Psychology

Tried and failed to form good habits? Me too! The answer isn’t to try harder – it’s to do this instead…

For a day, I had no motivation whatsoever. I couldn’t be bothered to look at my to-do list, let alone actually do anything on it. I thought a change of scenery might help so I walked listlessly to a cafe, but couldn’t even be bothered to go inside and order so I sat on a bench outside for half an hour. Even my normal procrastination activities were too much effort.

I loved this book, and would recommend it to any parent. The notes I’ve made for myself should give you some idea of the author’s approach and what the book covers.

Specialists get all the acclaim, but I’ve come to see “being OK-but-not-great at lots of disperate things” as a kind of superpower. Here’s why…

By indulging in complaining, you’re voluntarily making your experience of life worse than it needs to be. Here’s how to cut it out.

What we need isn’t “more time”, but “less junk”.

Your brain is wired for mild dissatisfaction. Here are some simple exercises to re-program it and increase your happiness.

I haven’t had a warm shower in over five years. Why? And is it worth it?

Being right is fun, it’s profitable, it’s correlated with better health outcomes (this sentence has not been fact-checked), and it generally beats the hell out of being wrong.

Luckily, being right is easy when you follow a few simple principles.

“How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World” is an ugly-looking book by a former US politician who you won’t have heard of, advocating a worldview that could easily be criticised as selfish or impractical.

It’s not a perfect book, but I re-read it every couple of years because it contains a simple message that’s easy to forget: you have far more control over your life than you think you do.