2008–2026
1,284 posts
2026 40
October 2026
- Should You Study The Solutions Or Solve Problems?
- The Key to Creating Learning Projects You’ll Finish
- The Best Way to Take Notes
- The Simple Method That Boosts Memory by 50%
September 2026
- Reach the Top 1% of Your Field (Deliberate Practice)
- You Should Care Less About Practical Advice
- How to stop forgetting what you read
- Book Review: China’s Examination Hell
August 2026
July 2026
- Discouraged? Here’s How to Stay Motivated
- We Need Guidelines for Learning and AI
- How to Learn Creative Skills
June 2026
- How to Find Time for Learning
- How Habits Actually Work
- Your Problem Isn’t Willpower
- What’s the Ideal Amount of Exercise?
- Focus is Motivation
May 2026
- Why I’m Skeptical About Efforts to Revolutionize Schooling
- How to Read Better Books
- What if We’re Already Living in Utopia?
April 2026
- I Wrote Ultralearning. This is What I’d Change Because of AI
- How to Motivate Yourself to Do Anything
- How to Motivate Yourself to Exercise Regularly
- Reflections on Writing for 20 Years
March 2026
- Lesson Four: The Opposite of Burnout
- Lesson Three: Rhythmic Productivity—A More Humane Way to Work
- Lesson Two: Life Doesn’t Need to Be Exhausting
- Lesson One: The Human Energy Crisis
- Book Recommendation: Beyond Belief
- Does This Psychological Quirk Explain Parkinson’s Law?
February 2026
- Feeling Tired? Here Are 7 Things We Get Wrong About What Gives Us Energy
- The Relaxation Paradox: Why Zoning Out Doesn’t Always Restore Your Energy
- How to Make Hard Work Feel Easy
- My New Book: Foundations
January 2026
2025 55
December 2025
- My Favorite Books (and Essays) of 2025
- The Most Underrated Productivity Technique
- How to Read One Book Per Week (Even if You Read Slowly)
- 5 Strategies to Learn Better with AI (and Traps to Avoid)
November 2025
- Will AI Make Us Stupid?
- Is Vibe Coding the Future of Skilled Work?
- What’s Still Worth Learning in a World With AI?
October 2025
- Lesson 3 – What You’ll Achieve in Foundations
- Lesson 2 – What’s Your “Good Enough”?
- Lesson 1 – Why Foundations?
- My Foundations Project Is Now Complete
- 102 Lessons from the 102 Books I Read This Year
- Service – Month-End
September 2025
- Ten Books on Doing Good
- 12 Things I Changed My Mind About After Researching for Foundations
- The One-Month Knowledge Sprint: How to Read Books, Take Action, and Change Your Life
- Service – Day One
August 2025
July 2025
- Focus – Month-End
- The Attentional Junk Food Hypothesis
- Eight Books on Focus
- Focusing on Your Strengths Isn’t Always Good Advice
- Focus – Day One
June 2025
- Connection – Month-End
- 7 Books (and 1 Paper) on How to Have Better Relationships
- How Should You Choose Your Career?
- Connection – Day One
May 2025
- Reflection – Month-End Update
- Insights from 8 Books on Reflection
- 22 Thoughts on Using AI to Learn Better
- Reflection – Day One
April 2025
- Sleep – Month-End Update
- Eight Books for Getting a Better Night’s Rest
- Lesson 4: Happiness is the expansion of possibility
- Lesson 3: The surprising secret to flow
- Lesson 2: The three questions for effective meta-learning
- Lesson 1: How to start projects you’ll actually finish
- Sleep: Day One
March 2025
- Outreach – Month-End Update
- Here are 8 Books I Read on Making Friends This Month
- Should You Quit? Ask These Four Questions First
- Outreach – Day One
February 2025
- Reflections on a Month for Reading
- Just Trust the Experts
- Reading – Day One Update
- Food – Month-End Update
January 2025
2024 51
December 2024
- Money – Month-End Update
- Insights from Ten Useful Books on Money
- My Best Essays in 2024
- Money – Day One
November 2024
- Productivity – Month-End Update
- The Key Lessons from 10 Important Books on Productivity
- Is Speaking Multiple Languages Overrated?
- Productivity – Opening Update
October 2024
- Fitness – Month-End Update
- What I Learned About Getting in Shape After Reading 13 Books This Month
- How to Form Habits in Real Life
- 5 Tips for Staying Focused (When You’re Stressed)
- Fitness: Day One
September 2024
- What Could You Change in a Year?
- How To Be Well Rounded
- Where’s Your Blind Spot?
- 12 Obvious (and 12 Not-So-Obvious) Tips for Living Better
- The Foundations for Success and Happiness Are the Same
August 2024
- A Solid Foundation is More Than Just Good Habits
- I’m 36
- 5 Ways to Increase Your Learning Throughput
- The Three Gaps
July 2024
- No, AI Doesn’t Mean You Won’t Need to Learn
- The sweet spot: Why more effort is not always better
- The Twelve Foundations for a Good Life
- The Universal Foundations for a Good Life
June 2024
- You’re Trying to Do Too Much
- The Most Overlooked Way to Be More Productive
- The Science of Learning Movement Skills
May 2024
- Talking About Getting Better
- The 7 Reasons You Stop Improving (and How to Keep Getting Better)
- Ultralearning or Get Better at Anything: Which Book is Better?
- Get Better at Anything is Now Available
April 2024
- My 7 Rules for Happiness
- When Procrastination is Productive
- The Science of Mental Models
- How to Learn Vocabulary in Another Language
March 2024
- 5 Keys to Get the Most out of the Feynman Technique
- My New Book: Get Better at Anything (Special Offer for Preorders)
- The Infinite Library Problem
- The Paradox of Productivity
February 2024
- My Simple Habit for Smarter Book Reading
- The 6 Causes of Burnout (and How to Avoid It)
- Does Everyone Learn at the Same Rate? An Intriguing Experiment
January 2024
2023 52
December 2023
- My 10 Most Popular Essays of 2023
- The 10 Best Books I Read in 2023
- 6 Strategies for Learning New Things (When You Have Kids)
- Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: How to Change Your Mind
November 2023
- How to Learn Anything Easily
- The 15 People Who Have Most Influenced My Thinking (Part II)
- The 15 People Who Most Influenced My Thinking About Learning (Part I)
- Reader Mailbag: ChatGPT-Induced Ignorance, Language Learning, Flashcards and More
October 2023
- What Does Research Say is the Best Way to Learn a Language?
- My #1 Rule for Writing
- Self-Efficacy: The Key to Understanding What Motivates You
- 18 Life Lessons I’d Give My 18-Year-Old Self
September 2023
- The Simple Rule for Achieving Ambitious Goals
- The Key to Building Rare and Valuable Skills
- Before You Burn Yourself Out Working, Do This
- The Simple Economic Theory That Explains Whether You’ll Have a Great Career
- Who Cares What Warren Buffett Eats for Lunch?
