Books for focus

• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.01

  Deep Work

  The case that uninterrupted concentration is a rare and valuable skill

  6/54Backed by 6 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 5 recommend it, 1 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.02

  Business Adventures

  John Brooks's twelve New Yorker stories about Wall Street and 1960s corporate America

  2/54Backed by 2 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 2 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.03

  Digital Minimalism

  A philosophy for using much less technology, on purpose

  2/54Backed by 2 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 1 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.04

  Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's 1990 study of total absorption and what makes it happen

  2/54Backed by 2 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 2 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.05

  The Anxious Generation

  Jonathan Haidt on what smartphones and social media did to childhood after 2010

  2/54Backed by 2 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 1 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.06

  Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life

  Penguin Press

  Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2023 book on vision, work, failure and giving back

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.07

  Building a Second Brain

  The case for one external note store, and four steps for running it

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.08

  Change Your Brain, Change Your Life

  The book that took brain imaging arguments about mental health to a general audience

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.09

  Clear Thinking

  Parrish on the ordinary moments where a decision is really made

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.10

  Effortless

  Make the most essential activities the easiest ones to do

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.11

  Essentialism

  The disciplined pursuit of less, applied to a career and a calendar

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.12

  Find Your WHY

  The workbook companion to Start with WHY, written with David Mead and Peter Docker

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.13

  Heavily Meditated

  Dave Asprey on shortcuts to deep meditative states with breath, feedback and pain

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.14

  How to Read a Book

  Adler and Van Doren's manual on the four levels of reading

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.15

  How to Take Smart Notes

  Sönke Ahrens on the slip-box method behind Niklas Luhmann's output

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.16

  Memory Rescue

  Eleven risk factors for memory loss, organized under the BRIGHT MINDS mnemonic

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.17

  Moonwalking with Einstein

  Joshua Foer's year training for the US Memory Championship, and what memory really is

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.18

  Psych

  Judd Biasiotto on the mental training behind record-setting powerlifting

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.19

  Same as Ever

  Twenty three short stories about the parts of human behavior that never change

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.20

  Source Code

  Bill Gates's 2025 memoir of childhood, Lakeside, Harvard and the start of Microsoft

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.21

  Start with WHY

  Simon Sinek's first book, on leading with purpose before product

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.22

  Stillness Is the Key

  The third of Ryan Holiday's Stoic books, on the mind, spirit and body at rest

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.23

  The 5 Second Rule

  Mel Robbins's first book, on the countdown that gets you moving

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.24

  The Beginning of Infinity

  David Deutsch on good explanations, and why the growth of knowledge has no ceiling

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.25

  The Bullet Journal Method

  Ryder Carroll on the paper notebook system and what it is really for

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.26

  The Bulletproof Diet

  Dave Asprey's high-fat, low-toxin eating plan, and the origin of the butter coffee

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.27

  The Essentialism Planner

  A 90 day paper planner built around one priority a day

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.28

  The Great Depression: A Diary

  A lawyer's day-by-day record of the 1930s, written with no idea it was economics

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.29

  The Great Mental Models

  Four illustrated volumes of thinking tools taken from several disciplines at once

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.30

  The Headspace Guide to Meditation and Mindfulness

  Andy Puddicombe's plain-language introduction to a ten-minute daily practice

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.31

  The Inner Game of Tennis

  Timothy Gallwey's 1974 classic on quieting self-criticism to perform under pressure

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.32

  The ONE Thing

  Gary Keller and Jay Papasan on the one priority that makes everything else easier

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.33

  The Practice

  Short numbered sections on treating creative work as a daily practice

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.34

  The Rational Optimist

  Matt Ridley's case that trade and specialization, not intelligence, drove human progress

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.35

  The Tao of Charlie Munger

  Munger's lines on investing, business and living, gathered into one place

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.36

  The War of Art

  Steven Pressfield's short book on resistance and turning pro

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.37

  Think Again

  Rethinking and unlearning as skills worth practicing on purpose

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.38

  Thinking, Fast and Slow

  Kahneman's map of the two systems behind your judgments

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 0 recommend it, 1 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.39

  This Is Strategy

  Strategy as a long commitment to a change, not as a set of tactics

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it
• Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.40

  This Is Water

  The Kenyon commencement speech by the author of Infinite Jest, about a 15-minute read

  1/54Backed by 1 of 54 stacks: 0 do it, 1 recommend it, 0 have discussed it

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