Mark Manson
30 things Mark uses or recommends, from 16 episodes.
Mark's top picks
What Mark uses or recommends most, ranked by how often and how strongly. Paid ads are left out.
Uses and recommends it · talked about in 2 episodes
"Slowly but surely, as I got through the book, Kierkegaard won me over. And by the time I was halfway through, I was like, 'Okay, this is like some serious profound shit.' ... Fear and Trembling and the religious stage of life, it can be read in a way that is quite secular."
Recommends it · talked about in 2 episodes
"I definitely recommend reading Going Pro and also reading The War of Art. I think they're both must-reads for anybody who wants to be in a creative field."
Uses and recommends it · 1 episode
"One of the books I read was Tim Ferriss's 4-Hour Work Week. And I remember reading that and being like, 'I know how to make a website. I'm a pretty good writer. I'm pretty sure I could figure this out.' I worked up the nerve to quit my job maybe a month later."
Uses and recommends it · 1 episode
"There's a kind of a definitive biography on him by a historian named Andrew Roberts. I read that at the beginning of this year and at this point I've read quite a few biographies of major historical figures. If you told me to pick one historical figure that you could have put him in any context, any country, any time period, and he would have become extraordinary, I think I would pick Napoleon."
Uses and recommends it · 1 episode
"This is why I time box though. That's what I figured out. That's one of the lessons I learned from all this. I'm like, 'Oh, this is actually what time boxing is doing for me.' Is it gives me a very clear like this is what I'm working on."
Recommends it · 1 episode
"He has this concept that's called going pro, and it's a book any aspiring creative person, like, definitely recommend reading... I think they're both must-reads for anybody who wants to be in a creative field."
What Mark warns against
Things Mark says to avoid or be careful with. Other experts don't always agree.
"People are even using ChatGPT to write their breakup texts to each other. He started using ChatGPT for financial advice and recipes, but during a divorce, he increasingly confided in the chatbot and it spiraled into a 300-hour multi-million word conversation where the bot convinced him that he had discovered a world-altering mathematical framework."
"you're probably staying up too late and having too many Red Bulls and monsters"
"you're probably staying up too late and having too many Red Bulls and monsters"
Experts most like Mark Manson
They use many of the same things Mark does. Pick the ones you trust and see what they all swear by.
All 30 of Mark's picks
- Fear and Trembling Uses and recommends it 2 episodes "Slowly but surely, as I got through the book, Kierkegaard won me over. And by the time I was halfway through, I was like, 'Okay, this is like some serious profound shit.' ... Fear and Trembling and the religious stage of life, it can be read in a way that is quite secular." Only Mark
- The War of Art Recommends it 2 episodes "I definitely recommend reading Going Pro and also reading The War of Art. I think they're both must-reads for anybody who wants to be in a creative field." +2 others
- The 4-Hour Workweek Uses and recommends it "One of the books I read was Tim Ferriss's 4-Hour Work Week. And I remember reading that and being like, 'I know how to make a website. I'm a pretty good writer. I'm pretty sure I could figure this out.' I worked up the nerve to quit my job maybe a month later." +4 others
- Napoleon: A Life Uses and recommends it "There's a kind of a definitive biography on him by a historian named Andrew Roberts. I read that at the beginning of this year and at this point I've read quite a few biographies of major historical figures. If you told me to pick one historical figure that you could have put him in any context, any country, any time period, and he would have become extraordinary, I think I would pick Napoleon." Only Mark
- Time boxing Uses and recommends it "This is why I time box though. That's what I figured out. That's one of the lessons I learned from all this. I'm like, 'Oh, this is actually what time boxing is doing for me.' Is it gives me a very clear like this is what I'm working on." Only Mark
- Turning Pro Recommends it "He has this concept that's called going pro, and it's a book any aspiring creative person, like, definitely recommend reading... I think they're both must-reads for anybody who wants to be in a creative field." Only Mark
- Going Pro Recommends it "Steven Pressfield, who we're both fans of and a friend of mine — he has this concept called Going Pro, and it's a book any aspiring creative person should definitely read. I definitely recommend reading Going Pro and also reading The War of Art. I think they're both must-reads for anybody who wants to be in a creative field." Only Mark
- Google Docs Uses it "For years, I would use note-taking software or I'd compile Google documents." +10 others
- Google Drive Uses it "I want you to generate a spreadsheet in Google Drive that allows me to track my workouts for the next 12 weeks." +4 others
- Jubilee Uses it "I did, you know, Jubilees Surrounded. I just shot an episode with them. One man versus the manosphere." Only Mark
- Cognitive behavioral therapy Recommends it "The heavyweight especially around anxiety is CBT, cognitive behavioral therapy. I do think it is pretty well established at this point that CBT is probably the best intervention for anxiety issues." +4 others
