Exercises — Chapter 29: Habit Formation and Behavior Change

These exercises assume you have an actual behavior you want to change — either to form or to break. The most valuable exercises here require a real target, not a hypothetical one.

Part 1: Understanding Your Habit Loops

Exercise 29.1 — Mapping an Existing Habit

Choose one behavior you engage in regularly without much deliberate thought — a good habit or a neutral one.

(a) Describe the full habit loop: - Cue: What triggers this behavior? What is happening — time, place, physical state, preceding event, emotional state — just before the behavior begins? - Routine: What exactly happens? Describe the behavior with enough specificity to reconstruct it. - Reward: What do you get from this behavior? Not what you think you should get — what the behavior actually delivers. (Relief? Stimulation? Social connection? Completion?)

(b) When in your day is this behavior most automatic — when you are least aware of performing it? What does this tell you about its cue strength?

(c) What would happen if the cue were removed from your environment? Would the habit persist?

Exercise 29.2 — Diagnosing an Unwanted Habit

Choose one behavior you'd like to reduce or eliminate.

(a) Map the habit loop: cue, routine, reward. Be as specific as possible.

(b) The chapter notes that the reward in a habit loop is not always obvious and is often not what you'd expect. Duhigg gives the example of afternoon cookie-eating where the reward turned out to be social connection, not the cookie itself. What does your unwanted habit's loop actually deliver?

(c) What are the possible interventions, given the loop structure? - Can you remove the cue? - Can you install a substitute routine that delivers the same reward? - Can you add friction between cue and routine? - Can you change the reward's salience?

(d) Design one specific intervention based on loop analysis. Why is this more likely to work than trying to suppress the behavior directly?

Part 2: Habit Formation Design

Exercise 29.3 — The Identity Statement

For a habit you want to form:

(a) Write the outcome-based version: what do you want to achieve?

(b) Write the identity-based version: what kind of person performs this behavior? (Not "I want to read more" — "I am a person who reads.")

(c) What evidence could you gather — from your past or present behavior — that this identity is at least partially already true?

(d) What would the first small behavior be that is consistent with this identity — small enough to do today, but genuinely representative of who you're becoming?

Exercise 29.4 — The Implementation Intention

For a specific behavior you want to increase:

(a) Write the full implementation intention: "When [specific cue: time, place, or event], I will [specific behavior] in [specific location]."

(b) Evaluate your implementation intention against the research criteria: - Is the "when" specific and reliably occurring? - Is the "then" a single, specific, physically possible behavior? - Is the cue something you will definitely encounter? - Is the behavior small enough to actually do when the cue appears?

(c) Revise if necessary. Many first drafts are too vague ("when I feel like it" or "in the morning") or too ambitious ("I will exercise for an hour").

(d) Use this implementation intention for two weeks. After two weeks: did the cue reliably trigger the behavior? If not, what happened?

Exercise 29.5 — Habit Stacking

Choose a new behavior you want to add to your routine.

(a) List your current reliable anchors — existing habits that happen at the same time, in the same place, with high consistency. (Morning coffee, brushing teeth, arriving home from work, sitting down to lunch, etc.)

(b) For each anchor, assess: does the new behavior fit logically after this anchor in terms of time, location, and physical state? Is there natural proximity and sequence?

(c) Write your habit stack: "After I [anchor habit], I will [new behavior]."

(d) The anchor should already be reliable before you stack onto it. If the anchor is itself inconsistent, the stack will be inconsistent. Is your chosen anchor reliable enough?

(e) Try the habit stack for two weeks. Track whether the anchor reliably triggers the new behavior. If not: was the anchor unreliable, or was the new behavior too demanding for the available activation energy at that point in your day?

Exercise 29.6 — Tiny Habits Design

Apply Fogg's Tiny Habits methodology to one behavior:

(a) What is the full-size version of the behavior you want to form?

(b) Make it tiny: what is the smallest possible version that is genuinely representative of the behavior? (Two minutes of meditation instead of twenty. One push-up instead of twenty. Writing one sentence instead of a page.)

(c) Anchor it: what existing behavior will come just before the tiny habit?

(d) Design the celebration: what immediate positive signal will you give yourself after completing the tiny behavior? (This is technically important — not just motivational.) Be specific: a physical gesture, a phrase, a specific expression of genuine satisfaction.

(e) Do the tiny habit for one week. Note: do not expand the behavior during the first week. The goal is automatic execution, not performance. Does the tiny version consistently happen?

Part 3: Environment Design

Exercise 29.7 — The Friction Audit

Conduct an audit of the friction structure of your environment around one target behavior.

For a behavior you want to increase: (a) What are the friction points — the steps, obstacles, or inconveniences — that stand between the cue and the behavior? List each one. (b) Which friction points can you eliminate? Design specific changes. (c) Is the behavior visible? Is the cue prominent in the environment where the behavior should occur?

For a behavior you want to decrease: (d) What frictions could you add between the cue and the behavior? List specific, concrete friction additions. (e) Can the cue itself be removed or made less visible? (f) What is the default path when the friction is present? Does it lead to a better alternative?

Exercise 29.8 — Environment Redesign

Choose a specific environment you want to redesign for better behavior: your workspace, kitchen, bedroom, phone home screen, or physical space around a specific habit.

