Articles

The Complete Archives

Still not enough? Here’s all 1300+ articles I’ve written since 2006.

• The Key Lessons from 10 Important Books on Productivity
• Is Speaking Multiple Languages Overrated?
• Productivity – Opening Update

• 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

• 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

• A Solid Foundation is More Than Just Good Habits
• I’m 36
• 5 Ways to Increase Your Learning Throughput
• The Three Gaps

• 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

• You’re Trying to Do Too Much
• The Most Overlooked Way to Be More Productive
• The Science of Learning Movement Skills

• 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

• My 7 Rules for Happiness
• When Procrastination is Productive
• The Science of Mental Models
• How to Learn Vocabulary in Another Language

• 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

• 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

• The Science of Learning Physics
• The 10,000-Hour Rule is a Myth
• Why Build a Life of Focus?
• Decide Your Next Decade
• The Psychology Behind Why You Can’t Put Down Your Phone
• How to Get Into a Focused State Quickly
• 5 Ways to Make Studying Fun (Without Sacrificing Effectiveness)

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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?

• The Efficiency Mindset
• I’m 35
• 7 Expert Opinions I Agree With (That Most People Don’t)
• Why I’m Not More Popular

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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?

• 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

• 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?

• Curated Consumption: A Saner Approach to Online Media
• Why Do People (Usually) Learn Less as They Get Older?
• How My Views on Learning Have Changed Over Time
• The Ten Books that Influenced Me the Most in 2022
• The Intermediate Plateau: What Causes It? How Can We Move Beyond It?

• My Best Essays of 2022
• The Ten-Book Rule for Smarter Thinking
• Good Advice is “Obvious”

• 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

• 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

• Building Confidence in Communication: Interview with Tristan de Montebello
• Ten Mental Models for Learning
• Brain Training Doesn’t Work
• Failure is a Lousy Teacher

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Do You Learn More by Struggling on Hard Problems?
• Book Review — Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs
• More Recent Reading

• See-Do-Feedback: The Right Way To Practice
• Reader Mailbag: Sustaining Motivation, Judging Experts and the Meanings of Life

• 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

• 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

• Why Don’t We Use the Math We Learn in School?
• New Research Shows I Was Right About Watching Lectures Faster
• The Science of Achievement: 7 Research-Backed Tips to Set Better Goals
• Cognitive Load Theory and its Applications for Learning

• 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?

• 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?

• 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

• 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?

• 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?

• 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

• What is Understanding?
• Beware Tractability Bias
• 14 Books On Learning by Doing, Apprenticeship and Transfer
• Digging the Well

• 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

• 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

• 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?

• 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

• It’s Time to Reclaim Your Mind
• Ten Ideas That Have Shaped My Life
• What’s the Best Way to Learn Biology?
• How to Take Notes
• The Key to Making Risky Decisions

• 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

• 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

• 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)

• 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?

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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)

• 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

• 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!

• How Does Age Change How You Learn?
• How Fast Should You Be When Learning?
• I’m a Papa!
• How Important is Work?

• Information Overload is a Fake Problem
• Seven Habits that Seem Lazy (but Actually Let You Get More Done)
• Too Tired to Do Everything? How to Live Better Without Burning Out
• Success is Stamina: To Win Means to Keep Playing

• 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?

• 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)

• 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)

• 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

• How Should I Get Better at Writing?
• I’m 31
• Discussing Ultralearning: Some of my Favorite Podcasts, Reviews and Essays
• Ultralearning is Now Available

• 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

• 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

• 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!

• 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

• 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?

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• The most important skill you can learn
• How Important is Growth?
• Games Worth Playing

• 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)

• 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)

• 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!

• How to Learn Social Skills
• Book Club: The Selfish Gene (May 2018)
• Lesson One: What most people get wrong about effective learning

• 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

• 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)

• Lesson One: How much of your career is running to stay in the same spot?
• Further Notes on “Rethinking Discipline”
• Rethinking Discipline

• Set Goals in the Middle
• Book Club: Seeing Like A State (January 2018)
• How Much Faster Can You Learn?
• What’s Next?
• Choose Your Signal Wisely

• Book Club: Godel, Escher, Bach (December 2017)
• Discovering the Meta
• Book Club: Average Is Over (November 2017)
• Know Your Competition

• 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?

