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gosh i hope this isn't too personal i'm angela duckworth i'm mike mon

and you're listening to no stupid questions today on the show

how important are routines they need to live a chaotic life with no rules no plans Angela,

today I think we have a really fun question, but I'm even more excited because it's from a really fun person.

Okay, do tell.

This is a question that was sent in from my brother, Peter.

Perfect Peter, right?

He's the neurosurgeon.

Yes, I love that you call him Perfect Peter.

I do think he's incredible.

I think he's the smartest of all my siblings.

I'll give him that.

I can't wait to hear what the other siblings think.

I think they'd all acknowledge it.

Okay, what does Perfect Peter want to know?

Okay, so Peter's asking a question.

He says, how important is routine in life?

To what extent does sticking closely to routine help someone be or feel more productive, happier, et cetera, versus limit them?

Or perhaps better phrased, when is routine helpful and when can it be harmful?

Interesting.

I am guessing that Perfect Peter has lots of routines.

Just a wild guess.

He absolutely does.

He continues his question with this.

I can see how at times being too focused on routine

causes one to feel like their life is overly regimented and doesn't allow for enough free flow and spontaneity,

while at other times routine can be an essential element of goal attainment and accomplishment.

So he says, Angela and Mike, how should we think about routine and incorporate or not incorporate routine into our lives?

I think it's a great question.

I mean, have you heard the phrase firm opinions loosely held?

Yes.

Well, I wonder if like firm opinions loosely held, there are times when routine can guide our lives but shouldn't control it.

And I have a good friend who he's one of those people with what I would call firm routines loosely held.

So every Friday, for example, at 2 p .m., he stops and gets together with a few friends

and they debrief on their week and kind of make their transition into the weekend.

But it's both this productive element and this signaling of friendship that we're transitioning into a different space.

And he has so many of these types of just routines, but it's not so firmly held that he won't do anything else they're not

so firmly held that like

if he were on a plane at two o 'clock on a friday he'd be freaking out

because he couldn't do that right and i thought to myself

so much of life is really busy all the time

and you get ripped from one place to another it's really

beautiful to have a few of these i'll call them quasi non -negotiables in terms of routine

that say this is how i'm going to approach my life to make sure i get these things into it

that are important to me you You know, routine isn't studied as much in psychology as habit.

There's so much, I want to say hype about habit only because that sounds good and it's alliterative.

Like there's so much talk about habit.

There's so many books about habit.

Habits are really when your brain is on autopilot.

In fact, my favorite habit neuroscientist, Colin Kammerer at Caltech, uses the phrase neural autopilot.

And there is an entirely separate part of your brain.

And sometimes people say this kind of thing, like, oh, there's a part of your brain that, you know, fill in the blank.

In this case, there really is what is called the habit system.

And it's a different part of the brain that you use when you do something which is so automatic.

You've done it so many times.

And it's been so consistently the right thing to do that you really don't have to think.

So stopping at a red light, you know, red light, hit the brakes.

That's the kind of thing that people talk about when they talk about neural autopilot.

And I think that these routines that we're talking about here, like, oh, on Fridays, I do this.

You're not completely using cruise control, but there is some kind of default nature to it.

You know, the reason why we have any of these things, like true habits, where your brain is really on autopilot, to routines where you're sort of like kind of awake,

but there's a strong default, to even a plan.

All of these are on a continuum of how much did

I know in advance what I was going to do and not have to think about it too much to, on the other hand, like,

wow, I have to use all of the cognitive bandwidth I have to figure out what I'm going to do.

And I'll just say that the human brain is a miracle, but it's very small.

And human beings have had to do smart things with this little.. few pounds of cranial material.

And one of the reasons why human beings are so smart is

because we have this ability to put some things on autopilot or near autopilot or I already planned this yesterday.

You know, if you wake up and you have already planned what your day is going to be like the day before, that frees up a lot of cognitive bandwidth to like now negotiate what's happening.

People who wake up and they're just making every single decision like reactively, They just are not living a very efficient life.

So I'm a big fan of habits, like pure habits, and also I'm a big fan of routines.

Let me jump in then for a second.

What are some routines that you have in your life

that have helped you maybe free up cognitive bandwidth for other things kind of on the regular?

I call three girlfriends three different days of the week.

