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Three Minutes a Day: A Fourteen-Week Course to Learn Meditation and Transform Your Life
Three Minutes a Day makes a bold in just three minutes a day, for fourteen weeks — less than five hours total — you can generate real insight into personal experience that no amount of reading or learning can replicate.
While meditation is known for promoting balance and well-being in our busy lives, it’s typically associated with long periods of sitting. Dr. Richard Dixey presents a different approach, one that uses short exercises to stabilize mental experience. He lays out a direct path to clarity of mind, stress relief, sharper thinking, improved concentration, and enhanced creativity that can be followed from anywhere, no matter how busy your schedule. If you’re one of the millions of people interested in meditation but short on time, Three Minutes a Day is the perfect way to learn this valuable practice and incorporate it into your everyday life.
While meditation is known for promoting balance and well-being in our busy lives, it’s typically associated with long periods of sitting. Dr. Richard Dixey presents a different approach, one that uses short exercises to stabilize mental experience. He lays out a direct path to clarity of mind, stress relief, sharper thinking, improved concentration, and enhanced creativity that can be followed from anywhere, no matter how busy your schedule. If you’re one of the millions of people interested in meditation but short on time, Three Minutes a Day is the perfect way to learn this valuable practice and incorporate it into your everyday life.
200 pages, Paperback
Published August 29, 2023
11 people are currently reading
81 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
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December 5, 20245 of the 10 reviews that appear for this book- fully half!- are 5 star reviews written by reviewers who *all* joined Goodreads *just* to review this one book. They all joined right before reviewing the book and have written no reviews before or since. They have no avatar pictures. Each review reads like advertising copy- no criticism- just glowing praise.
Maybe it's not as suspicious as it looks- but it looks suspicious enough for me to pass on the book. I don't want spiritual advice from a book where *fully half* of the reviews seem shady and fake.
Maybe it's not as suspicious as it looks- but it looks suspicious enough for me to pass on the book. I don't want spiritual advice from a book where *fully half* of the reviews seem shady and fake.
August 29, 2023
You're likely to think this is just the book for you because you've long wanted to meditate but never had the time.
Similar to your six minute exercise workout, you'll now be able to meditate in just 3 minutes. Imagine, in only 9 minutes a day you'll be able to keep both body and mind in tip top shape.
But '3 minutes' isn't about how little time you need to meditate. It refers to how long someone relatively new to meditation can reasonably concentrate on anything at all. And that's not for very long, so even 3 minutes might be pushing it.
Embedded in the book's short chapters are a number of brief meditations framed by concise teachings about the nature of mind and the advantages of quieting it in the first place.
The reason to meditate, it turns out, is not just quieting the mind for relaxation. That's just step #1. The deeper purpose of meditation is to turn down the volume of constant chatter going on in our minds. The continuous flow of thoughts and emotions interfere with our ability to 'see' clearly, to be more attuned to our own experience, what's going on within and without.
What we're doing in meditation is concentrating our attention on a single object and deeply 'noticing' it to the exclusion of everything else. We're 'noticing' what's going on in this very instant apart from our thoughts or feelings about it.
That may sound a bit strange to most people because they assume they already notice what's going on. However, they should think again...after they've read 3 Minutes A Day!
The book excels in connecting the dots between the operations of a distracted mind and what to do about it. Taken together the short commentaries tell us pretty much what we need to know about what we're doing and why.
Richard Dixey has plumbed all of this very carefully both as a trained scientist, meditator and man of seemingly unlimited curiosities. He's a polymath who brings Western philosophical and scientific 'knowing' to bear on ancient wisdom teachings about the nature of our experience.
The practices are designed to give you the experience of concentrating on arising sensations at just one of our sense gates, like following the sight of a flickering candle or the sound of a bell as it fades into silence.
You quickly realize that once you sideline the other senses and concentrate on just one you'll begin to relax into it. Thoughts will arise of course but you need not do anything about them, just dispassionately notice each and return your attention to the object of meditation.
And that's the gist of all meditation practice- returning your attention again and again to an object or, in some traditions, no object at all. You'll quickly learn what a wily thing attention is. Yet noticing what you're attending to at any given instant opens the window onto your own direct experience.
There are, of course, innumerable meditation techniques and you might think they all have something to say about the basics: why are we bothering to quiet the mind in the first place; what's so important about controlling and managing our attention; and what does any of this have to do with the quality of our lives.
But you'd be wrong. Most meditation instruction is offered apart from any teaching about mind's operations, how those operations drag us around and how we reflexively react to thoughts and emotions that result in confusion and misunderstanding. Yet not understanding mind's operations leads to destructive emotions like fear and anger.
Of course, there are many different styles of meditation and many schools and theories about practice. But for most of us we're not likely to pursue a practice if we don't know why we're doing it or what it has to do with everything else we care about.
However it happens to be taught, meditation is a learned skill to access and manage attention. And you now have in your hands a little book that's like the guide to a maze. That maze begins with your own skeptical mind, the one that whispers such things as: this isn't for you, or you don't have the right attitude or enough patience, or this is a waste of time.'
