Gretchen Rubin
Gretchen Rubin
Gretchen Craft Rubin is an American author, blogger and speaker...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAuthor
CountryUnited States of America
bad bang good happiness huge lives quantities swallow
While television is a good servant, it's a bad master. It can swallow up huge quantities of our lives without much happiness bang for the buck.
music tv
I'm much calmer when there's no TV or music playing in the background.
dividing love people
I love taxonomies, categories, ways of dividing people into groups.
inventing love ways
I love finding - or inventing - ways to categorize people.
crucial files finds might organized
For one person, organized files might be a crucial tool for creativity; another person finds inspiration in random juxtapositions.
comfort food literature mental
Children's literature is one of my joys, and it's also my mental comfort food.
avoid aware far hard people relative tend work
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.
change routines sudden
I do better with routines and predictability. I don't react well when there's a sudden change in the schedule.
excessive fifteen food glass house ketchup
Don't keep excessive amounts of anything. Those glass vases that come from florists. Those ketchup packets that come with take-out food. A house with two adults probably doesn't need fifteen mismatched souvenir coffee cups.
best capture carefully chosen fifty life pictures time work
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!
casual compulsive fact insightful notebook noticed people pulling remarks seemed taking
I'm a compulsive note-taker, and I used to feel self-conscious about pulling out my little notebook and taking notes during a casual conversation. Then I noticed that people really seemed to enjoy it; the fact that I was taking notes made their remarks seem particularly insightful or valuable. Now I don't hold myself back.
celebrity effort endless food massive natural news political requires sports true
'Potato-chip news' is news that's repetitive, requires little effort to absorb, and is consumable in massive quantities: true crime, natural disasters, political punditry, celebrity gossip, sports gossip, or endless photographs of beautiful houses, food, or clothes.
audience both finds goofy great hard maintain morning sets sing singing source tone
As goofy as it sounds, I try to sing in the morning. It's hard both to sing and to maintain a grouchy mood, and it sets a happy tone for everyone - particularly in my case, because I'm tone deaf, and my audience finds my singing a source of great hilarity.
although assume pushing
Although we often assume that feelings inspire actions, in fact, actions also inspire feelings. By pushing myself to act happier, I make myself feel happier.