Limited data suggests that the long-term success rate for any given productivity hack is low. CFAR recommends people try lots of techniques and see what sticks. But I think for most people, if the first few things they try all fail, they’ll be discouraged and will be turned off of self-improvement for a while. On the other hand, if one of the first few things you try happens to succeed, you have the potential to build a success spiral (or at least get that critical encouragement to keep trying more techniques).
(If this all is true, it suggests you’re best off starting with something that’s easy and has a high priority of sticking, in order to get the self-improvement cycle started. For example, taking nootropics—it doesn’t require any willpower, it seems to work reasonably well, and it’s something you’ll probably want to try eventually anyway.)
Limited data suggests that the long-term success rate for any given productivity hack is low. CFAR recommends people try lots of techniques and see what sticks. But I think for most people, if the first few things they try all fail, they’ll be discouraged and will be turned off of self-improvement for a while. On the other hand, if one of the first few things you try happens to succeed, you have the potential to build a success spiral (or at least get that critical encouragement to keep trying more techniques).
(If this all is true, it suggests you’re best off starting with something that’s easy and has a high priority of sticking, in order to get the self-improvement cycle started. For example, taking nootropics—it doesn’t require any willpower, it seems to work reasonably well, and it’s something you’ll probably want to try eventually anyway.)