Meet Kristen Berman, a top researcher in the field of behavioral economics. She’s the co-founder of Irrational Labs, which designs products that are evidence-based in the behavioral sciences.

Her co-founder, Dan Ariely, is the James B. Duke Professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University, and one of the most famous behavioral economists in the world.

Here are some of the (counterintuitive!) ideas that Kristen shares:

Habits are overrated. Automate instead.
Budgeting doesn’t change your spending behavior.
Commit in advance.
Forget about the outcome.
Focus on the process.
You need accountability.
Think about the Three B’s: behavior, barriers and benefits.

Tune into this episode to hear Kristen elaborate on these research-backed, evidence-based ideas about how to improve our spending, saving and investing habits.

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Have you ever spent years studying the wrong major, climbing the ladder at the wrong company, chasing the wrong career?

Have you spent years living in the wrong city? Wrong relationship? Wrong lifestyle?

It’s hard to discern what *we think we want* from what we really want.

Society teaches us what we’re “supposed” to want. And we follow along.

The result is keeping up with the Joneses. It’s the hedonic treadmill. It’s lifestyle inflation. And it causes conflict, both within ourselves and with others.

Today’s guest, Luke Burgis, discusses mimetic desire — how our “wants” are imitative — and how we can find our deeper truths.

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Four thousand weeks.

That’s how long we live if we’re lucky enough to celebrate our 80th birthday.

Crazy, isn’t it?

We rarely think of our lifespan in terms of weeks. When we do, it seems painfully short. And that’s the point that Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks, wants to drive home.

Oliver, author of The Antidote: Happiness for People who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking and Help! How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done,  is a self-professed time management geek.

But after reading scores of books, he concluded that most time management tactics result in an illusion of productivity. They don’t get to the root of why we feel the need to be time wizards. They don’t tell us how to overcome FOMO. They don’t mention the importance of relaxation or play.

Instead, most advice furthers the false narrative that we can do it all and have it all. This narrative leads us to endlessly spin our wheels. Just one more task, just one more project…only to have five more take its place by the end of the week.

If this sounds familiar (and exhausting), then Oliver has a different perspective to offer.

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