• 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

• Book Club: Predictably Irrational (September 2017)
• Lesson One: How to finally stop feeling stressed and guilty
• Is Learning Extra Languages Worth the Hassle?

• 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)

• Lesson #1: Capital Trumps Courage
• You Should Have More Spectacular Failures
• Gri-Gri, Money and Bootstrapped Truths

• 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?

• 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

• The most common misconception about learning
• Want to Learn History? Read Biographies, Not History Books
• The Problem of Happiness

• Flow Doesn’t Lead to Mastery
• How the Brain Changes with Expertise
• How Einstein Learned Physics

• 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?

• Why Most People Get Stuck in Their Careers
• What I’ve Been Reading
• First, See the Circle

• Don’t Be Busy
• What if This Were Your Only Chance?
• What’s Wrong With Just Reading Book Summaries?

• 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

• 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?

• Learning What Can’t Be Taught
• Three Strategies for Behavior Change
• Lesson #1: An Unusual Approach to Improve Your Ability to Focus

• 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)

• How to Start Your Own Ultralearning Project (Part One)
• Should Learning Be Hard?
• A Simple Strategy for Getting Better at Things

• The Problem with Advice
• How to Read More Books
• How Much Theory Should You Learn for Practical Skills?
• Genes and Free Will

• Should You Learn Fast or Slow?
• What I’ve Been Reading

• 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

• 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

• 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

• At What Age is it No Longer Okay to Be Bad at Something?
• Deep Work
• Should You Use Deliberate Practice… Or Just Practice?
• What I’ve Been Reading

• The Bicycle Problem: How the Illusion of Explanatory Depth Tricks Your Brain
• How Much Free Will Do You Have?
• Should You Know Your IQ?

• Failures of Intensity
• Getting Better at Figuring Things Out
• What Does it Mean to Work Hard?
• Beware of “Magic Bullet” Thinking

• 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)

• 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?

• How I’m Continuing to Learn (and Hopefully Master) Chinese
• I’m 27
• The Two Ways to Evaluate Ideas
• The Isomorphism of Ideas

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Are There Books You Should Reread Every Year?
• When the Less Efficient Method Gets the Job Done Faster

• Should You Do Intense, Short-Term Projects, or Build Long-Term Habits?
• I Was Wrong About Speed Reading: Here are the Facts
• Watch Me Rap in Korean
• Why You Need Mentors (and Why You Don’t Have Them Yet)

• 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

• 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

• 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?

• 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

• I’m 26
• Seven Principles of Learning Better From Cognitive Science

• 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

• 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

• The Danger of Easy Skepticism
• #1000
• How Well Did the No-English Rule Work for Learning Chinese?

• How Much Harder is Learning Chinese Than Spanish?
• The Three-Step Strategy to Study Hard Without Burning Out
• Why Braintraining Games are Silly

• 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)

• My Plan for Learning Chinese Over Three Months

• Don’t Think For Yourself
• Are Blogs Better Than Books for Mastering Complex Ideas?
• Things Worth Knowing Well, Things Worth Knowing Poorly

• 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

• How Do You Learn a New Language, Without Forgetting the Old One?
• Should I Have Done the MIT Challenge Over 4 Years?

• 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

• 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

• My Next Project – The Year Without English
• Learning on Steroids is now open (until August 22nd)
• Free Learn Faster 1-Week Bootcamp

• Watch Out for “Good” Ideas
• Why Your IQ Matters Less Than You Think
• How to Execute a Successful Side Project

• 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?

