Focus
I want to focus for longer
Holding attention on one hard thing without reaching for your phone. The tools here range from free breathing drills to serious changes in how you structure a day.
218 entries across 62 stacks
Entries marked free
103 entries with no monetary cost listed, ordered by how many tracked people are on record, then A to Z. Some require equipment or access you already have. Counts include discussion and disagreement, not just endorsement.
- Daily readingHabitFREE, no cost
A fixed daily reading block, usually books rather than feeds
- +20
- Daily meditationHabitFREE, no cost
10-20 minutes of formal practice, most days
- +16
- Deliberate solitudeHabitFREE, no cost
Regular time with your own thoughts and no other inputs
- +7
- Early risingHabitFREE, no cost
A fixed, early wake time, often before anyone else is awake
- +6
- Daily writingHabitFREE, no cost
Write something every day, published or not
- +5
- Morning sunlight exposureProtocolFREE, no cost
Bright outdoor light soon after waking, 5-30 minutes and no sunglasses
- +5
- Environment designProtocolFREE, no cost
Change the room instead of relying on willpower
- +2
- NappingHabitFREE, no cost
Short early-afternoon naps: useful, but easy to get wrong
- +2
- Time blockingProtocolFREE, no cost
Give every hour of the workday a job before the day starts
- +2
- Deep work blocksProtocolFREE, no cost
Long, scheduled, distraction-free sessions on one cognitively hard task
- +1
- Phone out of the bedroomHabitFREE, no cost
Charge it in another room and buy an actual alarm clock
- +1
- Phone-free first hourHabitFREE, no cost
No email, news or social media until you have done something of your own
- +1
- Pre-workout musicHabitFREE, no cost
Headphones on, a set playlist, and a fixed cue to switch into training mode
- Daily prayerHabitFREE, no cost
A fixed time for prayer each morning, before the phone and before the day starts
- Margin notesHabitFREE, no cost
Writing in the margins while reading, especially where you disagree with the author
- Personal mantraHabitFREE, no cost
A quote kept where you will see it before you perform, taped up or written on your gear
- Thinking retreatsHabitFREE, no cost
Blocks of time cleared of the schedule to sit with one hard problem
- Circle of competenceProtocolFREE, no cost
Work only inside the area you can genuinely evaluate, and know exactly where its edge is
- Quitting social mediaHabitFREE, no cost
Deleting the accounts rather than trying to use them less
- Written goal sheetHabitFREE, no cost
Goals written down, in numbers, and kept where you see them every morning
- Deliberate wanderingProtocolFREE, no cost
Unplanned, inefficient exploration kept on purpose as the counterweight to efficiency
- Digital declutterProtocolFREE, no cost
A 30-day break from optional tech, then reintroduce deliberately
- Hard thinking before lunchProtocolFREE, no cost
Book the mentally demanding work for the morning and stop making big calls late in the day
- Non-sleep deep rest (NSDR)ProtocolFREE, no cost
10-20 minute guided body-scan rest, sometimes called yoga nidra
- Open calendarHabitFREE, no cost
An appointment book kept almost empty so most days are free for reading and thinking
- Physiological sighProtocolFREE, no cost
Two inhales through the nose, one long exhale; heart rate drops within seconds
- Pomodoro techniqueProtocolFREE, no cost
Work in timed sprints, usually 25 minutes on and 5 minutes off
- Shipping creative workProtocolFREE, no cost
Publishing on a schedule rather than waiting for the work to feel ready
- ShortcutsAppFREE, no cost
Apple's built-in automation app for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch
- Vision settingProtocolFREE, no cost
Write down a specific picture of who you are becoming, then filter decisions through it
- 20-slot punch card ruleProtocolFREE, no cost
Imagine a lifetime card with only 20 punches: every big decision has to earn one
- 3x5 notecard planningProtocolFREE, no cost
Write the next day's three to five most important tasks on a single index card
- 5 Second Rule countdownProtocolFREE, no cost
Count 5-4-3-2-1 out loud and move before hesitation talks you out of it
- A few high-quality decisions a dayProtocolFREE, no cost
Aim for three well-made decisions rather than a hundred rushed ones
- AnkiAppFREE, no cost
Free, open-source flashcards that schedule reviews just before you would forget
- Anti-to-do listProtocolFREE, no cost
A short written list of behaviors to avoid, kept beside the ordinary to-do list
- Asking for criticismHabitFREE, no cost
Book regular time with your manager and ask what you should be doing better
- Aspirational hourly rateProtocolFREE, no cost
Setting a personal hourly price far above what you earn, then honoring it
- Attention managementProtocolFREE, no cost
Pick what deserves your focus instead of counting the minutes
- Automatic rulesProtocolFREE, no cost
Decide the behavior once, as a rule, so it is not decided in the moment
- Backward planningProtocolFREE, no cost
Start from the fixed deadline, list what has to happen before it, then work back
- Batch processing emailHabitFREE, no cost
Sit down once and clear thirty or a hundred messages in a run
- Blackout poetryHabitFREE, no cost
Making a poem by blacking out most of a printed page with a marker
- Blank sheet methodProtocolFREE, no cost
Write what you already know before reading, then add each session in a new color
- Box breathingProtocolFREE, no cost
Inhale, hold, exhale, hold, each for a count of four, repeated for a few minutes
- Challenge networkProtocolFREE, no cost
A named group whose job is to attack your work, not encourage it
- ChessHabitFREE, no cost
Short games used as a mental reset between blocks of demanding work
- CODE methodProtocolFREE, no cost
