PickVidsBest Productivity & self-improvement Videos
The 95 Productivity & self-improvement videos here were recommended by different people across different months. Choose by who it is for: 8 introductory, 2 intermediate, 85 for a general viewer, and 0 for someone who wants the harder derivation. Most of them are a talk. What they share is that one speaker finishes a claim, and the examples exist to hold that claim up. Channels you will keep seeing include TEDx Talks, TED, CGP Grey.
Matsuoka Shuzo [松岡修造 ] - あきらめかけているあなた (NEVER GIVE UP!!) [English]
A short English-subtitled clip of Shuzo Matsuoka, a retired Japanese tennis player turned motivational speaker, delivering a never-give-up pep talk.
BoJack Horseman - "It gets easier" (Season 2 Ending)
A short clip from the Season 2 finale of BoJack Horseman in which a character says that doing the hard thing every day gets easier.
Your Brain at Work
David Rock gives a Google Tech Talk based on his book Your Brain at Work, using neuroscience to explain why focus and productivity are hard at the office.
Pink Noise for Ten Hours of Ambient Sound Blocker Masker - Burn In - Relaxation
Ten hours of uninterrupted pink noise, intended for relaxation and masking background sound.
Optimizing Workspace for Productivity, Focus, & Creativity
A Huberman Lab episode on setting up a workspace for productivity, focus and creativity, covering light, posture, movement and sound.
7 Habits For Effective Text Editing 2.0
Vim author Bram Moolenaar's 2007 Google Tech Talk on habits for efficient text editing: find inefficiencies in your own editing, then learn the Vim commands that fix them.
Techniques for dealing with lack of motivation, malaise, depression
Jonathan Blow gives a talk on techniques for dealing with lack of motivation, malaise and depression, originally on Twitch.
Why "scout mindset" is crucial to good judgment | Julia Galef | TEDxPSU
Julia Galef introduces the soldier versus scout metaphor for two approaches to thinking, using the Dreyfus Affair as the illustration.
Donald Knuth - My advice to young people (93/97)
A five-minute clip from Donald Knuth's Web of Stories interviews in which he gives advice to young people, including being wary when too many people adopt an idea.
Two Is the Wrong Number of Days Off
CGP Grey argues that the two-day weekend is poorly structured and proposes taking days off midweek, such as Wednesday and Sunday, instead.
E-Ink for productivity: Software and General Updates
A follow-up review of using e-ink devices, such as Onyx Boox tablets, for productivity and as a second monitor.
Incremental reading: Learning about nutrition from Wikipedia (SuperMemo 17)
A five-minute SuperMemo demo of incremental reading: importing a Wikipedia article on nutrition, extracting passages, making cloze deletions and finishing the item.
A kinder, gentler philosophy of success | Alain de Botton
Alain de Botton gives a TED talk questioning how we define success and failure.
The First Principles Method Explained by Elon Musk
A short excerpt of Elon Musk, interviewed by Kevin Rose, explaining first-principles reasoning with the example of the car versus improving horse carriages.
Andy Matuschak — The reason most learning tools fail
Dwarkesh Patel interviews Andy Matuschak on how he learns, why memorization matters for understanding, and why most learning tools fail.
The surprising habits of original thinkers | Adam Grant | TED
Adam Grant's TED talk on the habits of original thinkers, including procrastination and embracing failure.
You Need to Be Bored. Here's Why.
Harvard professor Arthur Brooks explains why boredom is useful rather than something to avoid.
10 Bullets, #8: "ALWAYS BE KNOLLING". By Tom Sachs
A one-minute clip from Tom Sachs's Ten Bullets series on the rule "Always Be Knolling", which means constantly arranging and putting away unused objects.
Inbox Zero
Merlin Mann's 2007 Google Tech Talk on Inbox Zero, covering Getting Things Done, why an empty inbox matters, and strategies for handling high-volume email.
Q&A: Techniques for dealing with lack of motivation, malaise, depression
The question-and-answer session that followed Jonathan Blow's talk on dealing with lack of motivation, malaise and depression.
How to stop screwing yourself over | Mel Robbins | TEDxSF
Mel Robbins gives a TEDxSF talk on why people sabotage themselves and how to push past hesitation.
Michael Jordan's Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Speech
Michael Jordan's 2009 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement speech, in which he thanks and also airs grievances about people who doubted him.
Shia LaBeouf "Just Do It" Motivational Speech (Original Video by LaBeouf, Rönkkö & Turner)
A one-minute motivational clip from the art piece #INTRODUCTIONS in which Shia LaBeouf shouts "Just Do It" in front of a green screen.