• How Much Specialization?
• A Step-by-Step Process to Teach Yourself Anything (in a Fraction of the Time)
• Break Your Map

• Blank Slate Moments
• The Paradox of Growth: Do Habits Hurt or Help You Learn?
• How to Focus

• Which Learning Methods Actually Work?
• Catch-22s and Bootstrapping Your Life
• What Matters More: Your Network or Skills?
• Why You Should Read Textbooks

• Self-Discipline Comes First
• WordSmith – Building a Program that Plays Scrabble
• “It’s Who You Know”
• Two Types of Growth

• Flow Doesn’t Maximize Improvement
• Rethinking “Learn it Once”
• Could Obsessive Research Be the Cure for Procrastination?
• What are the Intellectual Ideas Everybody Should Know?

• Is Getting Rich Worth It?
• What I Would Change About the MIT Challenge
• The Interview Method: Why Our Assumptions About Success Are Often Wrong

• 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?

• 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)

• 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

• Work Less to Get More Done
• I’m 24
• Fake Wisdom
• Why Forgetting Can Be Good

• 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

• TEDx – Can You Get an MIT Education for Less than $2000?
• Wanting the Right Things
• Nonconformers Need Better Social Skills

• Why Should Life Be Simple?
• The Strangeness of Everyday Things
• The Laziness Paradox: Embrace Your Weaknesses to Accomplish More

• Is Owning Your Own Business Worth It?
• Learning to Doubt
• Healthy Delusions?
• A La Carte Education

• Are Habits the Enemy of Mastery?
• Why Does Most Career Advice Suck?
• Can You Learn Faster Without School?

• Just Finish It
• What Matters More, Marketing or Mastery?
• The Sex Scandal Technique: How to Achieve Any Goal, Instantly (and Party with Tim Ferriss)

• If You’re Young, Do Harder, Riskier Things
• Do Hard Things
• Look Lazy, Be Productive

• Two Types of Advice
• Thoughts on Learning a Degree, Without Going to School
• Swimming Upstream Against Your Destiny

• 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

• Good Life Philosophies Aren’t Simple
• How Much Do Genes Matter?
• Learning MIT Calculus in 5 Days

• 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

• 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?

• The Skill of Trying Your Best
• Step One is Showing Up
• Is Obsession a Prerequisite for Success?
• Rethinking Talent

• 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

• 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

• 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?

• 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

• Learn Faster, Get More Done: The Free 1-Week Bootcamp
• Building Cool Things
• The Empathy Problem

• Asking the Right Questions
• Unconventional Meet-up in Winnipeg and Do You Need School?
• A Brief Guide to Learning Faster (and Better)
• Day Jobs vs Side Projects

• Berlin Meetup and Best Posts of 2010
• Needing Encouragement is a Weakness
• When You Should Fix Your Weaknesses
• Staying in School Forever

• 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

• Does Dreaming Smaller Result in Living Happier?
• If Not Now, Then When?
• Fear is Good
• Should You Plan to Retire?

• 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

• 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?

• 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?

• 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

• 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?

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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)

• 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

• 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!

• 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?

• 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

• 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)

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• The Evils of Partial Boredom
• Boredom is the Enemy
• Friday Links 09-01-23
• Say Hi
• How I’m Learning to Stop Worrying
• You Only Know What You Measure
• Consciousness Explained
• $10,000 Ideas
• Goal Addiction
• Steady, Incremental Improvement is a Myth

• 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

• 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…

• 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?

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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?

• Should You Read More Fiction?
• Posts in 08, New Holistic Learning Book and Other News
• Friday Links 07-12-28
• Help Me Find Self-Education Resources
• What Aren’t You Going to Do Next Year?
• Friday Links 07-12-21
• Slow Down – The Hidden Key to Getting More Done
• How to Build Momentum Into Your Day
• Responses to When You’re Happiest
• How to Eat Healthier
• Friday Links 07-12-14
• 7 Reasons Not to Set a New Years Resolution in 2008
• When Are You Happiest?
• 9 Ideas to Overcome Discouragement
• Friday Links 07-12-06
• The Virtue of Failing Fast
• How to Keep a Laser Focus Without Burning Out
• 11 Tips to Get the Most From Your Days Off

