Better Than Before

Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives

By: Gretchen Rubin

Narrated by: Gretchen Rubin

Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Best-selling author Gretchen Rubin (The Happiness Project and Happier at Home) explores habits - the invisible architecture of everyday life - and how they can make us more likely to be happy, healthy, productive, and creative. When we change our habits, we change our lives.

Gretchen Rubin, author of the blockbuster New York Times best sellers The Happiness Project and Happier at Home, has helped millions of readers get happier. Now she tackles the critical question: How can we make good habits and break bad ones? In a book that's crammed with big, provocative ideas, Rubin shows readers how to create the habits that will transform their lives, even if they've failed before. The secret, Rubin explains, is to pinpoint the specific strategies that will work for us.

From finding the right time to begin a new habit to setting up a counterintuitive system of reward to using the pleasure of treats to strengthen our good habits, Rubin identifies the 21 strategies that will allow every reader to find an effective, individual fit. Along the way Rubin uses herself as a guinea pig, tests her theories on family and friends, and answers readers' most pressing questions - oddly, questions that other writers and researchers tend to ignore:

• Why do I find it tough to create a habit for something I love to do?
• Sometimes I can change a habit overnight, and sometimes I can't change a habit no matter how hard I try. Why?
• How quickly can I change a habit? How can I get myself to stick to a new habit?
• I want to help someone else make a change. But how?
• Why can I make time for everyone else but can't make time for myself?

Whether readers want to get more sleep, make and maintain a weight loss, stop checking their phone, or finish a project, habits make change possible. Habits are the invisible architecture of everyday life.

Reading just a few chapters of Better Than Before will start readers working on their own habits - even before they've finished the book.

©2015 Gretchen Rubin (P)2015 John Murray Press

Critic reviews

"Do you have a bad habit you're 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, best-selling author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking)

"Filled with insights about our patterns of behavior, Better Than Before addresses one of life's big and timeless questions: How can we transform ourselves? In a way that's 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 best-selling author of Thrive)

"Gretchen Rubin combines deep research and observations from her own life to explain how habits emerge and - more important - how they can change. It's indispensable for anyone hoping to overhaul how they (almost unthinkingly) behave." (Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of The Power of Habit)

"Gretchen Rubin is a writer after my own heart - seriously brilliant, very warm, and funny. I think she's amazing." (Anne Lamott)

Useful, but flawed

What did you like best about Better Than Before? What did you like least?

Best parts where the actual useful classifications and concepts.
The main issue I had was the way the concepts were elaborated upon.

Did Better Than Before inspire you to do anything?

Yes. It got me going with a habit or two I've wanted to start for a while, but couldn't bring myself to start due to previous failures.

Any additional comments?

Insightful and smart, but written for a different audience to myself.
The author managed to pick up the intricacies of habit formation, but the way they're explained made me grind my teeth sometimes. I understand the thinking of trying to explain concepts using personal experience and anecdotes, but it gets tiring when it's done constantly and in such a "holier than though" manner. I really wanted to rate this better, since I did learn quite a bit and it definitely made me think, but ultimately it is a book, so spending a fair few hours rolling your eyes and clenching your jaw does gets very tiring.

It's personal

I find Gretchen's thoughts and life philosophies interesting and relevant. I thought this book was much more of her own unscientific and unproven thoughts and ideas comparing it to "The Happiness Project" which was more about testing popular science recommendations. Still she sees things in a useful and thought provoking way and I enjoyed hearing her theories (I am a questioner)

Excellent book..!!

Where does Better Than Before rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It is the very good book, best part about listening this is book is treat to listen Gretchen for 9 hours.. Good thing happened to be was, I started listening to her podcast much before I bought this book. so I was quite familiar with her voice and listening this book in her own voice was hell lot interesting . Book gave me good insight about knowing self .

What did you like best about this story?

Parts about different kinds of people. I found out that I'm an obliger.

What does Gretchen Rubin bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Her voice :-)

Starts out ok, gets worse

I initially found this book quite hard to get through, as the writing is so self absorbed and tedious, however I did find some good thoughts so I persisted. As the book continues, it devolves into the author talking about her life and opinions in such an unbalanced and unresearched way that it feels like you're talking to a young mother turned life coach.

I swear I learnt more about the authors daughter's diabetes and how good the author is at keeping habits than I did actually learn about habits.