Best Ways to Build Better Habits & Break Bad Ones | James Clear

Huberman Lab

Scicomm Media

Science, Health & Fitness, Life Sciences

4.8 • 26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2026

⏱️ 155 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

James Clear is an expert on behavioral change and habits and the author of the bestselling book Atomic Habits. We discuss the best ways to build new healthy habits and end bad ones without relying on motivation or willpower. Rather than list off categories of tools or acronyms, James explains how anchoring the changes you want to make in your identity and physical environment allows you to make desired changes quickly and ones that stick. Whether your goal is better fitness and physical health, productivity or mental health, you'll learn actionable, zero-cost protocols to build powerful and meaningful habits. Sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman Lingo: https://hellolingo.com/huberman Wealthfront*: https://wealthfront.com/huberman Joovv: https://joovv.com/huberman Eight Sleep: https://eightsleep.com/huberman Function: https://functionhealth.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) James Clear (00:01:10) Atomic Habits (00:02:57) Common Habits, Tool: Habit Success & Getting Started (00:06:16) Make Starting a Habit Easier, Tool: 4 Laws of Behavior Change (00:10:18) Sponsors: Lingo & Wealthfront (00:13:26) Writing Habits, Seasons & Flexibility; Adaptability, Tool: Bad Day Plan (00:18:42) Consistency, Flow vs Grind, Master Showing Up, Learning & Practice (00:24:54) Chunking, Getting Started at Gym (00:28:01) Flow Don’t Fight, Dissatisfaction & Effort, Tool: Identity-Based Habits (00:34:10) Friction, Competition & Effort; Credentials (00:39:38) Make Effort Rewarding, Mindset, Tools: Previsualization, Emphasize Positives (00:45:59) Sponsors: AG1 & Joovv (00:48:56) Reflection & Learning, Tool: Self-Testing; Perfectionism, Tool: Curiosity (00:55:18) Striving vs Relaxation, Balance, Tool: Turn On/Off; Hiking, Nature Reset (01:04:20) Identity & Professional Pursuits; Choosing New Projects; Clinging to Identity (01:14:24) Sponsor: Eight Sleep (01:15:42) Criticism; Identity & Growth (01:21:47) Failure, Identity, Sports, Tool: Rebounding & Reaching; Public Failures (01:30:03) Daily Habits, Tools: Day in Quarters; Never Miss Twice; Meal Timing (01:38:22) Daily Habit Timing & Sequencing, Tool: Mindfully Choose Inputs (01:45:37) Creativity, Specialization vs Generalization; Books (01:51:31) Sponsor: Function (01:53:18) Habits & Context, Environmental Cues, Tools for Minimizing Phone Use (02:02:01) Bad Habits, Checking Phone, Tools for Breaking Bad Habits (02:08:21) Physical & Social Environment, New Habits, Tool: Join/Create Groups (02:18:40) Family, Habits; Kids & Parenting, Tools: Stimulus; Good Conditions (02:26:05) Impact of Habits, Habits as Solutions; Upcoming Projects (02:32:45) Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow, Reviews & Feedback, Sponsors, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter *This experience may not be representative of other Wealthfront clients, and there is no guarantee of future performance or success. Experiences will vary. The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC, member FINRA/SIPC. Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The base APY is 3.25% on cash deposits as of December 19, 2025, is representative, subject to change, and requires no minimum. If eligible for the overall boosted rate of 3.90% offered in connection with this promo, your boosted rate is also subject to change if the base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period. Funds in the Cash Account are swept to program banks, where it earns the variable APY. New Cash Account deposits are subject to a 2-4 day holding period before becoming available for transfer. Investment advisory services are provided by Wealthfront Advisers LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Securities investments: not bank deposits, bank-guaranteed or FDIC-insured, and may lose value. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Habits are solutions to the recurring problems in our environment.
0:05.0	Let's say you get done with a long day of work, and you come back, you're kind of exhausted.
0:09.0	That happens, you know, frequently. It's a recurring problem that you face.
0:12.0	How do you solve that problem? One person might solve it by going for a run for 30 minutes,
0:17.0	another person might solve it by playing video games for 30 minutes, another person might
0:20.9	solve it by smoking a cigarette. They all are trying to solve that same core problem. What you find
0:25.2	is that, you know, you get to be 20 or 25 or 28, and a lot of the solutions that you have
0:30.1	to these recurring problems that you face are solutions that you inherited or that you saw
0:34.5	modeled by your parents or your friends or just you know whatever you
0:37.6	have interfaced with throughout your short life so far as soon as you realize that your solutions
0:43.0	may not be the best solution it's now your responsibility to try to figure out a different way to do
0:48.7	it welcome to the huberman lab podcast where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
0:58.1	I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine.
1:04.7	My guest today is James Clear.
1:06.8	James Clear is the author of Atomic Habits and one of the world's foremost experts
1:10.8	on how to build rock-solid habits
1:12.9	that better your physical and mental health,
1:15.0	work, and relationships.
1:16.8	Today we discuss how to build a habit
1:18.6	and how to break bad habits
1:20.3	as fast and durably as possible.
1:22.6	You'll notice that today's conversation
	...

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