Sue is on Saturdays, Michelle is on Sundays, and Shalini is on Wednesdays.

That is amazing we talk and we run at the same time, or I should say jog, at least for me.

It's a routine, I would say, because it's not like I start to do this automatically without any intentionality.

There's a Google Calendar invite.

It often needs to be moved a little bit.

One person needs to start a little earlier.

I have to switch the day.

But anyway, I have that routine.

I think it is the one thing i have done as a friend

that has been a real game changer like i would not

say i'm the best friend i never remember anyone's birthday i'm

not the most thoughtful human i have to say the routine

of weekly calls has not only preserved these three friendships but actually made them

so much richer than they were before we started this

which is i don't know like 10 years ago

or something that's incredible and forgive me i'm going to use the term i shouldn't

but is this a form of habit stacking?

What did you learn about habit stacking?

Katie Milkman.

Oh, right.

A lot of people call it habit piggybacking.

And my collaborator and friend Katie Milkman will talk about it.

Also, James Clear, who wrote Atomic Habits, which I just want to go on record as saying it's a pretty gosh darn good book.

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He's not a professor or psychologist, but he's incredibly intuitive.

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So maybe I should call him a psychologist.

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But habit stacking

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or habit piggybacking is great advice for anybody who's going to try to develop a routine or a pure habit.

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So, gosh, I hope this isn't too personal.

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But you know what?

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In the world of podcasting, you can always edit things out.

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So I was at the gynecologist.

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I feel like if I finish my sentence, Mike's going to get up and leave.

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I just feel like every story that starts with, I probably shouldn't say this, is either going to be really good or really bad.

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Like there's no in between.

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Nothing else in the middle there.

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I mean, I'll say this.

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I was at the gynecologist and I'm a woman of a certain age.

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So I'm in menopause, we think.

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And one of the things that happens at this time of life, Mike, is that you basically, you know, have a hard time not peeing on yourself.

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You get told a joke.

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Somebody bumps you.

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You get surprised.

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You do an aerobics class.

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And, like, all of a sudden you have a problem because you're not 17 anymore.

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And these Kegel muscles that are in the pelvic floor aren't working so well.

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So basically, every woman of my age, I think, has been told at some point that you should do these very simple Kegel exercises.

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It's free, it's invisible, and every woman that I know of my age doesn't do them.

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So what my gynecologist said to me is that I should essentially have it stack.

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She was like, for example, you could stack it onto something like a cue, like when you're watching TV and there's a commercial, right?

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But I think the most common example that's given is that brushing teeth is something that most people do twice a day,

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and that means you have two opportunities to habit stack, or I might say, thinking about Peter, routine stack.

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It doesn't have to be like a purely automatic habit, but even something where, like, okay, I will give you a less embarrassing example, perhaps.

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I habit -stacked doing my physical therapy routine during my toothbrushing.

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So I have lunges and squats, and they're all doable exercises while you're holding a toothbrush in your right hand.

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And so that has become my routine.

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And actually, it's like you said, it's a strong opinion loosely held in the sense that, you know, if I'm like doing something unusual,

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like I have to brush my teeth in the shower because I'm late, I don't also try to do my physical therapy there because that could be dangerous.

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So anyway, my point is, if you think about trying to establish a new routine or a new habit, without something to hook on to, it's really hard

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so first of all i try i won't claim

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that i do this all the time but

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when i brush my teeth i try to do wall sits yes at the same time i'm doing it wait

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when you say try does that that means that i don't do it all the time

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I did not do it this morning.

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Yeah, wall sets are so hard.

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I did brush my teeth.

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I did not do wall sets.

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Let's clarify.

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You know, a lot of people are under the misunderstanding that if you do something like a million times, it becomes a habit.

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But that's actually not how the habit system works.

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We only migrate things from what's sometimes called the goal system in the brain, which is something that takes a lot of intentionality in the moment.

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You know, you're thinking, you're maybe simulating options, you're deciding.

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We move from the goal system to the habit system when a behavior is repeated and it's rewarded.

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So I have to ask you, when you finish brushing your teeth and doing these wall sits, do you feel rewarded?

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Well, I think like all exercise, nobody wants to do it in the moment, but you're always grateful that you did.

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And when are you grateful?

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Are you grateful like right away?

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Do you feel rewarded right then?

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Yeah.

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Yes, I do.