- CrossFit Uses it "I do CrossFit, which is a very high intensity, short, you know, heavy weights. I like this whole kind of barbell strategy." +1 other
- Cal Newport's planner Uses it "I actually use his planner though, his notebook. I think I mentioned this in the procrastination episode, but I use his planner, which is very much centered around time boxing." Only Mark
- MacBook Pro Uses it "So I went down to a coffee shop and I just had to work on my little 13-inch MacBook Pro. And I got a lot done." +4 others
- Scrivener Uses it "I used to use this writing software called Scrivener, which was designed for authors writing books. And it sets up you can set all these benchmarks for yourself of like how many words do you want to write a day?" Only Mark
- Sudoku Uses it "I brought a sudoku from the college newspaper and I did the sudoku and I realized that I stayed awake the entire lecture and I took great notes" Only Mark
- plentyoffish.com Uses it "I honestly like the the the only online dating experiences I had was a website, little old website called plentyofish.com." Only Mark
- MyFitnessPal Uses it "I got my MyFitnessPal. Like, look right here. I got four whiskey sours and my MyFitnessPal. So, all I got to do is skip breakfast and I hit my calories." Only Mark
- Negative visualization Recommends it "We've talked about the exercise of negative visualization, the Stoic practice of actually writing out the worst-case scenario and how you would handle it, because that exercise is so useful. What you realize when you actually start writing it out is, oh, I'm being completely unrealistic right now." Only Mark
- Premortem Recommends it "One of them is the premortem, which is a practice where you sit down before you start working on a new goal or new project... and you write out: if this is to fail, what will have caused it? ...Once you've mapped out all of the potential failure points, that can allow you to start planning to prevent those from happening in the first place." Only Mark
- So Good They Can't Ignore You Recommends it "It reminds me of a story in Cal Newport's book So Good They Can't Ignore You, which by the way is a great book around this, because he makes the point in that book that you don't find a vocation that you're passionate about. What generally happens to most people is they find something that they have a talent for or they have a knack at, they get really good at it, and it's that process of mastery that generates the passion." Only Mark
- Gratitude journaling with future luck priming Recommends it "Kind of like a gratitude journal, but with a twist. Sit down every night or every week, write down some good things that happened to you, some things that you're grateful for, but also be very explicit on why you're grateful for them. Next, I want you to go a step further, which is to write out what are some potential things that you could be lucky about in the near future, that could break your way. This is a simple exercise in drawing connections in your environment, so that you are more well-equipped to spot them when they do emerge." Only Mark
- Gratitude journaling Recommends it "One is kind of like a gratitude journal, but with a twist. Sit down every night or every week or whatever it is. Write down some good things that happened to you, some things that you're grateful for, but also be very explicit on why you're grateful for them. And next, write out what are some potential things that you could be lucky about in the near future — this is a simple exercise in drawing connections in your environment so that you are more well-equipped to spot them when they do emerge." +1 other
- Sobriety / Reducing Substance Use Recommends it "I do think it's incredibly important as an adult to be able to go for extended periods without any sort of substance, whether it's alcohol or drugs or marijuana or whatever. Find that relationship with yourself, understand your relationship with the substance, understand how it affects you, what it adds to your life, and what it detracts from your life. Not drinking for over three years was incredibly powerful in terms of just gaining a better understanding of myself and my emotions." Only Mark
- Atomic Habits Recommends it "James Clear in Atomic Habits has a great framework for this. He has four different kind of mandates for adopting any new behavior. He says number one, make it obvious. The second thing is make it attractive. The third one is make it easy. And then the fourth one is make it satisfying." +4 others
- Getting the Love You Want Recommends it "That book Getting the Love You Want by Harville Hendrix cannot recommend it enough. Around this whole normalization thing, why you do what you do, the way you behave in relationships, what you need from someone else and it's called Getting the Love You Want for a reason." Only Mark
- ACT Recommends it "ACT is also effective for certain individuals in certain flavors of anxiety. I love ACT. Yeah, ACT is pretty cool." Only Mark
- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Recommends it "Stress-induced anxiety responded pretty well to meditation. Specifically like mindfulness-based stress reduction, which is like an eight-week program. Jon Kabat-Zinn was very instrumental in developing it." +1 other
- Deep Work Recommends it "The most useful one I've ever come across is Cal Newport's Deep Work, his framework around that. Great book. If you haven't read it, go out and read it." +2 others
- Meditation Uses it "from all the time I spent meditating, that's probably one of the most important takeaways that I came away with" +18 others