Is the Book-to-Action Board free?

Yes. There is no account to make and nothing to pay. Open the board, pick a book and add an action. If you are signed in to HourLife, the board is also saved to your account.

Where do the actions come from?

Every book page on HourLife lists practical actions and insights from the book, which readers vote on. When you open a book on the board, it shows the actions with the most votes, each paired with one of the book’s insights. You can also write an action of your own, from any book.

Why does This week stop at three?

It doesn’t stop you, it just says three is plenty. Each action on trial needs a moment in your day and some attention to notice whether it helped. Three at once leaves room to give each a fair week; ten at once usually means none of them gets one.

When should an action move to Kept?

When it happens without the card reminding you. The board offers the move once you tick five days in a week, but the call is yours. Habits take time to settle: in Lally and colleagues’ 2010 study, reaching near-automatic took a median of 66 days, so a kept card is a start, not a finish.

Is it fine to let an action go?

Yes. An action that you tried for a week and that didn’t fit is a result, not a failure, and it frees the space for the next one. Let go keeps the card and a line about why, so you can bring it back later if your life changes.

Where is my board saved?

In this browser’s local storage, on this device. If you are signed in, it is also saved to your HourLife account, so it follows you to another browser. Your notes are never put in a link and never sent anywhere else. Clearing your browser’s site data erases the browser copy.

Can I add a book that isn’t in the library?

Yes. Write a card of your own and type the book’s title next to it. It sits on the board like any other card, without a link to a book page.

Can I print or share my board?

Copy as text puts the whole board on your clipboard as a plain list, column by column, ready for a notes app or a message. Printing the page prints the board without the library.

Keep this tool for later

Tools
Book-to-Action Converter

From what you read to what you do.

Open any of 777 books, and its most-voted actions come up as index cards. Put the ones worth testing on a board, try three for a week, tick the days you did them, then keep what stuck and let the rest go.

Open the board Browse the shelves

777 books
4 columns
Free, no account

To try

Create a shutdown ritual Deep Work

Hell Yes or No Essentialism

This week

The Done List Four Thousand Weeks MTWTFSS

Kept

Define what money is for The Psychology of Money Kept

Let go

Write a one-week personal constitution The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Too much at once. Try again in January.

Book-to-Action Board6 cards from 6 books

Atomic Habits · James Clear The Two-Minute Rule Days you did it4 of 7 MTWTFSS After I make coffee, two minutes of the guitar, at the kitchen table.

How it goes

A few minutes to choose, then a week to find out.

Find a book

Search by title or author, browse a shelf, or start from a book you already know. Opening one shows its actions in the order readers voted them, each with one of the book’s insights beside it.
Deal the actions worth testing

Put an action straight into This week or park it in To try. Write your own, from any book, when the one you want is not there. Cards from different books sit on the same board.
Try three for a week

Each card in This week has a row for Monday to Sunday and a line for when and where you will do it. Tick the days you did. Five in a week and the card offers to move to Kept.

Four drawers

Every card ends up in one of them. Drag it, use its buttons, or press [ and ] to move it along.

To try
Actions you want to test. No date yet.
As many as you like, from as many books.
This week
On trial for seven days. Tick the days you did it.
Three at once is plenty. The board says so at four, and never refuses one.
Kept
It stuck. You do it without the card reminding you.
Offered once a card is ticked on five days in one week.
Let go
A fair test that did not fit. That is a result too.
Keeps the card and a line about why, so it can come back.

Start from a shelf

Each opens the board with that shelf picked, so the library shows only its books.

Or open the board and search all 777 books by title or author.

Why a week, and why three

Reading an action is not the same as finding out whether it works for you. A week is long enough to tell, and short enough to start.

This week 2 of 3

Atomic Habits · James Clear The Two-Minute Rule Days you did it5 of 7 MTWTFSS 5 days this week. It may have stuck. Move to Kept After I make coffee, two minutes of the guitar, at the kitchen table.

