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.
Start Here
- TL;DR — read this if you have a short attention span
- Making Habits Stick — how habits work
- What to Change — the things you’ll need 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
- Adequate Data: Meaning Checklist — everything necessary for a meaningful daily life
- Adequate Data: Commonly Abused Substances — things people often abuse
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 financial liabilities work
- Budgeting & Goals — clarifying financial desires
- Wise Spending Concepts — principles for expenses
- Adequate Data: Numerous Saving Tips — many ways to save money
- Adequate Data: Small Things Always Worth Buying — items usually worth the cost
People Skills
- Why People Skills Matter — why it’s worth it
- Making Yourself Presentable — preparing a public image
- Respecting People — setting and honoring boundaries
- Building Friendships — how to make friends
Important Improvements
Better Mind Management
- How Creativity Works — the creative process
- Improving Memory — better retention and recall
- Having Fun — how to enjoy life
- Basic Computer Skills — how to use computers
Better People Skills
- How to Speak — making conversations and speeches
- How to Write — encoded language expression
- Conflicts — difficult conversations
- Dealing with Liars — understanding deception
- Things You’re Allowed To Do (external) — social things you may have overlooked
- Adequate Data: Small Social Rules — culturally important details
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 — how to find a decent partner
- Weddings — how to transition from engaged to married
- 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 — understand why you want a change
- 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 express blunt ideas
Better Body Maintenance
- Weight Management — diet and exercise management
- Basic First Aid — caring for injuries
- How to Cook — improving food
- Adequate Data: Basic Recipes — simple food anyone can make
- Adequate Data: Food Tricks — ways to make food prep easier
- Adequate Data: Food Substitutes — things you can replace food with when cooking
- Adequate Data: Food Shelf Lives — how long food can keep
Better Fun
- Alcohol Ideas — fun with alcohol
- Coffee Facts — improving coffee
- All About Tea — improving tea
- Throwing a Party — having memorable parties
- Enjoying Vacations & Trips — having great days and weeks off
- Adequate Data: Fun Ideas — small ways to enjoy life
- Adequate Data: Fun Food & Drinks — making food fun
- Adequate Data: Trip-Planning Checklist — everything necessary for a vacation or trip
Other Critical Problems
Severe Hardship
- Overcoming Severe Hardship — handling a terrible experience
- Handling Death — managing the ends of lives
- Overcoming Personal Hardships — other specific personal battles
- Overcoming Interpersonal Hardships — other specific social battles
- Overcoming Society’s Hardships — other specific battles across 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
- Insurance/investing/auto ownership/homeownership — many other specific modern needs
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.