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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| 35c75f4 | Also, there was a Princeton study that found that visual clutter reduces your ability to focus and process information. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 52289d5 | Keep a sense of humor. Over and over, I see that levity helps diffuse practically any difficult situation--which | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 73d21e3 | But while it's true that helping other people makes us happier, and that people feel a distinct "helper's high," it's also true that when people are unhappy, they often find it tough to help others. If they did, they'd likely feel happier, but unhappy people often feel preoccupied with their own problems and don't have the emotional reserves to turn outward. By contrast, happy people volunteer more, give away more money, and naturally take .. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 87f842e | The harder it is to do something, the harder it is to do it impulsively, so inconvenience helps us stick to good habits. There are six obvious ways to make an activity less convenient: Increase the amount of physical or mental energy required (leave the cell phone in another room, ban smoking inside or near a building). * Hide any cues (put the video game controller on a high shelf). * Delay it (read email only after 11:00 a.m.). * Engage i.. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 4ccbb13 | From my observation, habits in four areas do most to boost feelings of self-control, and in this way strengthen the Foundation of all our habits. We do well to begin by tackling the habits that help us to: 1. sleep 2. move 3. eat and drink right 4. unclutter | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| a81c6f7 | The conduct of our lives is the true reflection of our thoughts. --MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| cf1e7df | Use counters for activities, not for storage. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 397818d | See the child you have," as the saying goes, "not the child you wish you had." In the end, I agreed with Michel de Montaigne: "The least strained and most natural ways of the soul are the most beautiful; the best occupations are the least forced." | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| fdf65ed | Research suggests that about 40 percent of our behavior is repeated almost daily, and mostly in the same context. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| c3a35e1 | Moral Licensing Loophole: In moral licensing, we give ourselves permission to do something "bad" (eat potato chips, bust the budget) because we've been "good." We reason that we've earned it or deserve it." | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 057e830 | Lack of Control Loophole: Weirdly, we often have an illusion of control over things we can't control--"If I spend a lot of time worrying, the plane is less likely to crash," "If I play my lucky numbers, I'll win the lottery eventually"--but deny control over things we can control ("If my cell phone buzzes, I have to check it"). We argue that circumstances force us to break a habit, but often, we have more control than we admit." | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| afdfbef | Questionable Assumption Loophole: We make assumptions that influence our habits--often, not for the better--and many of those assumptions become less convincing under close scrutiny. A reader posted a good example: "I set up weird mental blocks around my time. For instance, if it's 9 a.m. and I have an appointment at 11 a.m., I'll think 'Oh, I have to go somewhere in two hours, so I can't really start anything serious' and then end up wasti.. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| e74ef6a | The reward of a thing well done is to have done it. --Ralph Waldo Emerson, "New England Reformers" | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| e61fefc | About 30 to 50 percent of happiness is genetically determined; about 10 to 20 percent reflects life circumstances (such as age, gender, health, marital status, income, occupation); and the rest is very much influenced by the way we think and act. We possess considerable power to push ourselves to the top or bottom of our natural range through our conscious actions and thoughts. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| c04184d | Any beginning is a time of special power for habit creation, and at certain times we experience a clean slate, in which circumstances change in a way that makes a fresh start possible--if we're alert for the opportunity. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 75b7b26 | The least strained and most natural ways of the soul are the most beautiful; the best occupations are the least forced. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 285d61e | One lives in the naive notion that later there will be more room than in the entire past. --Elias Canetti, The Human Province | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| b2c7c9a | Underreact to a problem | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| c2659d2 | Many assume that offering a reward will help people to jump-start a healthy habit, which will then persist after the reward fades away. Not so. Often, as soon as the reward stops (and sometimes before it stops), the behavior stops. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| b9b2995 | There is a myth, sometimes widespread, that a person need do only inner work ... that a man is entirely responsible for his own problems; and that to cure himself, he need only change himself.... The fact is, a person is so formed by his surroundings, that his state of harmony depends entirely on his harmony with his surroundings. --CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER, The Timeless Way of Building | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 89594b3 | Associate with people who are likely to improve you. --SENECA, Letters from a Stoic | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| fc51385 | Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 5c72403 | intentions," also known as "action triggers" or "if-then" planning. "If ________ happens, then I will do _______." With "if-then" planning, we try to plan for every habit challenge that might arise, so we don't make decisions in the heat of the moment--we've already decided how to behave." | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 7ee1ce6 | It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light." --G. K. Chesterton What's" -- | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| fed1578 | The Strategy of Scheduling, of setting a specific, regular time for an activity to recur, is one of the most familiar and powerful strategies of habit formation | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 4d7604d | Nietzsche wrote, "All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking," and his observation is backed up by science; exercise-induced brain chemicals help people think clearly. In fact, just stepping outside clarifies thinking and boosts energy. Light deprivation is one reason that people feel tired, and even five minutes of daylight stimulates production of serotonin and dopamine, brain chemicals that improve mood." | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| b6bab0f | When scheduling a new habit, it helps to tie it to an existing habit, such as "after breakfast," or to an external cue, such as "when my alarm rings," because without such a trigger, it's easy to forget to do the new action." | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| a0bc9bf | I wasn't as happy as I could be, and my life wasn't going to change unless I made it change. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| c4e76e6 | The opposite of happiness is unhappiness, not depression. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 75e3c23 | Thoreau admonished, "Our life is frittered away by detail.... Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!" This longing for simplicity is so powerful and complex that it needs its own term, much like nostalgie de la boue (yearning for the mud) or wabi sabi (the beauty of the imperfect and impermanent). When I asked on my blog if anyone knew a term to capture this idea, one reader coined the wonderful word "Waldenlust." This longing takes several fo.. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 925c8f6 | Happiness is a critical factor for work, and work is a critical factor for happiness. In one of those life-isn't-fair results, it turns out that the happy outperform the less happy. Happy people work more hours each week--and they work more in their free time, too. They tend to be more cooperative, less self-centered, and more willing to help other people--say, by sharing information or pitching in to help a colleague--and then, because the.. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| d348360 | Secret of Adulthood: Make sure the things we do to make ourselves feel better don't make us feel worse. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 8130867 | Studies show that people tend to persevere longer with problems they've been told are difficult as opposed to easy. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 22f4874 | 70 percent of long-term gym memberships are mostly unused, but a dog needs walking every day. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 74069f0 | We all know the secret of dieting...it's the application that's challenging. p 7 | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| fd8d77d | Think about appearances. I wanted my apartment to be less cluttered, and also to look less cluttered. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 17aceb4 | It turns out that stating a problem clearly often suggests its solution. p 32 | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 4471e19 | As Michel de Montaigne observed, "The least strained and most natural ways of the soul are the most beautiful; the best occupations are the least forced." p 233" | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 57c1330 | Self-measurement brings self-awareness, and self-awareness strengthens our self-control. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| d100d25 | day three days a week for six weeks, | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 79db09d | It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| d82a681 | I used to think I was pretty typical, but now I see that I'm extreme. I can't judge people according to what works for me. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| b37dbe5 | To a truly remarkable extent, we're more likely to do something if it's convenient, and less likely if it's not. For this reason, we should pay close attention to the convenience of any activity we want to make into a habit. | Gretchen Rubin | ||
| 7d026fc | mere acquisition isn't enough to establish a good habit | Gretchen Rubin |