The Best Articles in Better Living
The most useful articles and videos in Better Living from around the web, curated by thought leaders and our community.
Refind focuses on timeless pieces and updates the list whenever new, must-read articles or videos are discovered.
Top 5 Better Living Articles
At a glance: these are the articles that have been most read, shared, and saved in Better Living by Refind users in 2024 so far.
Videos
Watch a video to get a quick overview.
How to Be Miserable and Ruin Your Life
Do you complain constantly? Always feel like you’re under attack? Well, congratulations, these alone tell me that you’re already well on your way to becoming...
22 Habits To Follow For A Happy Life
Kevin Kelly is the founder of Wired Magazine, a futurist, author, and public speaker known for his insights on technology’s impact on society.Working out how...
How Your Beliefs Control Your Happiness
Derek Sivers is so skeptical of the human psyche that he doesn’t even trust himself.His strong stance on this aspect of human psychology makes him more open ...
RESONANCE AND ALIENATION. TWO MODES OF EXPERIENCING TIME?
By Hartmut Rosa for TimeWorld 2019, the International congress on Time.https://timeworldevent.com/1/accueil/Hartmut Rosa is Professor of Sociology and Social...
What is ...?
New to Better Living? These articles make an excellent introduction.
What is Your Ikigai?
Ikigai is really your reason for being, the thing that gives you direction and motivation, and it is at the heart of what we do at Learnlife.
«“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why” - Mark Twain»
What Is Self-Gaslighting?
How we pick up the torch from the gaslighter and turn it on ourselves.
«Most of us have heard of gaslighting. It’s a form of emotional abuse that uses manipulation and minimization to make someone question their reality.»
Philosophy of Happiness
INTRO Here’s a short introduction to some of the most fascinating philosophical issues about happiness. We are going to look at three...
How to ...?
How to break unhealthy habits: Stop obsessing over willpower and focus on routines
Understanding and changing the environment in which habits form is a critical step when it comes to breaking unwanted behaviors and forming healthy ones.
«Another path to habit change involves friction: in other words, making it difficult to act on undesirable habits and easy to act on desirable ones.»
How to figure out what you want out of life
What society expects of you and what you actually want in life can be different things.
«At any age, setting aside time and intentionality to decipher what motivates you and whether you’ve been living authentically can be enlightening»
How to Improve Your Self-Esteem in 5 Minutes or Less
There are no quick fixes for low self-esteem: There’s no profound insight your therapist can give you that will suddenly improve your self-esteem There’s no secret mantra that will unlock your inner…
«If you spend your entire childhood learning that you’re not good enough or not lovable, that’s not something that’s going to change overnight.»
How to conquer digital distractions
Digital distractions are all around us. Here's how to combat them so you can stay focused and productive at work.
«Users were gambling every time they shared a photo, web link, or status update,»
How To Stop Being Lazy And Get More Done
How do we get motivated? The latest research has secrets that can help us get going and get things done even when we don't feel like it...
Trending
These links are currently making the rounds in Better Living on Refind.
Do Nothing, Then Do Less
It's tempting to think that adding to our lives will lead to greater success and happiness. But sometimes doing less is the better option, as test pilot Chuck Yeager was to learn the hard way. Tim…
How to Develop a Strong Sense of Self
By Leo Babauta Developing a strong sense of self is one of the most under-appreciated ways to be happy. To have healthy relationships, with others and with yourself. It’s not often understood, and as…
The Deep and Enduring History of Universal Basic Income
While the concept stretches back centuries, it has garnered significant attention in recent decades.
The Middle Passage: A Jungian Field Guide to Finding Meaning and Transformation in Midlife
“Our task at midlife is to be strong enough to relinquish the ego-urgencies of the first half and open ourselves to a greater wonder.”
«“In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself within a dark woods where the straight way was lost,” Dante wrote in the Inferno.»
Short Articles
Short on time? Check out these useful short articles in Better Living—all under 10 minutes.
