Making Habits, Breaking Habits

Jeremy Dean surveys what psychology actually knows about habits: how they form, why they are so hard to shift, and how people can change them. Drawing on a wide body of research, he explains that habits are automatic behaviors triggered by cues and cemented by repetition in stable contexts, which is why willpower alone so often fails against them. He examines the real timeline of habit formation, correcting the widespread twenty-one-day claim, and looks at how environment, routine, and emotion keep habits running below conscious awareness. From there he turns to practical strategies for breaking unwanted habits and building better ones, from changing cues to reshaping surroundings. The book is a compact, study-grounded tour of the science behind everyday automatic behavior.