Capture, organize, distill, express: four steps from reading to output
- Commonplace bookHabitFREE, no cost
A notebook kept only for quotes and passages copied out of what you read
- Cookie jarProtocolFREE, no cost
A mental store of past wins to draw on when you want to quit
- Daily designHabitFREE, no cost
Writing the day ahead in the past tense, then scoring it out of ten at night
- Day one, week one mentalityProtocolFREE, no cost
Show up every day as prepared as you were on the first day of the job
- Decision journalProtocolFREE, no cost
Record the reasoning before the outcome is known, then read it back later
- Insight TimerAppFREE, no cost
Meditation app built around a configurable timer and interval bells
- InstapaperAppFREE, no cost
Save articles now and read them later on a plain, offline page
- Intermediate packetsProtocolFREE, no cost
Finish one small reusable piece per work session, not the whole project
- InversionProtocolFREE, no cost
Ask what would guarantee failure, then avoid those things
- Jotting ideas the night beforeHabitFREE, no cost
Rough notes at bedtime, organized writing the next morning
- Killing the ANTsProtocolFREE, no cost
Writing down automatic negative thoughts and putting each one on trial
- Learning something new dailyHabitFREE, no cost
A short block each day on a skill you have never had before
- Maker days and manager daysProtocolFREE, no cost
Whole days given to creative work or to other people, never both
- Mastery hobbiesHabitFREE, no cost
Recovering through a demanding hobby rather than through rest
- MicroburstProtocolFREE, no cost
Set a timer for ten minutes, then stop when it goes off
- Monk ModeProtocolFREE, no cost
Shutting out the world for months to finish one large piece of work
- Naming your inner criticHabitFREE, no cost
Give the voice in your head a name so you can hear it as separate from you
- No meetingsHabitFREE, no cost
Declining meetings and answering in writing instead
- No televisionHabitFREE, no cost
Cutting TV out of solo hours, keeping it as something done with other people
- No-phone zonesHabitFREE, no cost
Named rooms, hours and events where the phone is not allowed at all
- NotebookLMAppFREE, no cost
Google tool that answers only from documents you upload, with citations
- Notifications turned offHabitFREE, no cost
No alerts, no badges and no social apps, so the phone only interrupts when you let it
- ObsidianAppFREE, no cost
Markdown note app that stores linked plain-text files in a folder you own
- One Page MiracleProtocolFREE, no cost
One sheet naming what you want in relationships, work, money and health
- PARA methodProtocolFREE, no cost
Sort every note and file into projects, areas, resources or archives
- Personal Quarterly OffsiteProtocolFREE, no cost
Companies do this every quarter; the same session run for one person
- Phone away in conversationHabitFREE, no cost
Put the phone out of sight when someone starts talking to you
- Positive framingProtocolFREE, no cost
State the outcome you want instead of the one you are trying to avoid
- Pre-MortemProtocolFREE, no cost
Name what will derail this before you start, not in the postmortem
- Progressive muscle relaxationProtocolFREE, no cost
Tensing and releasing muscle groups in order to find and drop held tension
- Progressive summarizationProtocolFREE, no cost
Compress a note in layers, adding one only when you open it again
- Public libraryHabitFREE, no cost
Borrowing instead of buying, and browsing shelves instead of recommendations
- Quitting the newsHabitFREE, no cost
Dropping the daily news cycle rather than trying to follow it more carefully
- Reading books out of orderHabitFREE, no cost
Many books open at once, opened at whatever section fits your mood that day
- Reading historyHabitFREE, no cost
Put the reading hours into what already happened rather than into forecasts
- Rereading a small set of booksHabitFREE, no cost
Going back through the best hundred books repeatedly rather than chasing new ones
- Rereading your notebooksProtocolFREE, no cost
Opening old notebooks to today's date in previous years, as a writing prompt
- Rewriting notes by handHabitFREE, no cost
Copying the same material out longhand, daily, until it sticks
- Second-order thinkingProtocolFREE, no cost
Keep asking and then what until the picture of the consequences stops changing
- Send to KindleAppFREE, no cost
Browser button that pushes any web article to your Kindle library
- Silent meditation retreatProtocolFREE, no cost
Ten residential days of silence and long sitting, no reading or phone
- Six-page narrative memoProtocolFREE, no cost
A written memo read silently at the start of the meeting, in place of slides
- Specific knowledgeProtocolFREE, no cost
Building the kind of skill nobody knows how to teach, by following real curiosity
- The 1-2-3 MethodProtocolFREE, no cost
One essential task, two urgent ones, three maintenance items, then stop
- The 40% ruleProtocolFREE, no cost
The idea that when your mind says you are done, you are at about 40 percent
- The 85 percent ruleProtocolFREE, no cost
Working at about 85 percent effort so relaxation and form do the rest
- The Golden CircleProtocolFREE, no cost
Explain why, then how, then what, in that order
- The smallest viable audienceProtocolFREE, no cost
Naming the fewest people you need to serve well, then building only for them
- Training as practiceHabitFREE, no cost
Treating a session as skill rehearsal rather than a workout to be survived
- Twelve favorite problemsProtocolFREE, no cost
Hold a dozen open questions in mind and test what you read against them
- VisualizationProtocolFREE, no cost
Rehearsing a performance in your head before you do it for real
- Water before coffeeHabitFREE, no cost
A full glass of water on waking, before the first cup of coffee