It's because of such skepticism that it's often said that meditation is simple but not easy. Yet it will be far easier with 3 Minutes A Day.
Similar to your six minute exercise workout, you'll now be able to meditate in just 3 minutes. Imagine, in only 9 minutes a day you'll be able to keep both body and mind in tip top shape.
But '3 minutes' isn't about how little time you need to meditate. It refers to how long someone relatively new to meditation can reasonably concentrate on anything at all. And that's not for very long, so even 3 minutes might be pushing it.
Embedded in the book's short chapters are a number of brief meditations framed by concise teachings about the nature of mind and the advantages of quieting it in the first place.
The reason to meditate, it turns out, is not just quieting the mind for relaxation. That's just step #1. The deeper purpose of meditation is to turn down the volume of constant chatter going on in our minds. The continuous flow of thoughts and emotions interfere with our ability to 'see' clearly, to be more attuned to our own experience, what's going on within and without.
What we're doing in meditation is concentrating our attention on a single object and deeply 'noticing' it to the exclusion of everything else. We're 'noticing' what's going on in this very instant apart from our thoughts or feelings about it.
That may sound a bit strange to most people because they assume they already notice what's going on. However, they should think again...after they've read 3 Minutes A Day!
The book excels in connecting the dots between the operations of a distracted mind and what to do about it. Taken together the short commentaries tell us pretty much what we need to know about what we're doing and why.
Richard Dixey has plumbed all of this very carefully both as a trained scientist, meditator and man of seemingly unlimited curiosities. He's a polymath who brings Western philosophical and scientific 'knowing' to bear on ancient wisdom teachings about the nature of our experience.
The practices are designed to give you the experience of concentrating on arising sensations at just one of our sense gates, like following the sight of a flickering candle or the sound of a bell as it fades into silence.
You quickly realize that once you sideline the other senses and concentrate on just one you'll begin to relax into it. Thoughts will arise of course but you need not do anything about them, just dispassionately notice each and return your attention to the object of meditation.
And that's the gist of all meditation practice- returning your attention again and again to an object or, in some traditions, no object at all. You'll quickly learn what a wily thing attention is. Yet noticing what you're attending to at any given instant opens the window onto your own direct experience.
There are, of course, innumerable meditation techniques and you might think they all have something to say about the basics: why are we bothering to quiet the mind in the first place; what's so important about controlling and managing our attention; and what does any of this have to do with the quality of our lives.
But you'd be wrong. Most meditation instruction is offered apart from any teaching about mind's operations, how those operations drag us around and how we reflexively react to thoughts and emotions that result in confusion and misunderstanding. Yet not understanding mind's operations leads to destructive emotions like fear and anger.
Of course, there are many different styles of meditation and many schools and theories about practice. But for most of us we're not likely to pursue a practice if we don't know why we're doing it or what it has to do with everything else we care about.
However it happens to be taught, meditation is a learned skill to access and manage attention. And you now have in your hands a little book that's like the guide to a maze. That maze begins with your own skeptical mind, the one that whispers such things as: this isn't for you, or you don't have the right attitude or enough patience, or this is a waste of time.'
It's because of such skepticism that it's often said that meditation is simple but not easy. Yet it will be far easier with 3 Minutes A Day.
September 8, 2023
As a young man, the author realised that ‘great swaths of western culture had been forced into the shadows by the triumphant march of empirical reality’. He travelled East to find a better way and chapter seven begins with the memory of a flute playing at sunset in the old city of Kandahar, Afghanistan in the 1970s. I wept as I read this passage: it evokes all that is blesséd about meditation.
As someone who first learnt to meditate 50 years ago, I can vouch for the usefulness and relevance of this book as a reliable introduction to this ancient life skill. Presented in accessible language and style for our times, the book gives voice to what is often avoided, or not described, in manuals of meditation instruction.
‘Our job is to create short exercises that go beyond the map,’ the author tells us, ‘…to enter the impossible, the unreasonable, using the very faculty of mind that creates our sense of the reasonable and possible’. So, the book presents a 14-week course while offering help with some of the pitfalls and shining light on practitioners’ questions.
A smattering of Sanskrit – key words chosen for the precision of their meanings – serves to link the student with the ancient and time-tested roots of what is being cultivated:
Vitaka – the capacity to pay attention.
Vikara – the capacity to savour experience.
Shamata – ‘reducing reactivity so that our psychology is not being wound up all the time’.
Vipassana - how this learning to let the mind settle evolves into clear seeing; sometimes translated as insight.
The practitioner is encouraged to develop calm concentration beyond effort and the duality of meditation (observer and observed savoured as one).
The obstacles to meditation (‘unembodied parts of ourselves’) are helpfully described and helpfully, and perhaps surprisingly, remedied - we’re advised to go with them, rather than resist: this diminishes their power.
At times the author becomes over-wordy, with rather a lot of sub clauses! And I query the heart centre as being presented as our centre of gravity. Surely it is our spiritual centre, but our ‘centre of gravity’ resides (as known by ancient Chinese medical teaching) lower in the body, providing stability and grounding.
