This is a summary of practical life tips, explained for my simple commonplacing and your public consumption. Consult my method to see how I built it.
NOTE: As of May 4th, 2025, I am taking a severe hiatus from all writing projects. I’ve been utterly broken and humbled, and don’t consider any of these essays to be sufficiently right anymore. This may change, but consider everything here as an archive of someone’s efforts who no longer exists.
Start Here
- TL;DR — the summary for those with a short attention span
- Making Habits Stick — how habits work
- What to Change — what needs to change
Critical Needs
Necessary Mind Fixes
- Sleeping Well — everything about sleep
- Self-Awareness — understanding oneself
Happiness
- Defining Happiness — what it is
- Fighting Unhappiness — climbing out of unhappiness
- Maintaining Happiness — long-term maintenance
Success
- Defining Success — what it is
- Attitude Adjustment — changing motivation
- Making Realistic Goals — planning around reality
- Optimizing Your Routine — improving flow
- Persevering — persisting against failure
- Staying Humble — maintaining success
Money
- Why Money Management Matters — why it’s worth it
- Everything About Debt — how debt works
- Budgeting & Goals — know what you want
- Wise Spending Concepts — how to spend
- Adequate Data: Numerous Saving Tips — specific ways to save money
- Adequate Data: Small Things Always Worth Buying — items usually worth the extra cost
People Skills
- Why People Skills Matter — why it’s worth it
- Making Yourself Presentable — how to look good
- Respecting People — honoring boundaries
- Building Friendships — how to make friends
Important Improvements
Better Mind Management
- How Creativity Works — the creative process
- Improving Memory — how to remember
- Having Fun — how to enjoy life
- Basic Computer Skills — how to use computers
Better People Skills
- How to Speak — better spoken language
- How to Write — better written language
- Conflicts — difficult conversations
- Dealing with Liars — understanding deception
Better Home Management
- Getting Organized — managing clutter
- Housekeeping — home maintenance
- Decorations & Renovations — improving a home
- Pet Ownership — responsibly owning a pet
- Adequate Data: Moving Checklist — everything necessary to move
Romantic Relationships
- Dating — finding a decent partner
- Weddings — transitioning into marriage
- Life Partner Relationships — long-term relationship strategies
Parenting
- Parenting Babies — working with new people
- Parenting Children — working with extremely inexperienced people
- Parenting/Releasing Teenagers — working with barely experienced people
Better Careers
- Preparing for the Search — know where you want to go
- Making Plans — setting goals
- Image Crafting — building a personal brand
- Job Hunting — marketing yourself
- Interviewing — impressing employers
- Closing the Deal — deciding and transitioning
- Deciding on College — whether college is worth it
- Prolonged Unemployment — prolonging living without income
- How to professionally say (external) — the polite way to send blunt messages
Better Body Maintenance
- Weight Management — diet and exercise management
- Basic First Aid — caring for injuries
- How to Cook — improving food
Better Fun
- Alcohol Ideas — fun with alcohol
- Throwing a Party — having memorable parties
- Enjoying Vacations & Trips — having great time off
- Adequate Data: Fun Ideas — small ways to enjoy life
Other Critical Problems
Severe Hardship
- Overcoming Severe Hardship — handling a terrible experience
- Handling Death — managing the ends of lives
- Overcoming Personal Hardships — specific personal battles
- Overcoming Interpersonal Hardships — specific social battles
- Overcoming Society’s Hardships — specific battles with society
Disaster Preparedness
- What is a Disaster? — the essence of every disaster
- Short-Term Preparation — how to prepare for something big
- Long-Term Preparation: Staying — how to be prepared to stay afterward
- Long-Term Preparation: Moving — how to be prepared to leave afterward
- Surviving Nature — how to handle untamed nature
- Learn to make outdoor gear (external) — make outdoor gear yourself
- Animated knots (external) — learn to tie knots
- Adequate Data: Specific Survival Situations — odd, specific things you can survive
- Adequate Data: Disaster Checklist — a sensible shopping list for the collapse of society
Autism
- How to Start Looking at Autism (book) — the precise way to view autism
- How to Stop Looking Autistic (book) — if you’re autistic, how to not look it
Modern Society
Miscellaneous
About/FAQ
Why “Adequate”?
- This world tends to reward greatness with more great things. But, with a bad hand in life, the world is often unfairly cruel, and punishes you for things you couldn’t have known.
- This site converges and consolidates everything related to self-help:
- YouTube videos and TED talks
- Advice columns and blog articles
- Discussions with professionals
- Book and executive summaries
- Social media feeds
- Forum discussions
- This is for people who don’t have enough time or focus to read, or simply want the plain facts.
- If you want persuasive explanations or many examples, there are 10 best-selling books on each of these topics that do it better than me.
What’s up with the logo?
- It’s a visual representation of Adequate and Life (AL), intentionally designed as adequately as possible.
I can’t read this website!
- For whatever reason (e.g., limited electricity access, incarceration), you may not be able to view this site. I created an inferior book format for your needs. It’s the cheapest Amazon will bind and sell a 361-page book. Try to get it used somewhere.
Who are you, anyway?
- I’m Dave Stucky.
- You might like other things I made.
- Follow my updates here.