August 2023
- The Efficiency Mindset
- I’m 35
- 7 Expert Opinions I Agree With (That Most People Don’t)
- Why I’m Not More Popular
July 2023
- The Mind is a Computer
- Reader Mailbag (Part II): Overcoming Procrastination, the Input Hypothesis, Time Management and Motor Skills
- Reader Mailbag: Range, Learning Styles, Nootropics and the Value of Learning Things You’re Doomed to Forget
June 2023
- Eight of My Unanswered Questions About the Best Way to Learn
- When are Minimal Habits Useful for Learning?
- The Problem with Being Too Patient
- Why Flashcards Beat Mnemonics for Studying
May 2023
- When is Learning Worth the Effort?
- Seven Steps for Making a Solid Studying Plan
- Some Thoughts on Becoming Self-Actualized
- Ten Great Books on How to Learn Better
- 10 Ways You Can Use ChatGPT to Learn Better
April 2023
- No, ChatGPT Doesn’t Mean You Don’t Need to Learn Things
- How Much Transfer Should We Expect Between Skills?
- Ten of My Favorite Papers on the Science of Learning and Thinking
- Reader Request: How Should I Use ChatGPT to Learn Better?
March 2023
- Recent Reading: Creativity, Mastery and the Three Phases of Learning
- Are We Losing the Ability to Read Books?
- What Would You Do With More Time?
- The Underrated Usefulness of Taking a Time Log
- The Key to Sustainable Productivity
- Needing to Pay Attention is a Novel Problem
February 2023
- Creativity is Productivity
- An MIT Challenge for Math and Physics? Interview with Diego Vera
- A Little Announcement…
- Learning, Fast and Slow: Do Intensive Learning Projects Work Better Than Slow Ones?
January 2023
2022 47
December 2022
November 2022
- Why You Need a Learning System
- How to Approach Any Exam With Confidence
- Which Matters More: Method or Motivation?
- You’ve Never Been Taught How to Learn
- Reader Question: What Classes Should I Study to Land a Job?
- Reader Question: Avoiding “Flashcard Hell” and Finding Enjoyable Studying Strategies
October 2022
- Variability, Not Repetition, is the Key to Mastery
- Why Didn’t More People Take the MIT Challenge?
- Recent Reading: 7 Books on the Science of Learning
September 2022
- Building Confidence in Communication: Interview with Tristan de Montebello
- Ten Mental Models for Learning
- Brain Training Doesn’t Work
- Failure is a Lousy Teacher
August 2022
- What Work Matters?
- Why People Stop Improving
- How to Find Your Next Step
- The Key to Career Progress
- I’m 34
- Practice Made Perfect: The 10 Keys to Optimize Improvement
July 2022
- You’re Never Too Good for the Basics
- Recent Reading: Viking Law, Backgammon Strategy, The History of Alchemy and more…
- Maximize Your Learning Time with These Seven Habits
- The 85% Rule for Learning
June 2022
- The 10 Best Books on Productivity
- You Should Pay for Tutors
- Interview: Building a Second Brain with Tiago Forte
- No, You Haven’t Forgotten Everything
May 2022
- Do You Learn More by Struggling on Hard Problems?
- Book Review — Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs
- More Recent Reading
April 2022
- See-Do-Feedback: The Right Way To Practice
- Reader Mailbag: Sustaining Motivation, Judging Experts and the Meanings of Life
March 2022
- Book Review: Human Problem Solving
- How to Decide What to Work On
- Desirable Difficulties: When Harder is Better for Learning
- What I’ve Been Reading
February 2022
- Cultural Literacy: Does Knowledge Need to Be Deep to Be Useful?
- How Does Understanding Work? A Look at the Construction-Integration Model of Comprehension
- How Do We Learn Complex Skills? Understanding ACT-R Theory
- The Structured Pursuit of Depth
January 2022
2021 55
December 2021
- The Best Essays of 2021
- Digging into How We Teach and Learn: 7 Books That Have Challenged and Shaped My Thinking
- How Much Do You Need to Know Before Getting Started?
November 2021
- Learning by Doing: When Does it Work? When Does it Fail?
- What if You Don’t Feel Smart Enough?
- The Craft is the End
- Which Works Better: Habits or Projects?
October 2021
- The Project-Driven Life
- You’re Trying to Do Too Much
- My Recent Reading: 10 Interesting Books on How We Think and Learn
- Lessons Learned from 5 Years and 5000+ Students in Top Performer
September 2021
- Want to Write for a Living? The 7 Things I Wish I’d Known
- The 7 Things I Wish I’d Known Before College
- Is Modernity a Myth?
August 2021
- Learning as Investing: 7 Skills That Pay Off in Any Job
- Why Aren’t There More Apprenticeships?
- I’m 33
- Book Recommendation: Uncommon Sense Teaching
- Is Life Better When You’re Busy?
July 2021
- The 10 Best Tools to Stay Mentally Sharp at Work
- Metrics: Useful or Evil?
- What are the Best Arguments Against Doing the Real Thing?
- How Becoming a Dad Changed My Thoughts on Productivity
June 2021
- What is Understanding?
- Beware Tractability Bias
- 14 Books On Learning by Doing, Apprenticeship and Transfer
- Digging the Well
May 2021
- Make Your Life Better by Doing Less
- How I Do Research
- The Key to Find Time for Learning
- How to Think for Yourself
- The Science Behind Building General Skills
- The 10 Essential Strategies for Deeper Learning
- A New Understanding of Effort
April 2021
- Should You Use Flashcards to Learn?
- Some Reflections on Being Off Social Media
- Help Me with My New Project
- Book Recommendation: A World Without Email
March 2021
- How to Improve Your Self-Awareness
- Why We Struggle to Motivate Ourselves
- The Neuroscience of Motivation
- Inspiration is Overrated
- My 10 Favorite Free Online Classes
- Could You Learn Every Subject?
- How Hard Should You Work?
February 2021
- The Productivity Frontier: Can You Get More Done Without Making Sacrifices?
- Smarter People Take More Risks
- How to Stay Focused
- Get the Most From Your Limited Free Time
- On Doing Your Life’s Work
January 2021
2020 61
December 2020
- My Best Essays of 2020
- The Value of Learning “Useless” Things
- Why You Procrastinate (with Leading Expert Piers Steel)
- The Boring (and Vastly Underrated) Art of Planning
November 2020
- How to Become More Curious
- Are You Missing This Essential Foundation for a Good Life?
- Live Chat on the Science of Motivation (and Q&A)
- The Paradox of Effort
- The Complete Guide to Motivation
October 2020
- The 10 Foundational Practices for a Good Life
- How Much Can You Change Yourself?
- Fearing Forgetting: Should You Try to Maintain or Relearn Knowledge?
- Life of Focus: Focused Work Update (Month One)
September 2020
- The 7 Essential Rituals for Focused Work
- What are the Limits of Building Better Habits?
- The Competence Trap (and Why it Keeps You From Trying New Things)
- What’s Beyond Self-Improvement?
August 2020
- Take Control of Your Time
- Rediscover Depth
- Give Your Brain Some Breathing Room
- Returning to a Life of Focus
- I’m 32
- Two Types of Excellence
- The Value of Spare Capacity
July 2020
- What are the Obstacles to Doing the Real Thing?
