Productivity
I want to get more done that matters
Doing fewer, better things on purpose. Habit design, deep work blocks and honest reviews of where the hours actually went.
326 entries across 62 stacks
Entries marked free
138 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
- JournalingHabitFREE, no cost
Writing to unload the mind, usually first thing or last thing
- +9
- 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
- Environment designProtocolFREE, no cost
Change the room instead of relying on willpower
- +2
- Time blockingProtocolFREE, no cost
Give every hour of the workday a job before the day starts
- +2
- Daily minimum workoutHabitFREE, no cost
A floor you never drop below: 20 minutes of movement and recovery on your worst day
- +1
- Deep work blocksProtocolFREE, no cost
Long, scheduled, distraction-free sessions on one cognitively hard task
- +1
- Phone-free first hourHabitFREE, no cost
No email, news or social media until you have done something of your own
- +1
- Weekly reviewHabitFREE, no cost
One scheduled hour a week to close loops and plan the next one
- +1
- Identity-based habitsProtocolFREE, no cost
Aim at who you want to become, not the outcome you want to hit
- Margin notesHabitFREE, no cost
Writing in the margins while reading, especially where you disagree with the author
- Thinking retreatsHabitFREE, no cost
Blocks of time cleared of the schedule to sit with one hard problem
- Workday shutdown ritualProtocolFREE, no cost
A fixed end-of-day routine that closes open loops so work stops
- After-action reviewProtocolFREE, no cost
Debrief what happened, what should have happened, and what changes
- Deliberate discomfortHabitFREE, no cost
Choosing the thing you do not want to do, daily, as its own training
- Habit stackingProtocolFREE, no cost
Anchor a new habit to one you already do without thinking
- Habit trackingHabitFREE, no cost
Mark the calendar every day you do it, then protect the chain
- Never miss twiceProtocolFREE, no cost
One missed day is an accident; two is the start of a new habit
- NotionAppFREE, no cost
Flexible workspace used as a second brain, wiki and task system
- Temptation bundlingProtocolFREE, no cost
Only allow yourself something you want while doing something you avoid
- Written goal sheetHabitFREE, no cost
Goals written down, in numbers, and kept where you see them every morning
- Apple NotesAppFREE, no cost
The note app that ships on every Mac, iPhone and iPad, synced through iCloud
- 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
- Google DocsAppFREE, no cost
Browser word processor that syncs across devices
- Hard thinking before lunchProtocolFREE, no cost
Book the mentally demanding work for the morning and stop making big calls late in the day
- Minimalist trainingProtocolFREE, no cost
Short, hard sessions built on a few sets per muscle, drop sets and non-competing supersets
- Open calendarHabitFREE, no cost
An appointment book kept almost empty so most days are free for reading and thinking
- 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
- Training first thingHabitFREE, no cost
The workout goes before the workday; a session planned for later tends not to happen
- Two-minute ruleProtocolFREE, no cost
Scale any new habit down until it takes under two minutes to start
- Vision settingProtocolFREE, no cost
Write down a specific picture of who you are becoming, then filter decisions through it
- Yearly auditProtocolFREE, no cost
Seven questions and a scroll through the year's photos before setting goals
- 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
- 80/20 analysisProtocolFREE, no cost
List what produces results and what produces misery, then cut hard
- A few high-quality decisions a dayProtocolFREE, no cost
Aim for three well-made decisions rather than a hundred rushed ones
- A high savings rateHabitFREE, no cost
Bank a large share of income by spending well below what the income allows
- ABC goal systemProtocolFREE, no cost
Set three levels for a daily goal so a bad day still counts as progress
- Accountability mirrorHabitFREE, no cost
Telling yourself the blunt truth in the mirror every day, then fixing it
- Act on the thing causing stressHabitFREE, no cost
Make the first call or send the first email on whatever is nagging at you
- 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
- Apple FramesAppFREE, no cost
Free shortcut that wraps a screenshot in the right Apple device bezel
- Asking for criticismHabitFREE, no cost
Book regular time with your manager and ask what you should be doing better
- Asking for helpHabitFREE, no cost
Four words, can you help me, used on purpose rather than as a last resort
- 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
- Breaking one bad habit at a timeHabitFREE, no cost
Dropping a single habit every six months and leaving everything else alone
- Budget and deadline disciplineProtocolFREE, no cost
Treating the number and the date as hard limits that end the project
- Challenge networkProtocolFREE, no cost
A named group whose job is to attack your work, not encourage it
- 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
- 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
- Disagree and commitProtocolFREE, no cost
State your objection once, then back the decision fully instead of relitigating it
- Documenting the journeyHabitFREE, no cost
Filming and publishing the work in progress, failures included, before it succeeds
- Energy calendarProtocolFREE, no cost
Color-code each finished day's calendar by what created energy and what drained it
- Evening resetHabitFREE, no cost
Clear today's mess and stage tomorrow before you go to bed
- Evening reviewProtocolFREE, no cost
