First I take responsibility for most of the failings listed here. Second self-help is a broad subject and I only pursue scrubbing some memories, getting a few frustrating tasks done and increasing some focus/concentration.<p>I've tried reading Amazon sample portions, borrowing library books, buying cheap used copies, reading summaries, trying to read the book from the beginning and skimming through the book hoping to find the relevant paragraph or page. All seem to be roughly equally unsatisfying and unproductive for me.<p>Some books, from the title and description, seem like they would be applied self-help, but on reading turn out to be more abstract popularized general descriptions than intense applied instruction. Other books are more applied, but then turn out to describe a daily process that they say must be practiced for months to accomplish what they claim and it isn't even clear to me exactly what specific concrete benefit I would get if I invested that time. I don't have, and I suspect many or most people don't have, the motivation to practice something for months with no immediate demonstration that there will be actual benefit that I want after that investment. Example: think "mindfulness." What specific concrete benefit that you need and want NOW are you certain to get out of that after how much time you invest in that?<p>There are lots of little surprising example effects in psychology that can be clearly demonstrated in a minute. I'm not talking about turning your life upside down, I'm talking about spending a minute or two followed by "WOW! I actually SAW that happen!" If there were self-help books, particularly on the areas that I am interested in, that would begin with such a relevant exercise and follow that with a bit more explanation, followed by a slightly larger and slightly more impressive exercise, followed by ... repeat until end of book ... then I think that would give me the motivation, and I suspect give others the motivation, to buy the book and read every sentence and do every exercise and see every effect and maybe even by the end of the book be motivated to spend months doing the prescription and get the complete benefit promised by the book and see if the author has done this in any other books and buy all those books and tell everyone I know about these books and urge them to buy the books...<p>If anyone is aware of anything like that for the areas that I'm interested in then please find a way to let me know about that. Thanks