- How to Rebuild Your Confidence
- Should You Even Try to Motivate Yourself?
- Boost Your Motivation to Learn Hard Things
- Get Better at the Things You Do Every Day
June 2020
- The Perfect Studying Routine
- How to Quickly Extract the Best Insights from a Huge Topic
- The Right Way to Measure Productivity (and Why It’s Harder Than it Seems)
- The Surprisingly Narrow Path to Success
- The 10 Most Useful Mental Models
- The All-Important Difference Between Effort and Effectiveness
May 2020
- Cal Newport on The Narrow Path to Success, Fatherhood and Challenging Conventional Wisdom
- Learning My Wife’s Native Language – One Month Update (Video)
- The Hard Way is the Easy Way
- Macedonian Project (Week Three Update)
- Do the Real Thing
- Macedonian Project (Week Two Update)
April 2020
- 7 Rules for Staying Productive Long-Term
- Macedonian Project Update (Week One)
- New Project: Learning My Wife’s Native Language
- Being and Time: An Interesting Book You Probably Shouldn’t Read
- Is Your Path a Staircase or a Circle?
- Designing the Perfect Practice Loop
- How to Build Skills That Matter
March 2020
- Now is the Perfect Time to Start an Ultralearning Project
- What are the Core Ideas of Self-Improvement?
- Audio, Paper or Kindle: What’s the Best Way to Read a Book?
- What is Effort?
- New Edition of Rapid Learner Coming Soon!
February 2020
- How Does Age Change How You Learn?
- How Fast Should You Be When Learning?
- I’m a Papa!
- How Important is Work?
January 2020
2019 132
December 2019
- My Best Writing of 2019
- Seven Easy Habits to Read More Books Next Year
- Why is Taking Action Hard?
- Why Care About Learning?
- What’s the Point of Productivity?
November 2019
- The Neuroscience of Anxiety
- A Subtle Mistake People Make When Trying to Grow Their Careers
- The Obvious Way to Improve Your Career (That Might Not Be So Obvious)
- Meet Me and Cal Newport in DC (+ New Podcasts)
October 2019
- Why I Became an Entrepreneur
- Are You Stepping Over $100 Bills Lying on the Sidewalk?
- My Best Book Recommendations
- Five Lessons about Life and Ultralearning (My WDS Keynote Talk)
September 2019
- The Complete Guide to Self-Control
- Thinkers vs Doers: Who Gives Better Advice?
- Explore or Exploit: The Hidden Decision that Guides Your Life
- Book Recommendation: Indistractable
- How to Think About Your Life’s Work
August 2019
- How Should I Get Better at Writing?
- I’m 31
- Discussing Ultralearning: Some of my Favorite Podcasts, Reviews and Essays
- Ultralearning is Now Available
July 2019
- Conquering Public Speaking: From Zero Experience to World Championships in Seven Months
- The Best Articles on Feeling Better
- The Best Articles on Thinking Better
- An Introvert’s Guide To Building Confidence (In 4 Not-So-Easy Steps)
- The Best Articles on Life Philosophy
- Update on My 10-Year Plans at Becoming Exceptional
- Do You Even Want Success? (The Perils of Achievement Bias)
- There is No “Real” You
- Useful Mental Model: Normal Distribution
- “I already know what to do, I just don’t do it.” I disagree.
- The 5 Keys to Falling Asleep On Time Every Night
- Fear Fizzle More Than Failure
- The Hardest Part About Learning Hard Things
- Useful Mental Model: Exponential Growth
- 5 Tricks to Never Run Out of Ideas Again
- Learning to Code is Easy: Here’s How to Teach Yourself
- How to Worry Less What Other People Think Of You
- You Do Have Time for Ultralearning
- The Best Articles on Learning
- Useful Mental Model: Evolution by Natural Selection
June 2019
- Most Books Won’t Change Your Life (But You Should Read Them Anyways)
- Useful Mental Model: Efficient Markets (and the Efficient Market Hypothesis)
- Unpopular Opinion: Don’t Just Get Started
- The World is a Hierarchy, Our Theories Aren’t
- The Best Career Articles
- Can Life Have Too Much Meaning?
- Decision Making: How To Handle All The Permutations And Combinations
- 4 Actionable Steps To Feel Happy, Content and Grateful
- The Best Articles on Productivity
- How To Stay Motivated To Go To The Gym Long-Term
- Do Long-Term Goals Bring Happiness?
- The Perpetual Backburner: Is Procrastination Part Of Human Nature?
- You Have to Be Willing to Get Cut
- The Best Articles on Goal-Setting
- What Medieval People Got Right About Learning
- Why Copying Successful People Can Backfire
- What’s the Best Way to Make a Habit? Comparing Seven Different Approaches
- The Best Articles on Habits
- Have a Podcast or Blog? Help Me Get the Word Out About Ultralearning
May 2019
- You Need to Negotiate Your Lifestyle
- The Productivity Pitfall
- Feeling Stuck at Work? Here’s How to Keep Moving Forward
- Fantasizing About Retirement? Here’s How to Build a Career You Won’t Want to Quit
- Why Do Some People Get Things Done Effortlessly?
- Evaporating Motivation
- You Fail to Reach Your Goals Because You Designed Them Badly
- Some Things That Have Helped Me Worry Less
- Do You Need to Be Smart to Learn Certain Subjects?
- Your Life Problems are Really Learning Challenges in Disguise
- Is Mastery More Like a Wedge or a Knife?
- How to Stop Feeling Like an Imposter
- What is Quantum Mechanics? (An Incomplete and Amateur Summary)
- Let’s Learn Quantum Mechanics: Project Complete!
April 2019
- Working Memory: A Complete Guide to How Your Brain Processes Information, Thinks and Learns
- Let’s Learn Quantum Mechanics – Week Three Update
- The 7 Core Skills to Drawing Realistic Pictures
- Let’s Learn Quantum Mechanics: Week Two Update
- Book Recommendation: The Hungry Brain
- Let’s Learn Quantum Mechanics: Week One Update
- Should You Fix Weaknesses or Focus on Strengths? Here’s How to Decide
- New Ultralearning Project: Let’s Learn Quantum Mechanics
March 2019
- Why Most Self-Education Efforts Fail
- The Most Powerful Learning Tool (That Doesn’t Involve Studying)
- How to Learn a Language in Record Time
- Five Scientific Steps to Ace Your Next Exam
- How to Know When to Give Up
- The Real Way to Improve Your Reading Speed
- The Six Morning Routines that Will Make You Happier, Healthier and More Productive
- How to Learn Chinese: 8 Things I Wish I Had Known Before I Started
- Do You Have Habits, or Just Commitments?
- How to Improve Critical Thinking
- Stupid Advice: “You’ll Never Be Rich Working for Somebody Else”
- How to Be More Ambitious
- The Hidden Connection Between Habits and Learning
- Who Has Time for Hobbies?
February 2019
- Why Memorize?