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So if you feel really good right away, I have some hope that this might become a habit.

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I think one of the challenges is that wall sits are painful.

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So when I say that habits are behaviors that are repeated and rewarded, one of the things going against you in this case,

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Mike, and one thing that might keep it a routine

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and never a full -fledged habit is the pain of doing it, right?

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Like if you had another exercise, by the way, that was maybe less good for you, but was less painful, I'm guessing

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that you would have a greater chance of keeping up the routine and even that routine becoming a habit.

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Let me take it this way, then.

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Here's another one where I do feel deeply rewarded, but would still call it a routine.

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There's this man named Jesse Itzler, and he's written some books about life with a seal.

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David Goggins is this Navy SEAL who is super well -known.

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So he had David Goggins before David Goggins was well -known come live with him at his house and train him.

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But one of the things that he does, and he didn't make any of this up, but he's kind of the one who's the biggest evangelizer of it.

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He talks about every year having a year -defining event.

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So you can always look back and say, in 2024, I did this.

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In 2023, I did this.

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And then he also says, I plan six mini adventures.

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So every other month, I know that I'm going to have a mini adventure.

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And that's something to look forward to.

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And I am excited about that.

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So I love the idea of year -defining event.

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I think it's really important.

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And I love the idea of six mini adventures.

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And you plan it in advance, right?

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It's not just that every year he looks back and he picks one thing as a year -defining event.

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Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Which, again, on this continuum, from pure habit to like, wow, I have to think about everything in the moment, I would call this a plan.

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So there's a spectrum of how much this thing is already foregone or automatic. For sure.

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So if you're going to have your year -defining event, and I try to do that, have your six mini -adventures, I try to plan all those out as well.

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Then I want to have what I call my 365 moments of awe.

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Ah, this is daily then.

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This is my daily thing where no matter how busy life is or crazy life is or challenging the day,

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I challenge myself to have at least one moment.

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And that can just be 30 seconds.

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So can I have an example of an annual life -defining experience?

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Well, year -defining.

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I'm not going to call it life -defining.

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Okay, right.

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Like lower the stakes a little bit.

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So 2022 for me, the year -defining event was Kilimanjaro, hiking Mount Kilimanjaro.

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Last year, my year -defining event, I'm only doing one in my life for other people.

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This is one of their many adventures.

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It was doing a marathon.

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That will always be my year of the marathon.

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Oh my gosh, I forgot you ran a marathon.

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You know, I'm going to go ahead and say I finished a marathon in 2023.

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There were parts where I hobbled and waddled, but yes, I finished a marathon.

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Okay, and then what would be an example of a mini -adventure?

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So a mini -adventure, for example, I'm going down to the Indian Wells Tennis Tournament for a weekend.

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Or I have a couple of friends that we get together for a surfing trip every year.

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I should clarify, they surf and I sit on a surfboard in the water and miss every wave.

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I have seen you in a photo in a wetsuit holding a board.

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It turns out you do not have to be able to get up on said board to take a picture with it.

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That is true and you were on the sand, so.

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Yes, yes, yes.

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You've never seen a video of me surfing.

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These were just props.

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Okay, so what's an example of an every day?

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So I will just say yesterday was a crazy day

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and I just walked outside for one minute and looked up at the mountains.

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So this doesn't have to be planned in advance, but maybe like a daily practice of gratitude?

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Maybe you could call it a moment of gratitude.

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I also try to do that.

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So maybe the moment of awe is the same thing, but I treat them separately right here's what i say angela

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and i would love to hear your thoughts on the importance

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of routines do you find them particularly helpful do you find them restrictive to you

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or how does your current routine affect your productivity

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and your mood record a voice memo in a quiet place with your mouth close to the phone

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and email it to us at nsq at freakonomics .com

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and maybe we'll play it on a future episode of the show

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and if you like the show

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and want to support it the best thing you can do

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is tell a friend about it you can also spread the word on social media

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or leave a review in your podcast app.

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Still to come on No Stupid Questions.

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Is having a solid morning routine crucial for leading a productive life?

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For a time, I thought every productive person has a morning routine.

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But let me tell you how I was wrong about that.

