I Ranked 24 Self-Help Techniques So You Don't Have To

I've always wanted to make a tier list, so I made one for self help techniques. There are so many different self help gurus online promoting some new profound way that is going to change your life. Some work, most don't and others are so stupid you wonder why you listened to a random stranger online.

In this tier list I've done every single thing. Gienuley tried it, gave it my all and only some of them are valuable techniques or routines you should implement. This tier list is based on my experience, so it's not based on scientific results, just personal experience. I'm going to be working from F tier all the way to S tier, let's see if I can go 24/24.

I'm not going to do a deep dive into all of them as this post would a take a billion years to read.

F: Waking up early in the morning / routines.

The only category in F tier, that poor sunset image. That sunset represents waking up in the morning, the people that wake up at 5am, workout, read, invent new elements while you are sleeping to glory, (lock in buddy). No but the main reason why I just never understood the waking up early mentality, is that you might not be a morning person and that's okay. See I can wake up at any time, but if I have to force myself to workout, force myself to work, force myself to put in low effort for important tasks, was it even worth it.

For the gym or any physical exercise, you want to use all your energy to push through, build muscle, and beat your PR's. How are you supposed to do that, when you are groggy, not in the mood and barely ate anything? There's no way that in the afternoon or evening when you eat food, you will feel more energized and you will not perform better.

For work, whenever you have to do deep work, why should you force yourself to wake up early trying to figure out what works and what doesn't work. You should be able to sleep comfortably, wake up and perform. What happens if you tend to do work better in the night, a lot of people do.

That's why I think the hustle culture of waking up at 6am to try to get ahead is just stupid. You can do everything you want at 6am at 2pm. You will feel better, do better work and just be a better person because you aren't lethargic.

C: Meditating, Ice baths, Tracking, Video games, Following a certain Diet

In this category, these are techniques that in theory should work, but they don't live up to the hype.

Meditating is something that I really wanted to work. I've personally tried to use multiple different techniques, box breathing, visualization, scanning, noting and it just doesn't seem to work. It might help short term for like 15 minutes, but it's just so hard to execute. First of all the reason you want to meditate in the first place is usually because you have a complex mind, your mind is constantly jumping from conclusion to conclusion, thinking about Vinland Saga season 3 release date and peach tea bobas (let me be). You can do it every day, multiple times a day and still see no benefits or hard results. Again in theory I understand why it should work, it helps slow a racing mind. However, the results for me were just underwhelming.

For ice baths or ice showers, they are beneficial. I just don't understand how they change your life and build discipline. Forcing you to be in cold water for 5 minutes isn't going to transform you entirely. I used to only take showers in my year abroad in Oakland, and there were some benefits, but the benefits aren't going to change you as a person. For cold showers they are great for recovery and resets, that's it. Cold showers can prevent injuries and just relax your muscles which is important. It's also a good reset, sometimes when you are constantly thinking about something else, agitated or can't seem to start work, it can help ground and make you feel better after doing it.

I used to be that guy that tracked every single minute thing. From water drank, weights at the gym, my actual weight, pages read, and amount of times I skipped class (joking). Tracking is something new that the older generation never used to do. They never used to use an apple watch to track their steps, never used my fitness pal to track calories and never used the screentime app to track screen time. The point is, we are overloaded with numbers that in my opinion means absolutely nothing. How are some of the most jacked people alive not tracking even minute calorie, because getting a physique has some core rules 1) Gym 2) Eat protein 3) focus on recovery. So while technology has improved, tracking every single thing doesn't represent anything that drastic. Doing 3 sets of 12 versus 2 sets of 6, isn't that big of a game changer if you aren't pushing yourself. It's great to have goals like being able to bench press 315 lbs or wanting to drink 3L of water every day for a month. I just believe that it should use a tool . indicator not an obsession. You can be successful without it.

Playing video games or any form of relaxation is in C tier because it doesn't matter how you relax in my opinion but rather it's intentional and not brain rot. So if you want to be on social media, netflix or reading, all of these relaxation techniques are great but in terms of self help, I don't think it matters how you relax, but you find a way to relax.

Similar to tracking, following a certain diet can be beneficial if you are a person who likes structure, but life is not structured. Following Keto, or no sugar again can be beneficial, however sometimes you have a spontaneous dinner with friends, or you are celebrating with family and want to eat butter chicken or whatever. The point is that you can still eat the foods you want here and there if you are 85 % consistent, something people don't say but works.

B : Journaling, Stretching, Anime, Taking care of looks, Healthy foods, reading, dopamine detox, monk mode, writing books

Moving on to B tier, this list is something I encourage everyone to try. These are techniques that have worked for me, I just think there is a ceiling of how much it can change your life.

You are constantly arguing with yourself, thinking, analyzing and sometimes you just need to get everything down. Journaling is in B tier because there are things you don't tell anyone and just need to dump it out, journaling is the tool with that. With journaling, the best thing with it is there's no structure like with meditation. You can do prompts, randomly write about a certain topic or just keep on writing until your hands get tired. I think the most beneficial aspect of journaling isn't the actual writing, but the reading of the journal entry afterwards so you can dissect it. Sometimes it's just nonsense and you realize that you overthink everything, other times they let you see patterns. The only con with journaling is the uncertainty, sometimes your not going to understand why you are doing this in the first place. Not every journal entry is going to be a hit.

