This article series is now available as a professionally formatted, distraction free paperback or ebook to read offline at your leisure.

Happy September first! Yesterday we completed the series we ran every day last month: Heading Out on Your Own: 31 Basic Life Skills in 31 Days. The goal of the series was simple: to help young men heading out on their own for the first time learn some of the very basic life skills they would need to succeed at living independently. To this end, each day last month we published one article on a variety of basic life skills from personal finance to home-ec know-how.

While we couldn’t have possibly covered every single skill a young man will need to know to successfully live on his own, I really believe we covered nearly all of the important essentials. If you’re a man who’s been living on his own for a long time now, I hope the articles provided an interesting and helpful refresher on skills that we truly use our whole lives through (and all need reminders on from time to time), and maybe even imparted some tips you had never learned before. If you’re a young man heading out on his own right now, our sincere wish is that the series has given you a sense of direction, competence, and confidence about this new and exciting season in your life. Knowing, as GI Joe has taught us, is half the battle. The other half will be won by honing your skills in the only way they can be: through practical experience — trial and error. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes — just commit yourself to always learning from them. We wish you the very best as you embark on whatever new adventure awaits you, and wherever it leads, we hope you enjoy the ride!

If you missed any of the days during the series, or would like to go back and revisit them, here are links to all 31 articles:

Day 1: Develop a Self-Reliant Mentality

Day 2: How to Do Laundry

Day 3: How to Open and Manage a Checking Account

Day 4: Keep a Regular Grooming and Hygiene Routine

Day 5: Create a Weekly Attack Plan

Day 6: How to Ace a Job Interview

Day 7: How to Make a Bed

Day 8: Living With Roommates

Day 9: Managing Your Online Reputation

Day 10: How to Tie the Half-Windsor Necktie Knot

Day 11: Understand Credit

Day 12: What to Do If You Get in a Car Accident

Day 13: Know How to Network

Day 14: Establish a Simple Cleaning Routine and Stick to It

Day 15: How to Change a Flat Tire

Day 16: Create a Budget

Day 17: Essential Etiquette for Young Men

Day 18: Renting Your First Apartment

Day 19: Fix a Running Toilet

Day 20: Maintaining Your Car

Day 21: Know Your Way Around a Kitchen

Day 22: How to Make Small Talk

Day 23: How to Iron a Dress Shirt

Day 24: How to Be a Savvy Consumer

Day 25: Establish an Exercise Routine

Day 26: 15 Maxims for Being a Reliable Man

Day 27: How to Shop for Groceries

Day 28: How to Jump Start a Car

Day 29: How to Iron Your Trousers

Day 30: How to Manage Stress

Day 31: A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place

Many Thank You’s and One Apology

We want to thank our contributing writers — Antonio Centeno, Darren Bush, and Matt Moore — for offering their unique skill sets and wisdom to the series. A big thank you also goes out to Sam Hakes for performing some graphic design magic on a couple of posts, Ted Slampyak for his incredible illustrations, Jordan Crowder for creating his gem of a video on the Do It Now principle, and Jeremy Anderberg for his help in editing the articles. We could not have done the series without the invaluable contributions of these very talented and supportive gentlemen.

Now for an apology . . . when we introduced the series we said we’d also keep up with publishing regular content in addition to the articles for the series. But we were only somewhat successful in that, as writing the Heading Out on Your Own articles turned out to be much more work than we had anticipated — who knew there was so much to know about “basic” life skills?! Which brings me to . . .

Gone Fishin’!

In just a month, we wrote over 75,000 words from scratch (in comparison, our first book, The Art of Manliness: Classic Skills and Manners for the Modern Man clocked in at around 65,000 words). Writing 2,000-4,000 word articles nearly every single day for a month was truly one of the most grueling things we’ve ever done — we haven’t been this tired and sleep-deprived since Gus came home from the hospital! So we’ll be taking the next week and a half off from posting on the blog to let our brains recuperate and then to start digging into new research for when we return.

While we’re away, check out the list below. We’ve compiled a selection of further reading for young men — past AoM articles young men might find particularly helpful:

Ace Your Exams: Study Tactics of the Successful Gentleman Scholar

Write This Down: Note-Taking Strategies for Academic Success

How to Quit Mindlessly Surfing the Internet and Actually Get Stuff Done

5 Easy Ways for the College Student to Upgrade His Style

How and Why to Write Your Own Personal Manifesto

A Formula for Success: The Power of Implementation Intentions

How to Handle Being Out of Your Depth

Bookend Your Day: The Power of Morning and Evening Routines

Be Clutch, Don’t Choke: How to Thrive in High Pressure Situations (Part II)

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait: The Power and Pleasure of Delayed Gratification

Modern “Neurasthenia:” Curing Your Restlessness

Looking for a Job? Take the Initiative!

The Best Way to Find Your Vocation

A Young Man’s Guide to Health Insurance

How Prepare for and Rock a Behavioral Job Interview

The Importance of Paying Your Dues

Craft the Life You Want: Creating a Blueprint for Your Future

The World Belongs to Those Who Hustle

Road Map to the Perfect First Date

How Do You Know When She’s the One?

Meet the Parents

10 Cheap Date Ideas She’ll Actually Love

How to End a Relationship

How to Weather a Break-Up

Nice Guys Don’t Have to Finish Last

This list really just scratches the surface of the articles in our archives that a young man might find useful in his life. So if there’s something you’re wondering about, but don’t see it in the list, be sure to search the archives!

If you’re a young man looking for a more handy compilation of some of our best material, I humbly suggest getting our two books: The Art of Manliness Classic Skills and Manners for the Modern Man and Art of Manliness Manvotionals: Timeless Wisdom and Advice on Living the 7 Manly Virtues. You can actually get both books together for less than the price of buying them separately by getting The Art of Manliness Collection Boxed Set, which also includes a nifty cigar box and a set of coasters!

Well, that’s a wrap. Until next time, stay manly.

Related Articles

Tags: Heading Out on Your Own