Going back over the day at night: what you did, said and could have handled better
- Extended sabbaticalHabitFREE, no cost
A month or more entirely off work, announced well in advance
- FBI feedback methodProtocolFREE, no cost
Say the feeling, then the behavior that caused it, then the impact it had
- Fear-settingProtocolFREE, no cost
Write down the worst case, how to prevent it, and how to repair it
- GitHubAppFREE, no cost
Where code and its review history live
- Implementation intentionsProtocolFREE, no cost
Decide in advance: I will do X at TIME in PLACE
- Inbox zeroHabitFREE, no cost
Empty the inbox by deciding once where every message goes
- Infinite mindsetProtocolFREE, no cost
Play for staying in the game rather than for beating this quarter's number
- 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
- Keeping a streakHabitFREE, no cost
One thing every day, with an unbroken count of days as the rule
- KeynoteAppFREE, no cost
Apple's presentation software, free on Mac, iPad and iPhone
- Lenten fastingHabitFREE, no cost
Forty days of giving something up, plus fast and meat-free days, in the Christian calendar
- Long-term games with long-term peopleProtocolFREE, no cost
Picking work, partners and industries where you keep meeting the same people
- Maker days and manager daysProtocolFREE, no cost
Whole days given to creative work or to other people, never both
- Making the bedHabitFREE, no cost
The first completed task of the day, done before anything else
- Memento mori reminderHabitFREE, no cost
A daily, deliberate reminder that you are going to die
- 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
- Morning putteringHabitFREE, no cost
A slow, unscheduled first hour or two: coffee, the paper, breakfast, no meetings
- No meetingsHabitFREE, no cost
Declining meetings and answering in writing instead
- No meetings with strangersHabitFREE, no cost
A standing no to anyone with no existing reason to be meeting you
- No televisionHabitFREE, no cost
Cutting TV out of solo hours, keeping it as something done with other people
- NotebookLMAppFREE, no cost
Google tool that answers only from documents you upload, with citations
- Obituary testProtocolFREE, no cost
Decide what you want your obituary to say, then live so as to deserve 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
- OvercastAppFREE, no cost
iPhone podcast player with speed control and silence trimming
- 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 calls after a workoutHabitFREE, no cost
Spend the flat half hour after training on calls, not on hard work
- 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 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
- Reading books out of orderHabitFREE, no cost
Many books open at once, opened at whatever section fits your mood that day
- Reflected Best Self ExerciseProtocolFREE, no cost
Ask twenty people for a story of you at your best, then find the pattern
- Regret minimization frameworkProtocolFREE, no cost
Picture yourself at 80 looking back, then pick the option you would regret least
- RemindersAppFREE, no cost
Apple's built-in task list, with due dates, tags and shared lists
- 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
- Saved answers to common requestsHabitFREE, no cost
Write the reply properly once, then send it every time it repeats
- Saying I don't knowHabitFREE, no cost
Admit uncertainty out loud instead of producing a plausible answer
- Saying I get to instead of I have toHabitFREE, no cost
Swap one verb in your self-talk and the daily grind reads as a privilege
- Saying No GracefullyProtocolFREE, no cost
A three step script for declining without wrecking the relationship
- 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
- 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
- Staying putHabitFREE, no cost
Not switching jobs, fields or cities, so skills and trust keep compounding
- Strategic quittingProtocolFREE, no cost
Setting your quit conditions in advance, then quitting without drama
- The 1-2-3 MethodProtocolFREE, no cost
One essential task, two urgent ones, three maintenance items, then stop
- The brain check questionHabitFREE, no cost
Asking whether a choice is good or bad for your brain before you make it
- 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
- TodoistAppFREE, no cost
Cross-platform task manager with natural-language capture
- TrelloAppFREE, no cost
Board and card app for tracking tasks and projects
- Twelve favorite problemsProtocolFREE, no cost
Hold a dozen open questions in mind and test what you read against them
- Two-a-day trainingProtocolFREE, no cost
Splitting the day: an aerobic session in the morning, strength work later on
- Two-way door decisionsProtocolFREE, no cost
Sort choices by how reversible they are, then move fast on the reversible ones
- Uncomfortable conversationsHabitFREE, no cost
Say out loud that the conversation will be hard before you start it
- Walking meetingsProtocolFREE, no cost
Taking the conversation on foot instead of around a table, and ending it with the walk
- WHY discovery exerciseProtocolFREE, no cost
Ask a close friend why you are friends, then listen for what they say about themselves
- Work and downtime device modesHabitFREE, no cost
Two profiles on one device, switched on a clock, so the machine changes job
- X (Twitter)AppFREE, no cost
Short public posts, used by some people as a thinking tool
- YesterboxProtocolFREE, no cost
Answer only yesterday's email today, so the queue never grows
Then, entries with a monetary cost
188 products, practices and services filed under productivity, ordered the same way: by how many tracked people are on record, then A to Z.
- Home gymGear$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
