Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin

Release Date: March 17, 2015

Rating: 4/5

If you’ve read Rubin’s other offerings (The Happiness Project, Happier at Home) then you know the drill: lots of great tips on how to improve your life.

What’s different about this book is how targeted the advice is. Rubin breaks people down into four groups that she calls the Four Tendencies: Upholder, Questioner, Obliger, or Rebel. These tendencies affect how we motivate ourselves, how we form new habits and how we interact with others.

Armed with your tendency, Rubin proceeds to give you advice. And remarkably good advice it is! For example I am a questioner. This means that I need a reason to get something done, the knowledge that it must get done is simply not good enough. Reading this was a like a lightbulb going on! My whole life I’ve been wondering why I can make lists of what needs to get done but have trouble following through — it’s because I didn’t have a good reason to do all the things on the list!

If you’re as interested in finding ways to more productive as I am, head to the nearest bookstore and pick up a copy of Better Than Before! (But first take The Four Tendencies Quiz and let me know what you got in a comment.

Note: I received this book from the publisher to review. All opinions expressed above are my own.