This is a weird one but Stretching is something that helps me sleep at night. While most people try to use it for recovery and flexibility, I use it more to de-tense myself. The whole day we are hunched, walking, sitting, moving around. And our body gets exhausted, so being able to ease the tension is worth it.

Putting anime as a self help technique is a little weird but it's my tier list. With anime, I don't think it's going to do a 360 on your life, it just helps me see things in a different perspective, helps me learn mindsets and values. Vinland saga taught me to let go, Haikyuu taught me about hard work and Attack On Titan taught me… okay AOT didn't teach me anything but the point is that anime can change your perspective on life.

Dopamine Detox and Monk Mode are very hardcore techniques that require an insane amount of discipline and the ability to fight through discomfort. A dopamine detox is where you cut off anything that gives you dopamine through stimulation. Mostly content and food. It's one of those things where I believe there's almost a baseline fallacy. When you do a dopamine detox for a week, you might see it increase but then a month later your dopamine goes back to the same original baseline. With monk mode it's another extreme technique where you do nothing but try to maximize work growth. So doing nothing but working on your projects, self improvement and cutting out all distractions - basically isolating yourself. I think with monk mode, it's okay to do it for a short period of time, maybe like 2-3 weeks, but you also need to socialize and do other things, because then your mind and body becomes tired and you can't perform as much as you think you can.

A : Brand building, Protein, Networking, Philosophy, having fun / going out, Using AI, Deleting Social Media

When people talk about self improvement it usually revolves around making money, getting jacked and fixing yourself. However, I think the most important thing you can do while doing this whole self improvement journey is Brand Building. This is something I recently started this year, working on the website and blog you're reading right now, linkedin posts and Networking all compound to help you professional life grow. People like to see how you are growing as a person, companies want interesting applicants and if you can market yourself better to the world, it will open you to bigger and better doors. The reason why this is in A tier is because it's so easy to do writing a blog post can take 10 minutes, writing a linkedin post can take 5 minutes, and it has such a high ROI. One post of mine got 77,000 impressions, SWE on linkedin are more intrigued about my work and I get more recognition for putting in less effort. You don't have to optimize every post or blog, just simply write and some will do poorly and others will hit.

Philosophy is in A tier because it's something that school never teaches us, what morals do you want, and what type of person you are trying to become. In high school and college you are always focused on trying to succeed, get achievements, and move on to the next chapter. However, philosophy teaches us values that will compound far more than 100x solely focusing on any type of achievement. Forcing yourself to answer difficult questions about free will and social dynamics makes you see the world differently. Using principles like stoicism, detachment and wabi-sabi helps with being calm, free and secure. There are a million benefits to philosophy and the only annoying thing is that philosophy tends to contradict itself frequently, so be wary of that.

This will be the most controversial thing on this list - but I believe having fun / going out is an amazing way to better yourself. When you are working on that dreadful computer system project or preparing for an interview and you know at the end of the week you are going to do something fun. It could be a concert, a hangout or watching a game. You look forward to the weekend and you can actually get your work done because you have something to look forward to. Going out is important because it not only helps building friendships, relationships but also just the best stress reliever. I'm not sure why it's looked down upon, but the misconception of eliminating that side of you doesn't mean you will grow into a better person.

S : Gym, To Do List

There's only two techniques remaining, the reason these two are S tier is simply because I believe they a) helped me improve the most and b) are universal.

Many people reading this wouldn't be shocked to see Gym in S tier. It's kind of weird because I started going to the gym in high school and I didn't know many people who were obsessed with it. And now everyone in their 20's is gymmaxxing (I can't believe I said that). From creatine, to workout splits, energy drinks, intermittent fasting - there's just so much that the average gym goer knows about that. The reason the gym is in S tier isn't because you will look like Toji, it isn't because you will attract more people and it isn't because you will transform into a different person. It's because it helps you push yourself every day.

Tom Platz said : "I want you to fail, and I want you to get up and do it again. The same thing in life is the same thing here. If you can do this, you can do anything. Anything!

My personal experience in the gym is that it helped me feel more confident in myself and even feel more valued. The biggest takeaway is that it was a tool that helped me realize if I pushed this hard in the gym, I can push this hard in CS, sports, philosophy whatever it may be.

I listed 24 self help techniques and somehow the most basic one is in S tier. A To Do List. Somedays you don't work for 8 hours, you may only have 3-4 hours of work and then you go and watch Invincible. When I finish my work for the day I panic, I definitely missed something or I didn't read my assignment carefully - something is not right. I started writing a to do list the night before I went to bed of everything I wanted to accomplish. For example :

You get the point. I would create this list and then as the day goes on simply check off everything, that way - I don't overthink about my day and you also feel accomplished because you can see what you did in writing. There's no downside.

This is a longer post, I hope this list gives you a better understanding of these techniques, what works and what may not work for you.