--- title: Five Best: Stop Reading Lists of Things Successful People Do description: Stop reading lists of things successful people do, make sure your doctor is a woman to live a long life and more. canonical: https://time.com/5071127/stop-reading-lists-of-things-successful-people-do/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-19T17:00:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:58:16.077Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Stop Reading Lists of Things Successful People Do og:description: And four more of today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/5071127/stop-reading-lists-of-things-successful-people-do/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Stop Reading Lists of Things Successful People Do twitter:description: And four more of today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Stop Reading Lists of Things Successful People Do by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Dec 19, 2017 5:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Dec 19, 2017 5:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**Stop reading lists of things successful people do.**](https://hbr.org/2017/03/stop-reading-lists-of-things-successful-people-do) By Emre Soyer and Robin M. Hogarth in _Harvard Business Review_ **2\.** [**Want to live a long life? Make sure your doctor is a woman.**](http://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2016/12/19/harvard-female-physicians-outcomes) By Carey Goldberg at _WBUR_ **3\.** [**Forget “Best” or “Sincerely.” Want a reply to your email? Close it with gratitude.**](http://www.businessinsider.com/best-way-to-end-an-email-2017-2) By Shana Lebowitz in _Business Insider_ **4\.** [**This is why men sleep better than women.**](http://www.ozy.com/acumen/why-men-sleep-better-than-women/74573) By Melissa Pandika in _Ozy_ **5\.** [**Pursue meaning instead of happiness.**](https://www.thecut.com/2016/12/in-2017-pursue-meaning-instead-of-happiness.html) By Emily Esfahani Smith and Jennifer Aaker in the _Science of Us_  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5071127/stop-reading-lists-of-things-successful-people-do/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5071127/stop-reading-lists-of-things-successful-people-do/"},"headline":"Stop Reading Lists of Things Successful People Do","datePublished":"2017-12-19T17:00:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:16.077Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/5071127/stop-reading-lists-of-things-successful-people-do/","keywords":["Five Best Ideas","medicine","Innovation","Sleep","Happiness","productivity","Success topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/five-best-ideas/","name":"Five Best Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5071127/stop-reading-lists-of-things-successful-people-do/","name":"Stop Reading Lists of Things Successful People Do"}}]}] ```