- WHY discovery exerciseProtocolFREE, no cost
Ask a close friend why you are friends, then listen for what they say about themselves
- WordleAppFREE, no cost
The daily five-letter word puzzle, one game a day, scores shared with friends
- Work and downtime device modesHabitFREE, no cost
Two profiles on one device, switched on a clock, so the machine changes job
Then, entries with a monetary cost
115 products, practices and services filed under focus, ordered the same way: by how many tracked people are on record, then A to Z.
- Deliberate cold exposureProtocol$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Cold showers or ice baths used deliberately, usually a few minutes at a time
- +20
- CaffeineSupplement$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The most-used performance drug in the world, timing-sensitive
- +9
- Creatine monohydrateSupplement$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Three to five grams a day, taken for strength and power output
- +7
- Omega-3 (EPA/DHA)Supplement$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Fish or algae oil, often 1-2g EPA daily
- +4
- Deep WorkBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The case that uninterrupted concentration is a rare and valuable skill
- +1
- Kindle e-readerGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
E-ink reader that makes a daily reading habit easy to keep
- +1
- ClaudeApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Anthropic's AI assistant, used by writers as a sounding board
- ReadwiseApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Syncs your highlights and resurfaces them a few at a time
- Standing deskGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
A desk that raises, so part of the working day happens on your feet
- Website and app blockerApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Software that makes distracting sites genuinely unavailable on a schedule
- HeadspaceApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Guided meditation app built around ten-minute sessions, voiced by Andy Puddicombe
- iPadGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Apple's tablet, used here as the device the reading app runs on
- Paper notebookGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A bound notebook for thinking on paper away from a screen
- AntilibraryHabit$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Shelves holding more unread books than read ones, kept that way deliberately
- BridgeHabit$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Contract bridge, played at a table or online, several sessions a week
- Business AdventuresBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
John Brooks's twelve New Yorker stories about Wall Street and 1960s corporate America
- ChatGPTApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
OpenAI's chat assistant, used for drafting, condensing and rewriting
- CodexApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
OpenAI's coding agent, run from a terminal rather than an editor
- DEVONthinkApp$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Document and information manager for Mac and iOS with local, indexed databases
- Digital MinimalismBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A philosophy for using much less technology, on purpose
- Flow: The Psychology of Optimal ExperienceBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's 1990 study of total absorption and what makes it happen
- GeminiApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Google's chat assistant, built to hold very long documents at once
- GrokApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Chat assistant with live access to what people are posting on X
- L-theanineSupplement$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Amino acid from tea used for calm focus, or with caffeine
- PerplexityApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A search tool that answers in prose and cites the pages it read
- Phone lockboxGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A lockable box with a timer that puts the phone out of reach for a set period
- The Anxious GenerationBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Jonathan Haidt on what smartphones and social media did to childhood after 2010
- Transcendental MeditationProtocol$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Silent mantra repetition, about 20 minutes twice a day, taught in a paid course
- Waking UpApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Sam Harris's meditation course, heavy on the theory as well as practice
- AirPods MaxGear$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Apple's over-ear headphones with active noise cancellation and spatial audio
- AirPods ProGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Apple's noise-cancelling earbuds, worn for calls, editing and quiet
- AlfredApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Mac launcher with system-wide search, clipboard history and text snippets
- Alpha-GPCSupplement$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Choline source taken before workouts or hard cognitive work
- Analog and digital desksProtocol$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Two work surfaces, with nothing electronic allowed on the first one
- AudibleApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Audiobook service sold as monthly credits or a subscription library
- Be Useful: Seven Tools for LifeBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2023 book on vision, work, failure and giving back
- Building a Second BrainBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The case for one external note store, and four steps for running it