- Life’s Wicked Problems (and How to Get Past Them)
- Useful Career Tool: Look for Partial Mentors
- New YouTube Videos and Podcast Episodes
- Bored with Your Job? The Recipe for Enjoying Your Work
- Is Ambition a Good Thing? Thoughts on Striving Without Selfishness
- Impossible Standards: The 3-Step Process to Reach New Heights in Your Work and Life
- The Complete Guide to Memory
- Follow Me on WeChat! (???????
- Should You Target the Minimum?
- Should You Follow Less News?
- Should You Desire More or Less?
- Play is Learning
- Digital Minimalism
- Follow Me on Instagram
- How to Find Time
- How to Cultivate Mental Stamina
- Unraveling the Enigma of Reason
January 2019
- The Three Different Types of Luck
- Is Old Advice Better?
- How to Take Notes While Reading
- How to Push Past Your Analysis Paralysis
- How to Make Hard Life Decisions
- How to Get Feedback
- How to Be Prolific
- Haters are Good: Why You Need Your Critics
- Can You Change What You Like?
- How to Change Your Life
- How to Work on Your Goals When You Don’t Have Time
- The Simple Algorithm for Making Big Life Decisions
- Why It’s So Hard to Stick to Your Goals (and How to Make it Easy)
- (A Little) Conformity is a Good Thing
- Ultralearning Environments: Why Where You Learn Determines How Much You Learn
- Hustle or Mediocrity?
- Stress, Not Working Too Much, Causes Burnout
2018 72
December 2018
- Is Ultimate Truth a Superstimulus?
- Learning How to Learn
- Success is Boring
- Should You Learn Things You Don’t Plan on Using?
- What is Self-Improvement?
- Why You Cram for Exams (and How to Stop)
- Learning Rule: Quantity, then Quality
- The Two Types of Mistakes
- The Power of Being Weak
- No Problem Sets, No Problem! (How to Study Without Practice Problems)
- Five Steps to Become a Better Writer
- How to Think Better
- What is Productivity Guilt? (And How Can You Prevent It?)
- How Long Will it Take?
- How to Teach Yourself Math
- How to Make Stuff People Will Pay For
- Building Up Your Intellectual Immune System
- Does It Matter Whether Advice is Authentic?
- How to Figure Out Which Skills You Need to Learn to Improve Your Career
- Twenty-Five Useful Thinking Tools
- How to Learn English
November 2018
- How to Study for a Standardized Test
- How Procrastination Can Help You Succeed
- The Path to Happiness: Do What You Love, Not What You Like
- The Overkill Approach: How to Solve the Hardest Problems You Face
- Habit Stacking: How to Keep Up With Everything (When You Don’t Have Time)
- How to Enjoy Studying
- Does Choice Exist?
- Underrated Success Tactic: Actually Doing the Math
- Want to Learn a Language on Your Next Trip? Avoid These Six Mistakes.
- Some Thoughts on Meditation
- The Nine Habits to Increase Your Energy
October 2018
- Should You Be an Early Riser, or Just Get Enough Sleep?
- How to Pick Which Books to Read
- Book Recommendation: Atomic Habits
- How to Know When to Quit
- How to See Reality as It Is
September 2018
August 2018
- Richard Feynman on Self-Doubt and Meeting Others’ Expectations
- I’m 30
- On Keeping Your Word
- How Good Is Your Theory?
- Book Club: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (August 2018)
July 2018
- What’s Your Life Strategy?
- How to Memorize a Speech
- The Complete Guide to Increasing Your Focus
- How to Be Nice (Without Being a Pushover)
June 2018
- Book Club: The Wizard And The Prophet (June 2018)
- Read my articles on WeChat now!
- Seven Biographies You Should Read to Live a Better, Richer and Happier Life
- I Got Married!
May 2018
- How to Learn Social Skills
- Book Club: The Selfish Gene (May 2018)
- Lesson One: What most people get wrong about effective learning
April 2018
- Book Club: The Enigma of Reason (April 2018)
- How to Commit to Long-Term Goals
- The Art of Unlearning
- How to Commit to the Things You Start
March 2018
- Book Club: Tao Te Ching (March 2018)
- You Probably Have Too Much Motivation
- How Successful Was the MIT Challenge?
- Book Club: The Elephant In The Brain (February 2018)
February 2018
- Lesson One: How much of your career is running to stay in the same spot?
- Further Notes on “Rethinking Discipline”
- Rethinking Discipline
January 2018
2017 46
December 2017
- Book Club: Godel, Escher, Bach (December 2017)
- Discovering the Meta
- Book Club: Average Is Over (November 2017)
- Know Your Competition
November 2017
- Are Successful People Just Putting in More Effort?
- How Much Can You Possibly Learn?
- Is Reading Blogs Like This One Keeping You From Improving Your Life?
October 2017
- Is the Brain Like a Muscle? Lessons from Debunking a Seductive, But Incorrect, Idea
- Book Club: Don’t Sleep There Are Snakes (October 2017)
- Help Me Research My Next Book
- Cultivating the Skill of Figuring Things Out
- How Ben Franklin Learned to Write Persuasively
September 2017
- Book Club: Predictably Irrational (September 2017)
- Lesson One: How to finally stop feeling stressed and guilty
- Is Learning Extra Languages Worth the Hassle?
August 2017
- Book Club: Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman (August 2017)
- I’m 29
- Why You Should Be More Extreme
- Two Kinds of Difficulty
- Book Club: Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind (July 2017)
July 2017
- Lesson #1: Capital Trumps Courage
- You Should Have More Spectacular Failures
- Gri-Gri, Money and Bootstrapped Truths
June 2017
- Book Club: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (June 2017)
- Do You Need Self-Discipline to Have Fun?
- How Much Do You Really Understand?
- The Essential Education: If You Had Ten Years to Learn Anything, What Would You Do?
May 2017
- Multiply or Add?
- Book Club: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (June 2017)
- New Project: Level Up Korean with Five Hours Per Week
- Should You Listen to Music While Studying, The Pi Model and Learning How to Learn w/ Dr. Barbara Oakley
- Chaos, Ignorance and Newton’s Great Puzzle
April 2017
- The most common misconception about learning
- Want to Learn History? Read Biographies, Not History Books
- The Problem of Happiness
March 2017
February 2017
- Some Useful Distinctions When Thinking About Your Career
- Book Review: The Wisdom of Insecurity
- Simplicity Beats Nuance: Why the Wrong Answer Can Often Beat the Correct One
- Should You Set Deadlines for Your Goals?
- What’s More Productive: Counting Hours or Tasks Accomplished?
January 2017
2016 45
December 2016
November 2016
- The Hard, But Effective Way to Learn a New Language
- Back to China: Thoughts on Business, Culture and Language Learning in Beijing
- How is Ultralearning Different?
- Advice Reversals
October 2016
- What Should Your Goals Be?
- Fluency vs Mastery: Can You Be Fluent Without Being Good?
- Should You Try Learning More Than One Thing at a Time?
- How Should I Learn Cognitive Science?
September 2016
- Learning What Can’t Be Taught
- Three Strategies for Behavior Change
- Lesson #1: An Unusual Approach to Improve Your Ability to Focus
August 2016
- New Ultralearning Project: Can You Learn to Draw Realistic Portraits in One Month?
