In this episode we discuss habit loops, how they form, and what they are, we look at why you can’t stop picking up your phone (I know that’s definitely a challenge for me), the habits and routines that research shows are most correlated with success, how to bake mental models into your brain, and much more with Charles Duhigg.

  

 Charles is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and senior editor at The New York Times. Charles is the author of “The Power of Habit,” which spent over two years on the New York Times best-seller list, and more recently “Smarter Faster Better,” also a New York Times best seller. Charles graduated from Yale University, Harvard Business School and has been featured in This American Life, N.P.R, Frontline, and much more.

  

 We discuss:

  

Habit Loops, what they are and how they form

40-45% of what we do every single day is not a decision it's a habit

Emotional cue for checking your phone and "novelty seeking"

How your brain makes that behavior automatic because it's delivering a reward

How to break habits

What Reward are you seeking? Get as specific as possible

Figure out the REWARD, then reprogram the HABIT

Keystone habits and how they can transform your identity and create a chain reaction

Why it's that the most successful people work harder, they just think differently

The rituals and habits of people who are more productive

Why its not being smarter, its not working harder, its not going to the right schools - the research shows that what correlates the MOST with success is that the people who are most successful tend to have “contemplative routines”, habits in their lives that push them to think more deeply

Journaling is a great example of a contemplative routine that can make you be more productive

Being busy and being productive are not synonymous

Thinking has always been the killer "productivity app"

The story of Quantas Flight 32

Maintaining focus while in the middle of a crashing airplane and how to cultivate situational awareness

How Firefighters develop ESP

Building a story, a mental model of a situation, and how that can shape your situational awareness

The vital importance of building mental models

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