Skip to content

Habit Formation Textbook

A free, self-paced textbook in 8 chapters. Read a chapter, then drill it with the 100 companion flashcards using spaced repetition.

8 chapters · 100 cards · Updated

Chapters

  1. 1Foundations: What Habits Are and How They Work

    A habit is a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic. Once a habit is firmly established, it is performed with little conscious thought, because the brain...

  2. 2Three Major Frameworks for Behavior Change

    Three influential frameworks dominate modern habit science. Charles Duhigg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, wrote "The Power of Habit" in 2012 and popularized the habit loop c...

  3. 3Building Habits with Cues and Tiny Behaviors

    New habits form most reliably when they are linked to clear, specific cues. An implementation intention is a plan that specifies when, where, and how you will perform a behavior, u...

  4. 4The Four Laws of Behavior Change

    James Clear's Four Laws of Behavior Change provide a complete system for building habits by aligning with the natural stages of the habit loop. The first law, "Make it obvious," fo...

  5. 5Breaking Bad Habits and Environment Design

    Because habits cannot simply be erased, breaking a bad habit requires changing the loop while preserving its structure. To break a bad habit, Clear recommends inverting the Four La...

  6. 6Identity, Motivation, and Goal Setting

    Goals set the destination, but identity and systems determine the journey. Identity-based habits, from James Clear, focus on who you wish to become rather than what you want to ach...

  7. 7The Science of Long-Term Consistency

    A common myth holds that habits form in 21 days, originating from Dr. Maxwell Maltz's 1960 observation that amputees took about 21 days to adjust to a new situation, which was then...

  8. 8Social Influences, Accountability, and Psychology

    Habits rarely form in isolation, because humans naturally adopt the behaviors of their social group. We imitate the habits of three groups: the close (family and friends), the many...

← Back to the Habit Formation deck