scenarios
Try This Week
Here are a few simple ways to apply The Power of Habit to your workday:
Notice a cue: What prompts you to get a mid-morning coffee?
Tweak the routine: Can you swap a sit-stare-scroll break for a short walk or stretch?
Protect your willpower: Batch your hardest decisions earlier in the day.
Anchor a new habit: Attach movement to something you already do, like standing when you speak with a colleague
Reflect: Can you identify what routines are running automatically? Which ones are serving you, and which are simply familiar?
The Power of Habit isn’t about self-optimisation. It’s about understanding how your life already works, and using that insight to make better, easier choices. One loop at a time.
