High-Value Life GuideLife's expensive mistakes
中文

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Time and energy

Eight pages of plans. Still on step zero.

Attention, habits, practical planning and relaxation: start with something you can actually do.

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Chapter 3 editorial cartoon: Off the clock. Brain still in a meeting. Enlarge illustration
Off the clock. Brain still in a meeting.
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Editorial cartoon · Chapter 3Off the clock. Brain still in a meeting.

Original illustration with Chinese lettering; the English dialogue is below. Humour is a reading aid, not evidence.

English dialogue
  • Just five minutes of rest.
  • One more notification!

Three starting points

Selected from 57 guides
Chapter 4 · Guide 1Author's grade A

Write “what to do” as “if… then…”

Change “I plan to do this” into “If I sit at my desk at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, I’ll start by writing the introduction.” Across 94 separate studies, people…

Cost
No cost at all. Each step takes just 1–2 minutes — simply write a sentence like “If… then……
Benefit
When all 94 studies are combined, individuals who expressed their plans as “if… then…” sta…
Chapter 3 · Guide 1Author's grade B

Turn off non‑essential notifications and keep your phone out of sight while working

Even if you don’t look at or touch your phone when it rings, your performance on attention‑related tasks still drops. The drop is roughly the same as …

Cost
No cost at all. It takes just a few minutes to adjust the settings, and hardly any willpow…
Benefit
Merely receiving a notification — without looking at or interacting with the phone — notic…