Life · Collection guide · 5 stops
Get unstuck & start
This route is for an idea that has spent too long in your head. It moves from perceived obstacles to identity, visible effort and the first useful deadline. Bring one specific stalled task with you; using a different hypothetical example at every step makes it too easy to stay in planning mode.
Browse this collection in reading order →Suggested routes through material saved to explore. I haven’t read or watched everything here yet. The order and prompts are editorial suggestions based on available source text, excerpts, descriptions and synopses; they are not personal ratings or claims of completed viewing.
Question the apparent barrier
Mack’s essay introduces resourcefulness as a response to circumstances that seem fixed. Start by examining the obstacle itself before deciding that you need more motivation or a better system.
Pause & try
Write the sentence ‘I cannot start because…’. Separate an actual constraint from an assumption you could check with one message or experiment.
Loosen the story about yourself
Rivett explores how an internal identity can keep you from doing the thing you want to do. Once the external barrier is clearer, look at the role your own description of yourself plays in maintaining it.
Pause & try
Replace ‘I am not someone who…’ with one observable action. Make it small enough to do without first feeling like a different person.
Allow the effort to be visible
Francis challenges the embarrassment of trying hard. This follows the identity question because a first attempt often feels exposing precisely when it matters to you.
Pause & try
Identify the part of this task you have been treating casually to protect yourself. Give it one uninterrupted session of deliberate effort.
Shrink the first useful deadline
Collison’s collection of fast projects challenges assumptions about duration. Treat the examples as a prompt to examine your schedule, rather than a promise that every project can move at the same speed.
Pause & try
What could exist by tomorrow that does not exist today? Cut the scope until the answer is believable; keep the essential purpose.
Catch the next promise of tomorrow
Videos · Est. 35 min
The biggest lies we tell ourselves all start with “tomorrow” →
Collected by The Unintuitive ↗
Rossmann’s talk brings the route back to the familiar moment of postponement. Use it after attempting something, when you have a real delay to examine rather than an imagined future burst of discipline.
Pause & try
Do the next ten-minute action before collecting another productivity tip. Then leave a written starting point for the following session.
After the five stops
Take it into your own life.
Keep the first rough output. Compare the obstacle you predicted with the one you actually met, then schedule one more session. If the task is still stuck, change its scope or ask a specific person for help instead of making a larger promise to yourself.
Continue exploring
Items 1–5 are the guided route above. The remaining items are listed alphabetically below; choose what interests you next. These numbers match the collection shelf.
- 100 Tips For A Better Life → Find on the shelf: 100 Tips For A Better Life →
- 100 ways to live better - Lesswrong → Find on the shelf: 100 ways to live better - Lesswrong →
- 100 Ways To Live Better - Putanumonit → Find on the shelf: 100 Ways To Live Better - Putanumonit →
- Advice That Actually Worked For Me → Find on the shelf: Advice That Actually Worked For Me →
- Ben Horowitz - Nobody Cares → Find on the shelf: Ben Horowitz - Nobody Cares →
- Do It Now - Steve Pavlina → Find on the shelf: Do It Now - Steve Pavlina →
- How to be successful - Sam Altman → Find on the shelf: How to be successful - Sam Altman →
- Kelly’s 14 Project Management Rules - Kelly Johnson → Find on the shelf: Kelly’s 14 Project Management Rules - Kelly Johnson →
- Mindset Rewiring Workbook → Find on the shelf: Mindset Rewiring Workbook →
- Principles - Nabeel S. Qureshi → Find on the shelf: Principles - Nabeel S. Qureshi →
- Random Ideas About Life → Find on the shelf: Random Ideas About Life →
- School is Not Enough → Find on the shelf: School is Not Enough →
- Secrets of success in 8 words → Find on the shelf: Secrets of success in 8 words →
- The Only Thing to Do → Find on the shelf: The Only Thing to Do →
- The Ultimate Guide for Becoming an Idea Machine → Find on the shelf: The Ultimate Guide for Becoming an Idea Machine →
- There’s no speed limit - Derek Sivers → Find on the shelf: There’s no speed limit - Derek Sivers →
- Valve’s Handbook for New Employees → Find on the shelf: Valve’s Handbook for New Employees →
- What Truly Determines Your Future - Jim Rohn Seminar → Find on the shelf: What Truly Determines Your Future - Jim Rohn Seminar →