Stock Watch

Icebreakers with...Habits Expert James Clear

James Clear

James Clear dishes out life-changing insights like they're T-shirts on a college campus. He is the author of the bestselling book, Atomic Habits, as well as the hugely popular 3-2-1 newsletter. 

We tried not to bite our nails as we asked James all about building (and breaking) habits.

What is one of your ideas that most resonates with your audience?

There are probably two. The first is the idea of systems over goals, or rather than worrying about the outcome, focusing on the process and building better habits each day. The line that people bring up a lot from the book is, “You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.” 

The other one that has gone over well is what I call “identity-based habits.” Rather than worrying about the results you want, focus on becoming the type of person who could achieve those results. So instead of worrying about losing 40 pounds, focus on being the kind of person who doesn’t miss workouts. Or rather than worrying about finishing the novel, focus on being the kind of person who writes every day.

Many people have been working from home for 18 months. Do you think that's made it more difficult to develop habits? 

One of the things that makes it hard to stick to a habit is if you’re trying to do multiple habits in the same context. Say your couch is the place where you watch Netflix at 7pm, but you want to get in the habit of journaling each night. If you try to journal at 7pm on the couch you have this unconscious bias toward turning on the TV, because that’s what usually happens there. 

One of the benefits of going into an office is that you have a defined space for work habits to live. You can utilize that idea in a practical way, by trying to create defined spaces for certain habits. If you want to get into the habit of reading, you could have a reading chair in the corner of the room. And the only thing that happens there is when you sit there you read a book. And you gradually start to associate that behavior with that context. The more explicit you can be about where the habit occurs, and it always occurs in the same place in the same way, the more likely it is that the behavior will stick.

What did you learn about habit formation from being a college baseball pitcher? 

I learned a lot about the importance of pregame routines. Before every start in college I went through the same sequence about 40 minutes before the start of the game.

What ends up happening is that a switch flips in your mind and says, “Remember, it’s time to play now.” I think that helps not just with the physical part of the task—it helps with the mental part of the task. It helps get you in the right mindset to perform.

Translating that to what I do now, since Atomic Habits has blown up I’ve been asked to do a lot of keynote speeches. And I have a pregame routine before I walk out on stage.

What do you do? 

It usually starts with me getting a glass of water. I take a drink of water, go through the first minute of the talk in my head, and then I put my head down and have quiet time for 10 seconds or so. Then I get up, take a deep breath, and I’m ready to go.

Each of your newsletters contains two quotes. Do you have a favorite quote? 

I’m going to pick two but I do just want to say I have like 100. 

One is from my friend Morgan Housel: “Your personal experiences make up maybe 0.00000001% of what’s happened in the world but maybe 80% of how you think the world works. We’re all biased to our own personal history.”

The second one is from the investor Josh Wolfe, who said that the most useful advice he ever got was from James Watson, the scientist who helped discover DNA. Watson said three words with two meanings: “Avoid boring people.” I like that a lot because it means a) don’t hang out with boring people and b) don’t be boring yourself. Be interesting, be fascinating, do compelling things. 

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

The Keys to Getting Honest Feedback

Each week, our workplace whisperer Shane Loughnane answers reader-submitted questions about work in 2021. Anything bothering you at work? Ask Shane here.

I'm a relatively new manager and I want to make sure I'm providing proper support to my direct reports with any challenges they may be experiencing. Do you have any advice for soliciting honest feedback? —Michael in NYC

I thought we had a good thing going, Michael. The honest feedback comes to me and then I address it here on Sunday—what gives?

Bad for the advice column business or not, I love this question. The number of managers who view feedback as a one-way street would make NYC’s grid blush. The last thing you want is an employee who, in a final twist of irony, provides their only honest feedback during the exit interview. 

I’ve found the best strategy for collecting feedback from employees to be a diversified one. I had a manager who would ask during every 1-1 session if I had any feedback for them, a tactic I later found myself using with a few of my direct reports. I suspect that some employees might feel put “on the spot” in that scenario and would prefer to write out their thoughts beforehand. Still others will inevitably respond best to an anonymous survey or 360-degree approach. 

Whether it’s delivered via carrier pigeon or metaverse avatar, the input (and actually doing something with it) is what matters. And while there are plenty of methods to solicit feedback, there are no real shortcuts if you want to track down the “honest” kind. You’ll need to earn it by being honest yourself—both with the feedback you give your direct reports, as well as by being transparent about your own challenges. The key is to model behavior that establishes feedback as part of a broader culture of continuous professional growth and trust, rather than relying on an annual performance review.

