The Playbook: A Collection of Mental Models, Strategies, and Tactics

A collection of mental models, strategies, and tactics that have helped me lead a better life.

A Playbook for Learning

• ???? Cluster Reading: How to Become an Expert
• ???? The Super Mario Effect: How to trick yourself into learning more
• ???? The Question-Book Method
• ???? Free Recall: How to Remember What You Read
• ???? Deliberate Practice vs. Distributed Practice

A Playbook for Purpose, Productivity, and Motivation

• The 80/20 Principle Template: How to Evaluate Your Time
• The One-Sentence-A-Day Journal
• The Morning Preview
• The Daily Review (2018)
• A Hierarchy of Goals

A Playbook for Spirituality

• ???? The Little Way: The Easiest Way to Become a Saint
• ???? The Anger Baby: How to Calm Down When You Are Upset
• ???? A Highway Meditation: A metaphor to help you mediate and monitor your thoughts and emotions
• ???? The Friday Feed Fast: How to strengthen your resistance to the temptation of modern media

A Playbook for Parenting 

• The HALT Strategy: How to Respond to Temper Tantrums

A Playbook for Writers

• The Character Question: What do they want and why?
• The Ten Person Test: How to Get Feedback on Your Book
• Maker’s Schedule, Marketer’s Schedule, and Manager’s Schedule: How to Organize Your Day as a Writer
• Stephen King’s “No Adverbs Rule”
• Robert Heinlein’s Five Rules for Writing
• Book Elevator Pitch Template: How to Explain What Your Book is About
• The One Sentence, One Paragraph, One Page Exercise: What is your book about?
• The Rule of 30,000: How to Evaluate the Market for a Book Idea
• ✍️ Have Done vs. Want To Do Projects: How to decide what to work on as an author

A Marketing Playbook

• The Grunt Test: How to Make Your Website Better
• Prime Time Email Newsletters: How to Start a Weekly Email
• The “Link Roundup” Email Newsletter: A Simple Way to Send More Emails
• Gary Vaynerchuk’s $1.80 Strategy to Get More Instagram Followers
• The Follow, Like, Like, Like Strategy: How to Get More Instagram Followers

A Playbook for Personal Finance 

• The $100 Habit: How to Save More Money
• The Declutter Question: If I didn’t already own this, how much would I spend to buy it?

A Playbook for Leadership 

• 5-Second Feedback: A Simple Strategy for Managers