The Great Lock-In: what started as a Gen Z and millennial term morphed into a social media movement. Like 75 Hard, the goal is to commit to the rest of the year entirely on your goals. For some, this may look like becoming the healthiest version of themselves; for others, it may be more about finishing a project. With discipline, a set timeline, and the motivation of a trend taking over social media, participants are hoping to emerge in early 2026, having given their all to their goals and growth. Whether you’re embarking on your lock-in in mid-November or if you’re a few months in, this reading list could aid and motivate you on your journey. Good luck!
The Little Book of Focus by Joanna Grey
Everyone needs a little help focusing, especially when you’re setting a goal. This handy little book provides multiple techniques, real-life examples, and helpful hints on how to maintain focus on everyday tasks and bigger goals. A pocket motivational guide that will help you retain a little focus as you lock in.
Synopsis: Get in the zone and channel your productivity with The Little Book of Focus.
With inspirational quotations, practical tips, and thoughtful exercises, The Little Book of Focus will show you how to find your calm, create a distraction-free zone, and redirect your attention to all the right things.
Bonus Rec:The Little Book of Restfor when you need to build in relaxation time to avoid burnout, and The Attention Fix by Dr. Anders Hansen on the science of how breaking up with our digital devices may help us avoid distractions when locking in.
Available now via Quadrille Publishing. Order here.
The Pleasures of Wintering by Erin Niimi Longhurst
If you’re worried about the long winter ahead and sticking to your goals during a time when most of us want to snuggle, get cozy, and slow down, this book might be for you. It permits readers to enjoy all winter has to offer, while also acknowledging the moments when you might want to focus and motivate yourself during the season—a great addition to your lock in TBR.
Synopsis: Wintering is the practice of slowing down to rest and recuperate, just as nature does in the quiet winter months. This enchanting little book makes it easy to discover the joys of these essential pauses, which nourish our bodies, quiet our minds, and rejuvenate our spirits so that we can welcome the bright promises of spring. A mix of evocative photography and charming illustration enriches the experience, inviting us to browse, linger, contemplate, and engage with the reflections and suggestions.
Are you motivated in the spring and summer but lose momentum in the fall and winter? As the last months of the great lockdown wind down, a book like The Mindfulness Year could help. This colorful, inviting book explores mindfulness in every season and, through exercises such as meditation, nature walks, breathing, and reflections, helps ground you as you pursue your goals and lock in for the rest of the year.
Synopsis: As the seasons change, so do our energy levels, our stresses, and our anxieties. In this gentle guide, Tara Ward shows you how to embrace every moment, accept how you feel, and be more intentional, whether you’re in hibernation mode or have a spring in your step. Filled with short, simple acts of mindfulness that can be practiced anywhere, at any time, The Mindfulness Year includes reflections for self-discovery, breathing exercises, meditations, and techniques for grounding yourself in the here and now.
This essential seasonal toolkit is for anyone looking to navigate the year with calm, clarity, and connection.
On Sale December 23, 2025, via Quadrille Publishing. Order here.
Hot Girl Walk by Mia Lind
If your goal is to walk a 5K or walk 10,000 steps a day for the rest of the “Great Lock In,” Mia Land’s Hot Girl Walk is a must-read. Short, digestible, and fun, this book breaks down what a hot girl walk is. A hot girl walk is so much more than a social media trend — it’s become a movement. Through the Hot Girl Walk, participants are finding confidence, building community, and achieving a manageable goal. Sounds like something that would be helpful in the last days of the year as we lock in.
Synopsis: The Hot Girl Walk is more than just a workout routine; it’s a movement toward empowerment. Created by Mia Lind in 2020, the Hot Girl Walk movement is a 4-mile outdoor walk that brings participants together through accessible and inclusive fitness training. Since the movement began, millions of people worldwide have gone on Hot Girl Walks, with in-person events held in New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Australia, London, and more.
Law of Attraction Manifestation Journal by Latha Jay
Sometimes the first step toward accomplishing a goal is to write it down and put it out there, shifting your intention toward making it happen. This manifestation journal walks you through the steps of setting your mindset toward the goal and attracting it with prompts and space to imagine you achieving those goals.
Synopsis: Everyone manifests—creating what we have in our life through thoughts, beliefs, and actions—but not everyone does so with conscious awareness. Without focused intention, we manifest by default, allowing limiting beliefs and doubts to hold us back.
With the Law of Attraction Manifestation Journal, you take back your power to actualize the life you’ve always wanted.
Worry Medicine: Remedies and Rituals For Anxious Times by Nina Montenegro
Is the great lock in causing you anxiety? Or maybe you just have anxiety because…well, we live in anxious times. Providing self-compassion and guidance alongside insightful reflections and beautiful artwork, a book like Worry Medicine might be the type of read you need right now as you lock in.
Synopsis: In an age of artificial everything, Worry Medicine offers something real: simple yet impactful practices that quiet the low hum of anxiety and awaken you to the web of support all around you. This isn’t another book that promises to eliminate your worry. Instead, it teaches you something far more powerful–how to live with fear in ways that nourish rather than deplete you. Because with a worried, exhausted mind, there’s hardly room for the creative dreaming needed to build the more beautiful world we all long for.