11 Philosophical Razors to Simplify Your Life
A collection of eleven philosophical razors; principles that can simplify your life by getting rid of useless or unlikely explanations.
«Wittgenstein’s Ruler, the idea that judgements made by an unreliable source tell you more about the source than about the claim itself.»
3 Hard Truths You Need to Hear
Welcome to the realm of harsh truths, where I, Mark Manson, will make you question everything you've ever believed in.
«Next time you’re absolutely sure about something, take a step back and ask yourself if it’s something you’ll be embarrassed about in a decade.»
Slow Down to Fall in Love Again
“Smile, breathe and go slowly.” –Thich Nhat Hanh
«if we slow down with our tasks, give them some space and allow ourselves to fully immerse ourselves in each activity … it can transform the experience»
Smart Things I’ve Read Lately
“Until we know we are wrong, being wrong feels exactly like being right.” – David McRaney “I’m just a collection of mirrors, reflecting what everyone else expects of me.” – Rollo May “Basically, when…
«“Life is not a problem to be solved. It’s a paradox to experience. You can believe one thing and also believe its opposite.” – Derek Sivers»
The 5 Levels of Understanding Yourself
To understand the self, let's embark on a journey of brain-melting ideas that'll leave you questioning your very existence.
Long Articles
These are some of the most-read long-form articles in Better Living.
Einstein's 7 rules for a better life
When it comes to living your best life, Albert Einstein — notorious as the greatest physicist and genius of his time, and possibly of all-time — probably isn’t the first name you think of in terms of…
«Blind obedience to authority is the greatest enemy of the truth.” In the era of fake news, this lesson is more important to assimilate than ever»
100 tiny changes to transform your life: from the one-minute rule to pyjama yoga
Want more health and happiness in the year ahead – without having to work too hard? Here are tried and tested tweaks that can lead to big improvements
«Walking outdoors every day. I find it hugely beneficial for my mental and physical health, which has had a domino effect on my whole life.»
My 12 Favorite Problems
A dozen things that drive my writing, research, thinking & actions
«battle against the constant pressure from powerful forces to narrow and constrain my life»
How to Succeed at Failing, Part 1: The Chain of Events
How to Succeed at Failing, Part 1: The Chain of Events - Freakonomics
The mathematically correct way to tie your shoes
One of the major milestones of our early childhoods comes when we learn, for the first time, how to successfully tie our own shoes. As most of us learned, there are three key steps to making that…
Thought Leaders
We monitor hundreds of thought leaders, influencers, and newsletters in Better Living, including:
What is Refind?
Every day Refind picks the most relevant links from around the web for you. Picking only a handful of links means focusing on what’s relevant and useful.
How does Refind curate?
It’s a mix of human and algorithmic curation, following a number of steps:
- We monitor 10k+ sources and 1k+ thought leaders on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
- In addition, our users save links from around the web using our Save buttons and our extensions.
- Our algorithm processes 100k+ new links every day and uses external signals to find the most relevant ones, focusing on timeless pieces.
- Our community of active users gets the most relevant links every day, tailored to their interests. They provide feedback via implicit and explicit signals: open, read, listen, share, mark as read, read later, «More/less like this», etc.
- Our algorithm uses these internal signals to refine the selection.
- In addition, we have expert curators who manually curate niche topics.
The result: lists of the best and most useful articles on hundreds of topics.
How does Refind detect «timeless» pieces?
We focus on pieces with long shelf-lives—not news. We determine «timelessness» via a number of metrics, for example, the consumption pattern of links over time.
How many sources does Refind monitor?
We monitor 10k+ content sources on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
Who are the thought leaders in Better Living?
We follow dozens of thought leaders in Better Living, including Mark Manson, Tim Ferriss, James Clear, The Cut, Elemental.
Missing a thought leader? Submit them here
Can I submit a link?
Indirectly, by using Refind and saving links from outside (e.g., via our extensions).
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When you’re logged-in, you can flag any link via the «More» (...) menu. You can also report problems via email to hello@refind.com
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