This section is all about time. We look at how many hours you can save each day, week, or year, and how much the odds improve of finishing a task on schedule. We don’t convert time into extra years of life or into money. When money does come up, we only give the calculation method — no final figures. Most of the items here are backed by a single study or overall statistics from time‑use surveys, so the evidence grades are mostly B or C.
English, Russian and Spanish use dlgrv’s unofficial translations. Newly revised entries appear in the Chinese original until a checked translation is available. The author’s latest Chinese text is authoritative. Translation revision: dlgrv/HowToLiveBetter · b25fa8a
Change “I plan to do this” into “If I sit at my desk at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, I’ll start by writing the introduction.” Across 94 separate studies, people who used this phrasing were far more likely to achieve their goals — this effect is moderate to large. All it requires is rewriting one sentence; there’s no expense and almost no extra effort.
Cost
No cost at all. Each step takes just 1–2 minutes — simply…
Benefit
When all 94 studies are combined, individuals who expressed their plans as “if… then…” statements had signific…
Before you begin any project, write one simple sentence: “If a certain target isn’t met by a specific date, then we’ll stop.” Multiple studies combined show this approach really does help people pull back from efforts they’re unlikely to succeed at. What you save is all the time you’d otherwise keep pouring into that project.
Cost
No cost at all. It takes just 5 minutes at the start to wr…
Benefit
Put several studies of implementation intentions together, and an "if... then..." set in advance also helps pe…
Money and time already spent make people more inclined to keep going. Across 98 datasets, this tendency remains consistent. Therefore, when deciding whether to continue, only factor in future investments and expected returns; past expenditures should be excluded from consideration.
Cost
No cost involved. The difficulty lies in accepting that ti…
Benefit
Prior investments of money, effort, and time increase the likelihood of continued engagement. This is known as…
Students who estimated they would finish a paper in 33.9 days actually took 55.5 days to complete it; only 29.7% of them met their own estimates. Another group of students was asked to first recall how long similar tasks had taken them in the past before making their estimates. The proportion of students who finished on time rose from 29.3% to 60.0% in this group.
Cost
No cost at all. It only requires a few minutes of review t…
Benefit
Students originally expected to finish their papers in 33.9 days, but the actual time taken was 55.5 days. Onl…
When an agenda is shared beforehand, attendees are more likely to view the meeting as useful. In experiments, seated meetings lasted 34% longer than standing ones, yet the quality of decisions reached under both formats was identical.
Cost
No monetary cost. Organizers spend 5–10 minutes writing an…
Benefit
Two studies involved 958 and 292 participants respectively. Results showed that meetings with pre‑distributed…
The more meetings you have in a day, the more exhausted you feel, and the more work seems to pile up on your plate. Canceling even one meeting frees up exactly as much time as the meeting itself lasts – no less, no more.
Cost
No monetary cost. Requires cooperation from colleagues and…
Benefit
Two surveys involved employees working 35+ hours per week – one with 676 participants, the other with 304. How…
When estimating how long a task will take, people rarely break it down into individual subtasks and calculate each one separately. Listing all subtasks first and then estimating the total duration helps avoid underestimating the required time. Once broken down, each small step can be tackled right away, which also reduces the likelihood of procrastination.
Cost
No cost involved. The actual breakdown process takes 5 to…
Benefit
People tend to overlook the need to split multi-component tasks into smaller parts when estimating timelines.…
When someone else sets the deadline, 80.6% of students finish before it. Only 38.7% finish within the time they themselves expected. When the work gets done almost follows the deadline set by others, and has little to do with their own estimate. For a task with no deadline, you can use this approach to set one yourself and commit to it.
Cost
No cost involved. The hard part is actually sticking to th…
Benefit
For students with an external deadline, 80.6% complete their work before it. Meanwhile, only 38.7% finish with…
How unpleasant the task is, whether you feel you can do it, how easily something right in front of you pulls you away, and how strong your self-control is have the strongest link with procrastination. A nervous, easily upset personality, and a taste for thrills, have only a weak link. So you can first make the task less unpleasant and make the first step smaller, instead of only scolding yourself and then forcing it.
