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Gretchen Rubin

Goodreads Author

Born

Kansas City, Missouri, The United States

Website

http://www.gretchenrubin.com

Twitter

gretchenrubin

Genre

Nonfiction, Biographies & Memoirs, Health, Mind & Body

Member Since

July 2009

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/gretchen_rubin

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NEW AUDIBLE ORIGINAL AUDIOBOOK

In "Get It Done: How to Complete Your Dream Project," bestselling author Gretchen Rubin brings her signature approach to help you finally complete your dream project.

Drawing on her decades of knowledge of how people successfully change behavior, Rubin offers tools to help you break down any big project, stay focused, and keep moving forward. LISTEN ON AUDIBLE

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AUTHOR BIO

Gretchen Rubin is one of today’s most influential and thought-provoking observers of happiness and human nature.

She’s the author of many New York Times bestselling books, such as The Happiness Project, Better Than Before, and The Four Tendencies, Life in Five Senses, and Secrets of Adulthood, which have sold millions of copies in more than thi ...more

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Gretchen Rubin’s books

Average rating: 3.68 · 305,712 ratings · 28,889 reviews · 46 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Happiness Project 3.65 avg rating — 183,326 ratings — published 2009 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives 3.82 avg rating — 42,908 ratings — published 2015 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better 3.83 avg rating — 24,360 ratings — published 2017 — 34 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon a Project, Read Samuel Johnson, and My Other Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life by Gretchen Rubin (Goodreads Author), Käthe Mazur (narrator) 3.55 avg rating — 20,502 ratings — published 2012 — 54 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Outer Order, Inner Calm: Declutter & Organize to Make More Room for Happiness 3.55 avg rating — 17,999 ratings — published 2019 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Life in Five Senses: How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and Into the World 3.71 avg rating — 8,629 ratings — published 2023 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Secrets of Adulthood: Simple Truths for Our Complex Lives 3.32 avg rating — 4,002 ratings — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill: A Brief Account of a Long Life 3.78 avg rating — 1,204 ratings — published 2003	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Happiness Project 2012 Calendar 3.64 avg rating — 688 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Best of the Happiness Project Blog: Ten Years of Happiness, Good Habits, and More 3.96 avg rating — 376 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Gretchen Rubin…

2831 posts
Gretchen Rubin's Blog

This Summer, Design a Daily Recess: 7 Ways to Have More Fun

An earlier version of this article appeared June 19, 2023

Toward the end of summer, have you ever felt that you wished you’d done more with those months?

Life feels richer and more memorable when each season of the year feels special in some way.

One way we can make this summer distinctive? Give ourselves recess: a daily, unstructured, creative time of play.

Research shows tha

Series by Gretchen Rubin

Better Than Before (1 book)
by

Gretchen Rubin (Goodreads Author)

3.82 avg rating — 43,104 ratings

"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going." -Jim Rohn Ah, January! The time of optimistic promises,...

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Gretchen’s Recent Updates

Gretchen Rubin is now friends with Isha
Jul 12, 2026 05:40AM · 1 like · like
Gretchen Rubin has read The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 06, 2026 08:56AM · 12 likes · like
Gretchen Rubin has read The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 06, 2026 08:56AM · like
Gretchen Rubin has read The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume One: 1915-1919 by Virginia Woolf	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 06, 2026 08:54AM · 1 like · like
Gretchen Rubin has read Because of the Lockwoods by Dorothy Whipple	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 06, 2026 08:54AM · 1 like · like
Gretchen Rubin has read Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 06, 2026 08:54AM · 3 likes · like
Gretchen Rubin has read Platform Decay (The Murderbot Diaries, #8) by Martha Wells (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 06, 2026 08:53AM · 1 like · like
Gretchen Rubin has read The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 06, 2026 08:53AM · 4 likes · like
Gretchen Rubin has read High Wages by Dorothy Whipple	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jun 01, 2026 09:23AM · 6 likes · like
Gretchen Rubin has read Marking Time (Cazalet Chronicles, #2) by Elizabeth Jane Howard	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jun 01, 2026 09:22AM · like

More of Gretchen's books…

Quotes by Gretchen Rubin (?)

“The belief that unhappiness is selfless and happiness is selfish is misguided. It's more selfless to act happy. It takes energy, generosity, and discipline to be unfailingly lighthearted, yet everyone takes the happy person for granted. No one is careful of his feelings or tries to keep his spirits high. He seems self-sufficient; he becomes a cushion for others. And because happiness seems unforced, that person usually gets no credit.”
― Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project

tags: feelings, giving, happiness, selfishness, selflessness

714 likes

“The days are long, but the years are short.”
― Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project

468 likes

“Never start a sentence with the words 'No offense.”
― Gretchen Rubin, The Happiness Project

tags: hypocrisy, kindness, offensive, politeness, tact

251 likes

See all Gretchen Rubin's quotes »

Polls

PLease break the tie for our February Group Read!

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

5 votes, 83.3%

The Writing Diet: Write Yourself Right-Size by Julia Cameron

1 vote, 16.7%

6 total votes

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