
He also includes cooking, which might not seem an obvious choice at first. Manson says his list of habits "provide a nice foundation for a healthy life in all domains: physically, emotionally, psychologically and socially." Manson came up with a list of his own six suggestions for keystone habits, including meditation, reading, writing, socialising, and exercising.



This simple, quick keystone habit has been shown to correlate with "better productivity, a greater sense of well-being, and stronger skills at sticking with a budget." Science writer Judy Dutton suggests this might be because "an organized environment can positively impact our mental state," and making our beds in the morning helps us start the day with a sense of accomplishment. Another interesting example is making your bed every day. For instance, children from families who eat dinner together regularly tend to have higher grades, more confidence, and better emotional control. Exercise is the main example used by most people who talk about keystone habits, but according to Duhigg, "anything can become a keystone habit if it has this power to make you see yourself in a different way."ĭuhigg mentions some other examples in his book. Examples of Keystone HabitsĮxercise is just one example of a keystone habitīut when it comes to identifying your own keystone habits, that's where things get tricky. When you build a habit of exercising every day, apart from improving your health and fitness, you're also creating a new self image-one of a person who exercises regularly or, perhaps even more broadly, of a healthy person.īy starting with action that encourages the self-image we want to have, we subconsciously encourage ourselves to reinforce that new self-image with other behaviors. It's the cascading effect it has on other areas of your life that makes exercise a keystone habit. For many, people this is a keystone habit, because when they exercise regularly, they also make healthier eating choices, procrastinate less, wash their dishes earlier, and even use their credit cards less! Exercising regularly seems to be an ordinary habit, just like flossing daily or hitting inbox zero before leaving work for the day. The power of a keystone habit draws from its ability to change your self image.Įxercising regularly is a habit many of us want to build to get stronger, look better, and stay healthy. When researchers look at how people change their habitual behaviors, they find when some changes occur, it seems to set off a chain reaction that causes other patterns to change as well. Just what makes a habit a keystone habit, then? Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, explains that keystone habits change more than just our behavior-they change how we see ourselves: Similarly, a habit of turning into Netflix every night at 8pm probably doesn't have far-reaching beneficial effects. Similarly, keystone habits help hold other good habits in placeĪ habit of checking email first thing in the morning may or may not be beneficial to you, but it doesn't really affect other areas of your life, such as your well-being or personal relationships. In architecture, the keystone locks all the other stones into position.