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now back to Mike and Angela's conversation about routines

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so a lot of people when they talk about routines talk about their morning routines yes

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and I'll just share one that I found from a video

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that Tony Robbins did that I actually really love And

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so he basically talked about how he starts his morning with three minutes of a breathing exercise,

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three minutes of gratitude, three minutes of prayer, and then three minutes of what he, I think, calls prioritization.

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And he says, here are the three things that I need to accomplish today, regardless of whatever else comes into my life or time, et cetera.

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And I love that idea of a morning routine.

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You know, I love morning routines, too.

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And for a time, I thought every productive person has a morning routine.

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But let me tell you how I was wrong about that.

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I still think that most productive people have a morning routine.

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And by the way, you could have like an afternoon routine or an evening routine.

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And some people do.

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But there's something about the morning, I think, because it's tabula rasa, right?

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Like you can wake up and there aren't already a lot of competing things.

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So morning routines do, as a rule, I think, end up being in the toolbox of very productive people.

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But let me tell you, not everyone.

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So Katie Milkman, aforementioned friend, collaborator, behavioral scientist, and I were hosting Cass Sunstein, who was the co -author of Nudge,

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the famous book that kind of launched behavioral economics into the popular consciousness.

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And also under Obama, he was like the nudge czar

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and actually helped establish the first team to get governments to use nudges to make the world better.

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But Cass is actually not an economist or behavioral scientist.

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He's a lawyer.

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He's a law professor.

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His current appointment is at Harvard.

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And Cass is truly the most productive writer that I know by a long shot.

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We joke that he gets on a plane, flies across the country, and gets off the plane and has another book.

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I've quite literally lost count of his books, but I think it's well over 50 now.

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Oh, wow.

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I know.

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I was like, oh, Cass, do you have a book coming out?

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And he was like, oh, which one?

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I was like, what?

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So I had to ask him because we were doing this conversation.

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I was like, Cass, I got to know.

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What's your morning routine?

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So he thought for a moment.

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He's like, well, I guess I get up around, well, whenever the dogs get me out of bed.

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And then he sort of like staring off into space as he was like recreating this.

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So it's obviously not something where he was like, okay, here's my morning routine.

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I have calibrated this over the years.

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He was like, oh, I guess after I walk the dogs.

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Well, then I get back into bed.

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I'm like, wow, this is not sounding like a productive morning routine.

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This is not sounding like David Goggins.

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I was like, okay.

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And then what?

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He's like, I don't know.

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I guess I get up.

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I like coffee.

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And then I said, Cass, what do you eat?

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Because I'm thinking now we're going to get somewhere, right?

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He's going to have some high -protein, you know, invigorate.

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He's like, I had like a donut?

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I don't know.

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Maybe I like donuts.

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And then I, you know, usually want to start writing.

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And I was like, okay.

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So I will say that some people have very regimented morning routines.

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For some people, it is bordering on a habit because it's so automatic.

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And then I guess there's Cass Sunstein who gets woken up by his dogs

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because his dogs need to go to the bathroom and then is kind of like vaulted into his life.

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If I might venture a guess, which is unfounded because I have to ask Cass, I think one of the reasons why he doesn't need a routine as much as other people

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is that he is really driven to write, like in an intrinsic way.

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A lot of writers, including me, need these like crutches and supports, like a calendar where you can X off the day, like, okay, you know, I want to keep my streak.

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Like, I think Cass is so driven to write that he doesn't need any of these external supports to just do it.

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it's really interesting that you say that

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because i was reading this review of mason curry's book daily

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rituals how artists work oh i read his books both of

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them then you're going to know more about this i've only read excerpts

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but i thought it was really interesting how he talked about this idea

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that maybe doesn't apply as much to cast

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but like you're saying many writers need and it's this idea

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that order and routine is what allows for creativity and daring yeah

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and new york times columnist david brooks wrote this great opinion

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piece inspired by mason curry's work he says quote children need emotional

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and physical order so they can go off

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and explore a parent's main job is to provide daily predictability

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and emotional security then he continues communities need order to thrive

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and cooperate since when there's chaos and disorder there's distrust

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and withdrawal the main job of local leaders is to provide basic infrastructure

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and security roads police honest judges orderly schools etc so

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that your community can thrive he made the same argument about

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what people who are in creative fields need in order to actually be creative

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so it's almost this reverse understanding what you think you think a creative person is just free flowy

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and go with whatever yeah they need to live a chaotic life with no rules no plans no routines

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and no habits right like that could be the mental image of an artist right but i loved kind of his thing.