• Friday Links 07-11-30
• How to Keep E-Mail From Wasting Your Time
• How to Build an Ironclad Personal Discipline
• The 6 Keys for Writing a Kick-Ass To-Do List
• Friday Links 07-11-23
• How to Stop Making Excuses
• Policies and Guidelines at ScottHYoung.com
• The Psychological Benefits of Optimism
• 9 Tips to Squeeze Exercise Into a Tight Schedule
• Why You Need to Run a Timelog (And How to Do It)
• Friday Links 07-11-15
• Tips for Maximizing Your Days Off (and Prevent Working 24/7)
• The Art of Lifestyle Design
• Making Money From Blogging
• How to Teach Yourself Anything in Less Than Three Months
• How to Debug Your Brain
• Book Review: Zen to Done
• 10 Tips to Be Accomplished and Instead of Just Busy
• 11 Easy Ways to Improve Memory
• Friday Links 07-11-02
• How to Run Life as a Science Experiment

• The Quickest Route is Usually the Boldest
• Are You Too Busy? Or Just Gutless?
• Why You Hate Work
• Help With New Holistic Learning Book
• Friday Links 07-10-26
• Can Partying Make You More Productive?
• The 7 Bad E-Mail Habits that Make People Want to Kill You
• How to Overcome a Leaky Brain in Your Studies
• How to Set Goals Without Craving Anything
• The Art of the Finish: How to Go From Busy to Accomplished
• How to Become an Effortless Achiever
• How to Not Want Things and Still Be Happy
• Save the World and Improve Your Life at the Same Time
• Site Maintenance
• Friday Links 07-10-12
• The Key to Escaping Toxic Motivation
• 15 Ways to Squeeze the Most From 15 Minutes
• Reader Question: How has this site helped you?
• The Virtue of Living Life Rationally
• Problems With the Site?
• Friday Links 07-10-04
• Please Show Me Why I’m Wrong
• 5 Simple Steps to Purify Your Hard Drive
• Use People as an Intelligence Catalyst
• How to Customize GTD to Fit Your Life

• Friday Links 07-09-28
• Are You Giving Yourself Busy-Work?
• How to Keep Bad Habits From Ruling Your Life
• Upcoming Interview on Be Happy Dammit
• Dodging Bullets: 7 Strategies to Handle Conflict
• Friday Links 07-09-20
• Goalless Action
• Creative Acceleration: 11 Tips to Engineer a Productive Flow
• How to Free Yourself from Time Poverty
• 9 Planning Traps and How Not to Get Caught
• Friday Links 07-09-14
• What Does Your Day Say About You?
• 50 Tricks to Study Better, Faster and with Less Stress
• The Seven Major Beginner Mistakes
• Friday Links 07-09-07
• Social Courage: How to Meet New People
• Don’t Confuse a Degree with Learning
• Posting Resumes Tomorrow

• Friday Links 07-08-31
• The Power of Humility: Why Confidence is Overrated
• The Critical 7 Rules To Understand People
• 9 Steps to Stop Information Poisoning
• Rational Versus Emotional Arguments
• Friday Links 07-08-24
• Nine Habits to Change Your Life
• 17 Tricks to Reclaim Your Stolen Attention
• Why Atheism?
• Slim Your Reader, Go on an RSS Diet
• I’m Nineteen
• Friday Links 07-08-17
• Blogging Superheroes
• 7 Tips to Find the Hidden Utility in Everything
• 14 Tips for a Less Materialistic Lifestyle
• The Future of Holistic Learning
• You Suck. Get Over It
• I’m Mentioned in Flak
• Friday Links 07-08-10
• How to Make Deadlines Work Using Hofstadter’s Law
• 7 Ways to Make Exercise Fun
• Find Your Personal Marathon
• How to Read 70+ Books in a Year
• How to Overcome Plateaus
• Friday Links 07-08-03
• 7 Steps for Starting a Financial Checkup
• Problem Solving Toolkit: 33 Tricks to Answer Tough Problems

