This post from lifehack.org pretty much nailed my take on the self-help quagmire! Actually, it’s the original post, plus all the comments that are a must read.

I’m not familiar with all the self-help tools the author mentioned, but “making productivity a habit” was on the list of ideas that he wasn’t buying. However, Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is one of my favorite books! One of the main reasons why I have the “use what works” as my tagline is because what works for me may not work for you, and what I discard as not useful might be your key to success.

In the quagmire of the world of self-help, you gotta do some selective à la carte shopping. Idea A might be total garbage for you, Idea B has a few good tips, while Idea C might be 99% of what you need. So what should you do? Take the 99% from C and discard the useless 1%, but also take the few good tips from B.

This is what you do when you buy music from iTunes, right?