Daniel Goleman argues that attention is a complex and underappreciated cognitive resource in our modern society overrun with distractions. In Focus, he explores how you can understand, strengthen, and effectively use your attention to lead a more fulfilling and productive life, as well as to connect better with others and have a positive impact on the world.

A renowned psychologist and New York Times science writer, Goleman is the author of international bestsellers on emotional intelligence and leadership. In this guide, we’ll explore his theories on how harnessing the power of inner, other, and outer focus can help you excel in everything you do. We’ll look at actionables he recommends to help, including mindfulness meditation and digital attention training games as tools to improve habits, skills, and overall success. We’ll also provide additional context to help you better understand the book’s concepts, and we’ll compare the author's insights to those of other psychology and neuroscience experts.

How can you be more productive and creative? Most of us assume that the answer lies, at least in part, in managing our time better. But in Hyperfocus, productivity expert Chris Bailey presents an alternate hypothesis: To focus in a world full of ever-increasing distractions, you must learn not just how to manage your time but also how to manage your attention.

Bailey explains why your current method of directing your attention isn’t working—like why you still feel tired no matter how many breaks you take—and then shares several strategies for managing your attention for better productivity and creativity. In this guide, we’ll compare these strategies to recommendations from neuroscientists and other productivity experts, supplementing Bailey’s ideas so that you can manage your attention in the most effective way possible.

Like most people, you’re probably easily distracted by wandering thoughts or social media updates while trying to be productive. In Deep Work, Cal Newport teaches you how to develop your focus and resist distractions so that you can rise to the top of your field and drive toward your most important goals. He contends that focus is like a mental muscle: Through deliberate training, you can strengthen your focus and expand your mental capacity.

Newport explains why the ability to do deep work (work that requires intense concentration) is so important in our modern economy, and he shows how to make deep work a part of your life. In addition to exploring Newport’s ideas on how to eliminate distractions, this guide adds advice from other authors on how to work despite present distractions. We also include practical ways that everyday knowledge workers, not just academics like Newport, can prioritize deep work.

In today’s tech-dependent, app-centered, notification-ruled world, it’s easier than ever to get distracted from what’s really important—your values, your relationships, and your work. In Indistractable, Nir Eyal develops a four-part model for gaining the modern-day superpower of “indistractability.”

You’ll learn how your distractions start internally, why your schedule should be based on your values instead of tasks, how to diminish the power of external triggers in your life, and how to commit to yourself—so you can start driving your life instead of letting its distractions drive you.

Do you often feel that there isn’t enough time to finish all the projects you’d like to get done? Does it seem that when you try to concentrate, your attention gets pulled in a thousand directions? Many authors agree that the ability to focus—to concentrate on an individual task—is key to success and fulfillment, not just in your career but also in your personal life. They also agree that focus is a skill you have to learn through practice, deliberate repetition, and strategies to minimize distractions.

In Shortform’s Master Guide, we’ve gathered the best strategies from the experts—including psychologists, productivity gurus, and business consultants—to help you harness your attention to achieve any goal. We’ll talk about what focus is (and why it’s so hard to do) and provide a step-by-step process for improving your focus, from removing distractions from your environment and disconnecting digitally to maintaining your motivation and refining your approach. Whether you’re a student, an entrepreneur, or a professional, you’ll find practical and effective techniques for honing your concentration in any area of life or work.

Do you have a pile of reading material you’ve been meaning to read for ages? Do you feel you could learn more if only you could read faster? In 10 Days to Faster Reading, Abby Marks Beale and the Princeton Language Institute offer a variety of strategies to help you reach your reading goals. By practicing their speed-reading techniques, you can learn new information more efficiently, rid yourself of unhelpful reading habits, and understand the things you read on a deeper level.

In this guide, we’ll explore the authors’ reasons speed-reading is important for adults. Then, we’ll look at a selection of their strategies for quicker, more effective reading, especially of nonfiction texts. For instance, we’ll explore how to teach your eyes to take in more information at once. In our commentary, we’ll look at some of the science behind speed-reading. Additionally, we’ll examine some alternative philosophies on reading instruction, such as Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren’s ideas in How to Read a Book.

Throughout your life, parents, teachers, coaches, and employers have probably told you to focus. But has anyone ever taught you how? That's what Dandapani—a Hindu priest and entrepreneur who spent 10 years living in a monastery—aims to do in The Power of Unwavering Focus. Dandapani explains that focus isn't something that just happens—it's a skill that you must cultivate like any other. However, few people understand how to learn this skill and even fewer have put in the effort to master it.

This guide explores Dandapani's advice and the many benefits of a focused life. We'll discuss the importance of finishing tasks you begin, how improved focus can deepen your sense of purpose, and the unexpected benefits of wiggling your toes. Through our commentary, we'll examine the neuroscience behind focus, the Hindu concepts that inform Dandapani's practice, and complementary advice from other focus experts.

In Why We’re Polarized, American progressive journalist, political commentator, and podcaster Ezra Klein argues that Americans are divided into two sharply contrasting groups rooted in partisan identities.

He writes that the clustering of nearly the entire electorate into the Democratic and Republican camps is a story about identity. Specifically, our partisan political identities have become overarching super-identities that encompass and activate our most deeply felt personal, religious, linguistic, socioeconomic, and ethnic/racial identities. In today’s America, these underlying lines of division all come together in one main division—between Democrats and Republicans—that makes bipartisan cooperation increasingly difficult.

In this guide, we explore the origins of modern political polarization and its differing impact on the two major political parties, how polarization has made American politics a winner-take-all struggle, and ideas for how we might depolarize our politics. We also supplement Klein’s ideas and analysis with commentary from other political scholars and analysts and explore additional perspectives that both support and challenge Klein.

Have you ever felt anxious about a new social situation, an interview, a performance, or another environment where you lack confidence? In Presence, social psychologist Amy Cuddy explains how to navigate these stressful scenarios by embodying “presence”—a self-assured confidence that’s not arrogant but allows you to comfortably express your true self. She says you can achieve presence by leveraging the body-mind connection to change the way you feel about yourself rather than worrying about what others perceive.

In this guide, we’ll explore Cuddy’s popular research on how “power poses”—like the superwoman stance—and other body language shifts can boost your confidence and improve your performance in high-pressure situations. We’ll also explain how research on this topic has evolved since the book was published and include tips from other experts on how to navigate stressful experiences.

In This Naked Mind, Annie Grace reveals the real reason it’s so hard to quit drinking: We often see alcohol as a drink that enhances life experiences and makes us happy, relaxed, and confident. Although in reality, alcohol does none of these things, Grace explains that our unconscious minds still cling to these false beliefs that alcohol is good. To break free from alcohol dependence, you must change your unconscious beliefs and see alcohol as it truly is: an addictive drug that poisons your mind and body. When you change your beliefs, you’ll overcome addiction by no longer wanting to drink, and you’ll enjoy a fulfilling life free of alcohol.

In this guide, we’ll explain how alcohol affects your brain and body, how addiction works, and how to change your false beliefs about alcohol. We’ll also compare Grace’s advice with that of other addiction experts and provide more practical tips for applying her recovery approach to your life.