- I’m 28
- The Irony of Focus: Why Doing Only One Thing Actually Lets You Do More
- How to Start Your Own Ultralearning Project (Part Two)
July 2016
- How to Start Your Own Ultralearning Project (Part One)
- Should Learning Be Hard?
- A Simple Strategy for Getting Better at Things
June 2016
- The Problem with Advice
- How to Read More Books
- How Much Theory Should You Learn for Practical Skills?
- Genes and Free Will
May 2016
April 2016
- What We’ve Learned from Top Performer: Free Lesson Series
- Ultralearning Matters More After Graduation
- What’s the Difference Between Learning an Art and a Science?
- There Are No Hard Subjects, Only Missing Prerequisites
- Ultralearning Case Study: Learning Cognitive Science
March 2016
- Which Ideas are Overrated?
- With the World’s Knowledge a Click Away, We Spend Our Time Looking at Funny Pictures of Cats
- If You Had 15 Days to Learn Calculus, How Would You Do It?
- Career Planning and the Dao
- How I Became a Full-Time Blogger: Reflections on Ten Years of ScottHYoung.com
February 2016
- How to Get Great Value from Information Products
- How I Choose Projects
- Are Anti-Vaxxers Rational? More Thoughts on the Power of Copying
- Is Rationality Overrated? What an 18th Century Medical Mystery Can Tell Us About the Power of Blind Copying
January 2016
2015 45
December 2015
- The Bicycle Problem: How the Illusion of Explanatory Depth Tricks Your Brain
- How Much Free Will Do You Have?
- Should You Know Your IQ?
November 2015
- Failures of Intensity
- Getting Better at Figuring Things Out
- What Does it Mean to Work Hard?
- Beware of “Magic Bullet” Thinking
October 2015
- The Mathematics of Perseverance: The Formula to Help You Decide Whether to Strive or Settle
- How to Be So Good They Can’t Ignore You – Free, Live Webinar with Cal Newport
- If you want to be an author, don’t start writing (and other strangely useful career advice)
September 2015
- When is it Good To Be a Hypocrite?
- Everyone is Trying to Sell You Something
- Here’s Some Things I’ve Changed My Mind About
- Three Ways to Fix a Stubborn Habit
- How Much Stress Do You Need for Success?
August 2015
- How I’m Continuing to Learn (and Hopefully Master) Chinese
- I’m 27
- The Two Ways to Evaluate Ideas
- The Isomorphism of Ideas
July 2015
- Is There Value in Ideas You Can’t Remember?
- Why Focusing Can Often Feel Lazy
- Don’t Be Afraid to Go at Your Own Pace
- Building, Searching and the Algorithm for Finding the Best Spouse
June 2015
- Learning on Steroids is Open (For the Last Time)
- How to Stop Forgetting What You Read
- I Told My Friend Not to Start a Business. Here’s Why…
- Being Honest with Yourself is Hard
May 2015
- You Don’t Pay Enough for Information
- How to Build Habits of Moderation
- Should You Accept Your Constraints or Try to Improve Them?
- Why the Smartest People Don’t Always Give the Best Advice: The Importance of Local Wisdom
April 2015
- My New TEDx Talk: One Simple Method to Learn Any Language
- Are You Trying to Be Too Original? What I Learned About the Value of Imitation from China
- Paradoxical Virtues
- How to Build the Habit of Finishing What You Start
March 2015
- Why is it So Hard to Create Permanent Habits?
- Which Skills Should You Master?
- Be Bold, Presumptuous and Stop Caring About What Others Think
- Watch us Speak all Four Languages in Three Minutes
February 2015
- Are There Books You Should Reread Every Year?
- When the Less Efficient Method Gets the Job Done Faster
January 2015
2014 45
December 2014
- Should You Maintain an (Almost) Empty Reading Queue?
- Improve Creative Skills by Reducing Degrees of Freedom
- Different Kinds of Difficulty
- Knowing Facts Still Matters (Even in an Age of Wikipedia)
- Two Ways to Think About Career Fulfillment
November 2014
- Easily Distracted? Use Orienting Tasks While Learning.
- The Fear of Going Soft
- Bias is Inescapable
- Why I’m Skeptical About SRS for Conceptual Subjects
- Make Plans Work on 20% Effort
October 2014
- Build Your Morning Habits First
- The Stupidity of Cutting Sleep
- How Do You Make a Good Analogy?
- Pick Three Things. Now Do Them Well
- Why do Engineers Think They’ll Be Good at Picking Stocks?
- Is it Better to Review Back or Learn Ahead?
- How I’m Maintaining the Ability to Speak Six Languages
- Why Learn “Useless” Things?
September 2014
- Choose: Growth or Consistency
- Learning on Steroids is now open
- How to Increase Your Ability to Focus
- Korean Final Update
- Looking Back at a Year (Almost) Without English
August 2014
July 2014
- Does Speaking Another Language Change How You Think?
- Korean Halfway Update
- How Many Hours of Preparation Do You Need to Learn a Language Abroad?
- Why You’re Probably Not Working as Much as You Think You Are
June 2014
- Guest Posts I’ve Done About Learning Chinese
- Learning Chinese over 3½ Months | 12-Min Documentary
- How I Plan to Learn Korean Differently than Chinese
May 2014
April 2014
- How Much Harder is Learning Chinese Than Spanish?
- The Three-Step Strategy to Study Hard Without Burning Out
- Why Braintraining Games are Silly
March 2014
- Never Be Too Pleased With Your Past Work
- Learning Portuguese Over 2 Months + 1 Week
- I Was Wrong About China: A First Two Weeks in China (and Chinese)
February 2014
January 2014
2013 43
December 2013
- Things Worth Knowing, Even Poorly
- Chicken Hearts and Glass Explosions: A First Week in Brazil
- Learning Spanish in 11 Weeks | 10-Min Documentary
- My Spanish After Three Months
November 2013
- How Do You Learn a New Language, Without Forgetting the Old One?
- Should I Have Done the MIT Challenge Over 4 Years?
October 2013
- Bold Moves are Often Easier than Small Ones
- How to Learn Boring Subjects
- The 7 Most Common Learner Mistakes
- How I’m Learning Spanish
- You Don’t Need to Be Rich to Travel
September 2013
- Why You Shouldn’t Learn a Language the Way Children Do
- The Importance of Knowing What You Know
- Thoughts on the First Week Without Speaking English
- I’m 25
August 2013
- My Next Project – The Year Without English
- Learning on Steroids is now open (until August 22nd)
- Free Learn Faster 1-Week Bootcamp
July 2013
- Watch Out for “Good” Ideas
- Why Your IQ Matters Less Than You Think
- How to Execute a Successful Side Project
June 2013
- Is Free University the Future?
- Should You Learn Physics Like Newton? Contrasting Expert and Beginner Learning Strategies
- How to Use Feedback
- What’s Your Growth Ratio?
May 2013
- How Much Specialization?
