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Better Than Before
- Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives
- Narrated by: Gretchen Rubin
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
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Better Than Before
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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 listener 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 listeners' 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 listeners want to get more sleep, make and maintain weight loss, stop checking their phone,s or finish projects, habits make change possible. Habits are the invisible architecture of everyday life.
Listening to just a few chapters of Better Than Before will start listeners working on their own habits - even before they've finished the audiobook.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Gio
- 09-11-18
Best book on habits
I like the fact that she doesn’t have general tactics to acquire new habits and takes into account that each person is different.
Moreover, you can see that she’s tried it all and is passionate about the subject.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Nicola Somers
- 30-10-20
So practical and useful!
Great book, she explains things so well. This book helped me start to form some really good habits and keep them going. I love listening to her research 💕
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Alid7600
- 02-03-16
Brilliant!
I absolutely loved this book. I had bought it a while ago but hadn't got round to reading it. I wish I'd picked it up sooner. Made me completely rethink how to approach things in the future and I would actually like to read this book again, something I have never done before.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Emmie Lou
- 25-06-18
Life changing
This book has helped me to change many areas of my life. Gretchen is so inspiring and really knows her stuff.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Miss S. Hilditch
- 03-04-21
Read I
I have read a couple of very good books about habits and habit formation, so I was a little bit sceptical about what this one could offer that would be anything different. However, what this book offers is a way of thinking about setting more importantly, sticking to habits that compliments an individual's personality.
For example, Gretchen talks about people being Larks (morning people) or Owls (night time people), and she says that if you really struggle to get up in the morning, there's no point in setting a habit like "I'll get up at 5:30 every morning and go for a run". It sounds obvious but for years as an Owl myself I have been being myself up about my inability to use early mornings more effectively. Turns out I can try other strategies that fit in with my personality type rather than trying to squeeze into a mould that wasn't made to fit me.
I would really recommend this book for anybody who is trying to form better habits. Gretchen identifies four personality types, explains how they differ from each other and how you can identify your own type to help you adapt your choices to help form lasting habits.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Rozalind Williams
- 28-01-20
Amazing
What a beautifully crafted, interesting book! I've recommended this before I even finished it. It offers unique insight into our attitudes towards our lives and the habitual nature of the self. I hope I remember this book forever.
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- Demetri
- 13-06-15
Excellent, well worth listening to
Very practical advice on building effective habits. Found the insights in the book very useful indeed, especially the insight about what type of person you are: upholder, questioner, obliger or rebel.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 14-04-20
I absolutely loved it
It is a masterpiece!
Very useful to make yourself thinking about your personality and then tailor the babits that works for you.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Suzanne
- 14-10-15
Inspiring
I found this book inspiring! Really useful for helping to shape your day for the better. It's already helped me to understand myself better and how to make changes that work for me.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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- Turine Tran
- 27-02-18
A few blogs entries expanded to be a book
Would you try another book written by Gretchen Rubin or narrated by Gretchen Rubin?
No
What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?
Some interesting insights from an observant blogger, but that's it. Each chapter seems to be an expanded version of a blog entry. On a blog, you can be self-referential, talk non-stop about your family and all your insights from learning them, but to make the insights into a book that can last for some time, come on, you need better supporting info and research (which are everywhere). Therefore, the writing is very casual, extremely self referential, and way too long. The writer makes very strong claims such as there are 4 types of personalities that she herself defines and bases her habit-development tips on. Interesting thoughts here and there, but lost in her American centric endless stories and examples of family and close friends. Might be more enjoyable as blog entries, but please don't try to make them longer than they should be in order to make a book!
Do you think Better Than Before needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?
NOOOOO! It's way too long for the content it delivers and poorly supported.
Any additional comments?
The writer should have looked deeper into past research so her writing can be supported by proper sources rather than her very small circle of family and friends.
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9 people found this helpful