Person
1 episodes · 18 quoted claims
James Clear says that for the first three years of writing jamesclear.com he published two roughly 2,000-word articles a week, each taking about 20 hours.
“I published a new article every Monday and Thursday, and they were like 2,000-word pieces, took me, like, about 20 hours each on average.”
James Clear says that after his book came out he shifted to a weekly newsletter that takes about two hours to write.
“I've been writing a newsletter once a week that takes me about 2 hours instead of 20.”
James Clear describes a reader named Mitch who limited himself to five minutes at the gym when he started working out, to master showing up.
“he had this strange little rule for himself where he wasn't allowed to stay at the gym for longer than 5 minutes.”
James Clear cites a quote from Ed Latimore that the heaviest weight at the gym is the front door.
“there's that quote from Ed Latimore where he says, The heaviest weight at the gym is the front door”
James Clear says his undergraduate degree is in biomechanics and that he also earned a business degree, not one in psychology or neuroscience.
“undergraduate degree is in biomechanics, and then I got a business degree as well.”
James Clear says he wrote two articles a week for three years, about 150 articles on habits, after a friend told him that is how you become an expert.
“I wrote 2 articles a week for the next three years. And it turns out if you write 150 articles about habits, you learn a lot along the way.”
James Clear recounts a story from Josh Waitzkin on Tim Ferriss's podcast about being woken from sleep minutes before a martial arts event and switching on instantly.
“he was actually asleep on the like, bench on the side, and they came over and woke him up.”
James Clear attributes to Sam Altman the idea that people should have a high bar for working on anything other than deciding what to work on.
“I think Sam Altman has some quote where he said something like, uh, You should have a very high bar for working on anything other than thinking about what to work on”
James Clear says he spends about 30 minutes every Friday on an unscheduled weekly review of his business.
“I have, like, roughly 30 minutes every Friday where I just do a weekly review, and there is nothing scheduled.”
James Clear says he usually wakes around 7 a.m. and works out between 10 and 11 a.m.
“usually, I'm waking up around 7, uh, And usually I'm working out around 10 to 11, somewhere around there.”
James Clear says his email list reached 100,000 subscribers within the first couple of years of writing online.
“And, uh, first couple years, I had just pretty rapid growth, and I got to 100,000 email subscribers.”
James Clear says he leaves his phone in another room until lunch about 70 to 80 percent of the time.
“I will say maybe 70% of the time, 80% of the time, I leave my phone in another room until lunch.”
James Clear says he deleted social media from his phone for about a year and a half and can use it only on a desktop, where his assistant holds the login password.
“Um, and I can use it on the desktop.”
James Clear says he went about six months without email on his phone, downloading it only twice when he really needed it.
“I haven't had email on my phone for, like, 6 months now. I've downloaded it twice.”
James Clear says he cold emailed about 300 authors and others in his first six months, and roughly 30 responded and agreed to talk.
“I think I cold emailed about 300 people in the first 6 months, and, like, maybe 30 of them got in touch”
James Clear says his father played minor league baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals and then worked for a long time in insurance.
“he played in the minor leagues for the St. Louis Cardinals, um, and then had a long career in the insurance industry”
James Clear says his sister got leukemia at age 3 and his mother, a nurse, took time off work to be with her during recovery.
“my sister got leukemia when she was 3, and so she took time off to be with her while she was recovering”
James Clear credits behavioral scientist Jason Hreha with defining habits as solutions to recurring problems in our environment.
“said that habits are solutions to the recurring problems in our environment”