Cost
No cost at all. The only change needed is in how you judge…
Benefit
A meta-analysis that included 691 correlation coefficients found several factors with a strong, consistent lin…
When items are physically farther away, people tend to consume less of them. Placing snacks at a distance noticeably cuts down on intake — this effect is of moderate strength. Limiting the number of available choices also leads to a marked drop in consumption. These strategies require no willpower on your part; you can arrange everything in just a few minutes.
Cost
No cost involved;
Benefit
A Cochrane review encompassing 24 randomized trials supports these findings. Moving food farther away reduces…
A randomized trial involving 2,538 participants compared two incentive models: one offering a cash reward for success, and another requiring an upfront deposit that is refunded plus a bonus only if the goal is met. Among those willing to join either program, the deposit model produced a success rate 13 percentage points higher than the reward model. Yet only 13.7% of participants agreed to pay the deposit, while 90% opted for the reward option. Thus the deposit approach works best for those willing to pay; for everyone else it essentially has no effect.
Cost
Under this deposit‑based approach, participants must put u…
Benefit
In a U.S. trial with 2,538 participants, employees and their relatives were randomly assigned to one of four i…
The idea that “it takes 21 days to form a habit” has no scientific basis. One study tracking participants over 12 weeks found that it took as little as 18 days for an action to become automatic, while some people needed as many as 254 days. It’s perfectly normal for things to feel difficult for two or three weeks. Missing a single day also does not reset any progress.
Cost
No cost at all. What’s required is simply repeating the sa…
Benefit
Ninety-six volunteers each chose a simple action related to eating, drinking, or physical activity, and perfor…
Procrastination bad enough to cause distress can get better. Follow cognitive-behavioral self-help materials for 10 weeks, and doing it with someone guiding you and doing it entirely on your own were both clearly better than doing nothing. There was no visible difference between having a guide and not having one, so doing it yourself, following the materials, also works.
Cost
A self-help book costs just a few dozen yuan;
Benefit
150 participants were randomly assigned to three groups: self-help with therapist guidance, self-help without…
On average, Chinese residents spend 1 hour and 17 minutes each day doing household chores. Among those who actually do them, the average time spent is 1 hour and 59 minutes. People who pay to save time tend to report higher life satisfaction. For the same amount of money, spending it on time rather than goods brings greater immediate happiness.
Cost
Outsourcing chores comes at a cost, which varies depending…
Benefit
According to a 2024 survey covering 38,500 households and 107,000 individuals, Chinese residents spend an aver…
In 2024, people in China spent an average of 5 hours and 37 minutes online each day. People who actually went online that day spent 6 hours and 3 minutes. In 2018, the same calculation came to only 2 hours and 42 minutes. This is the largest number in this section. Cut 1 hour off each day, and a year gives you 365 extra hours.
Cost
No cost at all. The actions take just a few minutes: turn…
Benefit
The average daily online time for Chinese residents is 5 hours and 37 minutes;
People in the United States aged 15 and older watch 2.6 hours of television a day, which takes up half of all their free time. In 2018, people in China watched an average of 1 hour and 40 minutes a day, and older people aged 75 to 84 watched 3 hours and 16 minutes. Switch the information you need to a set time and take it in one sitting, and what you can save is in this block.
Cost
No monetary cost. The real challenge is breaking the habit…
Benefit
Americans aged 15 and older watch 2.6 hours of TV daily. Their total leisure time is 5.2 hours, so TV viewing…
Most people who are used to Word still click the toolbar icons. In experiments that compared groups, shortcuts were faster than both menus and icons. Learning this once is a one-time cost, and every action after that, every day, pays it back. The longer you do the same kind of work, the more you get back.
Cost
There is no monetary cost. However, it requires a one-time…
Benefit
Research involving 251 experienced Word users revealed that most rarely utilize faster shortcuts, continuing t…
In data from Germany that followed the same people over time, those with a longer commute felt their own lives were going worse. That loss was not made up in wages or in housing. But a review pooling multiple studies also found no stable relationship between commute length and overall life satisfaction. Cut 30 minutes off one way, and a week saves you 5 hours.
Cost
This option is costly. You may end up paying higher rent o…
Benefit
On average, Chinese residents spend 50 minutes daily on transportation;
