Habit Loop

Habit loop is the popular name for a simple account of repeated behaviour: a cue appears, a routine follows, and a consequence helps make that response more likely in a similar setting. The model is memorable because it directs attention away from vague intention and toward the conditions around an action.

It is not a complete map of why people do what they do. Capacity, relationships, material conditions, emotion, and the design of an environment all matter; a neat loop should not become a way to blame someone for a difficult context. Nor does one changed cue solve every pattern.

Omzoe uses the model as a noticing tool in practice design. A card can ask what tends to happen before a behaviour or what makes a chosen action easier to repeat, without claiming to explain a whole life in three steps.