Making your bed every morning is correlated with better productivity, a greater sense of well-being, and stronger skills at sticking with a budget.

But countless studies have shown that a cue and a reward, on their own, aren't enough for a new habit to last. Only when your brain starts expecting the reward--craving the endorphins or sense of accomplishment--will it become automatic to lace up your jogging shoes each morning. The cue, in addition to triggering a routine, must also trigger a craving for the reward to come.

Research suggests that investment bankers are more prone to commit fraud when they feel the competitor at their heels.

Habits are powerful, but delicate. They can emerge outside our consciousness, or can be deliberately designed. They often occur without our permission, but can be reshaped by fiddling with their parts. They shape our lives far more than we realize—they are so strong, in fact, that they cause our brains to cling to them at the exclusion of all else, including common sense.

When people have a willpower failure, it's because they haven't anticipated a situation that's going to come along.

If you dress a new something in old habits, it’s easier for the public to accept it.

The Golden Rule of Habit Change: You can't extinguish a bad habit, you can only change it.