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When I was studying my degree, I worked in a gym. I ended up working there for eight years, and I came to work up to 17 hours per week, which meant 17 hours of exercise, in a very variable timetable: I woke up at 6, and I usually arrived home at nights at 11 pm and went to bed one or two hours later. I started to take long naps of 2 hours after lunch both because I was extremely tired, and also because I slept very little at nights. And do you guess what happened when I quit that job and I began to sleep eight hours at night? Yes: I still needed to sleep after lunch! You might thing this is silly, but changing my sleeping habits took me a great deal of effort.
This book explains how we unconsciously create habits – bad and good habits – which will stay with us forever, since our brains need to do a lot of activities daily without wasting so much energy on them. And it also talks about how simple and tough is to change them; simple because you can easily know which habit you want to change and figure out ways of doing it; and tough since carrying that out will make you sweat blood. The good news is that once you change one certain habit, it becomes effortless to change others which might not seem related with the first one, and even more; once you stablish a good habit, it is as hard to break as the bad ones!
At this point I want to highlight something the author says: people busier than you go home after work, put on their running shoes, and go for a run instead of watching television. That is so true!
The habits in companies – here called routines – are also very well explained though several insightful examples of real and well known companies (I didn’t recognize all of them because they were from The States, obviously).
But the thing I liked most, although it’s only briefly mentioned in the book, was when the author mentioned the mechanism of willpower. Oh yes, now I understand myself better, thank God! 😀 It turns out that willpower is a capability we have a certain amount of for every day, so if you spend it on something, perhaps you won’t have any more of it later for other tasks. The author says we can work out our willpower little by little to get more (like muscular strength), but seriously, if I don’t do exercise first thing in the morning, I know I will never do it after work because my willpower is in a comma.
Summarizing, you must read this book if you want to know why our brains, and consequently ourselves, are so lazy sometimes.
PS1: I don’t feel like rating non-fiction books, sorry.
PS2: by the way, I want to mention that I began reading this book just when I started to go running, and it has helped me a lot; I’m even thinking about joining Joy in her Reader’s workouts post.
The power of habit Charles Duhigg Random House 286 pages
From Isi 
I think this would be so interesting. The more we now about how our brains work, the better able we are to break our bad habits and start good ones. Hmm. I think this would be a good one for my husband. 🙂
hehehe I see you giving it to him, innocently, this weekend 😛
Now seriously, the book is really interesting!
Really informative review 🙂 I didn’t know that willpower had actual limits, though it does make sense. The only thing is, knowing there’s a limit it could be easier to make excuses for yourself!
It has limits, but you can enlarge them by working it 😉 that is the key, so there are no excuses because now you know you can, you have to do it!
I enjoy books like these. I am trying to make new healthy habits for myself. And I usually start out well but then fizzle out at about a month. I was joining The Geeky Blogger’s Book Blog for her fitness challenge but didn’t do it in a month when my routine changed. I need to get back to it!
Thanks for the recommendation.
I don’t know that fitness challenge, but sounds good! Come on, you can do whatever you want!
This book sounds so much like something I’d enjoy. And I’m glad you’re running! 😀 I do think habits are hard to make and break, but knowing about them can help you make and break good/bad habits.
That’s exactly what I think, Rebecca, and that’s what I’m trying to do by running now. Let’s see if it also helps me to change other habits (bad ones)
I think I would enjoy this book. Habit are usually hard to break and for me – easy to make them, so I think this book might be insightful!
I recommend it to you if you are thinking about changing one or more of your habits. It helps because you understand better how your brain works 😉
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It’s fun to have you on Readers’ Workouts! I read The Power of Habit as a group read last year — we all seemed to get something from it. I find it helpful to know that making good habits is harder than it seems, so I’m not crazy when it turns out that I need lots of tricks and tools to make it happen.
Yes, it gives you at least energy to try to change them 😉 It was a “goodreads recommendation”; I tried it, and I liked it!
I also read and enjoyed this book. It made me think about my habits and I think I changed a few (I read it a few years ago). If you like this, you may also like The One Thing by Gary Keller, which is all about habits (“It takes 66 days to create a habit” – that worked for me, I tried it!).
I will look for that book, Judith, thank your for the recommendation. I still need more willpower for the running thing 😉
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I didn’t know you only had a limited amount of wilpower a day…hum….that explains so much of my life 😉
That explained a lot to me too, Ale!! 😀 The good news is we can improve or willpower, by working it out!!
Sounds like this was a good book to read right before you recommitted to running. Good luck making it a habit!
Yes, it was the perfect read before trying to accomplish something new 😀
Thank you!
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