In a year when physical and existential danger were uncomfortably near, reading a book was no small triumph. I read in spurts, unable to satiate my need for stories one month, and re-reading the same page for weeks on end during another. I began the year with ambitions of reading…

I’m ending 2019, feeling grateful for books and the people who make them, and indebted to the readers, booksellers, and librarians I encountered this year who gave me so many beautiful, spot-on recommendations. What follows are my thoughts on the books I read in 2019 (including a 10-way tie for…

A doable thing that doubles an excuse to remind you of my favorite thing: read more. Pick up a book this month and you’ll be in great company; Elon Musk, Sheryl Sandberg, and LeBron James are all voracious readers. It doesn’t matter what you read or how you read. Just read. Not sure where to start? I have a list of my all-time favorites here, or you can check out my project Call Me Ishmael and hear which books have stuck with anonymous bibliophiles out in the world.

After last year’s reading journey to focus exclusively on female writers, I spent 2018 reading anything I wanted, and the 40-ish books below make up my most diverse year of reading yet. I read plays and graphic novels and horror stories and collections of short fiction. Yesterday, I caught up…

A daily doable thing: write morning pages. This daily practice comes from Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way, and its benefits are many. Morning pages is a practice that artists, writers and thinkers use to 1) start the day producing and 2) make a daily habit of creating. …

A doable thing you’re already doing: sleep more. I got some rest over Labor Day weekend, and it turns out my naps were magically making me more creative. Sleep science tells us the many (many!) benefits of rest, but the likes of Stephen King, Thomas Edison, and John Steinbeck reaped…

A doable jolt of creativity: draw some circles. This doable thing is an exercise designed by researcher Bob McKim. Step 1: Draw 30 circles. Step 2: Set a timer for 3 minutes. Step 3: Adapt as many of your circles as you can into other objects. The activity’s a great…

A doable way to be more creative: be curious. I love how Elizabeth Gilbert thinks about this one: “Grow your curiosity. You can’t control creativity, but you can control curiosity.” Sounds vague, but curiosity cultivation is actually totally doable. Reading more, asking lots of questions, and generally following up on the stuff you’re interested in will all help you become a more curious person. -Steph

A very very doable thing: take a walk. You’ll be in good company; Franz Kafka, Virginia Woolf, Leo Tolstoy, Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Isaac Asmiov, Einstein, Beethoven, Charles Dickens, John Muir, and Steve Jobs all took regular walks to clear their minds or think through problems. Need more reasons to walk? It’s Stanford-approved. It fits into busy schedules. It’ll help you live longer. Now go take a hike.