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

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, you know, 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 thirty minutes, another person might solve it by playing video games for thirty 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 know, 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 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. 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 …