• Give It To Me Straight – 11 Tips for Better Feedback
• 10 Tips for Enjoying Solitude
• What Do You Want to Do With Your Life?
• New Design is Up
• Friday Links 07-07-27
• Ten Steps to Cultivate the Now Habit
• 5 Methods For Cutting Needless Worry From Your Life
• Better Conversations: Collecting Life Stories
• Ten Skills Everyone Should Have
• Friday Links 07-07-20
• 20 Ways to Bring Order to a Busy Life
• How to Cut Out Timewasters
• I’m Back
• How to Live a More Creative Life
• How to Use Your Blog to Make Friends Online
• 10 Tips for Escaping Your Comfort Zone and Having Adventures
• 100 Good Ideas
• I’m Gone for a Week
• Friday Links 07-07-06
• Nine Tips to Stay Productive in a Spontaneous Life
• Ten Habits to Boost Your Happiness
• Do You Need to Be a Competitive Jerk to Succeed?
• GTD is Broken – Focus on Results, Not the System

• 20 Tricks to Boost IQ and Build a Mental Exercise Routine
• Friday Links 07-06-29
• How to Find a Meaningful Life – Without Quitting Your Job
• Quit Procrastinating! 20 Ways to Energize Out of Your Slump
• 10 Steps to Developing a Meaningful Life Philosophy
• Maximize Brainpower: Program a Function Library for Your Mind
• Stick Figure to Mona Lisa: 15 Tips for Becoming Artistic
• Friday Links 07-06-22
• The Zen of Folding Laundry and Other Thoughts on Happiness
• Budget Your Time: How to Use Deadlines
• Call to Lifehackers
• 10 Must-Have Steps to Getting Honest Feedback
• How to Change a Habit – Now Available
• Friday Links 07-06-15
• Beginner’s Guide to Lifting Weights
• Never Eat Alone
• 21 Not-So-Quick Tips to Improve Creativity
• Reclaim 75% of Wasted Net Time With a Daily Ritual
• The Effort Delusion – Why Hard Work Isn’t Enough
• Friday Links 07-06-08
• Rapid Prototype Your Life
• Upcoming E-Book
• Twenty Unique Ways to Use the 80/20 Rule Today
• Seven Ways to Live a More Balanced Life
• What Are Your Goals?
• Friday Links 07-06-01

• Be Yourself, Law of Attraction and Other Pieces of Bad Advice
• New Entrepreneur Mistakes and Thinking Different with Ben Casnocha
• Eliminate Boredom With These 12 Tips
• Is Willpower an Illusion?
• Get Happy: Making Decisions for Emotional Quality
• Friday Links 07-05-25
• What is Happiness? The Emotional Quality Model
• Twenty Ways to Stay Productive When Working at Home
• How to Handle Criticism at Lifehack.org
• 20 Procrastination Hacks
• Seven Tricks to Stop Forgetfulness
• Friday Links 07-05-18
• If at First You Don’t Succeed – Cheat
• The 4-Hour Workweek
• Do You Need People to Support You?
• Beyond Speed – How to Read Smart
• Want More Spare Time? The 7-Day Workload Detox
• Friday Links for 07-05-11
• Better Writing – How to Improve Your Style
• Solve Tough Problems by Using Lenses
• The Laziest Solution Possible
• Upgrade Your Core Menu – Healthy Eating Without Restrictions
• 29 Happiness Hacks to Feel Better Now
• Friday Links for 07-05-04
• Want to Wake Up Earlier? Remember DIPS
• Seven Rules for Enhanced E-Mail Communication
• Three Strategies for Enhancing Your Day

• Links for Getting in Shape
• Getting Lucky
• Friday Links for 07-04-27
• When Everything You Try Doesn’t Work, Break Cycles
• Get a Reality Check
• When Your Communication Fails, Check Your Layers
• Make Productivity Smooth By Reducing Friction
• New to Exercise? Make Workouts Daily
• Holistic Learning EBook
• Friday Links for 07-04-20
• Daydreaming Without Doing? Try Planning Without Commitment
• Improve Your Conversations With Stories
• Myth: Organization is the Key to Productivity
• Manage Your Energy at ZenHabits
• Want to Improve Your Fitness? Focus on Results
• How to Learn Holistically
• Ask For What You Want
• I Need Your Help
• Do Less to Be More Productive
• Avoiding Motivation Burnout
• How to Find Mentors
• Great Books
• Social Energy
• Gradual Dieting
• The Myth of Confidence
• Creating Your Own Religion
• Fake Your State
• Managing Stress with Daily Goals
• Are You Using Less Than One Percent of Your Brain?

