After extracting nearly 500 techniques from 106 self-help books and 23 therapies, we discovered something surprising—they all collapse into just 12 broad strategies. We call these The 12 Levers. And we wrote a book about them. It's the complete psychological toolkit for improving your life.

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The 12 Levers book cover

This is the mother of all self-help books! Spencer and Jeremy have ingested a library's-worth of advice books and given us the evidence-based ones that actually work.

A.J. Jacobs

NYT bestselling author

The 12 Levers looks past schools of thought, slogans, and storytelling to identify the repeatable psychological procedures that truly drive change.

Annie Duke

Best selling author of Thinking in Bets and Quit

The most thoughtful and comprehensive self-help book I've ever read — written with empathy and clarity.

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

NYT bestselling author of Everybody Lies

As featured in

Psychology Today Next Big Idea Club Reason

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  2. 2The Thought Saver tool for turning the book's techniques into daily habits
  3. 3The full list of books we studied while researching and writing The 12 Levers

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As Featured In

Psychology Today

“Lessons From Studying Over 100 Self-Help Books and 20 Therapies”

Read → Next Big Idea Club

“The 12 Techniques Behind Almost Every Self-Help Book”

Read → Reason

“How Much Control Do You Have Over Your Mind?” — podcast

Listen →

The Problem

Self-help is overwhelming. This book simplifies it.

The most important ingredient in any self-help resource isn't the stories or the theory — it's the techniques. But despite the abundance of resources out there, almost nobody knows the full range of effective techniques and how to apply them. That's the problem we're aiming to solve.

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The 12 Levers — icons representing each lever arranged around the book title
What You'll Learn

What You'll Gain

Knowing the 12 Levers prepares you for the problems that life will throw at you.

You'll learn how to…

  1. 1Use the ABC Analysis to identify the controllable causes of the problems in your life
  2. 2Clarify your intrinsic values to give your life direction
  3. 3Overcome fear by using the most scientifically validated anxiety treatment in the world
  4. 4Alleviate insomnia and out-of-sync sleep routines with techniques largely only known to sleep therapists
  5. 5Enrich your downtime by doing more glad-you-did-it activities
  1. 6Reduce self-criticism by activating your Compassionate Self
  2. 7Get more done by understanding the three factors of The Productivity Equation
  3. 8Reframe negative beliefs using Cognitive Restructuring
  4. 9Interrupt spirals of self-consciousness using the Attention Training Technique
  5. 10Steer your conversations into deeper, more vulnerable, and more fulfilling topics

…and much more.

Get the Book What's Inside

What's Inside

The complete psychological toolkit—not vague inspiration or a motivational pep talk.

  • The big picture — the full landscape of self-help strategies
  • Curation — for each Lever, we selected the best techniques based on scientific evidence, our experience as a clinician and educator, and real-world testing
  • The highlights — each chapter distills the key principles, takeaways, and action steps so you know exactly what to remember and what to do
  • The specifics — step-by-step instructions for how to do each technique, no special equipment needed
  • Clear writing — core ideas and methods from CBT, ACT, DBT, Schema Therapy, and more — without the jargon
  • A universal translator — once you know the 12 Levers, all other therapies and self-improvement books start to make sense
The 12 Levers open on a table, showing the ABC Analysis for unraveling the causes of your problems

Clear, step-by-step techniques you can actually put to use—no jargon, no special equipment.

About the Authors

Spencer Greenberg

Spencer Greenberg

Mathematician & Entrepreneur

Spencer Greenberg is a psychology entrepreneur and mathematician with a PhD in applied math from NYU. He's the founder of ClearerThinking.org, a psychology education and research organization that conducts novel psychology studies and offers more than eighty interactive educational tools to the public, used by hundreds of thousands of people. His work has been featured by numerous major media outlets, such as Forbes, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times.

More About Spencer
Jeremy Stevenson

Jeremy Stevenson

Clinical Psychologist

Jeremy is a clinical psychologist with a PhD from Flinders University, where his dissertation explored the effects of self-compassion on social anxiety. He has treated hundreds of clients across thousands of clinical hours and has published research in various academic journals. He has also experimented with many self-help techniques himself, including a three-month meditation retreat in Nepal. Some of these techniques and experiences have changed his life.

More About Jeremy

For Groups

Reading it with a group?

The 12 Levers is a toolkit, which makes it a great pick for book clubs, classes, teams, and reading groups—everyone connects with different Levers and gets the most out of it by trying the techniques and comparing notes.

Free discussion guide

A ready-to-use guide with warm-up questions, prompts for each of the 12 Levers, try-it-together exercises, and a suggested multi-session schedule. Print it or share it with your group—free to reproduce.

Download the Guide (PDF)

Bulk & bookstore orders

Ordering copies for a class, team, or event? Bulk orders usually come with a discount. Get in touch and we'll help you arrange it.

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The 12 Levers will teach you the hidden, unified framework beneath all self-help.

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Praise for The 12 Levers

“In the confusing, uncertain, and too much information world in which we live, The 12 Levers does us a favor, cutting through the information clutter to array a dozen core techniques for making life better and happier from the hundreds of self-help guides that are out there. The book is clear, thoroughly researched and well-written. Please read it before you buy another self-help book.”

Barry Schwartz

Author of The Paradox of Choice, Why We Work, and co-author of Practical Wisdom and Choose Wisely

“Many self-help books promise transformation. Many fewer explain the mechanisms by which transformation occurs. The 12 Levers looks past schools of thought, slogans, and storytelling to identify the repeatable psychological procedures that truly drive change. You will come away with a much clearer understanding of approaches you’ve encountered in the past, as well as a powerful toolkit that you can use for whatever challenges life has thrown at you.”

Annie Duke

Best selling author of Thinking in Bets and Quit

“This is the mother of all self-help books! Spencer and Jeremy have ingested a library’s-worth of advice books and given us the evidence-based ones that actually work. This book would be a huge time saver even if it didn’t have great productivity tips in chapter 8.”

A.J. Jacobs

NYT bestselling author

“I’ve read an embarrassing number of self-help books in my life. I could have saved a lot of time by just reading The 12 Levers, which distills the common truths across all of them. It’s the most thoughtful and comprehensive self-help book I’ve ever read—written with empathy and clarity.”

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

NYT bestselling author of Everybody Lies

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