We know that our minds are capable of great things because, every now and then, they come out with a fantastic idea or two. However, our minds are also unpredictable; spending large stretches of time distracting us. This is a book about how to optimise these beautiful yet fitful parts of us so that they can more regularly and generously produce the sort of insights and ideas we need to fulfil our potential.

Among other things, The School of Life discuss how to grasp fragile and flighty thoughts before they disappear through anxiety and fear; at what times of day to try to work and for how long; how to make use of boredom, and how to overcome timid and predictable approaches to the largest problems. The result is an operating manual to that most wondrous, though intermittent and always baffling, organ: the human mind.