• Empty Calories
• Studying and Holistic Learning
• I am Writing a Book
• How to Ace Your Finals Without Studying
• Maximize Your Reading Effectiveness
• Speed Reading Follow-Up
• Welcome Lifehacker.com Readers
• Responsibility Does Not Equal Control
• Be Decisive
• Planning the Unpredictable
• Be an Adult
• Writing Is
• Seven Ways to Improve Your Workout (Without More Time at the Gym)
• How to Become a Vegetarian
• Double Your Reading Rate
• How to Manage Stress
• Big Ideas Are Not Enough
• Success is Possible, But Harder Than You Think
• Break the Rules

• Set Worthy Challenges
• Imitate Your Way to Success – Osmosis
• Imitate Your Way to Success – Observation
• Imitate Your Way to Success – Instruction
• Imitate Your Way to Success – Introduction
• The Myth of Talent
• Guiding Your Emotions
• Long-Term Habit Changes
• Write What You Know
• The Optimists Dilemma
• Interview at Public Speaking For All
• Specializing VS Generalizing
• Skill Generalizing
• Achieving Impossible Goals
• Does Health Information Need to Be Complicated?

• Stress and Recovery
• Finding Passion
• A Glitch in the Universe
• How to Make Commitments You Will Actually Keep
• Upgrade Your Day
• Accepting Reality
• Faster Improvement Made Simple
• How to Get a Good Nights Sleep
• Experimentation
• How to Build Skills Faster
• Profound Wisdom
• How to Change Your Beliefs
• How to Get in Shape
• Taking the Next Step
• Respect Your State
• Effective Goal Setting
• Back to Blogging

• Last Post for the Year
• Why New Years Resolutions Suck
• Creative Constraints
• Daily To-Do Lists
• How to Get Back Into a Good Mood
• Anchor Moments
• Absolute Decision
• Meet-Up With David Zinger
• Using Diagrams
• Seven Questions For When You Are Failing Miserably
• Donation Form
• Landslide Motivators
• Waiting for an Epiphany
• In Retrospect
• The Seven Keys to Leverage

• Now or Never
• Deciding What to Do With Your Life
• In Search of Valuable Ideas
• Getting What You Want
• Popular Posts for November 21
• Solutions to the Ten Biggest Obstacles to Growth
• Seven Steps to Superior Learning
• Finding Happiness
• Overcoming All the Little Things
• Discover Yourself in Twenty Minutes
• Why You Should Join Toastmasters
• A Drop of Success

• Changing Beliefs
• Personality Evolution
• Mastering Conversation
• Nine Steps Towards a More Interesting Life
• When to Quit Continued
• Ascending the Plateau
• I Will Be Happy When…
• When to Quit
• Using Pessimism
• Is Steve Pavlina Reading this Website?
• Don’t Be Yourself
• Putting it Into Practice – Emotional Mastery (Series)
• Persistent States – Emotional Mastery (Series)
• Energy and Emotions – Emotional Mastery (Series)
• Mental Patterns – Emotional Mastery (Series)
• Body Signals – Emotional Mastery (Series)

• Introduction – Emotional Mastery (Series)
• How to Get the Most Out of This Site
• Procrastination – Start Now (Series)
• Procrastination – Break It Down (Series)
• Procrastination – Introduction (Series)
• Utilizing Hidden Opportunities
• The Confidence Myth
• How to Overcome Fear
• Wade or Dive
• Imagination VS Experimentation
• A Fear a Day
• Overcoming Discouragement
• Rapid Habit Changes
• Beyond Introversion and Extroversion
• Thoughts on University