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I don't know if you've ever read the book Evicted.

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I have not.

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Evicted, I think, is a fascinating and heartbreaking exploration into poverty in the United States

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and how not having a stable housing situation, not knowing that there's a place that you can come home to every day,

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really disrupts the development of children because they're constantly in flex, whether that's not knowing where they're going to live or going into an unhoused situation,

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etc., etc. And the massive negative ramifications that has on people's development, their grades, their emotional security, et cetera.

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Children need this emotional and physical order so they can explore.

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It's kind of this idea that Curie's talking about here.

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Creatives need this order and routine so that they can actually be creative, et cetera.

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I think he has an intuition that is now supported, and I say now because I think this is very recent research.

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So just the other day, I'm reading this article.

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It's called What's Next?

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Advances and Challenges in Understanding How Environmental Predictability Shapes the Development of Cognitive Control.

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And what these scholars argue is that when a child is growing up, if they grow up in a relatively,

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not entirely, but relatively predictable, orderly world, like breakfast happens in the morning,

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not sometimes you get breakfast And sometimes you go hungry.

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You know, adults in your life say things like, after you do your chores, then we'll have some time to read.

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That is a kind of world that is very different from a child growing up where, like, you do your chores and then your parents aren't even there anymore.

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Like, where'd they go?

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Like, they left the house.

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Right, right.

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So what they claim is very bold, and that is that across species,

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actually, a predictable world is essential for the development of cognitive control.

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And that is this ability to regulate your thoughts and your actions.

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Cognitive control is a little bit like the CEO of your brain.

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But the idea is that it needs to have a predictable environment to develop properly.

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The reason why this is so interesting is that it not only dovetails with what Mason Curry is observing about artists,

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but also parenting researchers since forever have been saying that when you observe parents who have the healthiest and happiest kids,

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and by the way, also the kids who are the most ethical, I mean, all these things go together.

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Oh, so it's like all the above.

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It's not just physical health and happiness.

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Right.

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You know, parenting is hard.

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But the one thing I will say is that the things that you want a child to be are all correlated.

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And consistency in parenting, this is something I wasn't that great at, but I tried.

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I knew the research.

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When I was in graduate school, as you know, my one daughter was in the womb.

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The other daughter was just in her toddlerhood.

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And I knew that consistency mattered.

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So I knew they needed to have regularity in when mealtimes were, also in discipline.

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I knew that I was supposed to be consistent.

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Okay, I was not so great at that.

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But I think in many other ways, there was really a kind of orderly predictability.

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And one theory behind this is that if you grow up in a world like that, you have the incentive to develop a great prefrontal cortex,

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lots of cognitive control, do lots of planning.

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If you grow up in chaos, you have an incentive to be an impulsive, reactive, in the moment, I guess I'll do this because it feels good.

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So I think it's a very deep idea.

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I don't think anybody is saying you should be so regimented that if you don't have breakfast exactly at 8, the world doesn't come to an end.

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But I do think it's, like you said, it's paradox going away, right?

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Like these are the kids who end up being risk -taking

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and creative and able to deal with uncertainty because they've grown up with a lot of certainty.

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Right.

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You actually can't jump that high off of a sand foundation versus a really solid one.

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You know, I mean, we've been kind of extolling routines as awesome, and I do think they are.

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I do think productive people have morning routines on average, maybe not Cass Sunstein.

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And I think children need much more consistency than they're getting in some cases.

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But as somebody who has studied the downside of routine and habit,

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I guess I should probably put a word in for why sometimes people resist these rules, if you will, right?

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So let's talk about flexibility because I think that is actually the cost, if you will, if the routine is too tightly held.

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And by the way, this is the cost of habit also, right?

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So pure habits where you're truly on autopilot have a lack of flexibility to them that is sometimes not good.

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That is why the brain is very conservative about what it puts on autopilot.

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That's why you not only have to repeat a behavior like brushing your teeth or doing wall squats or whatever, but it has to be basically immediately rewarded.

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You know, I mentioned this Caltech neuroscientist, Colin Kammerer.

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He says really what puts something on autopilot is what he calls prediction error.

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The prediction error is the difference between how rewarding you think something is going to be and then how it turns out.

