Gretchen Rubin has an energetic zeal when talking about her new book, for which she was once again part researcher and part guinea pig. Better Than Before in many respects picks up where The Happiness Project left off.

This time, she explored not just what makes us happy, but why routines play such a crucial role in our personal fulfillment and success.

Rubin spoke with The Washington Post about developing - and maintaining - good habits, particularly when it comes to our professional lives.

Excerpts:

Q: When it comes to being happy in our professional lives, are there habits people tend to need more help with than others?

A: One that’s challenging for people is to have a habit of leisure. Work is constantly seeping in. People often want the feeling of being off duty - stepping away from a device, not checking e-mail, not feeling like they should be working all the time, getting enough sleep.

A strategy that works well for that is to make it inconvenient to do something like check your phone. If you walk around with it in your back pocket, you’re going to find it irresistible.

But if you put it in the pocket of your coat, then put your coat in the closet, you make it a little bit harder, which helps create that limit between work and home.

Q: Do you have any advice for how to chip away at longer-term professional goals, like working on a book or changing careers?

A: Whenever anybody has a problem with procrastination, it helps to commit to a specific time and a specific place to do that work. Because something that can be done at any time is often done at no time.

And here’s something important when you’re scheduling: Do that work and nothing else. Don’t check email. Don’t do research. Don’t clean up your office.

Q: Do you take that time out of evening hours with family? Or find ways to bake that into your day job?

A: There’s no one solution, because everyone’s job and nature is different. I would say that many people readily meet external expectations but struggle to meet inner expectations. When they have work deadlines, they easily meet those. But if there is something they’re doing for themselves - like learning a software program or writing a rsum - that’s hard for them to do, because there’s no one waiting.

If that describes you, you need to figure out how to build external accountability. Maybe you work with a friend, or have an accountability group, or hire an executive coach, or arrange with someone to get that rsum to them by a certain date.

Q: What’s the most interesting thing you came across in your research that relates to leadership?

A: People often say: I want to be like Steve Jobs, or Ben Franklin. I’m going to look at what that person’s habits were and copy them for myself. If it worked for them, it’s going to work for me.

That is not the case.

When you look at the people who are the most productive, the most creative, they figured out what works for them. Some people drink a lot of coffee; some people drink a lot of booze. Some people stay up late; some people go to bed early. Some people work many hours a day; some people work very few hours a day. Some people work in solitude; some people work amid a lot of buzz.

The people who are really successful just figured out what works for them, and they work like crazy to make sure that their environment gives them what they need.

Q: You explored the link between habits and decision-making, and how habits free us from constantly facing the same questions. Why is automating decisions such a powerful tool?

A: When the brain has the opportunity to make something into a habit, it wants to - because that frees the brain to think about novel, complex and urgent matters. It’s freeing when we don’t have to make decisions. I don’t decide to get up at 6 a.m. I don’t decide to skip dessert. I decided those long ago. Decision-making is draining and it’s difficult, so if we avoid decision-making then we don’t have to use our self-control.

A lot of times people will say to me, “I want to go through my day making healthy choices. Help me do that.” And I’m like: You don’t want to go through your day making healthy choices, because every time you’re choosing, you have the opportunity to make the wrong choice. You want to make one choice, and then stop choosing.

Are you going to the gym? Yes, you are. Are you going to go to sleep at 11 p.m.? Yes, you are. If you put it on autopilot, then you don’t have to drain yourself trying to make decisions, which can drive you crazy.

Q: What’s key to boosting the productivity of any given day?

A: Monitoring is kind of this magical strategy, because even if you’re not consciously trying to change a behavior, if you monitor it, then you start moving in the right direction. If you want to eat better, you keep a food journal. If you want to move more, you use a step counter. With time use, it’s the same thing. Paying attention to how you use your time is very helpful - especially your time late at night.

Many people spend a couple hours at the very end of their day as leisure time, goof-off time. It’s not very high-quality. They’re like, “What can I do except lie on the couch and watch reality TV? I’m too exhausted to do anything else.” But why are you so exhausted? You’re staying up late every night watching reality TV.

If you could go to bed earlier, then you could recapture that hour. You might choose to do something different with that time if you use it from 6am to 7am instead of 11pm to midnight.

Q: What are your tips for people when they fall off the wagon with a habit?

A: It’s all about planning to fail - anticipating what the challenges are, and figuring out what you’re going to do if you slip up. The funny thing about habits is you have to keep two ideas that are exactly contrary in your mind at all times.

One is that you really, really don’t want to slip up, especially at the beginning. The more consistent you are with a habit, the faster it’s going to lock in. At the same time, you want to keep in mind that if you do slip up, it is not a big deal.

Sometimes people think that if they load themselves with guilt and shame, they’re going to somehow energize themselves to do a better job with their habits. But in fact, research finds that people who show themselves compassion are more likely to get back up on the horse.

It’s important to tell yourself things like, “It wasn’t my best day. I’ll do better next time.” But it’s also important to think about how to avoid challenges. What are you going to do if you’re on vacation? What are you going to do if you get sick? What are you going to do if somebody bakes a cake especially for you?

Q: What’s your advice for leaders and managers who need to motivate others to be more productive?

A: It’s important to recognize that people have different habit patterns. For instance, some people are marathoners when it comes to work pace, and some people are sprinters.

I’m a marathoner. We don’t like to get up against a deadline. What makes us creative and productive is when we’re doing our work steadily over the long term. Sprinters like the adrenaline of a deadline. They feel like that’s when their ideas come and productivity shoots up. If they start too early, they feel like they burn out, lose interest and waste time.

If you’re a manager, there could be advantages of having both of those work styles in a team. But you need to see what the patterns are so that you can manage them more successfully.

Q: What are the best strategies for strengthening self-control?

A: I found when it comes to resisting a strong temptation, for some people abstaining works really well. With technology, often people have to go cold turkey. Like my sister: She couldn’t just play a little Candy Crush. She had to delete it from all of her devices.

There are four areas that really matter for our self-control. You want to think about eating and drinking right; sleeping, because you lose your self-control if you’re drained; moving, just a little bit of exercise helps people have self-mastery; and then, weirdly, uncluttering. I was kind of surprised to realize how important this was.

For many people, getting rid of stuff makes you feel more in control of your life. And if it’s an illusion, it’s a helpful illusion.

 

Washington Post