- A Step-by-Step Process to Teach Yourself Anything (in a Fraction of the Time)
- Break Your Map
April 2013
March 2013
- Which Learning Methods Actually Work?
- Catch-22s and Bootstrapping Your Life
- What Matters More: Your Network or Skills?
- Why You Should Read Textbooks
February 2013
- Self-Discipline Comes First
- WordSmith – Building a Program that Plays Scrabble
- “It’s Who You Know”
- Two Types of Growth
January 2013
2012 43
December 2012
- Is Getting Rich Worth It?
- What I Would Change About the MIT Challenge
- The Interview Method: Why Our Assumptions About Success Are Often Wrong
November 2012
- Why the Risky Options Can Sometimes Be the Safest
- Should You Pursue Your Dream, Even if You’ll Probably Fail?
- Why the Fuss Over Lectures?
October 2012
- Learning on Steroids is Now Open
- Double your output (while working fewer hours)
- Free Learn Faster Bootcamp (Starts Tomorrow)
- Why Focus (not Effort) is the Key to Getting Stuff Done
- Paris Meetup and Upcoming Bootcamp
- Why You’re Lazy (and How to Fix It)
September 2012
- The MIT Challenge is Complete
- One Week Left in the MIT Challenge
- Don’t Follow Your Passion
- The Beginner’s Guide to Learning to Program
August 2012
July 2012
- How to Lead an Interesting Life and Still Get Stuff Done
- How to Learn Really Hard Courses
- Should You Learn New Skills or Master Old Ones?
- The DIY Degree: Using Self-Education to Earn a Bachelor’s Degree in 1 Year
June 2012
- TEDx – Can You Get an MIT Education for Less than $2000?
- Wanting the Right Things
- Nonconformers Need Better Social Skills
May 2012
- Why Should Life Be Simple?
- The Strangeness of Everyday Things
- The Laziness Paradox: Embrace Your Weaknesses to Accomplish More
April 2012
March 2012
- Are Habits the Enemy of Mastery?
- Why Does Most Career Advice Suck?
- Can You Learn Faster Without School?
February 2012
- Just Finish It
- What Matters More, Marketing or Mastery?
- The Sex Scandal Technique: How to Achieve Any Goal, Instantly (and Party with Tim Ferriss)
January 2012
2011 51
December 2011
- Two Types of Advice
- Thoughts on Learning a Degree, Without Going to School
- Swimming Upstream Against Your Destiny
November 2011
- How to Stay Focused (Without Extra Caffeine)
- Does Enjoyment Trump Efficiency?
- Do What Others Won’t or Can’t Do
- Why Learn Math?
- First Lessons in Trying to Finish 4 Years of MIT in 12 Months
October 2011
September 2011
- Learning 4 Years of MIT in 12 Months
- Living Closer to Reality
- The “Single Flaw” Fallacy
- Learning on Steroids is Open
- Learn Faster with the Feynman Technique
August 2011
- Cynicism is Easy, Optimism Takes Guts
- I’m 23
- Why You’re Exhausted But Not Improving
- Developing an Appetite for Hard Ideas
- Completing an MIT Physics Class in 4.5 Days?
July 2011
- The Skill of Trying Your Best
- Step One is Showing Up
- Is Obsession a Prerequisite for Success?
- Rethinking Talent
June 2011
- Why It’s Hard Not to Be a Hypocrite
- The Danger of “-isms”
- The Paradox of Success and The Only-72
- Losing Yourself
- Happily Ever After
May 2011
- Living Longer by Stretching Psychological Time
- Could You Walk Away From $8 Million in Easy Money?
- Welcome Study Hacks Readers!
- Getting Good: How I’m Trying to Be a Better Writer
- Welcome Zen Habits Readers!
- Seven Unconventional Ideas for Getting the Most Out of College
April 2011
- Why Honest People Cheat
- Is What You Learn in School Really Useless?
- We Become the Story We Tell Ourselves
- What if Luck Matters More than Effort?
March 2011
- How to Juggle Pursuits and Still Get Stuff Done
- Philosophical Tourism
- When Will the Web Transform Education?
- World Travel or Finding Passion Won’t Escape Who You Are
February 2011
January 2011
2010 70
December 2010
- Berlin Meetup and Best Posts of 2010
- Needing Encouragement is a Weakness
- When You Should Fix Your Weaknesses
- Staying in School Forever
November 2010
- Subscription Popups: Your Thoughts?
- Routine is the Enemy of Good
- Don’t Know What You Want?
- The Obvious Choice is Often the Worst: Why People Fail Choosing Jobs, Classes and Dates
October 2010
- Does Dreaming Smaller Result in Living Happier?
- If Not Now, Then When?
- Fear is Good
- Should You Plan to Retire?
September 2010
- Feeling Lost? Stop Worrying About Your “Life Purpose”
- Learn Faster, Achieve More
- Silencing the Background Noise of Life
- Should Future Entrepreneurs Go to College?
- Is it Possible to Ace University Exams Without Studying?
- Don’t Follow Your Passion, Do Less to Achieve More and The Magic of the Failed-Simulation Effect
- Here’s What’s Wrong with Self-Help
August 2010
- My Upcoming Video Course, Learning on Steroids and Vancouver Meet-Up
- I’m 22
- Discipline Can Make You Good, Not the Best
- Should You Use Scarcity Thinking When Making Big Life Decisions?
July 2010
- Why I’ve Decided to Be Wrong More Often
- You Can’t Set Goals to Fix Your Flaws
- How to Find What You’re Passionate About (And Get Paid For It)
- Is Being Rich Important for Living the Ideal Life?
June 2010
- Life Lessons from One Year in France
- Manageable Awfulness and How to Let Bad Things Happen
- Should You Strive to Live Happily or to Live Good?
- Society’s Attention Deficit – Praise for Deep Thinking in the Era of Shallowness
May 2010
- How Fast are You Running to Stay in the Same Place?
- Mental Aikido: The Necessity of Unhappiness in the Ideal Life
- Are You Living Life or Just Planning Your Biography?
- Should You Waste More of Your Time?
- Should an Atheist Be Reading the Great Books of Religion?
April 2010
- Inconvenient Conveniences – Is Easier Always Better?
- If You’re So Smart, Why is Your Life Still a Mess?
- Will Reaching the Ideal Life Make You any Happier?
- My Thoughts on Learning to Speak Another Language
- Case Studies: Help Me Write My Next Book
March 2010
- Do You Use “Lack of Motivation” as an Excuse?
- Could You Sell Who You Are in 30 Seconds?
- Pragmatic Optimism: How Your Fears and Doubts Can Allow You to Succeed
- Why Goal-Setting Can Leave You Miserable
- I’m Reopening My Rapid Learning Tactics Program
- Does Thinking About the Ideal Life Actually Lead to Living One?
- Society Doesn’t Care that You’re Good at World of Warcraft
- Reader Meet-Up in Paris?
- Should You Wander the World or Build a Home?
- You’re Lazier Than You Think
February 2010
- Is the Ideal Lifestyle Designed or Earned?
- Why Self-Educated Learners Often Come Up Short
- Welcome ZenHabits Readers!
