Best Ways to Build Better Habits & Break Bad Ones | James Clear

**James Clear** (0:00)
Habits are solutions to the recurring problems in our environment. Let's say you get done with a long day of work, you come back, you're kind of exhausted. That happens frequently. It's a recurring problem that you face. How do you solve that problem? One person might solve it by going for a run for 30 minutes, another person might solve it by playing video games for 30 minutes, another person might solve it by smoking a cigarette. They all are trying to solve that same core problem. What you find is that you get to be 20 or 25 or 28, and a lot of the solutions that you have to these recurring problems that you face are solutions that you inherited or that you saw modeled by your parents or your friends or just, you know, whatever you have interfaced with throughout your short life so far. As soon as you realize that your solutions may not be the best solution, it's now your responsibility to try to figure out a different way to do it.

**Andrew Huberman** (0:49)
Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a Professor of Neurobiology and Ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. My guest today is James Clear. James Clear is the author of Atomic Habits and one of the world's foremost experts on how to build rock-solid habits that better your physical and mental health, work and relationships. Today we discuss how to build a habit and how to break bad habits as fast and durably as possible. You'll notice that today's conversation is a very realistic one and it's largely devoid of cliche acronyms such as make it specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. There is some of that discussion and acronyms are useful but as you'll learn today from James, the real world examples of how to make and break habits are what really stick with you and that you can apply. No one has spent more time on the data related to habit formation and bad habit breaking than James Clear. Today you also get to know him as a person and how he implemented what he has learned so effectively, even as the backdrop of his life has shifted to include more, not fewer work and family responsibilities. And we all have things that we know we can and should do more of and things that we should do less of. And we all know that behavioral change starts with a desire to change. But as James Clear explains, it requires a system, one that works for you and that you design in order for it to really stick. Thanks to James's incredible depth of knowledge, generosity and clarity of communication. Today's conversation about habit formation is filled with useful tools that you can apply to improve your life. So if you have a habit or perhaps many habits that you're hoping to form, or if you have bad habits that you want to break, not just for the new year, but at any point, today's conversation is absolutely for you. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science-related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, today's episode does include sponsors. And now for my discussion with James Clear. James Clear, welcome.

**James Clear** (2:58)
Hey, thank you so much for having me.

**Andrew Huberman** (3:00)
Your book is everywhere and now I get to actually meet the person behind it. So I'm curious, when people come to you or when they read your book looking for ways to develop habits or presumably also to end bad habits, is there a common theme? For instance, do most people have difficulty dropping bad habits, building new habits, are there specific types of habits that people want to build? I mean, when you just sort of step back from everything you've heard and read about your book and in interactions with your audience.

**James Clear** (3:32)
Sure. Yeah, I think there are some themes. Like, there are definitely habits that are very common and broad that, you know, range across scenes like everybody. The most common New Year's resolution, for example, is to do some form of exercise. So there's obviously a huge bucket of health and fitness habits that most people, many people, are very interested in. Lots of things like productivity habits at work or creativity habits, writing, you know, music, painting, whatever, things like that. So there are these big categories. I think what's more interesting, though, is to look at what are the themes that help habits stick and help habits fail or cause habits to fail. And there are definitely some patterns there which are interesting. For example, I was working out the other day and I was talking to my trainer and he said, Yeah, I have this class this morning and there were eight people signed up, but it was a pretty gross day. It was like wet and rainy, it was gray, it was just kind of like cold and gross. And only two people came. And the interesting thing about that to me is how little of an edge you need to like gain an advantage. You know, like really all we're talking about there is, are you cool with being uncomfortable or inconvenienced for like five to ten minutes while you're getting ready and getting in your car and it's raining and it's kind of gross.