Day Crafting: The Introductory Workbook
- Bruce Stanley
- Nov 1, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 28, 2025
The Introductory Workbook has a charming, vintage feel, reminiscent of a craftwork manual from the 1970s or 80s, with just two colours and simple line illustrations. It’s a quiet, practical toolkit – something you might have handy and find yourself returning to again and again.
But here’s the delightful part: people tell me it really works. Some say, This changed everything. Others share, I finally feel like I’m working with myself, not against myself. That’s exactly what it’s for.
My approach to developing Day Crafting draws from my experience as a user-centred designer and product manager. I've tested and refined everything through feedback from users throughout the development process. And ... the workbook is now on its 3rd update! The skills and techniques of Day Crafting have been shaped and improved by a vibrant community of Day Crafting Apprentices. These valuable insights and methods are now included in this workbook series for everyone to enjoy.
What it The Introductory Workbook?
Day Crafting: The Introductory Workbook is a place to start your Day Crafting practice. It gives you a few pages of gentle provocation, some introductory tools and a set of short exercises that help you look at the way you shape your days. Because you do shape them, whether deliberately or left on default.
This innovative approach really shines! In Day Crafting, you get to focus on today and enjoy the present moment. Unlike many coaching programmes that tend to look ahead at long-term goals, Day Crafting encourages us to pay attention to our actions and habits right now. It's a gentle reminder that a happy life is built on the good things we do today, not just on hopes and plans for the future.
What is the aim of Day Crafting?
What if you changed your emphasis from the goal at the end of the journey to the journey itself?
What if you focused on what you were brilliant at doing and learned how to make that the centrepiece of each day?
What if you used simple tools to improve the day you’re living?
What if the secret to a good life was to accumulate good days?
It’s not prescriptive. It’s not “a course.” It’s more like a map, with scribbles in the margins.
Who it’s for
If you’re exhausted by the language of optimisation, but still want to feel more in charge of your days, this is for you.
If you’ve tried journaling but got bored, or tried planners but never stuck to them, this might offer a different rhythm.
And if you’ve ever thought, “I just want to feel like I’m living on purpose again,” this is one way back in.
A note on pace
Some people read through and then gradually return to the exercises. Others do one exercise a week. There’s no right way; you choose your own pace. But the key is this: it’s not something to complete. It’s something to work with. Like any craft, your skill deepens with use.
Buy the Workbook
Click here to buy as part of the Day Crafting Practice Kit.
Click here to buy separately from Amazon.
You can download a sample here.
Essentially, Day Crafting is the daily practice of the skilled use of time and energy. It reorientates us to realise that wellbeing and a flourishing life are more about how to tweak the day you're living in than where you imagine you might be in months or years to come. And it really works ... if you choose to start.
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