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So the prediction error can be really high if you're like, I thought that cheesesteak was going to be amazing.

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And oh, my gosh, I got food poisoning.

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Right.

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So it could be close to zero.

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In the case of, by the way, like junk food and going to fast food restaurants, you know, the prediction error is close to zero because those products are so consistent.

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Oh, you just know exactly what you're going to get.

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Right.

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Colin and I believe that is one of the reasons why they are so habit -forming.

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And then it becomes like, again, on the continuum, you stop paying attention to it.

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You do it without a lot of intentionality.

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But one of the costs of that, of course, is like maybe you're inflexibly doing something that's wrong or that's bad.

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I mean, obviously, junk food has its own whole Pandora's box of bad things.

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But I guess what I say is this.

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I think flexibility is a cost of routine.

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So let me tell you about a study that I did with Katie Milkman and also her Ph .D student, whose name is Anish Rai.

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He's now a professor at the University of Maryland School of Business.

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And we wanted to ask the question, what is this tradeoff between flexibility on one hand and routine

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or kind of I know what I'm going to do in advance, right?

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Where do we draw that line?

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And so what Anish did was he partnered with this organization called Crisis Text Line.

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It's this nonprofit where if you are having a crisis, like you're having maybe even suicidal thoughts,

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that you actually can text a certain number and then a volunteer on the other end will text you back.

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And you have a conversation for people of a certain generation.

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They're more comfortable, actually, with texting when they're in distress.

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Oh, than having a phone call conversation, you're saying.

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Than having a phone call, especially with a stranger.

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So we knew that this nonprofit, Crisis Text Line, needed their volunteers to log 200 hours of volunteering over the course of,

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I think it was a year.

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And we randomly assigned people to either have just like, could you do some hours every week so that you could get to 200 hours, right?

417

So that was the control condition.

418

Then there was a condition that was on the other end of the continuum was like, can you volunteer four hours every week?

419

So that was a very granular sub -goal condition.

420

And then there was a condition that we designed that we thought was going to benefit from the granularity of the goal, but also have a built -in little bit of flexibility.

421

So in this case, instead of four hours every week,

422

we thought, okay, let's ask this group of people to think about volunteering eight hours every two weeks.

423

So now we're giving them, you know, like there's a little latitude, oh, this week is really hard for me.

424

And essentially what we found is that both of the goal -setting conditions,

425

they actually increased volunteering by roughly 8 % over just the first 12 -week period even of this time.

426

But we also found that the flexible condition, eight hours every two weeks,

427

seemed to have more enduring benefits as we looked at the data over time.

428

I love that idea, the flexibility, because obviously everyone's lives go a little bit differently.

429

So, Angela, we have talked about the benefits of routine, the benefits of flexibility, and the challenges of routine.

430

What would you say?

431

you want to change about your own routines or maybe advice you'd want to give me about routines?

432

So this question that Perfect Peter, your neurosurgeon brother asked, is bringing to mind just like one last study that ends up being,

433

I think, advice.

434

So this study was done by Sidney Scott and Eleanor Williams.

435

They're at Wash U in St. Louis.

436

And it's about how people, when they think about their own life,

437

pretty much want flexibility and they don't want routines and they don't want the rigidity of deciding in advance.

438

But when they are asked for advice for other people that they care about, they are much more likely to choose this kind of rigid plan routine option.

439

And what Sydney and Eleanor conclude is that when you're thinking about other people, you use your head.

440

And when you think about yourself, you use your gut, right?

441

Or your heart.

442

I was going to say heart, but you're going to go with gut.

443

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

444

You know, like, oh, what feels right for me?

445

But when you're thinking about your friend, you're sort of really thinking.

446

You're like, what would be the best thing?

447

And I think the advice then is that if there really is a benefit to routine,

448

then maybe what we should do is think of our own life sometimes as if we're planning for someone else.

449

I think this is just a great life hack.

450

Many business leaders do this when they have to make business decisions.

451

Like if it weren't me, but if it were my best friend making this business decision, right, if it weren't me ordering lunch right now, but like actually somebody I really care about,

452

my best friend, my significant other, what would I order for them?

453

What would I have them do in the morning?

454

Because I think it's true that sometimes we would make a better decision that way.

455

So I think my closing advice is like, yeah, there are trade -offs, but routines are awesome.

