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  • Better Than Before

  • Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives
  • By: Gretchen Rubin
  • Narrated by: Gretchen Rubin
  • Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (222 ratings)

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Better Than Before

By: Gretchen Rubin
Narrated by: Gretchen Rubin
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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 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.

©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)

What listeners say about Better Than Before

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Fabulous - a must have book.

What did you like most about Better Than Before?

I love the differentiation of this book it is not a one size fits all and it gives recommendations for different types of person e.g. larks or nightingales! Which makes perfect sense as we all have different strengths and weaknesses, likes, dislikes etc. This book helps you with the what and how of making change happen. It is so inspirational and motivating. Thank you Gretchen.

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A life changer for me

The ideas in this book won't be for everyone, but they spoke to me and have been life-changing. Loved this book and how it's helping me shape a happier life's

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Loved this book

Loved it. Have just finished and am clicking play to listen to it all over again! Great ideas and lots of take aways.

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2 people found this helpful

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Love this book and author so much

Gretchen Rubin has changed the way I look at the world. She speaks so honestly and defines habits in understandable terms. I highly recommend this book. I'm so happy I found it!

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It makes you want to be better than before

Great book, easy to listen to on audible. Some really interesting pieces on tendencies and habits that I hadn’t heard before. I recommend this audiobook.

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Brilliant.

My friend had recommended I read this two years ago. Don't wait that long - I recommend reading it now. There was information on habits presented in a way I had never heard before, that are making a massive difference for me. Hope you enjoy!

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One of my favorites

I love listening to Gretchen and all of her practical and real life stories and tips. I'm addicted and can't wait for her 4 tendency book to come out.

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Very useful information.

I've learned some things that will help me a lot with my habits. Feels like I'm Better than Before!

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I listened twice

Loved the four tendencies framework and it has really helped me understand my own behaviours and how I can be more intentional about my own habits.

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What an incredible book.

Loved listening to this book, so much to learn from it & take in. Highly recommend.

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