I always wash my hands at the kitchen sink before eating. For as long as I can remember, I would grab a paper towel (or two) and dry my hands. About a year ago, my wife and I had the long-overdue realization that we were using far too many paper…
I was listening to a podcast about healthy eating and the person being interviewed said people crave salty, sugary, and fatty foods. The more we eat of them, he went on, the less we taste them—and then we eat more and more of them until we feel satisfied. I’ve experienced…
I’ve been reading articles by James Clear for a bunch of years. He shares all kinds of useful life hacks. Over the last few years, he has written quite a bit about making and keeping good habits, a subject that is near and dear to my heart—and core to my…
This is a guest post by Ash Govender. Making changes can be hard. In your own case, you may have often heard someone say: “make it a habit to…..” followed by some difficult to accomplish task. Then, you try it a few times until you either stop because you don’t…
I have written about the fresh start effect, which I heard about on an episode of the Freakonomics Radio podcast, When Willpower Isn’t Enough. I have written often about the way willpower impacts our ability to make changes that stick—simply, we have a limited amount of willpower (it’s been studied),…
Freakonomics, which I read many years ago, remains one of the most entertaining books I have read. Stephen Dubner, one of the book’s authors, hosts the Freakonomics Radio podcast, which I don’t regularly listen to (because I listen to too many others). The podcast’s web site describes it this way:…
I read a good piece in Fast Company with suggestions from people who are successful with their New Year’s resolutions. The first suggestion was near to my heart: Their resolutions revolve around small changes. New Year’s resolutions tend to fail because we take on too many goals at once, or…
One my mentors, the business coach Arnie Rintzler, wrote to me after reading one of my newsletters. Arnie often writes nice notes to me about my posts, and this time he had nice things to say, adding, “…there is a missing element. You focus on behavior when there is much…
Here's another reason it's so hard to eat well. While people are more driven to avoid pain than they are driven to pursue pleasure, the pain of bad health is not immediately visible. So the pleasure of a eating a piece of cake is stronger than the idea of the…
I was playing with words in my head earlier this year, as I often do, and the title of my book, Six Simple Rules for a Better Life, became "Six Better Rules for a Simple Life". (I wrote about it in my monthly newsletter.) Simple things of all types appeal…
I read a New York Times Magazine article by Jennifer Kahn called “The Happiness Code”. Kahn spent time at the Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR) in Berkeley and reported on the experience. The idea of tying rationality to happiness habits appeals to me. Many of my habits come about because…
A bunch of times, when I've mentioned the name of my book to people I've gotten this response: "Sounds easy. Six rules. I love it." I accept their positive feedback, but I don't feel entirely comfortable with their comment. I feel like I need to explain, "The rules are simple,…