- Why Most People are Happier Working than in Their Free Time
- My Elusive Quest to Complete a Handstand Pushup
- How to Conquer Your Fears – Engineer a Low Cost of Failure
- Perfectionism Isn’t Bad (In the Long-Term)
- Does the Ideal Life Depend on Your City?
- Stop Using Guilt as a Motivation Tactic
January 2010
- The Serious Pursuit of Fun
- Living on the Edge of Incompetence
- How to Find Your Productivity Achilles’ Heel
- My Mistakes and Triumphs in Learning a Foreign Language
- Friday Links
- Sleeping Enough is More Important Than Early-Rising
- Why You Should Ignore Passive Income
- Learning on Steroids Sells Out in 36 Minutes!
- Too Much Work? Here’s How to Handle It
- Want Better Results for 2010? Commit to Fewer Things
2009 134
December 2009
- What if You Never Graduate?
- The Frustration Barrier – The Key Obstacle to Being Good at Anything
- 9 Tactics for Rapid Learning (That Most People Have Never Heard Of)
- Do You Need Friends That Think Like You?
- Friday Links
- The Crowd is Stupid (You Don’t Need Genius to Beat Them)
- Do People Want Riches to Buy Stuff or Status?
- Friday Links
- Is Employment Always a Bad Thing?
- My Five Favorite Inspirational Films
- Friday Links
- Know Which Stairs to Climb (Or How I Trained to do a Pistol Squat)
November 2009
- People Don’t Want Experts
- Are Passions Discovered or Constructed?
- The 10 Really Obvious Ways to Be More Productive
- Coming Soon: Learning on Steroids
- What if You Have More Than One Passion?
- Why Most People Give Up and Fail
- Friday Links
- The Joy of Cooking Meals From Scratch
- How to Get More From Life – Free EBook
- New Reader Survey
- Exclusive Webcast: Chat with Ramit and Scott, Live
- How to Earn More, Save Better and Be Rich
October 2009
- Friday Links
- Why the World is Actually Getting Better
- My Progress in Becoming Bilingual
- Friday Links
- Don’t Quit Your Day Job
- Success Requires Hard Work (But Not All in One Day)
- Friday Links
- Why I Hate Self-Help Platitudes
- Fitness is an End Unto Itself
- Friday Links
- Don’t Work 9-5
- Think Outside the Cubicle – Released!
September 2009
- Can You Spot These 7 Broken Nutrition Arguments?
- Why Vegetarian?
- Friday Links
- Decide What’s Unimportant to You
- 15 Things I Wish I Knew
- Friday Links
- The Importance of Being Likable
- The Art of the Small Start
- How to Chip Away at Your List of Necessities
- The Pleasure of Living Within Constraints
- I’ve Arrived in France
- Accepting Your Inner Slacker
- Should Your Twenties Be for Work or Play?
August 2009
- New Website Design
- Staying in the Game
- Loneliness and the Unconventional Life
- Friday Links
- I’m 21
- Do You Trust Your Productivity System?
- Friday Links
- The First Step and the Thousandth
- The Reason People are Unhappy in Relationships
- If You Want to Be Fit, Don’t Buy New Running Shoes
- I’m Back From Europe
July 2009
- What MMORPGs Can Teach You About Physical Fitness
- Why I’m Not Trying to Build Passive Income
- The Top 20 Motivation Articles at ScottHYoung.com
- How to Draw (and Other Life Lessons)
- Know Your Burn Rate, and Why it Sabotages You Before You Begin
- Ruthless Focus and the Art of Saying No
- What are You Going to be Exceptional at in 10 Years?
- How to Meet Interesting People
- How to Achieve a Goal (If You Don’t Know Where to Start)
June 2009
- Showing Up and Deliberate Inconsistency
- I’ll Be In Europe for One Month
- Show Up, Every Day
- The Art of Nonconformity
- Friday Links
- How to Set Goals, Without Being Obnoxious
- Why I Stopped Setting Long-Term Goals
- How to Escape the Toxic Friends Holding You Back
- Update on My Goal to Learn French
- Friday Links 09-06-05
- How to Kick Yourself Out of a Slump
- How to Change a Habit – Expansion
May 2009
- Friday Links 09-05-29
- What the Heck is Spirituality?
- Consistency is an Overrated Virtue
- Don’t Burn Your Ships
- How to Increase Your Creative Output
- Friday Links 09-05-15
- Vidcast #1 – My Goals
- The Time to Start a Business is in Your Twenties
- How to Watch Television Effectively
- Criticism and Praise are the Same
- Friday Links 09-05-01
April 2009
- Escape the Bad Learning Habits You Picked Up at School
- Be a Rockstar, Not a Record Label: Build an Unscalable Business
- Aggressive Learning
- Website Redesign, Survey Results, and Help Name my Next Book
- Taoism and the Art of Productivity
- You Are Going to Lose Everything Eventually
- Survey is Back Online
- A Quick Survey and a Gift For You!
- Doubt
- Restricting Yourself
- Financial Freedom
March 2009
- The Effort Threshold
- Friday Links 09-03-27
- How I’m Creating an Emergency Fund with One Year of Income
- Execution is More Important Than Planning
- Don’t Swim in the Shallow Waters
- Ask the Readers: Advice for Learning a Foreign Language
- Honest Self-Evaluation
- The 10 Best Self-Help Books (That Aren’t Self-Help)
- Friday Links 09-03-06
- How to Build a Solid Foundation for Self-Improvement
- Humility is More Important Than Confidence
February 2009
- You Don’t Need to be a Geek to Start an Online Business
- Average Doesn’t Mean Secure
- Friday Links 09-02-20
- Walk Slowly So You Don’t Trip
- In Praise of Solitude
- Just Because It Won’t Cost Money, Doesn’t Make It Free
- The Magic of Small Steps
- Friday Links 09-02-06
- Fear of Loss
- The Power of Curiosity
January 2009
2008 197
December 2008
- Life Balance is Overrated
- Friday Links 08-12-26
- The Power of Less
- How to Be More Social
- How to Read Books You Disagree With
- It’s Okay to be Unhappy
- Friday Links 08-12-12
- Positive Thinking
- The Power of Overkill
- How to Get More Time to Sleep
November 2008
- Friday Links 08-11-28
- Boost Productivity With a To-Don’t List
- Self-Awareness
- How to Nap (Without Feeling Exhausted Afterwards)
- How to Know When to Take a Break
- Friday Links 08-11-14
- How to Discover What You’re Passionate About
- How Much Time Do You Spend on Your Most Important Goals in Life?
- Personal Excellence Comes First
- Get My Stuff For Cheap…
October 2008
- Is Reading Making You Stupid?
- Should You Try to Make Money?
- Friday Links 08-10-24
- Itchy Chair Motivation
- How to Develop a Thicker Skin
- The Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself
- The Purpose of This Website is to Lose Its Readers
- How to Figure Out What People Want
- Avoid the Zero-Sum Mind Trap
- Friday Links 08-10-02
- Is It Better to Read Books You Disagree With?
