Learning
Recall before you reread
Practise bringing an idea to mind before checking the explanation. Use the result to choose what needs another look, then try again with corrective feedback.
Explore
81 five-minute lessons across 8 areas of life. Each one ends with something to try.
81 lessons
Learning
Make room between reviews
Return to an idea over separate sessions. Start with a manageable review plan, attempt recall each time, and change the gaps according to what you need to remember and for how long.
Habits
Give your next action a clear cue
Turn an intended action into a specific plan that links a recognisable situation with a feasible response. Check that the action serves the goal and that the resources are available.
Habits
Track a useful signal and adjust
Choose one observable sign of the action you intend to practise. Record it simply, compare it with the opportunities available, and use the pattern to make a practical adjustment.
Money
See when money arrives and leaves
Use a fictional timeline to distinguish a positive total from having money available on the day an expense falls due.
Career
Make a work example clear
Practise explaining a relevant example with clear actions, an honest result, and a boundary on what the example can show.
Habits
Make a routine easier to repeat
Identify a stable opportunity for a small action, then observe the opportunities without turning a streak into a claim of automaticity.
Relationships
Check what you heard before responding
Practise offering a tentative summary and inviting correction in an ordinary low-stakes conversation, while respecting the other person’s choice to stop.
Health routines
Plan an accessible movement opportunity
Practise identifying an opportunity, a practical barrier, and a question for an appropriate professional without prescribing an individual exercise programme.
Business
Test one assumption before expanding
Turn a business idea into a bounded question, a prediction, and a decision rule, then record what the small test cannot establish.
Learning
Check an idea with a fresh example
Separate remembering a sentence from using its meaning in a new example, and make the scope of a practice result explicit.
Creative work
Leave a useful return point
Define a small creative problem, save the current attempt, and use a deliberate return to compare alternatives without promising inspiration.
Health routines
Make the healthier choice the easy one
Use a fictional example to rearrange one everyday spot so the healthier food or drink is the easy option, while the other choice takes one small extra step.
Health routines
Plan a blood pressure check and follow-up
Use a fictional example to find where a quick blood pressure check is available, then plan who explains the result and when to go back.
Relationships
Reach out with a small invitation
Notice the thought that stops you getting in touch, then plan one small, specific invitation that is easy for the other person to accept or decline.
Health routines
Plan for the moments you usually smoke
Name the everyday moments that usually come with a cigarette, plan a different response for one of them, and find out where to get support with quitting.
Health routines
Ground yourself when stress hits
Practise a three-step grounding skill from a WHO self-help guide: notice your thoughts and feelings, slow down in your body, and refocus on the world around you.
Money
Start a small emergency buffer
Use a fictional example to plan a small, regular amount set aside for surprise costs, with a clear rule for when it can be used.
Health routines
Count your drinks and plan drink-free days
Count a fictional week of drinks, see where most of them happen, and plan drink-free days with a backup for the hardest moment.
Career
Plan your job search one week at a time
Build a simple one-week job-search plan that pairs a skill task with a goal, a check-in and a Friday review, using a fictional job seeker.
Habits
Start with the smallest next step
Use a fictional example to shrink a task you keep putting off into one tiny, concrete first step, then tie that step to a moment in your day.
Health routines
Keep a steady wake time
Use a fictional example to choose a wake time you can keep on most days, then plan your evenings so it doesn’t squeeze your sleep.
Habits
The exercise megastudyPlan your comeback after a missed day
In a huge gym experiment, the top programme rewarded coming back after a missed workout. Plan an easy, rewarding way back before you miss a day.
Habits
The wandering-mind studyBring your mind back to what you’re doing
In a large phone study, minds wandered in nearly half of the moments sampled, and people were less happy then. Practise noticing where your attention is and gently bringing it back.
Habits
The global review of positive psychology programmesWrite down three good things
See what research on well-being programmes found, then try writing down three things that went well each evening for a week, and why they happened.
Health routines
The 120 minutes a week in nature studySpend time outdoors in nature
See what a survey of nearly 20,000 people in England found about time in nature, then plan safe time in parks, green spaces or by water across your week.
Money
The S&P Global FinLit SurveyWork out what borrowing really costs
Use invented numbers to work out the total you would repay on a loan, what the borrowing costs, and how unpaid interest can grow.
Money
The 136-country study of giving and happinessSpend a little on someone else
See what a 136-country study found about giving and happiness, then plan one small, affordable kindness without touching money you need.
Money
The SPIVA South Africa ScorecardCount what fees cost over the years
Use invented numbers to see how a small fee, taken every year, can add up to a large part of what an investment grows to.
Money
Morningstar’s Mind the Gap studyPlan what you’ll do when markets fall
Use a fictional example to write a short plan before prices fall: what you’ll invest, how often, and how you’ll make decisions when markets drop.
