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

The Happiness Project lays out lifes essential goals. Her new book, Better Than Before, serves as a kind of detailed instruction manual on how to achieve them.

New York Times Sunday Book Review

Gretchen Rubins thesis is fascinating, persuasive Just read this book I strongly recommend it if you are looking to make some permanent changes in your life. Its excellent.

Guardian (London)

Rubin had learned that there was a close correlation between habits and happiness, so she figured out how we form them, use them, and change them. Once I came to understand habits as harnessing our own lazinessmaking a habit frees you from decision-making, which you can use to your advantagemy relationship to them changed permanently.

The New Yorker

In Better Than Before, Gretchen Rubin picks up where [William] James left off, integrating a wealth of insight from psychology, sociology, and anthropology in an illuminating field guide to harnessing the transformative power of habit in modern life.

Brain Pickings

We are totally comfortable calling Gretchen Rubins new book, Better Than Before, life-changing.

Better Homes and Gardens

Bestseller Rubin comes across as a quirky, know-it-all friend who really, really wants to help you improve your life.

Publishers Weekly

Change can be good. Particularly if it helps us live longer, healthier, indeed, happier livesthe objective of Rubins latest project.

Chicago Tribune

The beauty of Rubins advice is that she understands not everyone has the same motivations and weaknesses. Better Than Before is packed with ideas, not all which will appeal to everyone. But thats the pointtheres something here for everyone, whether you tend to follow the rules or break them.

BookPage

Were major fans of Gretchen Rubin, bestselling author of The Happiness Project. Rubins fascination with human behavioras well as her sincere belief that we can make our lives more fulfilling and joyousshines through in her podcasts, blog, and books. Her new book, Better Than Before, looks at how we form and break habits and is packed with her trademark warmth, wit, and down-to-earth intelligence.

iBooks

Do you have a bad habit youre trying to shake, or a good one you wish you could cultivate? Gretchen Rubin is one of the most charming and erudite authors of her generation. Here, she uses her gifts to help you eat right, sleep well, stop procrastinating, and start enjoying all that life has to offer.

Susan Cain, New York Times bestselling author of Quiet

Gretchen Rubin combines deep research and observations from her own life to explain how habits emerge andmore importanthow they can change. Its indispensable for anyone hoping to overhaul how they (almost unthinkingly) behave.

Charles Duhigg, New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Habit

Gretchen Rubins superpower is curiosity. Luckily for us, shes turned her passionate inquiry to the topic of making and mastering habits. Weaving together research, unforgettable examples, and her brilliant insight, Better Than Before is a force for real change. It rearranged what I thought I knew about my habits, and Im better for it.

Bren Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Daring Greatly and The Gifts of Imperfection

Grab this now! Better Than Before is essential reading. In this generous and actionable book, Gretchen Rubin helps us make sense of how privilege and opportunity make so many of us unhappy, and shows how basic daily choices can free us to make the most of what we have.

Seth Godin, bestselling author of Linchpin

Is there a habit in your life youd like to change? If so, heres your first step: Read this book. Its loaded with practical, everyday tips and techniques that will guide you to success.

Dan Heath, New York Times bestselling coauthor of Made to Stick, Switch, and Decisive

Filled with insights about our patterns of behavior, Better Than Before addresses one of lifes big and timeless questions: How can we transform ourselves? In a way thats thought-provoking, surprising, and often funny, Gretchen Rubin provides us with the tools to build a life that truly reflects our goals and values.

Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post and New York Times bestselling author of Thrive

Almost everyone wants to be betterslimmer, smarter, better looking, more interesting, more productiveand we want to know were improving, we want the reinforcing evidence. Gretchen Rubins new masterpiece, Better Than Before, shows us how. Unlike other books on habits, Rubins book gives us the specific tools and a blueprint for getting back on trackthe fast track.

Brian Wansink, Ph.D., New York Times bestselling author of Slim by Design and Mindless Eating

With bold and original insights, Gretchen Rubin reveals the hidden truths about how to change our habitsfrom resisting junk food and hitting the gym to ending procrastination and saving money. Better Than Before is a gem, and the first habit you should form is reading a chapter every night.

Adam Grant, Wharton professor and New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take

Happier at Home

The Happiness Project

Forty Ways to Look at JFK

Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill

Power Money Fame Sex: A Users Guide

Profane Waste (with Dana Hoey)

Copyright 2015 by Gretchen Rubin

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Broadway Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
www.crownpublishing.com

Broadway Books and its logo, B \ D \ W \ Y, are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rubin, Gretchen Craft.
Better than before / Gretchen Rubin.
pages cm
1. Habit. 2. Change (Psychology) I. Title.
BF335.R82 2054
153.1dc23
2014031703

ISBN 978-0-385-34863-8
eBook ISBN 978-0-385-34862-1

Cover design: Estdio Inslito / Companhia das Letras

v3.1_r4

For my family, again

The greatest of empires, is the empire over ones self.

P UBLILIUS S YRUS

Better Than Before tackles the question: How do we change? One answerby using habits.

Habits are the invisible architecture of daily life. We repeat about 40 percent of our behavior almost daily, so our habits shape our existence, and our future. If we change our habits, we change our lives.

But that observation just raises another question: Okay, then, how do we change our habits? Thats what this book seeks to answer.

But while