I'm Gretchen Rubin and this is a little happier.

I write a lot about habits.

Habits are the invisible architecture of everyday life, and about 40% of what we do each day

is shaped by habits.

For this reason, I've always been struck by this observation made by architect and design

theorist Christopher Alexander.

I really love Alexander's writing.

His book, A Pattern Language, is the book that I most often give as a gift, and I also love his

four-volume collection called The Nature of Order.

In his book, The Timeless Way of Building, he makes an observation about daily habits

and daily life that I think is very important to remember.

He writes,

If I consider my life honestly, I see that it is governed by a certain very small number

of patterns of events which I take part in over and over again.

Being in bed, having a shower, having breakfast in the kitchen, sitting in my study writing,

walking in the garden, cooking and eating our common lunch at my office with my friends,

going to the movies, taking my family to eat at a restaurant, going to bed again.

There are a few more.

There are surprisingly few of these patterns of events in any one person's way of life,

perhaps no more than it doesn't.

Look at your own life and you will find the same.

It is shocking at first to see that there are so few patterns of events open to me,

...