Money
The “Trading Is Hazardous to Your Wealth” studySee what trading often costs
Use a fictional trading record in invented units to add up what each trade costs, then compare the result with simply holding.
Money
The Brazilian day-trading studyKnow the odds before you day trade
See what a study of every new day trader in one Brazilian market found, then plan a loss limit, a trade journal and a simple benchmark in invented units.
Health routines
The 2024 Lancet Commission on dementiaProtect your brain as you age
See what a major review found about 14 changeable dementia risk factors, then plan one small step that fits your stage of life, with a health worker where needed.
Health routines
The BMJ review of exercise for depressionMove to lift a low mood
See what a large review of exercise trials found for depression, then plan regular movement you enjoy as one helpful option alongside other support, not instead of it.
Health routines
The Global Burden of Disease diet studyAdd the foods most diets are missing
See what a 195-country study found about diet and health, then plan to add one missing food, such as fruit, beans or whole grains, or use less salt, one meal at a time.
Health routines
PREDIMED, the Spanish Mediterranean diet trialTry one Mediterranean-style swap
Learn what the PREDIMED diet trial found and why its first report was retracted, then plan one Mediterranean-style swap, such as beans, vegetables or nuts, in a week’s meals.
Health routines
The review of muscle-strengthening and healthTrain your muscles twice a week
See what large studies link to muscle-strengthening activity, then plan two short sessions a week that work your main muscle groups, starting light and staying safe.
Health routines
The review of strength-training programmesMake your training a little harder over time
See what a large review of strength-training trials found, then keep a simple log and make your training a little harder over time while keeping good form.
Relationships
The Harvard Study of Adult DevelopmentKeep your close relationships warm
Plan a small, regular point of contact with someone close, plus one way to show interest or support, using a fictional couple as your guide.
Relationships
The 29-lab study of what predicts relationship satisfactionSay what you appreciate, specifically
Notice one specific thing a partner or loved one does, then practise saying what they did and the difference it made.
Career
Major #1: Business Administration and ManagementWhy Henry Ford doubled his workers’ pay
In 1914 Henry Ford more than doubled pay at his car plant to stop workers quitting. Learn why keeping people can cost less than replacing them, and what research says about pay and motivation.
Career
Major #2: Nursing (Registered Nursing)Florence Nightingale and the numbers behind the deaths
Florence Nightingale came home from the Crimean War and turned its death figures into a case for reform. Learn why good care needs a working system, and what research says about feedback and checklists.
Career
Major #3: PsychologyScore the parts before you trust the whole
In 1955, a 21-year-old army lieutenant replaced gut-feel interviews with scored questions, and the predictions got better. Research and a bestselling book show when structure beats intuition, and where the book went too far.
Learning
Major #4: BiologyBorrow an idea from another field
In 1838, Charles Darwin found the key to natural selection in a book about human population. A study of 17.9 million research papers suggests that work mixing familiar knowledge with some unusual combinations is more likely to stand out.
Career
Major #5: Computer ScienceWhy small teams make big breaks
In 1969, Bell Labs left a giant software project, and a tiny group built Unix on a spare computer. Research on more than 65 million papers, patents and software products suggests small teams tend to disrupt, while large teams tend to develop.
Career
Major #6: Criminal JusticeThe Kansas City gun experiment
In 1992 Kansas City police sent extra patrols into one small, violent beat to find illegal guns. Learn why aiming effort at the few places where crime clusters can beat spreading it thin, and where that lesson can go wrong.
Career
Major #7: AccountingArthur Andersen and the price of siding with the client
In 2001, Enron’s auditor destroyed documents as investigators closed in, and within a year its reputation had collapsed. Learn why trust is what an auditor really sells, and what research says about bias.
Money
Major #8: FinanceThe folly that outlasted its critics
In 1976, John Bogle launched the first index mutual fund for ordinary investors, and it raised a fraction of what he hoped. Research and a bestselling book show why costs matter so much. This is history and research, not financial advice.
Career
Major #9: Political ScienceLeave the other side a way to say yes
In October 1962, President John F. Kennedy helped end the Cuban missile crisis with a public offer and a private promise. Research on negotiation shows how often both sides miss a deal that would serve them both.
Business
Major #10: MarketingSell through people they trust
Tupperware flopped in shops until Earl Tupper pulled it from the shelves and sold it at home parties run by Brownie Wise. Research on referrals and word of mouth backs the idea, but it also shows that going viral is rare.
Career
Major #11: Communication StudiesWhat the camera saw
On 26 September 1960, Richard Nixon and John Kennedy met in the first televised U.S. presidential debate. Research and a book billed as a bestseller ask how much the way we look shapes the message we send.