A private training space at home, from a garage rack to a fully equipped room
- +2
- Atomic HabitsBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The practical manual for building and breaking habits
- +1
- 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$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Anthropic's AI assistant, used by writers as a sounding board
- MacBook ProGear$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Apple's laptop, used as the one machine that runs the talk and the studio
- 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
- The Daily StoicBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
366 short Stoic passages with modern commentary, one per day
- Website and app blockerApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Software that makes distracting sites genuinely unavailable on a schedule
- Batch cooking proteinHabit$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Cook a week of chicken, lean meat or fish in one session so protein is always to hand
- iPadGear$$$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$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A bound notebook for thinking on paper away from a screen
- The Almanack of Naval RavikantBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Collected thinking on wealth, specific knowledge and happiness
- Adobe Premiere ProApp$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Adobe's video editor, the default in most professional edit bays
- AntilibraryHabit$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Shelves holding more unread books than read ones, kept that way deliberately
- Can't Hurt MeBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
David Goggins's memoir: abuse, obesity, three Hell Weeks and the tools he built on the way
- ChatGPTApp$$$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
- Eating the same meals every dayHabit$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A fixed set of meals repeated for weeks so food needs no decisions
- Ego Is the EnemyBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Ryan Holiday on the ways self-importance wrecks aspiring, succeeding and failing
- Elgato Stream DeckGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
A grid of programmable keys that fire scripts, scenes and app actions
- Extreme OwnershipBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
SEAL combat leadership principles applied to teams and business
- 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$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Chat assistant with live access to what people are posting on X
- iPhoneGear$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Apple's phone, and where personal software ends up
- Lavalier microphoneGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Clip-on mic that sits close to the mouth and records a clean voice
- Neumann KMS 105 microphoneGear$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Handheld condenser built for stage vocals, used by some podcasters at a desk
- 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
- Pro Display XDRGear$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Apple's 32-inch 6K reference monitor for color-critical video and photo work
- Slow ProductivityBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Do fewer things, work at a natural pace, obsess over quality
- The 4-Hour WorkweekBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Automation, elimination and the mini-retirement, from 2007
- 25 Hours a DayBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Building a supplement company while serving as an active duty Army infantry officer
- Action cameraGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Small waterproof camera mounted to a handlebar, chest or helmet
- AirPods MaxGear$$$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
- Analog and digital desksProtocol$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Two work surfaces, with nothing electronic allowed on the first one
- Apple WatchGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Apple's wrist computer for activity, sleep and notifications
- Aqua & BondiBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The iMac G3 and the years Apple spent finishing Mac OS X
- AudibleApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Audiobook service sold as monthly credits or a subscription library
- Audio HijackApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Mac app that records audio from any app, input or call
- Bambu Lab 3D printerGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Enclosed desktop printer that runs without much tuning
- Be Useful: Seven Tools for LifeBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2023 book on vision, work, failure and giving back
- Bench scraperGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A stiff steel rectangle for dividing dough and clearing a board
- Beneath the SurfaceBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Michael Phelps's memoir of his early career, written with Brian Cazeneuve
- Building a Second BrainBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The case for one external note store, and four steps for running it
- Camera droneGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Folding quadcopter that films from the air, some tracking one person
- Capisco chairGear$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Saddle-seat office chair designed to be sat in several different positions
- Carbon steel wokGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A thin steel pan with sloped sides, sold flat-bottomed for Western stoves
