80 side quests
Small skills,
big payoff.
Not every skill needs a full course. These are the ones worth picking up in an afternoon: the tricks you'll still be showing off years from now.
How to arm knit a chunky blanket
Make a chunky blanket or scarf using your arms as the needles. Done in under an hour.
How to bake a birthday cake from scratch
A Victoria sponge done properly: the cake everyone has eaten a bad version of. Learn the method and you have the base for almost every celebration cake.
How to play the F barre chord on guitar
Master the hardest beginner chord and with it every major and minor chord on the neck.
How to beatbox for beginners
Make a kick, snare, and hi-hat with your mouth and loop them into a real beat in minutes.
How to bleed a radiator
Stop cold spots and cut heating bills by releasing trapped air from your radiators in under 10 minutes.
How to do a body scan meditation
Learn to sweep attention through your body and release tension you didn't know you were holding.
How to tie a bowline knot
The king of knots. Strong, reliable, won't jam under load, and releases easily afterwards. Every sailor and climber knows one.
Box breathing: the 4-4-4-4 technique
The Navy SEAL breathing method that resets your nervous system in under a minute.
How to score bread before baking
Learn to score bread before baking: which blade to use, how deep to cut, and the slash patterns that make a loaf rise tall instead of bursting at the seams.
Burnish a leather edge smooth
Finish raw leather edges to a glassy shine using simple tools and technique.
How to cable manage your desk
Tame the tangle behind your monitor: 30 minutes, a cable tray, and velcro ties.
How to play cat's cradle
Learn classic string figures from scratch and impress anyone with just a loop of string.
How to read chess notation
Learn algebraic notation so you can follow games, study openings, and record your own matches.
How to clean a wooden floor properly
Identify your finish, then clean it the way that finish wants: dry first, barely damp second, never wet.
How to roll a coin across your knuckles
Walk a coin across your knuckles smoothly: a classic sleight of hand that looks effortless once the muscle memory clicks.
How to read a compass
Use a baseplate compass to find your bearing and walk a confident line through any terrain.
Blind Contour Drawing
Draw without looking at your paper and train your eye to see like an artist.
How to solve cryptic crosswords
Cryptic crosswords look impenetrable until someone shows you the code. There are only eight clue types. Once you know them, you can crack any clue.
How to whistle loudly with your fingers
The piercing two-finger whistle that cuts across a crowd. Takes some dialling in, but once it clicks it never leaves you.
How to start a fire with a firesteel
Strike sparks and catch a flame with a firesteel: a skill that works wet, cold, and anywhere.
How to fold a fitted sheet
Master the one laundry skill that separates calm adults from chaos: fold a fitted sheet flat in under two minutes.
How to fix a dripping tap
Stop that maddening drip yourself. No plumber needed, just a washer and 20 minutes.
How to fix a dropped stitch in knitting
Rescue a runaway stitch before it unravels your whole row. No ripping back required.
How to fix a bike puncture
Patch or replace an inner tube roadside so you're never stranded far from home.
How to do the French drop coin trick
Learn the classic French drop: make a coin disappear from your fingers in seconds.
How to do gesture drawing
Gesture drawing is the fastest way to train your eye to see movement, weight, and proportion. One session changes how you draw.
How to gut and clean a fish
Take a whole fish from slab to pan-ready: scaled, gutted, gills out, bloodline gone. Ten minutes and one sharp knife.
How to make pasta without a machine
Master hand-rolled pasta dough from scratch: no gadgets, just flour, eggs, and technique.
How to sew a ripped seam by hand
Fix a split seam by hand in minutes: no machine needed, just a needle, thread, and patience.
How to hem jeans by hand
Learn to shorten jeans with a needle and thread: no machine needed, result lasts for years.
Impasto Oil Painting Technique
Thick, textured brushwork that gives oil paintings their sculptural depth. Once you feel paint pile up under a palette knife, thin painting feels timid.
Manage interview nerves
Nerves aren't the enemy. Unmanaged nerves are. Here's what's happening in your body and what to do about it in the 24 hours before and during an interview.
Match your interview outfit
Colour coordination, the belt-and-shoes rule, and the one principle that makes any outfit look deliberate rather than assembled in a hurry.
How to iron a shirt
A properly ironed shirt looks completely different to a machine-dried one. Learn the correct order: collar, cuffs, sleeves, body, and the one thing that ruins most shirts.
How to play the island strum on ukulele
Learn the classic island strum that makes ukulele sound like sunshine, in one sitting.
How to juggle three balls
The classic cascade pattern. Most people get their first three-ball run within an afternoon of focused practice.
How to pour a latte art heart
Pour a classic heart into your flat white, the first pattern every home barista masters.
How to build a memory palace
The oldest and most powerful memory technique in history. Ancient orators used it to memorise hours-long speeches. You can use it to remember anything.
How to moonwalk
Learn Michael Jackson's signature glide step: the illusion of walking forward while sliding back.
