Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits--to Sleep More, Quit Sugar, Procrastinate Less, and Generally Build a Happier Life

by Gretchen Rubin

Simplicity lovers are attracted by the idea of “less,” of emptiness, bare surfaces and shelves, few choices, a roomy closet. I’m in this camp; I get more pleasure out of shedding things than from acquiring things. I easily feel overwhelmed when there’s too much noise, too much stuff, or too much happening at once.

In fact, novelty lovers may do better with a series of short-term activities—thirty-day challenges, for instances—instead of trying to create an enduring, automatic habit.

Also, by taking little steps, we gradually become accustomed to including a new habit in the pattern of our days. The habit of the habit is even more valuable than the habit itself; for instance, the habit of tracking expenses each day is more valuable than any one particular calculation. Keeping a habit, in the smallest way, protects and strengthens it. I write every day, even just a sentence, to keep my habit of daily writing strong.

We do well to begin by tackling the habits that help us to: 1. sleep 2. move

3. eat and drink right 4. unclutter

People get a real lift when they put things in their place, tackle nagging tasks, clear surfaces, and get rid of things that don’t work or aren’t used. This surge of energy makes it easier to ask more of ourselves, to use our self-control, and to stick to a challenging habit.

Habits grow strongest and fastest when they’re repeated in predictable ways, and for most of us, putting an activity on the schedule tends to lock us into doing

Thoreau warned, “Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes,”

As St. Augustine famously prayed, “Grant me chastity and continency, only not yet.” Tomorrow

It’s a Secret of Adulthood: What we assume will be temporary often becomes permanent; what we assume is permanent often proves temporary.

We’re extrinsically motivated when we do an activity to get an external reward (a carrot) or to avoid an external punishment (a stick); we’re

intrinsically motivated when we pursue an activity for its own sake.

With my own habits, I’ve decided not to decide. I do an action without debate, without evaluation, and without reward. Just as I don’t reward myself for brushing my teeth or buckling my seat belt, I don’t consider Power Hour, exercise, or posting to my blog to be exceptional accomplishments that merit a reward. These actions are habits that run on automatic.

Samuel Johnson: “It is by studying little things, that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.”

Haruki Murakami, an avid long-distance runner, wrote about this process: “[Running an ultra-marathon] should add a few new elements to your inventory in understanding who you are. And as a result, your view of your life, its colors and shape, should be transformed. More or less, for better or for worse, this happened to me, and I was transformed.”

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