Career
Major #12: EconomicsThe test at the state line
In 1992, New Jersey raised its minimum wage and Pennsylvania did not. Two Princeton economists turned the state line into a test, and the result shook their field. This is history and research, not policy or financial advice.
Health routines
Major #13: Kinesiology and Exercise ScienceThe men who climbed and the men who sat
In London around 1950, Jerry Morris compared the men who drove buses with the men who climbed their stairs, then found a flaw in his own result. Research and a book its publisher bills as a bestseller show what exercise science can and cannot claim. This is a story, not health advice.
Career
Major #14: Mechanical EngineeringThe engine that waited for a cylinder
James Watt had the right idea for the steam engine by 1765, but no engine in commercial use for over a decade. Much of the trouble was not on his drawings. Research and a business novel billed as a bestseller show what that story can and can’t teach.
Career
Major #15: Elementary EducationThe teacher who cashed in her pension
In 1975, a Chicago teacher spent her 5,000-dollar pension on a school for children others had written off. Research and a book billed as a bestseller show how far belief carries a child, and where it stops.
Learning
Major #16: English Language and LiteratureThe poems with no names
In the 1920s, a Cambridge lecturer took the names off poems and asked students of English to judge them. What came back helped change how literature is taught. Research and a bestselling book show how reading skill grows.
Career
Major #17: SociologyCount before you blame
In 1896, W. E. B. Du Bois took a lowly post with no students and went door to door through a Philadelphia ward that many critics were blaming for the city’s troubles. Research and a bestselling book show what counting conditions can reveal, and where the argument gets contested.
Career
Major #18: HistoryHalf a day in a Swiss bank
In 1983, the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper was asked to judge what were said to be Adolf Hitler’s secret diaries. Research and a bestselling book show why good historians question their sources, and how far that habit can be taught.
Creative work
Major #19: Studio Art and Fine ArtsThe copyist who became Van Gogh
In August 1880, a failed preacher in a Belgian coal district decided to become an artist. His first teachers were prints and drawing manuals, and he copied them. Research and a book billed as a bestseller suggest when copying feeds original work, and when it may not.
Career
Major #20: Social WorkThe garbage inspector of the Nineteenth Ward
In 1895, Jane Addams of Hull-House became the garbage inspector of a Chicago ward. Her story, the research and a book billed as a bestseller ask when going after a harm’s cause beats responding to it, and how anyone can tell. This is history and research, not advice.
Learning
Major #21: MathematicsThe gap in the proof
In 1993, Andrew Wiles announced a proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem, a problem more than 350 years old, and then a reviewer found a gap. Research and a book billed as a bestseller suggest that struggle and stepping away can both help, and show where that evidence stops.
Career
Major #22: Healthcare AdministrationThe surgeon who published his mistakes
In the 1910s, the Boston surgeon Ernest Codman counted his own errors and posted them to other hospitals, and a public row with colleagues then cost him dearly. Research and a book billed as a bestseller show what counting failure can and cannot do. This is history and research, not medical advice.
Career
Major #23: Electrical EngineeringThe hearing-aid part that became a radio
In the 1950s, a small Japanese firm licensed the transistor, a part its American owner thought suited hearing aids, and built radios with it. Research and a book billed as a bestseller show when new technology really does beat established firms.
Career
Major #24: Health SciencesThe doctor who swallowed the evidence
In 1914, common medical opinion blamed the deadly disease pellagra on infection. Joseph Goldberger tested the idea, on prisoners and on himself. Research and a bestselling book show why health claims need testing. This is history and research, not medical advice.
Creative work
Major #25: MusicTwo fingers and a new sound
In 1928, a caravan fire took the use of two fingers from a young musician named Django Reinhardt. He went on to colead a famous jazz group. Research and a book billed as a bestseller show what practice and persistence can and cannot explain. This is history and research, not medical advice.
Career
Major #26: Civil EngineeringThe base built before the roof
In 1959, Sydney began building an opera house before anyone knew how to build its roof. Research and a book its publisher labels a best seller ask why big projects run over, and whether planning first helps.
Career
Major #27: Information TechnologyThe server nobody updated
On 1 August 2012, one server at a U.S. trading firm began sending orders nobody meant to send. Research and a novel its publisher says has sold over half a million copies show why the way a change reaches a system matters so much. This is a story about software, not financial advice.
Learning
Major #28: Early Childhood EducationThe coin flip in Ypsilanti
In 1962, a school official in Michigan opened a small preschool against expert advice and ran it as an experiment. Research and a book billed as a New York Times bestseller show what early education can and cannot promise. This is history and research, not advice about any child.