Available now via Amber Lotus Publishing. Order here.
The Creative Ambush: How To Unleash Your Fire Into The World by Matteo di Pascale
If your goal for the great lock-in is to be more creative, consider The Creative Ambush by entrepreneur, designer, and writer Matteo di Pascale as a guide on your creative journey. Meant as a wake-up call for all hopeful creatives, this book can be used by artists, writers, creative professionals, and anyone looking to shake things up. There are exercises and advice and moments of real talk that will help you act and think more creatively during the lock in.
Synopsis: What is an ambush? An ambush is a wake-up call. When you least expect it, you’ll turn the page and bam! A small jolt, a trip-up, a way to keep you on your toes and make you confront your limits, pushing you to delve deeper into creative life.
This guide helps you overcome creative blocks and grow through practical exercises and tips based on real experiences. It teaches you to tap into your intuition, become more disciplined, and most importantly, express your true self.
How To Be A Grownup: The 14 Essential Skills You Didn’t Know You Needed Until Just Now by Raffi Grinberg
If you’re hoping to lock in to self-improvement or just looking for a guide to get your stuff together, How To Be A Grownup is a valuable resource. Topics are covered widely and in a conversational, no-judgement tone that makes it feel like a mentor guiding you through the how-tos of budgeting and investing, negotiating your first job offer, and creating meaningful relationships.
Synopsis: Though twenty- and thirty-somethings are better educated than ever before, essentially none of the topics critical to being a full-fledged adult–such as how to get a new job, create a budget, file your taxes, face rejection, and navigate family dynamics–are covered in lower or higher education. Fortunately, here is a book that does just that. From entrepreneur Raffi Grinberg, who lived and learned the hard way throughout his twenties, here is a crash course in everything you need to know to be a grown-up.
Based on his wildly popular “Adulting 101” course at Boston College, Grinberg firmly steers you through the basics of being a grown-up using interactive chapters, bite-sized nuggets of wisdom, humor, and stories from his twenties, including nearly going broke, having bad credit, disappointing his parents, and much more. As Raffi tells his students, “I want you to have a quarter-life crisis now so that you won’t have a mid-life crisis later.”
Bonus Rec: Another good book for figuring things out during your lock in is Secrets of Adulthoodby Gretchen Rubin.
Magic Maker: The Enchanted Path To Creativity by Pam Grossman
It’s okay if you need a little magic to lock in. Pam Grossman’s Magic Maker taps into your creative potential in a fun and new way. Read this book for when you need a little mystical boost to your creative process in the last few months of the year.
Synopsis: Creative people often speak of being channels for inspiration, while others refer to communing with their muse. For many, this is more than mere metaphor, as artists throughout history have employed magical techniques to tap into their creativity, express powerful messages, and make contact with the sacred. From the songwriting divination of David Bowie and the bewitching shapeshifting of Beyoncé, to the Ouija board poetry sessions of Sylvia Plath and the abstract painting séances of Hilma af Klint, to the manifestation method of Octavia E. Butler and the daily meditation of David Lynch, mystical practices have been responsible for generating some of the world’s most beloved creations. While there are many books on creativity out there, none of them examines the specific ways that magic has been embraced by creative visionaries throughout history, nor do they explore how makers can start using these methods in their own creative processes.
We Need Your Art: Stop Messing Around and Make Something by Amie McNee
The whole point of the “Great Lock In” is to motivate you, right? Amie McNee’s book could be the great motivator you’re looking for, helping you tackle the issues of impostor syndrome, perfectionism, and your inner critic with encouragement and advice. A book that feels both like a stern talking to by your mentor and a warm hug.
Synopsis: In We Need Your Art, Amie McNee calls artists and aspiring artists of all kinds to do the work they’re meant to do: create.
Using her own experiences as a novelist and the inspiration she’s shared as a creative coach, Amie guides you on why we need your art and how you can make it happen—starting with a two-week reset plan to help you kick-start your creative habit. This isn’t about writing your great novel in a month or painting a masterpiece in a flurry of inspiration. Instead, this process is about practicing small, sustainable creative steps every day over time—five hundred words of writing each day, a pencil sketch every evening—so that you avoid burnout, produce consistent, reliable content on your own terms, and begin to see yourself as an artist.
Bonus Rec:Stop Tryingby Carla Ondrasik, an important motivational tool to help rewire our way of thinking and actually lock in, instead of trying to.
The Crone Zone by Nina Bargiel, illustrated by Pam Wishbow
Sometimes locking in looks like paying off a credit card, and sometimes it looks like embracing your crone self. This book is an enjoyable addition to your lock in reading because it’s all about taking up space, embracing your true self and not caring what people think or if they judge your crone like activities.
Synopsis: If you’ve been looking for permission and encouragement to stop clinging to youth and propriety, The Crone Zone is here to help you step into your full bog witch power.
Featuring covetable illustrations, this beautiful book makes an ideal gift for milestone birthdays or significant life changes. So put on your best black cloak, prepare a cauldron of your favorite beverage, and indulge in a hearty cackle, because life in the Crone Zone is good—and about to get better.
Brianna Robinson is a book publicist and Sarah Lawrence College alum. She lives in New York with too many books and two enthusiastic dachshunds. You can find her on twitter @blrobins2.
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