- Bulletproof CoffeeProtocol$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Coffee blended with grass-fed butter and C8 MCT oil, drunk in place of breakfast
- Change Your Brain, Change Your LifeBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The book that took brain imaging arguments about mental health to a general audience
- Clear ThinkingBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Parrish on the ordinary moments where a decision is really made
- CursorApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
AI code editor built on VS Code that edits inside the file
- Custom in-ear monitorsGear$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Molded earpieces built from a cast of your own ears
- Dance trainingProtocol$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Choreography and movement classes as conditioning and coordination work
- Dedicated writing deskGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
A desk kept for writing only, separate from the admin setup
- EffortlessBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Make the most essential activities the easiest ones to do
- EssentialismBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The disciplined pursuit of less, applied to a career and a calendar
- FantasticalApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Calendar and reminders app for Apple platforms with natural language entry
- Field Notes notebookGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Small stapled pocket notebook, 48 pages, sold in three-packs
- Find Your WHYBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The workbook companion to Start with WHY, written with David Mead and Peter Docker
- Glowforge laser cutterGear$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Desktop laser cutter that cuts and engraves wood, acrylic and card
- Heavily MeditatedBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Dave Asprey on shortcuts to deep meditative states with breath, feedback and pain
- How to Read a BookBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Adler and Van Doren's manual on the four levels of reading
- How to Take Smart NotesBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Sönke Ahrens on the slip-box method behind Niklas Luhmann's output
- HRV biofeedback trainingProtocol$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Paced breathing against a live heart rate variability readout, a few minutes a day
- iA WriterApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Plain-text markdown editor with almost nothing on screen
- Jigsaw puzzlesHabit$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Thousand-piece puzzles as a screen-free way to switch the mind off
- KagiApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Paid search engine with no ads, where you can rank or block domains yourself
- Lamy Safari fountain penGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Entry-level fountain pen with a molded grip and swappable steel nibs
- LogbookHabit$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A few lines a day recording what happened, not what you thought about it
- Magic Keyboard for iPadGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Apple's keyboard case, with a trackpad, that turns an iPad into a typing machine
- MCT oil (C8)Supplement$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Caprylic acid from coconut oil, taken for a quick rise in ketones
- Memory RescueBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Eleven risk factors for memory loss, organized under the BRIGHT MINDS mnemonic
- MindNodeApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Mind mapping app for Mac, iPhone and iPad with an outline view and task export
- Moleskine Daily DiaryGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Hardcover dated planner with one page for each day of the year
- Moonwalking with EinsteinBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Joshua Foer's year training for the US Memory Championship, and what memory really is
- Morning newspapersHabit$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A stack of print papers read start to finish before the working day begins
- Multi-input desk monitorGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Desk display that takes a computer over USB-C and a console over HDMI
- Notecard systemProtocol$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Reading with a pen, then moving the best passages onto 4x6 index cards by theme
- OmniFocusApp$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Task manager for Apple devices built on projects, tags and saved perspectives
- Paper time-block plannerGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A physical notebook for planning the day hour by hour
- Pentel Pocket Brush PenGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Refillable brush pen with real bristles, made for drawing and lettering
- Pilot G2 penGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Refillable gel pen sold in tip widths from 0.38mm up to 1.0mm bold
- Pocket CastsApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Podcast player with speed control, silence trimming and a queue that syncs
- Poor Charlie's AlmanackBook$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Charlie Munger's speeches and essays on mental models, misjudgment and how to think
- PsychBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Judd Biasiotto on the mental training behind record-setting powerlifting
- ReadKitApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
RSS and read-later client for Mac, iPhone and iPad
- Readwise ReaderApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Read-later app holding articles, PDFs, newsletters and RSS in one queue
- reMarkableGear$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