- Cast iron skilletGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A heavy iron pan that holds its heat when cold food hits it
- 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$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Molded earpieces built from a cast of your own ears
- Day OneApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Journaling app for Apple platforms, Android and the web with encrypted sync
- Dedicated writing deskGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
A desk kept for writing only, separate from the admin setup
- Digital kitchen scaleGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Weighing ingredients in grams instead of scooping them by volume
- Discipline Equals FreedomBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A short, deliberately blunt field manual for self-discipline
- EffortlessBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Make the most essential activities the easiest ones to do
- ElevenLabsApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Voice tools: text read aloud, and speech turned into text
- Enameled Dutch ovenGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
A lidded cast iron pot under a glass coating, for braises and stock
- EnduranceBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Shackleton's 1914 Antarctic expedition, from the ship breaking up to the rescue
- EssentialismBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The disciplined pursuit of less, applied to a career and a calendar
- EvernoteApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Long-running notes app built around clipping and searching everything
- FantasticalApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Calendar and reminders app for Apple platforms with natural language entry
- Feel-Good ProductivityBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Energy and enjoyment as the engine of getting things done
- Field Notes notebookGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Small stapled pocket notebook, 48 pages, sold in three-packs
- Find Your WHYBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The workbook companion to Start with WHY, written with David Mead and Peter Docker
- Four Thousand WeeksBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Oliver Burkeman on time management for a finite life, roughly four thousand weeks long
- Give and TakeBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Why givers cluster at both the bottom and the top of the results
- HazelApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Mac utility that watches folders and files documents by rules you write
- Head-mounted action cameraGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
A small wide-angle camera on a head strap, filming what the wearer sees
- Hidden PotentialBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Measuring people by distance climbed rather than height reached
- High-protein frozen mealsHabit$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Ready meals chosen for protein and fiber when there is no time to cook
- Home studioGear$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
A room set up once for filming, so nothing gets rebuilt each shoot
- 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
- How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will TalkBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish's 1980 parenting manual on listening
- I PromiseBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Picture book of daily promises about school, effort and community, for young children
- iA WriterApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Plain-text markdown editor with almost nothing on screen
- Immersion blenderGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A stick blender that goes into the pot rather than the pot into a jug
- InsightBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Tasha Eurich on self-awareness and the blind spots you cannot see
- Insta360 LinkGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Gimbal-mounted 4K webcam that follows the person on camera
- Invent and WanderBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Jeff Bezos's collected shareholder letters, speeches and interviews
- Jacques Pépin's Complete TechniquesBook$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Photographed step-by-step instruction in classical French kitchen method
- Japanese chef's knifeGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
A thinner, harder blade ground for slicing rather than for heavy chopping
- KagiApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Paid search engine with no ads, where you can rank or block domains yourself
- Keep GoingBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Austin Kleon's ten rules for staying creative once the work stops being new
- Keyboard MaestroApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
macOS macro tool that fires multi-step actions from a hotkey or typed string
- Lamy Safari fountain penGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Entry-level fountain pen with a molded grip and swappable steel nibs
- Leaders Eat LastBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Why some teams pull together and others fall apart
- LinchpinBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Godin's 2010 argument for doing work nobody else could have handed in
- LogbookHabit$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A few lines a day recording what happened, not what you thought about it
- Logic ProApp$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Apple's audio workstation, used here to edit spoken word
- Mac StudioGear$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Apple's desktop box, bought for memory and cores rather than for a screen