456

And there are ways to develop strong routines, but to loosely hold them, right, to build in some flexibility as well.

457

And if you have a problem with any of this, pretend that you're deciding on all this for another person who's not you.

458

I love that concept, though, of making sure that you have this almost third -party view into your life.

459

And look, I think that my life has been so much richer when I have tried to incorporate routines into it.

460

And I think that there are so many ways that routine breeds intentionality in life.

461

And I will say, I will go forward now with that advice.

462

And when I'm about to make these decisions on routine, think about my best friend or as you call him, perfect Peter.

463

You know, Mike, one of the new routines in my life that I have really appreciated, it's having conversations with you.

464

Oh my gosh, ditto.

465

And now here's a fact check of today's conversation.

466

Angela uses the example of performing pelvic floor strengthening exercises while watching television to illustrate the benefits of habit stacking.

467

She notes that as people age, the kegel muscles that support pelvic floor organs may stop functioning as well.

468

There is, in fact, no such thing as Kegel muscles.

469

The pelvic floor consists of the levator ani, which wraps around the pelvis, and the coccygeus, located in the back of the pelvis.

470

Kegel exercises were first described in 1948 by American gynecologist Arnold Kegel as a way to prevent incontinence.

471

The exercises are often recommended for women's health, as Angela mentions, But they can also be beneficial for men,

472

especially those who've had their prostate surgically removed or who have conditions like diabetes or an overactive bladder.

473

That's it for the fact check.

474

Before we wrap today's show, let's hear some thoughts about last week's episode on closure.

475

Hi, Angela and Mike.

476

I wanted to say that what really resonated with me was the fact that psychologically we need closure.

477

And yet there are all sorts of TikToks

478

and Instagram reels from certified therapists and influencers

479

and all sorts of people who claim

480

that you don't need to get closure from someone when you get ghosted or someone breaks up with you.

481

And so I think this episode is really important in helping shape

482

that conversation around how you can create closure for yourself or maybe why we do really owe each other explanations for things.

483

And it's not needy and it's not too much to ask why something happened.

484

Maybe this kind of content can help us improve our relationships with each other in this very digital and somewhat unaccountable world.

485

Hi, my name's Rachel.

486

When we moved to a new city several years ago, we enrolled our son in a new daycare.

487

And through this daycare, we made friends with another young family.

488

And we all got along so well.

489

Our kids played together really well.

490

They were best buddies.

491

And then suddenly in the fall of 2020, they stopped all communication with us.

492

They ignored our texts.

493

They ignored Instagram messages.

494

But we saw they were still hanging out with other people.

495

Anyway, I think about the abrupt cessation of this friendship every couple of days.

496

And I wonder if I'd had closure with the termination of this friendship

497

that I would not be brooding on it so frequently.

498

Hi, Angela and Mike.

499

This is Steve from Chicago, and your show about closure reminded me of one of the best and worst events in my life.

500

In college, I received a bouquet of flowers in the dorm, and not a few cheap carnations,

501

but a rather large and beautiful and probably expensive arrangement.

502

And the card only said, hey, you're kind of cute.

503

I asked around, I looked around, put an ad in the school paper, but I never found out who sent them to me.

504

And even after more than 30 years, I can still look back on that moment with great joy, but also a little bit of sadness for what might have been.

505

That was, respectively, Kelsey Simpkins, Rachel Hampton, and Steve Turner.

506

Thanks to them and to everyone who shared their stories with us.

507

And remember, we'd love to hear about your relationship with routines.

508

Send a voice memo to nsq at Freakonomics .com and you might hear your voice on the show.

509

Hi, everyone.

510

Angela here.

511

I want to tell you about a special project Mike and I are working on.

512

We're planning a series of episodes of No Stupid Questions about personality.

513

In anticipation of the first episode, we have a really fun quiz we're excited to share.

514

To check it out and to learn more about your personality, go to Freakonomics .com slash Big 5.

515

Take the Big 5 inventory and get an immediate personality profile.

516

Your results will remain completely anonymous.

517

And if you have a question about personality, feel free to email us at nsq at Freakonomics .com.

518

We may be able to answer your question during the series.

519

Thanks, and see you next week.

520

Coming up next week on No Stupid Questions, are you motivated by fear?

521

I'm sitting there and I can't move.

522

I can hardly breathe.

