Find what the routine is paying

An afternoon trip for a biscuit may be hunger, but it may also be a reason to leave the desk and talk. Charles Duhigg’s habit loop separates cue, routine, and reward. To change the middle, he suggests testing rewards: take a walk, eat something else, talk to a colleague, then notice which substitution satisfies the pull.

Neuroscience does not reduce every complex behaviour to one three-part loop, and addiction or compulsive symptoms deserve more than a kitchen-table experiment. As an observational tool, however, the separation is sharp. The routine is visible; its payment may not be. Discovering that the desired reward is company rather than sugar changes what a plausible replacement looks like.