- Magic Keyboard for iPadGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Apple's keyboard case, with a trackpad, that turns an iPad into a typing machine
- Mandoline slicerGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A fixed blade in a frame that you run food across for even slices
- Marantz microphoneGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Studio microphone run on phantom power through an outboard preamp
- MeditationsBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Marcus Aurelius writing to himself, the founding text of practical Stoicism
- MindNodeApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Mind mapping app for Mac, iPhone and iPad with an outline view and task export
- Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson on self-justification
- Moleskine Daily DiaryGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Hardcover dated planner with one page for each day of the year
- Morning newspapersHabit$$$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$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Desk display that takes a computer over USB-C and a console over HDMI
- Never FinishedBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Goggins's second book: what he did after the first one made him famous
- No Limits: The Will to SucceedBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Michael Phelps on the preparation behind his Beijing gold medals
- Notecard systemProtocol$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Reading with a pen, then moving the best passages onto 4x6 index cards by theme
- OmniFocusApp$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Task manager for Apple devices built on projects, tags and saved perspectives
- On Food and CookingBook$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Harold McGee's reference on what ingredients are and what heat does to them
- OriginalsBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
How people champion new ideas and hold out against groupthink
- Paper time-block plannerGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A physical notebook for planning the day hour by hour
- Pentel Pocket Brush PenGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Refillable brush pen with real bristles, made for drawing and lettering
- Permission MarketingBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The 1999 book arguing for messages people actually asked to receive
- 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
- Portable audio recorderGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Handheld recorder that captures sound apart from the camera
- Portable podcast kitGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
A small case of consumer recording gear that travels to the guest
- Predictive cooking thermometerGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
A multi-sensor probe that finds the center of a roast and predicts finish time
- Printed guided journalGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A prompted paper journal with the same short questions every morning and evening
- Public speaking courseProtocol$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
A structured class in speaking to a room, taken to get past the fear of doing it
- Purple CowBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Godin's 2003 case for building the marketing into the product itself
- QuietBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Susan Cain on introverts in a culture built for talkers
- ReadKitApp$$$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
- 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$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Fine-point permanent marker, the standard tool for blacking out text
- Shoe DogBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Phil Knight's memoir of building Nike from shoes sold out of a car trunk to a global brand
- Show Your Work!Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Austin Kleon's ten chapters on sharing the process rather than the product
- So Good They Can't Ignore YouBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Skills first, passion later: an argument against following your passion
- Softbox LED lightGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Diffused LED panels set either side of the screen for calls and filming
- Sony Alpha 7Gear$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
A 35mm mirrorless camera used as the studio webcam for virtual talks
- Sony ZV-E10 IIGear$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Sony's video-first mirrorless camera, often pressed into service as a webcam
- Sound Devices MixPre-3 IIGear$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Field recorder and USB interface that writes its own backup track to an SD card
- Sound Devices USBPRE2Gear$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Two-channel field and studio preamp that connects over USB
- Start with WHYBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Simon Sinek's first book, on leading with purpose before product
- Steal Like an ArtistBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Austin Kleon's ten-chapter manifesto on borrowing your way to your own work
- Stiff metal spatulaGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A rigid steel turner with a beveled edge, for pressing and scraping
- Tascam US-2x2Gear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Two-input USB interface for a first podcast setup
- TeleprompterGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Screen that scrolls a script over the camera lens