523

People are trying to talk to me and I'm like, don't, don't talk.

524

I can't cognitively function.

525

That's next week on No Stupid Questions.

526

No Stupid Questions is part of the Freakonomics Radio Network, which also includes Freakonomics Radio,

527

people I mostly admire, and the economics of everyday things.

528

All our shows are produced by Stitcher and Renbud Radio.

529

The senior producer of the show is me, Rebecca Lee Douglas, and Lear Boutich is our production associate.

530

This episode was mixed by Greg Rippin.

531

Our theme song was composed by Luis Guerra.

532

You can follow us on Twitter at NSQ underscore show and on Facebook at NSQ Show.

533

If you have a question for a future episode, please email it to nsq at Freakonomics .com.

534

To learn more or to read episode transcripts, visit Freakonomics .com slash NSQ.

535

Thanks for listening.

536

Enthusiastic.

537

Now they're going to put that at the end.

538

I hate that.

539

The Freakonomics Radio Network.

540

The hidden side of everything.

541

Stitcher.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “186. Do You Need a Routine?”. This video has 541 sentences and 6793 words to shadow. The speech runs for 38:28. The speaker talks at a natural 177 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
autopilot noun	/ˈɔtoʊˌpaɪlət/	A mechanical, electrical, or hydraulic system used to guide a vehicle without assistance from a human being.
flexibility noun	/ˌflɛksɪˈbɪlɪti/	The quality of being flexible, whether physically or metaphorically.
stack noun	/stæk/	A large pile of hay, grain, straw, or the like, larger at the bottom than the top, sometimes covered with thatch.
cognitive adjective	/ˈkɑɡ.nɪ.tɪv/	Relating to the part of mental functions that deals with logic, as opposed to affective which deals with emotions.
kegel noun		The pubococcygeal muscles.
gosh	/ɡɑːʃ/	A mild expression of surprise or enthusiasm.
closure noun	/ˈkloʊ.ʒɚ/	An event or occurrence that signifies an ending.
loosely adverb	/ˈluːsli/	In a loose manner.
marathon noun	/ˈmæɹəθən/	A 42.195-kilometre (26-mile-385-yard) road race.
continuum noun	/kənˈtɪnjuəm/	A continuous series or whole, no part of which is noticeably different from its adjacent parts, although the ends or extremes of it are very different from…
gynecologist noun	/ˌɡaɪnəˈkɒləd͡ʒɪst/	A physician specializing in diseases of the female reproductive system.
intentionality noun		The quality of being intentional.
pelvic adjective	/ˈpɛlvɪk/	Of, pertaining to, or in the region of, the pelvis
prediction noun	/pɹɪˈdɪkʃən/	A statement of what will happen in the future.
orderly adjective	/ˈɔɹdɚli/	Neat and tidy; possessing order.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
wake up verb	/ˌweɪk ˈʌp/	To stop sleeping; to awake.
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.
get up verb		To move in an upward direction; to ascend or climb.
grow up verb		To mature and become an adult.
look back verb		To think of (past events) in retrospect (in hindsight).
turn out verb		To end up; to result.
ask around verb		To enquire of different people about something.
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

What did you learn about habit stacking?
Are you grateful like right away?
Do you feel rewarded right then?
He's like, I had like a donut?
You're like, what would be the best thing?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	You've done · it's been · have had
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was sent · isn't studied · is called
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	friend who he · something which is · People who wake

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 135 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: marathon /ˈmæɹəθən/, bandwidth /ˈbændwɪdθ/, thrive /θɹajv/, withdrawal /wɪðˈdɹɔ(ə)l/, ethical /ˈɛθɪkəl/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: gosh /ɡɑːʃ/, closure /ˈkloʊ.ʒɚ/, prediction /pɹɪˈdɪkʃən/, accomplish /əˈkɑm.plɪʃ/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/
Long words — get the stress right: autopilot /ˈɔtoʊˌpaɪlət/, flexibility /ˌflɛksɪˈbɪlɪti/, gynecologist /ˌɡaɪnəˈkɒləd͡ʒɪst/, predictability /pɹəˌdɪktəˈbɪlɪti/, predictable /pɹəˈdɪktəbləl/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like autopilot, flexibility, stack.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: 186. Do You Need a Routine? | No Stupid Questions - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?