Today is my birthday. Every year, since I turned 18, I’ve written a blog post with some personal reflections on the previous year and some plans for the future. This year was notable for the conclusion of my twelve-month Foundations project, which I technically finished last month. I decided for logistical reasons to work on […]| Scott H Young
I’m heading into the eleventh month of my year-long Foundations project. This month’s focus is organization—getting a handle on your physical stuff to maximize the benefits those things provide while minimizing their ongoing costs in terms of tidying, storage and money spent. Those interested can check out my previous ten months here: fitness, productivity, money, […]| Scott H Young
Learn faster, achieve more| Scott H Young
I’m in the middle of the tenth month of my year-long Foundations project. This month’s topic is focus. I’ll share some personal updates in the next post, but for now I’d like to share some of my takeaways from this month’s reading. In case you’re interested, here are the previous nine months’ reading: The 3-Minute […]| Scott H Young
Today is the first day of the tenth month of my year-long Foundations project. This month’s theme is focus. Focus is a complement to productivity, the second month, which emphasized creating systems that capture, organize and plan your efforts. But this system-building has an obvious weakness: it doesn’t decide what needs to be done and […]| Scott H Young
I’m wrapping up the ninth month of my year long Foundations project. This month’s focus was connection—improving the closest relationships in your life. As part of my efforts this month, I read seven books, including one textbook, on the topic. For those interested, here are my previous reading lists about fitness, productivity, money, food, reading, […]| Scott H Young
Some reflections on my close relationships, the ninth month in my year-long project.| Scott H Young
I’m wrapping up the eighth month of my year-long Foundations project. This month’s focus was on reflection. In addition to reading eight books about thinking and feeling better this month (which I wrote about here), I also stuck to a habit of daily journaling. In case you’re interested, you can see my day-one plans, books […]| Scott H Young
I read eight books on reflection this month. I chose to interpret the topic fairly broadly, with my reading covering not just thinking itself, but therapy, meditation, journaling and philosophy. Those interested in the previous seven reading lists for my year-long Foundations project can check them out here: 1-Minute Summary of What I Learned Our […]| Scott H Young
I’ve just begun a new month in my year-long Foundations project. This month is focused on reflection, where I’m restarting a daily journaling habit and digging into some of the research on thinking and feeling better. For those interested, you can check out my previous seven months here: Why Journal? The keystone habit for this […]| Scott H Young
As I write this, I’m reaching the end of my month-long effort to sleep better. This is part of my year-long project to improve my foundations in life, following previous months dedicated to fitness, productivity, money, food, reading and outreach. Overall, I’m pleased with how the month went. According to my Fitbit, the average time […]| Scott H Young
I am taking a year to strengthen my own foundations in life, while working with a group of people who want to do the same.| Scott H Young
I’m wrapping up the seventh month of my year-long Foundations project. This month’s focus is sleep. I’ll share some personal reflections in the next post. In this post, I’ll share the books I read and key takeaways on sleep. For those interested, you can also read my updates and book lists from previous months here: […]| Scott H Young
If I was to describe one practice that, when sustained over time, could produce the greatest benefits for your life, it would be this: regularly starting—and completing—meaningful projects. Projects are bigger than individual tasks, but still aim to complete some concrete set of actions. A project can be all sorts of things. It can be […]| Scott H Young
Today is the first day of the seventh month in my year-long Foundations project. This month’s focus is sleep. In case you’re interested, here are my notes from the previous six months: Sleep is essential for health, productivity and well-being. Yet often we don’t give it the attention it deserves. While those who shirk on […]| Scott H Young
Having now reached the end of the sixth month of my year-long Foundations project, I’d like to share some reflections on this month’s focus: outreach. In doing the reading for this month, I found myself impressed by the numerous associations between having strong and broad social ties and living well. Being connected isn’t just good […]| Scott H Young
Why loneliness is akin to smoking, democracy depends on bowling leagues, and how to make new friends as an adult.| Scott H Young
I’m now entering the sixth month of my year-long Foundations project. This month’s focus is on outreach. One of three socially-oriented foundations, outreach focuses on meeting new people and sustaining friendships with people you don’t see every day. Two related foundations, connection and service, will focus on improving close connections and finding ways to help […]| Scott H Young
I’m wrapping up this month’s focus, reading, in my year-long Foundations project. Normally, I split my final posts into one covering the books I read during the month and one discussing my personal experience and habit changes in the month’s focus area. However, since this month was *about* reading, I decided to merge the two. […]| Scott H Young
I’m just beginning the fifth month of my year-long Foundations project. The focus for this month is reading. In case you’re interested, here are the previous months’ content: I picked this focus as one of the twelve because I believe a regular habit of reading, particularly from books, is one of the best foundational habits […]| Scott H Young
I’m wrapping up the fourth month in my year-long foundations project. This month, my focus was on food. You can also read my opening update, and my book notes for the month. Previous months centered on fitness, productivity and money. You can also watch my wife’s and my conversation about how this month in the […]| Scott H Young
Looking to eat better? Here's some books to add to your shelf that helped me!| Scott H Young
I’m now rounding out the third month in my year-long project to improve my foundations. This month’s focus was money. In particular, the keystone habit I asked students of my course to work on this month was setting up a system to track their expenses and reviewing it at least monthly. Monthly expense tracking has […]| Scott H Young
Want to be better with money? Here are ten books + the one-minute summary of what you need to know.| Scott H Young