- Teleprompter beam splitterGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Angled glass over a screen so the camera sits where the other face is
- The 5 Second RuleBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Mel Robbins's first book, on the countdown that gets you moving
- The 5 Types of WealthBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Bloom's 2025 book on measuring wealth as time, social, mental, physical and financial
- The Art of PossibilityBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Twelve practices from a conductor and a therapist for changing how you see things
- The Art of Spending MoneyBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
On using money rather than accumulating it, and why no formula fits everyone
- The Bullet Journal MethodBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Ryder Carroll on the paper notebook system and what it is really for
- The Diary of a CEOBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
33 laws for business and life, drawn from hundreds of interviews
- The DipBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
When to quit and when to push through the hard middle of a project
- The Essentialism PlannerBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A 90 day paper planner built around one priority a day
- The Food LabBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Home cooking worked out by experiment, grown from the Serious Eats column
- The Great CoursesApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Recorded lecture series on history, science and economics, on disc or by subscription
- The Great Mental ModelsBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Four illustrated volumes of thinking tools taken from several disciplines at once
- The Infinite GameBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Business as a game with no finish line, built on James Carse's idea
- The Obstacle Is the WayBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Ryan Holiday's first Stoic book, on turning problems into the way forward
- The ONE ThingBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Gary Keller and Jay Papasan on the one priority that makes everything else easier
- The OutsidersBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
William Thorndike on eight CEOs who ran their companies for cash and capital allocation
- The PARA MethodBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Short guide to sorting every file and note into four folders
- The PracticeBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Short numbered sections on treating creative work as a daily practice
- The Productivity Field GuideBook$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Video course and book that builds a personal system from your roles, not your tasks
- The Psychology of MoneyBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Nineteen short chapters on how people behave with money, not on what to buy
- The Rock Says...Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Dwayne Johnson's 2000 autobiography, written with Joe Layden at the peak of his WWF run
- The Second MountainBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
David Brooks on the commitments that follow the first climb of career and status
- 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
- The WokBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Nearly 700 pages on one pan, its physics and the cooking it makes possible
- ThingsApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Apple-only task manager with fast capture and a daily commitment list
- 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 MarketingBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
The 2018 book that folds thirty years of Godin's teaching into one framework
- This Is StrategyBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Strategy as a long commitment to a change, not as a set of tactics
- TimeryApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Time tracker for Toggl, built around saved timers, widgets and Shortcuts
- Together is BetterBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
An illustrated fable about asking for help, made to be given away
- Tools of TitansBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Routines, habits and tactics from 200+ podcast guests
- Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life StoryBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2012 memoir, from Thal to Mr. Olympia to Sacramento
- Travel tripodGear$$$Mid: Roughly $50 to $500, or up to $50/month.
Folding tripod small enough for a backpack, for fixed shots
- TribesBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A 2008 book on leading a group that already wants to go somewhere
- 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
- Unreasonable HospitalityBook$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Will Guidara on how Eleven Madison Park treated the people who walked in
- USB-C power bankGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A battery big enough to charge a tablet or laptop, not only a phone
- WhiteboardGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Wall or freestanding board for working problems out vertically
- Wok spatulaGear$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
A long shovel-shaped turner contoured to the curve of a wok
- Working CopyApp$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Git client for iPhone and iPad, with an editor and a diff view
- Working with a life coachHabit$$$Expensive: Several hundred dollars and up.
Regular sessions with a coach who sets priorities and holds you to them
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.