September 2008
- Help Support Entrepreneurship: The Curry BizCamp
- Why Most Feedback Sucks
- I Hate 99% of All Productivity Gadgets
- Friday Links 08-09-19
- Why Good Deeds and Money Don’t Mix
- Don’t Forget Sunk Costs, Stupid!
- The 10 Best Productivity Articles
- Energy Management Is More Important for Creative Work
- Read More Than You Need to Know
- Know When to Stop Reading a Book
August 2008
- Friday Links 08-08-29
- The Little Book of Productivity
- 7 Reasons Why the Gym is Better Than Therapy
- Would You Still Work If They Didn’t Pay You?
- I’m 20
- How to Become a Holistic Learner
- In Defense of Food
- Friday Links 08-08-08
- Weight, Traffic and Grades Aren’t That Important
- How to Think For Yourself
- Friday Links 08-08-01
July 2008
- The Vast, Unstatable Importance of a Positive Attitude
- Schedule Footprints Vs. Deadline Counts: How to Hack Your Stress Levels
- Where Are The Friday Links?
- Gumption
- My Rebuttal to Steve Pavlina: Getting Started Without Skill
- How to Stay Motivated in Long Projects
- Is More Commitment Always a Good Thing?
- Friday Links 08-07-11
- Building Your Persistence Levels
- How to Measure Your Degree of Persistence
- Having Fun With Suicidal Productivity Missions
- The Beginner’s Guide to the 30 Day Trial: Part 2
- Friday Links 08-07-03
- The Beginner’s Guide to the 30 Day Trial
- Set a Higher Baseline
- A Really Cheap Solution to Overspending
June 2008
- You Can’t Always Separate Wins From Losses
- Friday Links 08-06-27
- Need Little, Want Lots
- How to Stay Focused
- Stop Trying to Impress People
- The High Price of Paying Attention
- Friday Links 08-06-20
- Work, Retire… Then You Die.
- How Much Stuff Do You Need?
- Finding Motivation for Improbable Goals
- How to Improve Your Social Skills
- Friday Links 08-06-13
- The Goal of Learning Everything
- Get More From Life: A Gift For You
- Living a Completely Digital Life
- Social Independence
- Friday Links 08-06-06
- Social Skills and Dancing for Dummies
- Learn More, Study Less: Zen Habits Special Offer
- Why Making Money is More Fun than Having It
- Don’t Pay Yourself By the Hour
May 2008
- Friday Links 08-05-30
- The Importance of Going to Bed Tired
- Email Zen Released
- The Value of Independence
- My Goals for Life
- Friday Links 08-05-23
- One Month Isn’t That Long…
- Selfish Volunteering
- You’re Allowed to Be Happy and Ambitious at the Same Time
- Be Ambitious With Goals, Not Deadlines
- Friday Links 08-05-16
- Want to Eat Healthier? Learn to Cook.
- Great Ideas are Valuable, But Extremely Hard to Recognize
- Be Unique, Be an Uber-Geek
- Would You Be Bored if You Had Everything?
- Friday Links 08-05-09
- Self-Confidence is an Oxymoron
- Shortcomings Create Your Opportunities
- Why Superman is a Bad Role Model
- Use Projects to Educate Yourself for Free
- Friday Links 08-05-02
- How to Avoid Making Stupid Mistakes
April 2008
- The Key to Motivation: Forget Goals, Focus on Projects
- People Remember Your Screw-Ups, Not When You Help
- Why You Should Be a Geek
- Friday Links 08-04-25
- Keep a Journal to Solve Tough Problems
- Why Productivity?
- How to Stop Wasting Your Energy
- Can You Live With the Worst Case?
- Adam Smith’s Definition of Productivity
- Self-Improvement Tip: Ride the Wave of Moving Day
- You Don’t Need to Be an Expert
- How to be Relaxed, Even When You’re Busy
- Friday Links 08-04-11
- Are You a Maximizer or a Simplifier?
- Don’t Analyze The Anecdotes When You Need Data
- How to Finish Your Work, One Bite at a Time
- Should You Work on Your Strengths or Weaknesses?
- Friday Links – 08-03-04
- How to Keep Productivity from Making You a Robot
- 20 Tips to Survive When You’ve Overloaded Your Schedule
- Don’t Use Email for Conversations
March 2008
- How to Become a Great Communicator
- Friday Links 08-03-28
- Do You Need More Effort or Better Opportunities?
- How to Setup a Killer Pre-Exam Warm Up Ritual
- Do Things to Do Them
- What’s Your Exit Strategy?
- Friday Links 08-03-21
- Harnessing the Virtue of Patience
- Should You Try to Boost Your Resume?
- 12 Speaking Errors That Make You Sound Dumb
- How to Sell Your Ideas Like a Movie Producer
- Friday Links 08-03-14
- Using Arete to Make Practical Decisions
- Arete: The Meaning of Life
- Post Number 500
- Eat Like a Statistician
- Friday Links 08-03-05
- Learn More, Study Less – Flow-Based Notetaking
- How to Speed Up Highly Creative Tasks
- Learn More, Study Less – Diagraming
- 9 Tips for Restarting a Habit After Falling Off the Wagon
February 2008
- Learn More, Study Less Released
- Relax Without Feeling Lazy: Kill Open Loops
- If You Aren’t Getting Hate Mail, Your Writing Probably Sucks
- Stop Checking Your Web Stats Every Day!
- Productivity Tips from High-School Chemistry: Build a Motivation Catalyst
- Friday Links 08-02-22
- 7 Tips to Live a More Spontaneous Life
- 9 Tips to Clean Your Mental Palette
- Walk Your Talk… One Step at a Time
- How to Win a Debate Without Starting a Flame War
- Friday Links 08-02-15
- What’s Your Poverty Threshold?
- Are There Prerequisite Courses for Living?
- Make Your Time Top-Heavy
- 9 Things You’re Paying for that You Can Get for Free (Legally)
- Friday Links 08-02-08
- Why I Don’t Download Music
- 20 Tips for Batching to Save Time and Cut Stress
- Upgrade Your Entertainment
- 10 Tips for Staying Productive While Being Scheduled to Death
- Friday Links 08-02-01
January 2008
- 7 Tips for Morning Alertness Without the Caffeine
- Sprinting Theory: How to Have Self-Discipline on Steroids
- The Power of Complements: Get Obsessive Results, Without the Obsession
- Riding the Tipping Point: 6 Tips for Using Exponential Growth
- Friday Links 08-01-25
- Keeping To-Learn Lists
- How to Start Projects You’ll Actually Finish
- Steal an Extra Hour With a Morning Ritual
- Partying and Personal Development
- Friday Links 08-01-18
- Decrypting Reality
- 9 Great Ways to Invest in Yourself
- Feeling Overwhelmed?
- Review of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged
- Friday Links 08-01-11
- 20 Tips for Accelerating a Creative Flow
- How to Set Goals Creatively
- How to Find Creative Solutions to Non-Creative Problems
- How to Fuel a Creative Flow
- Friday Links 08-01-04
- Only Suckers Follow the Rules
- Quotes From Atlas Shrugged
- Is School Wasting Your Money?