Home
Authors
Tags
App
Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App
" Working is one of the most dangerous forms of procrastination. "
Gretchen Rubin
Procrastination
Dangerous
Working
Related Quotes:
" I really work on paying attention to the clues my self is giving myself. For instance, I think of myself in the third person. That allows me to manage myself better. "
Gretchen Rubin
Me
Work
Think
" Embrace good smells. No cost, no calories, no energy, no time - a quick hit of pleasure. "
Gretchen Rubin
Time
Pleasure
Good
" Keeping a habit, in the smallest way, protects and strengthens it. I write every day, even if it's just a sentence, to keep my habit of daily writing strong. "
Gretchen Rubin
Habit
Daily
Day
" Do I need fifty finger-painted pictures by my toddler, or is one enough to capture this time of life? Mementos work best when they're carefully chosen - and when they don't take up much room! "
Gretchen Rubin
Work
Life
Best
" I'd always vaguely expected to outgrow my limitations. One day, I'd stop twisting my hair, and wearing running shoes all the time, and eating exactly the same food every day. I'd remember my friends' birthdays, I'd learn Photoshop, I wouldn't let my daughter watch TV during breakfast. I'd read Shakespeare. "
Gretchen Rubin
Food
Time
Day
" Getting paperwork under control makes me feel more in control of my life generally. "
Gretchen Rubin
Life
Feel
Control
" It's easier to get rid of things when you're giving them to someone who can use them, but don't let this kind intention become a source of clutter itself. I have a friend who has multiple piles all over her house, each lovingly destined for a particular recipient. "
Gretchen Rubin
You
Giving
Her
" It's hard to avoid 'unconscious overclaiming.' In unconscious overclaiming, we unconsciously overestimate our contributions relative to others. This makes sense, because we're far more aware of what we do than what other people do. Also, we tend to do the work that we value. "
Gretchen Rubin
Value
People
Others
" I'm constantly on the hunt for insights about happiness or ideas about how to be happier - which probably makes me a somewhat tiresome companion at times. "
Gretchen Rubin
Me
Happiness
Ideas
" It's so easy to use tired, shopworn figures of speech. I love using long, fancy words but have learned - mostly from writing my biography of Winston Churchill - that short, strong words work better. I am ever-vigilant against the passive and against jargon, both of which are so insidious. "
Gretchen Rubin
Words
I Am
Love
" We need to have intimate, enduring bonds; we need to be able to confide; we need to feel that we belong; we need to be able to get support, and just as important for happiness, to give support. We need many kinds of relationships; for one thing, we need friends. "
Gretchen Rubin
Happiness
Support
Important
" In 'Before and After,' I identify the sixteen strategies that we can use to make or break our habits. Some are quite familiar, such as 'Monitoring,' 'Scheduling,' and 'Convenience.' Some took me a lot of effort to identify, such as 'Thinking,' 'Identity,' and 'Clarity.' "
Gretchen Rubin
Clarity
Effort
Identity
" People often assume that the same approach will work for everyone, that the same habits will work for everyone, and that everyone has the same aptitude and appetite for forming habits, but from my observation, that's not true. "
Gretchen Rubin
People
Work
True
" People are powerfully moved by imagination, belief, and knowledge. They can consider the past and future. They can make changes in their behavior out of reason in a way that animals can't do. "
Gretchen Rubin
Future
Imagination
Past
" I embrace treats, but I'm also very wary of treats. Treats help us feel energized, appreciated, and enthusiastic - but very often, the things we choose as 'treats' aren't good for us. The pleasure lasts a minute, but then feelings of guilt, loss of control, and other negative consequences just deepen the lousiness of the day. "
Gretchen Rubin
Negative
Day
Help
" One of my key realizations about happiness, and a point oddly under-emphasized by positive psychologists, given its emphasis in popular culture, is that outer order contributes to inner calm. More than it should. "
Gretchen Rubin
Happiness
Culture
Key
" Whenever I start a new book, I think, 'This is the most interesting subject of all time. It's sad, I'll never enjoy writing another book as much as I enjoy this one.' Every time, I'm convinced. And then I change my mind when I start the next book. "
Gretchen Rubin
Mind
Sad
Time
" Many people keep photos in their homes, in their office, or in their wallet, and happy families tend to display large numbers of photos at home. In 'Happier at Home,' I write about my 'shrine to my family' made of photographs. "
Gretchen Rubin
Home
Numbers
Happy
" You can love someone but not want to keep a gift from that person. It's okay to pass an item along to someone who will appreciate it more. "
Gretchen Rubin
Someone
You
Appreciate
" Don't let yourself fall into 'empty.' Keep cash in the house. Keep gas in your tank. Keep an extra roll of toilet paper squirreled away. Keep your phone charged. "
Gretchen Rubin
Yourself
Phone
Fall
" When Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's government fell in May 1940, the nation turned to Churchill. At last, his unique qualities were brought to bear on a supreme challenge, and with his unshakable optimism, his heroic vision, and above all, his splendid speeches, Churchill roused the spirit of the British people. "
Gretchen Rubin
People
Vision
Challenge
" Sometimes, counter-intuitively, it's easier to make a major change than a minor change. When a habit is changing very gradually, we may lose interest, give way under stress, or dismiss the change as insignificant. There's an excitement and an energy that comes from a big transformation, and that helps to create a habit. "
Gretchen Rubin
Change
Stress
Habit
" Skillful conversationalists can explore disagreements and make points in ways that feel constructive and positive rather than combative or corrective. "
Gretchen Rubin
Explore
Feel
Positive
" During my study of happiness, I noticed something that surprised me: I often learn more from one person's highly idiosyncratic experiences than I do from sources that detail universal principles or cite up-to-date studies. "
Gretchen Rubin
Learn
Me
Principles
" In the scope of a happy life, a messy desk or an overstuffed coat closet is a trivial thing, yet I find - and I hear from other people that they agree - that getting rid of clutter gives a disproportionate boost to happiness. "
Gretchen Rubin
Find
Life
People
" One thing that makes me very happy is to have a complicated idea and to feel that I've expressed myself clearly. I remember writing the ending to 'Happier at Home.' I wrote the entire book to build to that ending 'now is now,' and what I had to say was very abstract, and yet I felt satisfied that I managed to say what I wanted to say. "
Gretchen Rubin
Myself
Happy
Home
" One of my 'Secrets of Adulthood' is: Somewhere, keep an empty shelf. I know where my empty shelf is, and I treasure it. "
Gretchen Rubin
Know
Keep
Secrets
" I'm much calmer when there's no TV or music playing in the background. "
Gretchen Rubin
Playing
Music
Much
" Superstition is the irrational belief that an object or behavior has the power to influence an outcome, when there's no logical connection between them. Most of us aren't superstitious - but most of us are a 'littlestitious.' "
Gretchen Rubin
Behavior
Connection
Influence
" Most people enjoy 'potato-chip news' from time to time - to track a presidential election or the Oscars. However, some are particularly drawn to material that makes them feel shocked, frightened, insecure, or indignant, and that's what potato-chip news often provides. "
Gretchen Rubin
Feel
Election
Enjoy