Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives by Gretchen Rubin Page B

control impulses to overeat. In one study of dieting women , the women who didn’t skip meals lost almost eight more pounds than those who sometimes did skip. Also, for many people, skipping breakfast leads to a whole day of bargaining and bad choices. As a friend and I waited to collect our daughters from a birthday party, she picked up a cupcake and explained, “I didn’t eat breakfast this morning, so this is okay.”
    Paired with eating is—drinking. Alcohol can interfere with the Foundation in many ways: it lowers our inhibitions (that’s why it’s fun) so we’re more likely to overeat and drink more, disrupts sleep, makes people less likely to exercise, and undercuts efforts at self-control.
    In my case, alcohol wasn’t an issue for Foundation. I’d given it up years ago, more or less, because alcohol makes me belligerent, indiscreet, and sleepy. Not drinking wasn’t hard for me because I’ve never enjoyed alcohol much; also, Jamie has hepatitis C, which means he can’t drink at all, so I feel less inclined to drink, out of team spirit.
    Alcohol isn’t the only drinking issue that gets attention, however. Some people worry about drinking enough water. Waiting in a drugstore line, I overheard a woman say to her friend, “I’m making a big effort to drink more water. I buy a big bottle every day, and I drink from it constantly.”
    I wished that I could tell her not to bother, that water drinking is credited with vastly greater health benefits than it actually provides. Contrary to popular belief, we’re not likely to mistake thirst for hunger, and we don’t have to try to drink water, because if we’re dehydrated, we’ll feel uncomfortably thirsty. And we don’t have to drink eight glasses of water a day; a person who doesn’t feel thirsty and produces a good amount of slightly yellow urine is probably getting enough water.
    Of course, for people who love to drink water, or believe that it makes them feel good, great. And it’s better to drink water than sweet tea. But I regret the waste of precious habit-formation effort when I see people wearily force themselves to chug from their water bottles, or when I see “Drink more water” at the top of the lists of desired habits.
    Fostering good habits takes energy, and that energy is in short supply; we’re better off exploiting that energy to create the habits that will do the most good. First things first.
    Fourth: unclutter. I’m constantly surprised by the degree to which, for most people, outer order contributes to inner calm. Order contributes to the Foundation more, really, than it should. A crowded coat closet or an overflowing in-box seems like a trivial thing—and it is trivial—yet an orderly environment makes me feel more in control of myself. If this is an illusion, it’s a helpful illusion.
    Outer disorder may act as a broken window . The “broken windows” theory of crime prevention was introduced in the 1980s by social scientists who observed that when a community tolerates disorder and petty crime, such as breaking of windows, graffiti, turnstile jumping, or drinking in public, people are more likely to commit more serious crimes. As a law enforcement theory, it’s controversial; but whether it’s true on a community-wide level, it’s true on a personal level.
    For many people—like me—a clean, well-maintained environment helps to foster a sense of self-command, which in turn makes it easier to maintain good habits.
    In law school, I happened to visit the group houses of two friends in one day, and I remember being struck by the difference in their kitchens. At the first stop, the kitchen was orderly. My friend pulled a box of crackers out of the cabinet and some cheese from the fridge, and both packages were closed and neatly stowed away. When I visited the second friend, she said, “Help yourself to