(a) Take a photograph or make a sketch of the current environment. What does the current layout encourage?

(b) Identify: what behaviors are currently made easiest by this environment? What behaviors are made harder?

(c) Design the redesigned environment. Specifically: where are the cues for desired behaviors? Where are the friction points for undesired ones?

(d) Implement the redesign and evaluate after two weeks: did the environment change produce behavioral change? What didn't you predict?

Part 4: Behavior Change Stages

Exercise 29.9 — Stage Assessment

For a specific behavior you want to change, assess your current stage in the Transtheoretical Model:

Precontemplation: "I'm not really thinking about changing this." Contemplation: "I know I should change this, but I haven't committed." Preparation: "I'm planning to change this and have taken some initial steps." Action: "I've been doing this for less than six months." Maintenance: "I've been doing this consistently for more than six months."

(a) Which stage are you in for this behavior?

(b) The chapter notes that different interventions are appropriate at different stages. Given your current stage, which approach is most likely to be useful? - Precontemplation: values clarification, increasing awareness of discrepancy - Contemplation: decisional balance, exploring ambivalence, motivational interviewing - Preparation: specific planning, implementation intentions, environment design - Action: habit stacking, tracking, accountability structures - Maintenance: relapse planning, identifying high-risk situations, reviewing identity

(c) Have you been applying stage-mismatched interventions? (For example, applying action-stage techniques to a contemplation-stage problem?) What would a stage-matched approach look like?

Exercise 29.10 — The Decisional Balance

For a behavior you're considering changing (contemplation stage):

Write a balanced assessment in four cells:

(a) Complete all four cells as honestly and fully as possible. The "pros of not changing" are often the most important and the most suppressed.

(b) Which cell produces the most discomfort to fill in honestly? Why?

(c) Does the balance sheet reflect your values — what you've identified in Chapter 11 as genuinely important to you? Or does it reflect social pressure, external expectations, or inherited ideas about what you should want?

Part 5: Breaking Unwanted Habits

Exercise 29.11 — Substitution Design

For an unwanted habit you want to reduce:

(a) Identify the reward the habit delivers (use your loop analysis from Exercise 29.2).

(b) Generate a list of alternative routines that could deliver a similar reward with fewer costs. Be creative — the alternative doesn't have to be traditionally "healthy," just less harmful than the original.

(c) Design a specific substitution: "When I notice [cue], I will [new routine] instead of [old routine]."

(d) The substitution strategy works best when the substitute genuinely delivers the reward. Test your substitute for one week. Does it satisfy the craving? If not, what was missing?

Exercise 29.12 — Commitment Devices

Design a commitment device for one behavior change you've been struggling with.

A commitment device is a decision made in advance that constrains future choices. Examples: scheduling gym sessions with a friend (social commitment), paying for a course in advance (financial commitment), telling others about a change (public commitment), restricting access to apps/environments (structural constraint).

(a) What is the behavior you're trying to change?

(b) What specific commitment device could you implement? Be concrete: what exactly would the commitment look like, and how would it constrain future behavior?

(c) What is the cost of breaking the commitment? (The most effective commitment devices have a real cost — social, financial, or reputational — for non-compliance.)

(d) Implement the commitment device. Track whether it changes the behavior probability.

Part 6: Self-Compassion and Recovery

Exercise 29.13 — The Relapse Response Plan

Most behavior changes involve at least one setback. This exercise designs your response in advance, so you don't have to make the decision in the aftermath of failure.

(a) Describe the specific lapse you're most likely to have in your target behavior change. (Not a catastrophic failure — the most realistic single miss or slip.)

(b) Write out what your typical self-critical response to this lapse would be. (Be honest.)

(c) Write out what you would say to a close friend who had the same lapse, trying to resume the same behavior change. (Research finds this is almost always kinder than what we'd say to ourselves.)

(d) Design your "never miss twice" plan: if you miss once, what specifically will you do to return to the behavior as quickly as possible?

(e) What is the environment or state that makes relapse most likely? How can you prepare for that context in advance?

Exercise 29.14 — The Long-Term Behavior Review

Choose a behavior change you have attempted and either sustained or abandoned in the past.

(a) Describe the change, the approach you used, and what happened.

(b) If it was sustained: what factors made it sustainable? Which of the chapter's frameworks appear in retrospect?

(c) If it was abandoned: at what stage did it fail? What would you design differently, given what you now know?

(d) For people who have attempted the same change multiple times: this is normal, not evidence of weakness. The research on stage cycling suggests that most people cycle through stages several times before achieving maintenance. How does this framing change your interpretation of your own history?

Part 7: The Systems View

Exercise 29.15 — The Full Behavior Change Design

Apply the complete framework to one behavior change you want to make:

Identity: Who is the person who does this behavior? Write one sentence.

Tiny start: What is the smallest daily version of this behavior?

Habit stack: After what existing anchor will this behavior occur?

Implementation intention: When [cue], I will [behavior] in [location].

Environment design: What friction will you remove? What friction will you add? What cue will you make visible?

Social context: Is there a group or person who shares or supports this behavior? How will you use that relationship?

Commitment device: What decision can you make now to constrain future choices?

Relapse plan: What will you do the day after a miss?

Review date: When will you assess whether the design is working?

Run this design for four weeks, then assess and revise. Which elements worked? Which need adjustment?