Nasal Breathing While Running
Train yourself to breathe through your nose on runs for calmer, more efficient endurance.
How to make a no-dig garden bed
Suppress weeds and build living soil in one afternoon. No rotavating, no backache, no digging.
How to clean and oil a bike chain
Learn to degrease and lubricate your chain in under 20 minutes. Your ride will thank you.
One-Arm Push-Up Progression
Build the strength and technique to nail a clean one-arm push-up from scratch.
How to draw one-point perspective
Learn to draw 3D spaces from a single vanishing point: the backbone of architectural sketching.
How to fold an origami crane
Learn to fold the classic paper crane: a foundation of origami practice and the gateway to a thousand more.
Paint a simple landscape in one session
Sky, land, one focal point. That's the structure of almost every landscape ever painted. Learn to see it and you can paint it.
How to make a paper aeroplane dart
Fold a tight, fast dart that flies straight every time, and understand why it works.
How to spin a pen
Learn your first pen spin trick and build the coordination that makes it feel effortless.
How to play the minor pentatonic scale on guitar
Learn the one scale behind blues, rock, and improvisation, in under 10 minutes.
How to polish leather shoes
Clean, polished leather shoes are noticed. Unpolished ones are too, for the wrong reason. A proper shine takes 10 minutes and lasts a week.
How to make pour-over coffee
Master the pour-over method and taste why slow coffee is worth the extra five minutes.
How to prune tomato side shoots
Remove side shoots from cordon tomatoes to channel the plant's energy into fruit rather than leaf.
How to read a tape measure
Decode the imperial markings that trip up most beginners, and never cut a piece too short again.
How to get rid of ants without killing them
Send an ant trail packing with a sealed entry point and a wiped scent line. No sprays, no powders, no casualties.
How to get rid of cockroaches without killing them
A jar trap, a sealed kitchen, and honest advice about when catch-and-release stops being enough.
How to get rid of damp in your house
Diagnose which of the three damps you have, fix the everyday one yourself, and know when the other two need a professional.
How to remove a spider from your house without killing it
The glass-and-card method, done calmly and correctly, plus where to release a house spider so it actually survives.
How to read resistor colour codes
Decode the coloured bands on any resistor and never guess a value again.
How to riffle shuffle cards
Master the classic riffle shuffle: the satisfying technique that makes you look like a card pro.
How to solve a Rubik's Cube
The beginner's layer-by-layer method. Six algorithms and you can solve any scramble.
Saddle stitch in leather
Master the strongest hand-stitching technique in leatherwork and finish your first seam in under an hour.
How to win chess in four moves (Scholar's Mate)
Learn the fastest checkmate in chess and never be caught off guard by it again.
How to sew a button back on
Reattach a button so it never falls off again: the anchor stitch, the shank trick, and a knot that holds. Five minutes, no sewing machine needed.
How to sew a sleep eye mask
A sleep mask is the ideal first sewing project: small, quick, immediately useful, and it covers cutting, pinning, sewing, and turning.
Sew a yoga bolster
A yoga bolster costs £40–80 in a shop. You can make a better one in an afternoon from fabric you choose, filled exactly how firm you like it.
How to shape a boule
Learn to fold and tension a round loaf so it holds its shape and opens beautifully in the oven.
How to sharpen a chisel
A sharp chisel cuts; a dull one crushes. Flatten the back and hone the bevel on a whetstone in 20 minutes.
How to get smells out of a sofa
Bicarbonate of soda, a vacuum, and an afternoon. The cheap, proper way to deodorise fabric furniture.
How to solder a clean joint
Master the fundamental soldering technique that makes electronics reliable, and understand why cold joints fail.
How to sow seeds in module trays
Fill a tray of modular cells and sow your first seeds: the foundation of a productive growing year.
How to read faster and retain more
Double your reading speed without losing comprehension: a few simple habits are all it takes.
How to skip stones
Learn to skip stones properly: how to pick a flat stone, the low sidearm angle, and the wrist flick that gets you five skips or more.
The perfect shave
Razor burn is a preparation problem, not a products problem. Learn the routine that leaves skin calm before a big day.
Travis Picking: The Thumb-Fingers Guitar Pattern
Learn the alternating-bass fingerpicking style that powers folk, country, and blues. Sounds impressive fast.
How to play the 12-bar blues on guitar
Learn the foundational chord progression behind nearly every blues song and jam with confidence.
How to draw a building in two-point perspective
Two-point perspective is the foundation of architectural drawing. Understand it once and you can draw any building convincingly from imagination.
Wall Handstand Progression
Build a solid wall handstand from zero, developing the strength, balance, and body awareness to hold it confidently.
How to paint wet-on-wet watercolour
Paint onto wet paper and get soft, dreamy edges that are impossible to fake any other way.
How to Tie a Windsor Knot
The full Windsor: the widest, most symmetrical knot you can tie. Here's how to get it right.
How to do a yo-yo sleeper
Land a clean sleeper and nail your first tricks: the foundation every yo-yo player needs.