• Moving to University
• How You Should Pursue Personal Development
• Enjoy Taking Action
• Your Life is Already Perfect
• Dreams to Action
• Technical Problems Solved!
• Technical Problems
• The Best Decisions I Have Made
• Trial Periods – Beyond Habits
• Happy Birthday
• Transform Weaknesses Into Strengths
• 10 Ways to Improve Your Energy
• Energy VS Time
• Finding Truth in Information
• Take a Break From Goal-Setting
• Relationship Geeks – An Interview With Phil Gerbyshak
• Operate From the Highest Level
• Velocity-Based Goal Setting
• Review Your Progress
• Overcoming Obstacles
• Stay Flexible
• Get Organized
• Create an Unstoppable Drive
• Decide Exactly What You Want
• Why Set Goals
• Goals Free Chapters
• Make a Goal-Friendly Environment

• Post One Hundred
• How to Start a Fitness Regimen
• Find Your Personal Development Style
• How to Give Up Television
• How to Recover From a Broken Commitment
• How to Speed Up Your Learning Rate
• Goals an Interactive Guide
• Big Changes to ScottHYoung.com
• Interview: Energy Management with Emily Schwartz
• Another Four Letter Word
• Building Confidence with Constructive Embarrassment
• What Do You Need to Stop?
• The Reality of Focus
• Micro Habits
• I’m Back!
• Energy Management
• Link: Gods Debris
• Life as a Game
• Lateral Growth

• Gone Until July 17
• Career Intensity
• Shrink Obstacles
• Energize Your Mornings
• Living at Full Capacity
• Review – Patterns for Success (Series)
• Implementation – Patterns for Success (Series)
• Ideas – Patterns for Success (Series)
• Introduction – Patterns for Success (Series)
• Back to Basics
• Interview at Make it Great
• Efficient Internet/E-mail Usage
• Time Starved Personal Development
• Dealing with Frustration
• Nine Keys for Lasting Diet Change
• Popular Posts for June 3

• The Secret to Productivity
• Stumbling on Happiness
• Brush Off Failures
• Goal Setting Program
• Recover and Rejuvenate
• The Smallest Step
• Learn By Doing
• Popular Posts for May 16
• Decide Who You Want To Be
• Experimentation – Habitual Mastery (Series)
• Replacement – Habitual Mastery (Series)
• Leverage – Habitual Master (Series)
• Conditioning – Habitual Mastery (Series)
• Introduction – Habitual Mastery (Series)
• Balancing Today and Tomorrow
• Enthusiasm

• Listen for Success
• Mastering Your Personal Resources
• The Other Half of Communication
• Exercise Every Day
• Let’s Be Honest
• Ten Minutes to a Better Tomorrow
• Why Should YOU Pursue Personal Development?
• When Personal Development Conflicts with Society
• Multimedia Project
• Where Did Your Day Go?
• Patience – Making Personal Growth Last (Series)
• Maintaining Motivation – Making Personal Growth Last (Series)
• Continuous Improvement – Making Personal Growth Last (Series)
• Intro – Making Personal Growth Last (Series)
• How to Stop Procrastinating
• How to Change a Habit
• Personal Development Myths
• Book A Day Challenge Complete!

• Vertical and Lateral Growth Continued…
• What is Personal Development? – Vertical and Lateral Growth
• The Book a Day Challenge!
• Living Up To Our Full Potential
• Getting Perspective
• Flexibility VS Focus
• Toastmasters
• Foster Creativity
• Personal Development as a Game
• Balancing Work and Leisure
• Control Emotions by Pretending
• Read for Success
• Be Imperfect
• Decide Now!
• Set an Unbreakable Standard
• Never Run out of Ideas Again
• Positivity and the Elephant
• How Much Time Do You Have?
• To the Teacher
• The World is Flat
• What is Important?

• Optimization VS Innovation
• My Goal
• The Power of Goals
• Gratitude
• What do you know for sure?
• Writing to Solve Personal Problems
• Seven Days
• Overcoming the Frustration Barrier
• Why Pursue Personal Development?
• Hello Out There!