The 5 Most Effective Techniques To Hack Your Habits - Spencer Greenberg - #705

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello friends, welcome back to the show. My guest today is Spencer Greenberg. He's a mathematician, a writer, and the founder of clearerthinking.org. First, we make our habits, and then our habits make us. But what is the best way to step into this recursive loop and take charge of the most powerful force in our lives? Thankfully, Spencer just completed a huge news study testing tons of different techniques. Expect to learn how useful personality tests are, Spencer's biggest insights from 450 people trying every habit strategy ever invented, how you can better integrate your subconscious into decision making, why becoming wise is genuinely important, how useful intuition really is, when you should trust your gut and when you should override it, and much more. This episode is brought to you by Gymshark, the best gym wear on the planet is from Gymshark, so no matter what you are looking for, if you are spending more time in the gym, you will feel better, if you've got cool new clothing, and Gymshark make the best men's shorts on the planet. Their studio shorts in dusty maroon, willow green, onyx gray and navy were what I wore throughout all of my trip to LA, which you may have seen on YouTube recently. Their crest hoodie is what I am flying in, whenever I'm on a flight, and their geo seamless t-shirt is also what I train in every single day. All of their kit is unbelievably lightweight, sweat wicking, it's easy to wash and dry. I'm in love and the fit and quality of their fabrics are phenomenal, plus there is a 30-day free returns internationally and you can get 10% off everything site-wide and worldwide. If you go to bit.ly slash shark wisdom and use the code MW10, a checkout that's bit.ly slash shark wisdom and MW10, a checkout. This episode is brought to you by MyProtein. They are the number one sport supplement company on the planet and it makes sense. I've fallen in love with their clear way protein. If you're looking for a new protein powder, this is the place to begin. It's light and fruity. It looks and tastes like juice. You could have it and sip it during a workout, but it's got more protein in than a normal protein shake. So if you've been feeling uncomfortable and unsatisfied with your current protein powder, this is a fantastic change. A lot of the time I get asked for what supplements I use and recommend, and I've listed all of them from MyProtein on a super secret product page that you can access by going to bit.ly slash protein wisdom. That unlocks the code Modern Wisdom, which gets you the maximum discount available site-wide and worldwide. So head to bit.ly slash protein wisdom and use the code Modern Wisdom at checkout for at least 37% off everything site-wide. This episode is brought to you by house Of Macadamias. If you are a nut lover, you need to try these. These are the best tasting macadamia nuts I've ever had. They're absolutely phenomenal. They've got salty, sweet and spicy versions, but their ready salted macadamia nuts are unbelievably good. Macadamias are the only nut rich in omega-7 fatty acids. They've got arguably the best fat profile, more heart healthy, mono unsaturated fat than other nuts, and the lowest carb of any popular nut. house Of Macadamias have vertically integrated with over 90 farmers making the highest quality nuts available to you. Also, you can get a 20% discount site-wide plus a free box with your first purchase if you go to houseofmacadamias.com/modernwisdom and use the code MW20 at checkout. That's houseofmacadamias.com/modernwisdom and MW20 at checkout. But now, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Spencer Greenberg.
How useful are personality tests, in your opinion?

**Spencer Greenberg** (4:02)
Ah, that is a great question. So we've just run a really big study on this that I'm super excited about. In fact, this is the first time I'm ever talking about it. So hot off the presses. So the most popular personality test in the world seems to be the Myers-Briggs test. But the Myers-Briggs test, also called the MBTI, is a commercial test, right? So it's hard to study because it's owned by a company and so on. So what we did is we took the public information about the constructs that have been known about what it's trying to measure. And we designed our own test designed to measure those same constructs. I'll just call it a Jungian test because it's not exactly precisely the same as the commercial one, but it's designed to measure similar ideas. And then we actually put it to the test. And so the way that we did this is we also developed what's called a Big Five test. Are you familiar with the Big Five personality model?