E ink tablet you write on with a stylus
- ReveriApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Self-hypnosis sessions for sleep, stress and pain
- SaffronSupplement$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The spice taken as a standardized extract rather than a pinch in the pan
- Same as EverBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Twenty three short stories about the parts of human behavior that never change
- ScrivenerApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Long-form writing software that keeps research and draft side by side
- Self-inking date stampGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Rubber stamp with adjustable bands that prints the day's date on a page
- Sharpie permanent markerGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Fine-point permanent marker, the standard tool for blacking out text
- Show Your Work!Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Austin Kleon's ten chapters on sharing the process rather than the product
- Source CodeBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Bill Gates's 2025 memoir of childhood, Lakeside, Harvard and the start of Microsoft
- Spotting scopeGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
High-magnification scope on a tripod for watching birds and wildlife
- Start with WHYBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Simon Sinek's first book, on leading with purpose before product
- Steal Like an ArtistBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Austin Kleon's ten-chapter manifesto on borrowing your way to your own work
- Stillness Is the KeyBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The third of Ryan Holiday's Stoic books, on the mind, spirit and body at rest
- Table tennisProtocol$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Ping pong played as a brain workout, part aerobic and part fast decision-making
- The 5 Second RuleBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Mel Robbins's first book, on the countdown that gets you moving
- The Beginning of InfinityBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
David Deutsch on good explanations, and why the growth of knowledge has no ceiling
- The Bullet Journal MethodBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Ryder Carroll on the paper notebook system and what it is really for
- The Bulletproof DietBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Dave Asprey's high-fat, low-toxin eating plan, and the origin of the butter coffee
- The Essentialism PlannerBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A 90 day paper planner built around one priority a day
- The Great CoursesApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Recorded lecture series on history, science and economics, on disc or by subscription
- The Great Depression: A DiaryBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A lawyer's day-by-day record of the 1930s, written with no idea it was economics
- The Great Mental ModelsBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Four illustrated volumes of thinking tools taken from several disciplines at once
- The Headspace Guide to Meditation and MindfulnessBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Andy Puddicombe's plain-language introduction to a ten-minute daily practice
- The Inner Game of TennisBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Timothy Gallwey's 1974 classic on quieting self-criticism to perform under pressure
- The ONE ThingBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Gary Keller and Jay Papasan on the one priority that makes everything else easier
- The PracticeBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Short numbered sections on treating creative work as a daily practice
- The Productivity Field GuideBook$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Video course and book that builds a personal system from your roles, not your tasks
- The Rational OptimistBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Matt Ridley's case that trade and specialization, not intelligence, drove human progress
- The Tao of Charlie MungerBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Munger's lines on investing, business and living, gathered into one place
- The War of ArtBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Steven Pressfield's short book on resistance and turning pro
- Think AgainBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Rethinking and unlearning as skills worth practicing on purpose
- Thinking, Fast and SlowBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Kahneman's map of the two systems behind your judgments
- This Is StrategyBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Strategy as a long commitment to a change, not as a set of tactics
- This Is WaterBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The Kenyon commencement speech by the author of Infinite Jest, about a 15-minute read
- TimeryApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Time tracker for Toggl, built around saved timers, widgets and Shortcuts
- TypewriterGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
A manual or electric typewriter for drafting, with nothing else on the machine
- Uni-ball roller penGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Fine-tip roller pen for handwritten notes and math
- WhiteboardGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Wall or freestanding board for working problems out vertically
Nothing on this site is medical advice. It is a record of what public figures have discussed, used or recommended, which is not the same as evidence that it works, and definitely not the same as advice for you. Talk to a clinician before changing anything about your sleep, diet, training or medication. How this works.