Three at a time

Each action on trial needs a moment in your day and some attention to notice whether it helped. Three leaves room to give each a fair week.
Days, not streaks

The check row counts days, and five of seven is enough to offer Kept. In Phillippa Lally’s study, missing a single day did not set habit-building back, and the median time to near-automatic was 66 days. Kept is a start, not a finish line.
A when and a where

The line on each card in This week asks when and where you will do it. Deciding that in advance, an if-then plan, made people noticeably more likely to follow through across 94 tests.
Your words, not the book’s

Writing an action down in your own words, or adding your own, does more than reading it: people remember what they produce better than what they only read. The note on every card is there for that.

Your board stays yours

What you try, and what you let go, is nobody else’s business.

Where it is kept

In this browser, saved as you go: the cards, the days you ticked and your notes. If you are signed in, it also follows your account to your other devices. Your notes are never put in a link or shown to anyone.
Where the actions come from

Every book page on HourLife lists the book’s practical actions, and readers vote on them. The board shows them in that order, so the ones people found most useful come first.

Copy as textThe whole board as a plain list, column by column.
PrintThe board on paper, without the library.

What it is built on

Three findings, used for what they say and no more.

Implementation intentions Peter Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 2006
A meta-analysis of 94 independent tests found that if-then plans, deciding in advance when and where you will act, had a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals (d = .65). The “when and where” line on a card in This week is one.
How habits form Phillippa Lally and colleagues, European Journal of Social Psychology, 2010
96 volunteers repeated a daily behaviour for twelve weeks. Reaching near-automatic took a median of 66 days, ranging from 18 to 254, and missing a single day did not materially affect the process. Hence days ticked rather than a streak, and Kept as a beginning.
The generation effect Norman Slamecka and Peter Graf, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 1978
Across five experiments, people remembered words they had generated themselves better than words they had only read. Putting an action in your own words, in the note or as a card of your own, borrows that.

Questions

Is the Book-to-Action Board free?

Yes. There is no account to make and nothing to pay. Open the board, pick a book and add an action. If you are signed in to HourLife, the board is also saved to your account.
Where do the actions come from?

Every book page on HourLife lists practical actions and insights from the book, which readers vote on. When you open a book on the board, it shows the actions with the most votes, each paired with one of the book’s insights. You can also write an action of your own, from any book.
Why does This week stop at three?

It doesn’t stop you, it just says three is plenty. Each action on trial needs a moment in your day and some attention to notice whether it helped. Three at once leaves room to give each a fair week; ten at once usually means none of them gets one.
When should an action move to Kept?

When it happens without the card reminding you. The board offers the move once you tick five days in a week, but the call is yours. Habits take time to settle: in Lally and colleagues’ 2010 study, reaching near-automatic took a median of 66 days, so a kept card is a start, not a finish.
Is it fine to let an action go?

Yes. An action that you tried for a week and that didn’t fit is a result, not a failure, and it frees the space for the next one. Let go keeps the card and a line about why, so you can bring it back later if your life changes.
Where is my board saved?

In this browser’s local storage, on this device. If you are signed in, it is also saved to your HourLife account, so it follows you to another browser. Your notes are never put in a link and never sent anywhere else. Clearing your browser’s site data erases the browser copy.
Can I add a book that isn’t in the library?

Yes. Write a card of your own and type the book’s title next to it. It sits on the board like any other card, without a link to a book page.
Can I print or share my board?

Copy as text puts the whole board on your clipboard as a plain list, column by column, ready for a notes app or a message. Printing the page prints the board without the library.

Books full of things to try

Atomic Habits Deep Work Essentialism Four Thousand Weeks

Pick one thing you read and try it this week

Open the board, find a book you liked, and put one of its actions in This week. Seven days from now you will know.

Open the board

Keep this going in the app.

HourLife turns these ideas into a daily system — goals, habits, focus, and reflection in one private place.

See everything HourLife does

From what you read to what you do.

How it goes

Find a book

Deal the actions worth testing

Try three for a week

Four drawers

Start from a shelf

Why a week, and why three

Three at a time

Days, not streaks

A when and a where

Your words, not the book’s