[10G]≡ Download Better Than Before Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives Gretchen Rubin 2015385348614 Books

Better Than Before Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives Gretchen Rubin 2015385348614 Books

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Better Than Before Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives Gretchen Rubin 2015385348614 Books

Better Than Before is written by Gretchen Rubin, who also authored the Happiness Project, among other books. This book highlights how to break habits that can lead to a happier life. Most people have a habit that they would like to change. For some, it could be procrastination. For others, it could be eating too much sugar.

The author combines her own experiences with storytelling and her own research and research studies done by others. There are a lot of ideas in here, and the reader can pick and choose ideas that will work best for themselves.

While reading through this book, you will also learn some things about yourself. I fit into the "upholder" category. There are lots of other sorting techniques used to help you figure out ways to break your habits. From underbuying versus overbuying to simplicity versus abundance minded people, there are solutions for each personality type.

What I liked the most about this book was that she is frank about her successes and failures at each of the methods she offers. This book is very engaging and conversational. It's an easy read and would make a great read for someone who wants to break a bad habit as a new year's resolution.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for writing an honest review. I did not receive any other compensation.


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Better Than Before Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives Gretchen Rubin 2015385348614 Books Reviews

Been reading 75 pages now and have decided to skim through the rest. My primary issue is that framework doesn't make sense for me. Four fundamental principles, coupled with, to a varying degree, "hard wired" tendencies regarding sleep, food, exercise etc makes it both overly deterministic and relativistic at the same time. I get the feeling Gretchen wants to use her framework so desperately, that it actually hampers her own analysis (the "hammer fallacy - to use a hammer just because it's the only tool available). This is further enforced by the lack of annotations the further in you get into the book. Unfortunately, the personal stories are not relatable to me, and used too frequently, which muddles the underlying theme of the book (which is to create healthy habits).

But mostly this I identify as the Rebel/Questioner archetype (like to do things against the grain, and hate tasks that have no value or purpose). Time and time again, the Rebel is more or less described as a child (p.75 "Scheduling makes us far more likely to convert an activity into a habit (well, except for Rebels). This is just wrong, the choice is what's important to me - if I make the choice then of course it's easier to stick to the schedule, especially since I'm less likely to forget.

It's almost as if Gretchen thinks of Rebels as akin to children throughout he book, or something like a childlike Questioner.

-- this ended up more berating and mean than originally intended. Just need to add that Gretchen is obviously a great writer considering her other works, but this was just too offensive and non-relatable to me.
I have loved all of Gretchen Rubin's books and pre-ordered this one with great anticipation. It is interesting and can be insightful, but as someone already familiar with habits after reading The Power of Habit (highly recommend!!), this had two major flaws for me and I would recommend reading other books on habits first.

First, Rubin attempts to break down people's personalities to ascertain what methods will work best for different people, which would be incredibly helpful if her framework of the Four Tendencies worked. For me, it fails because people don't easily fall into those 4 categories - I think it might be more correct to say that in some situations people need external commitment (Obliger), and in other situations those same people are going to reject any rules (Rebel). But I think its very, very unusual that one person is one "Tendency" in all situations and for this reason, her constant reference to the framework in many ways detracted instead of helped me think about habits and how I might apply the various strategies. As she notes herself, Rubin is a very unique person and I think the fact that she is an Upholder in all situations is probably the exception, not the rule.

My second critique is that because Rubin herself is so unique and as a person completely without vice, she isn't able to clearly demonstrate the power of habit. Her method of writing is to combine research with personal stories. In her Happiness books, I found that method to be very successful. Here, however, she can't use herself as a guinea pig because she has few major habits to change; somehow she does not struggle at all with food, sleep, alcohol, exercise, etc. in the way many people do. So instead she uses her strategies to change small habits, which didn't come across as very dramatic to me because they aren't as difficult to change. Had she been able to point to at least one major habit to change and demonstrated the process and the challenges and ultimate success of doing so, it would have been much more compelling. It is as not hard to set an alarm every day to make yourself meditate as it is to completely change your diet (for most people, that is. For her that somehow was not a struggle).

If you are really interested in habits, and you should be because habits are fascinating, I would start with the Power of Habit.
Better Than Before is written by Gretchen Rubin, who also authored the Happiness Project, among other books. This book highlights how to break habits that can lead to a happier life. Most people have a habit that they would like to change. For some, it could be procrastination. For others, it could be eating too much sugar.

The author combines her own experiences with storytelling and her own research and research studies done by others. There are a lot of ideas in here, and the reader can pick and choose ideas that will work best for themselves.

While reading through this book, you will also learn some things about yourself. I fit into the "upholder" category. There are lots of other sorting techniques used to help you figure out ways to break your habits. From underbuying versus overbuying to simplicity versus abundance minded people, there are solutions for each personality type.

What I liked the most about this book was that she is frank about her successes and failures at each of the methods she offers. This book is very engaging and conversational. It's an easy read and would make a great read for someone who wants to break a bad habit as a new year's resolution.

Disclaimer I received a free copy of this book in exchange for writing an honest review. I did not receive any other compensation.