Career
Major #29: ChemistryThe inert gases that climbed too high
In 1974, two chemists in California asked a plain question about man-made gases used in spray cans: where do they end up? Their answer started a long fight. Research and a bestselling book about pesticides show why that question matters. This is history and research, not health advice.
Career
Major #30: Sport ManagementThe talent the market refused to see
In 1945, Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers set out to break baseball’s colour line by signing Jackie Robinson. Research and a bestselling book show how prejudice and habit can blind a market, and why the advantage fades. This is history and research, not career advice.
Creative work
Major #31: Theatre ArtsThe play that came back from the dead
In 1896, Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull was nearly hissed off the stage. Two years later a new, struggling Moscow company staged it and found its first major success. Research and a book its publisher bills as a bestseller look at what makes such a company work.
Career
Major #32: Speech-Language Pathology and Communication DisordersThe man they called Tan
In 1861, a man who could say almost nothing but one syllable gave Paul Broca a clue that changed the science of speech and the brain. Research and a book its publisher says has sold over 1 million copies then ask how much a damaged brain can recover. This is history and research, not medical advice.
Career
Major #33: Public HealthToo little vaccine, so he went looking
In eastern Nigeria in the 1960s, William Foege faced smallpox with too little vaccine, and his answer helped change how the disease was beaten. Research and a book billed as a bestseller then ask what good data can and cannot do. This is history and research, not medical advice.
Career
Major #34: BiochemistryThe pattern no one could explain
In 2006, a biochemist took a phone call about a strange pattern in bacterial DNA. It led to a Nobel Prize and a tool for editing genes. Research and a biography of Doudna show how far that story can be stretched. This is a story from science, not medical advice.
Career
Major #35: Computer EngineeringThe factory with no products
In the 1980s, a chip veteran was asked to build a chip company in Taiwan, where almost nothing favoured him. His answer changed how computer hardware is made. Research and a prize-winning book show why, and where the story has limits.
Career
Major #36: CriminologyThe war on subway graffiti
In 1984 graffiti covered every car in the New York subway, and everything tried against it had failed. Learn why a visible standard can change how a place works, and why the leap to falling crime is still disputed.
Learning
Major #37: Information ScienceThe index nobody would publish
In the 1950s, Eugene Garfield proposed indexing science by the references scientists cite. When government funders stepped back, he had to decide whether to publish it himself. Research and a bestselling book show why knowing where to look can matter as much as knowing, and where the evidence is still weak.
Health routines
Major #38: NeuroscienceA month without days
In 1938, a sleep scientist went deep underground to test whether the human day could be stretched to 28 hours. Research and a bestselling book on sleep show what the body clock allows, and where claims run ahead of the evidence. This is a story and research, not health advice.
Career
Major #39: Chemical EngineeringThe reactors that burst at 80 hours
In 1909, Carl Bosch was asked to turn a laboratory ammonia process into an industry, and his first steel reactors burst. Research and a book its publisher bills as a bestseller show why making things at scale is its own kind of problem.
Career
Major #40: JournalismThe story that would not stay buried
In 1972, two Washington Post reporters kept digging into a burglary while the President won a second term. Research and a bestselling book show what reporting can and cannot do on its own.
Career
Major #41: Biomedical EngineeringThe machine that failed fifteen times
In wartime Kampen, Willem Kolff built an artificial kidney from sausage casing and spare parts, and 15 of his first 16 patients died. Research and a bestselling book show when failure teaches and when it does not. This is history and research, not medical advice.
Start from what’s in your way
Each path strings a few lessons together.
I want to eat better, but the easy option wins3 lessons, about 19 minutesI want to move more, but life gets in the way3 lessons, about 19 minutesI don’t know if my blood pressure is okay2 lessons, about 12 minutesI feel lonely or cut off3 lessons, about 19 minutesI want to stop smoking2 lessons, about 12 minutesStress is getting on top of me3 lessons, about 19 minutesOne surprise bill could knock me over2 lessons, about 12 minutesI’m drinking more than I want to2 lessons, about 12 minutesI’m looking for work and getting nowhere3 lessons, about 19 minutesI keep putting important things off2 lessons, about 12 minutesI’m not sleeping enough3 lessons, about 17 minutesMoney runs out before month-end3 lessons, about 19 minutesI struggle to show what I can do at work2 lessons, about 12 minutesMy good habits don’t stick4 lessons, about 24 minutesI plan things but don’t follow through2 lessons, about 10 minutesI learn things, then forget them3 lessons, about 17 minutesI’m not sure my business idea will work2 lessons, about 12 minutesConversations turn into misunderstandings1 lesson, about 7 minutesI get stuck on creative work2 lessons, about 12 minutesI want a learning routine that lasts5 lessons, about 27 minutes