Reading

• Blinkist (FREE 7-Day Trial) – 15-minute summaries of over 2,500 of the best nonfiction and self-help books ever, available in audio and text. You’ll learn a ton of actionable tips to improve your life and never run out of book ideas ever again.
• Optimize.me – A similar service to Blinkist, Optimize provides over 500 book summaries in handy 6-page PDFs. In addition, you get daily videos as well as bi-monthly Master Classes detailing various aspects of living an optimized life (e.g., sleep, nutrition, or willpower).
• Audible (FREE trial plus 2 free books) – If you want to get the most out of your commute, or if you prefer listening over reading, then audiobooks are an effective way to acquire knowledge.
• Pocket or Instapaper – Both of these allow you to save articles and videos for reading or watching later. They sync with all of your devices and are both free. The major difference is that Pocket works with tags while Instapaper works with folders.

Meditating

• Headspace – Simply the best app to establish a daily meditation routine. Perfect for beginners, explains the basics of meditation and teaches you step-by-step how to practice mindfulness meditation.
• Waking Up – We are big Sam Harris fans and this is his brand new meditation app.
• Muse Headband – Muse is a wearable brain sensing headband. The device measures brain activity via 4 electroencephalography sensors. An accompanying mobile app converts the EEG signal into audio feedback that is fed to the user via headphones.

Time Tracking

• Toogl – Tracking your time is one of the best ways to become more productive and Toggl is our app of choice for doing it. Syncs with all of your devices. Free. Does everything a time-tracking app needs to do.
• RescueTime – A more sophisticated time-tracking application. Comes with free and premium versions. Runs in the background on your computer and mobile devices while tracking time spent on applications and websites, giving you an accurate picture of your day.

Website & App Blocking Tools

• ColdTurkey – Desktop application for blocking websites across all of your browsers. Comes with free or premium version. Allows you to create groups of websites you want to block together. Premium version allows you to schedule when you want to block which websites.
• FocusMe – An alternative to ColdTurkey.

Chrome Extensions

• Empty New Tab Page – With this extension, new tabs display a blank page instead of the usual new tab page with thumbnails and website recommendations. Makes it less likely you’ll end up on distracting websites.
• Pocket or Instapaper Extension – Allows you to save articles with the click of a button and saves them to all of your devices.

More Favorite Apps

• Firefox Focus (Android, Apple) – Use this as your main browser on your phone to reduce mindless web-browsing. Doesn’t keep history. Doesn’t remember passwords. Doesn’t keep you logged in.
• BrainHQ – The #1 brain training app on the market, designed to increase focus, improve memory, and hone various brain-based skills. Backed by over 100 scientific papers proving its effectiveness. Comes with a free and premium version.
• Happify – Games, activities, and guided meditations to increase your happiness. Science-based. Comes with free and premium versions.
• Dropbox – Stores files in the cloud. Means you always have a backup copy saved somewhere, and allows you to access your files from anywhere and with any device.
• Grammarly – Checks your spelling and grammar as you type and does a very good job at it. The free version is great. There’s really no reason for not using Grammarly.
• Amazing Marvin – Super cool productivity app that incorporates principles from behavioral psychology to help you beat procrastination, feel in control and finish your to-do list.