Writing on the Wall

Last week, I invited Brew readers to join me in helping Rachel from FL find the perfect quote to grace her blank office wall. This group is certainly not lacking inspiration—had your responses not sent me running through it, my own wall would be outfitted with vinyl lettering. In the end, though, nobody showed up in numbers quite like Ted Lasso Nation and so I’ve taken the liberty of mocking up the “goldfish” quote for production below. 

“You know what the happiest animal on Earth is? It’s a goldfish. You know why? 10-second memory.” 

Have a question about work you want to ask Shane? Write in here. And coming soon...HR Brew. Be one of the first subscribers to our upcoming newsletter on all things human resources.

Paper Menus Aren't Coming Back

Albert Hu/Unsplash

2021 has a faint scent of 2011: The cool kids are dressing like they’re in Gossip Girl, Drake and Kanye are hyping up albums, and QR codes are trying to make it big in the US. At least one of them is succeeding. 

Invented in 1994 by a Japanese engineer, QR codes have been ubiquitous in Chinese payments apps for years. But recently they've become a staple of US restaurant menus and checkout registers as companies made transactions as touchless as possible during the pandemic.

• Over the last 18 months, QR code downloads have increased 750%, according to Bitly. 
• Half of all full-service restaurants in the US have opted for QR code menus since the beginning of the pandemic, per the National Restaurant Association. 

While pandemic winners like Peloton and Zoom have faltered as vaccinations have ramped up, don’t expect QR codes to disappear. Because of the many advantages they offer businesses, QR codes will be distracting us in restaurants for years to come, experts say. 

What are the implications? 

More tracking. While it might seem like you’re harmlessly ordering a Denny’s Grand Slam after a long day, QR codes track when, where, and how often you scan them. That info is like candy to restaurants, which can use it to more closely track consumer behavior. 

• Privacy experts warn that rules largely don’t exist to dictate what restaurants can and can’t do with that info, like, say, sell it to a third-party delivery app that desperately wants to send you notifications about ordering takeout.

More scams. The ease of creating a QR code is one of the reasons why it’s so accessible for businesses, but it also increases opportunities for fraud. You can’t predict where a code will take you until you open it, making it difficult to know if it’s a scam or not.

• The Better Business Bureau even issued a warning this summer around fraudulent QR codes.

Replacing human workers. We’ve been worried about technology stealing our jobs since Edison’s lightbulb replaced the candle boy. But the QR code makes it real.

• Without the need for servers to take orders and deliver bills, some restaurants have cut 30%–50% of labor costs by using QR code menus, according to Tom Sharon, cofounder of the startup Cheqout, which builds the tech for those menus. Economic downturns have historically been catalysts for automation, forcing struggling businesses to cut costs where they can. 

Bottom line: Just like any technology, QR codes invite both promise and peril.

Open House

Welcome to Open House, the only newsletter section that dares to ask the question, “Why go to a wildlife preserve when you can live in the hollow remains of one?” We’ll give you a few facts about a listing, and you try to guess the price.

Zillow

Strap in for some more rich people nonsense as we head to Cold Spring, Minnesota—90 minutes northwest of Minneapolis. This 7,458 square-foot Cabela’s wannabe is a lakefront property with a beach, where you’ll want to spend most of your time to escape the watchful eye of the many taxidermied animals. Amenities include:

• 4 beds, 5 baths
• Indoor jacuzzi tub up rock stairs
• Custom, walk-in shower
• Warthog in the bedroom

How much to be a big-game hunter in the sheets (and the rest of the home)? Scroll to the bottom of the newsletter to find out.

Just Click It

1. No one will read your book—and other truths about publishing. (Elle Griffin)
2. The war in Afghanistan was far, far different from how it has been depicted in American media. (MSNBC)
3. The guerrilla artist who fixed LA’s worst freeway sign. (theLAnd)
4. A fleeting website about the possibility of love online. (The internet onion)
5. The perils of having an infamous name twin, written by Elizabeth Holmes. (Marie Claire)
6. On Yugoslav cuisine. (Vittles)
7. The silent architects behind the speed-climbing routes at the Tokyo Olympics. (Gym Climber)
8. An analysis of “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.” (Strong Songs)
9. She’s the investor guru for online creators. (New York Times)
10. New York stories. (Vimeo)

Got the wine aisle willies? Empathy was co-founded by Gary Vaynerchuk to bring more value to both customer and farmer. With three skus (red, white, rose) and no middlemen, Empathy delivers big savings on quality vino. Get 20% off your first order plus S&T with code WELCOME.*

Meme Battle

Welcome back to Morning Brew's Meme Battle, where we crown a single memelord every Sunday.

Today's winner: Kevin in Oklahoma City, OK

This week's challenge: You can find the new meme template here for next Sunday. Once you're done making your meme, submit it at this link for consideration.

$1.45 million