Nevertheless, this book offers an extremely useful and timely training in how to look at all the sense gates and finally, and especially – thought. We are reminded that ‘…to get to being able to look at thought requires us to develop faculties of mind that most of us haven’t experienced’. This knowledge simply isn’t part of the common currency of contemporary society or education. It should be. The book is full of useful tips and memorable phrases which would work as a set of cards, each with an image, and it would make an excellent course book in schools.
As someone who first learnt to meditate 50 years ago, I can vouch for the usefulness and relevance of this book as a reliable introduction to this ancient life skill. Presented in accessible language and style for our times, the book gives voice to what is often avoided, or not described, in manuals of meditation instruction.
‘Our job is to create short exercises that go beyond the map,’ the author tells us, ‘…to enter the impossible, the unreasonable, using the very faculty of mind that creates our sense of the reasonable and possible’. So, the book presents a 14-week course while offering help with some of the pitfalls and shining light on practitioners’ questions.
A smattering of Sanskrit – key words chosen for the precision of their meanings – serves to link the student with the ancient and time-tested roots of what is being cultivated:
Vitaka – the capacity to pay attention.
Vikara – the capacity to savour experience.
Shamata – ‘reducing reactivity so that our psychology is not being wound up all the time’.
Vipassana - how this learning to let the mind settle evolves into clear seeing; sometimes translated as insight.
The practitioner is encouraged to develop calm concentration beyond effort and the duality of meditation (observer and observed savoured as one).
The obstacles to meditation (‘unembodied parts of ourselves’) are helpfully described and helpfully, and perhaps surprisingly, remedied - we’re advised to go with them, rather than resist: this diminishes their power.
At times the author becomes over-wordy, with rather a lot of sub clauses! And I query the heart centre as being presented as our centre of gravity. Surely it is our spiritual centre, but our ‘centre of gravity’ resides (as known by ancient Chinese medical teaching) lower in the body, providing stability and grounding.
Nevertheless, this book offers an extremely useful and timely training in how to look at all the sense gates and finally, and especially – thought. We are reminded that ‘…to get to being able to look at thought requires us to develop faculties of mind that most of us haven’t experienced’. This knowledge simply isn’t part of the common currency of contemporary society or education. It should be. The book is full of useful tips and memorable phrases which would work as a set of cards, each with an image, and it would make an excellent course book in schools.
September 9, 2023
"Three Minutes a Day" effortlessly translates ancient Buddhist wisdom into practical, Western-friendly terms. I would highly recommend this to new meditators and experienced practitioners alike.
What sets this book apart is its simplicity and effectiveness. Richard's approach is straightforward, making mindfulness accessible to everyone, regardless of their experience level. The exercises are concise yet impactful, offering clarity of mind, stress relief, improved concentration, and enhanced creativity.
This book's real strength lies in its flexibility, allowing you to practice mindfulness anywhere, whether you're at home, work, or on the move. It's a transformative guide that empowers you to take control of your mental well-being in just three minutes a day. Richard has really done an excellent job of creating a simple guide that bridges the wisdom of ancient Buddhism with practical Western living.
What sets this book apart is its simplicity and effectiveness. Richard's approach is straightforward, making mindfulness accessible to everyone, regardless of their experience level. The exercises are concise yet impactful, offering clarity of mind, stress relief, improved concentration, and enhanced creativity.
This book's real strength lies in its flexibility, allowing you to practice mindfulness anywhere, whether you're at home, work, or on the move. It's a transformative guide that empowers you to take control of your mental well-being in just three minutes a day. Richard has really done an excellent job of creating a simple guide that bridges the wisdom of ancient Buddhism with practical Western living.
September 9, 2023
Review 3 Minute Meditation
In this book the author has created an engaging, clear, concise, guide to connecting with (our) inner calm and clarity. The layout of the book with drawings and space and time between the chapters is, in my experience, the theory in action. The 3 minute meditations are intriguing as each one activates a different element of experience from the senses, to body, mind, and environment. This supports the reader in getting the most out of the text – it is a living, breathing, moving, text.
Each chapter carries an explanation of the theory and purpose of the preceding exercise, in this way the reader is invited in.
The carefully chosen exercises offer a multitude of small restructuring opportunities to step out of the self-referential loop of our identities into previously unimagined freedom
Fran Burns,
Dublin, Ireland
In this book the author has created an engaging, clear, concise, guide to connecting with (our) inner calm and clarity. The layout of the book with drawings and space and time between the chapters is, in my experience, the theory in action. The 3 minute meditations are intriguing as each one activates a different element of experience from the senses, to body, mind, and environment. This supports the reader in getting the most out of the text – it is a living, breathing, moving, text.
Each chapter carries an explanation of the theory and purpose of the preceding exercise, in this way the reader is invited in.
The carefully chosen exercises offer a multitude of small restructuring opportunities to step out of the self-referential loop of our identities into previously unimagined freedom
Fran Burns,
Dublin, Ireland
September 2, 2023
In concise and systematic language, the book Three Minutes a Day uses a collection of simple, inventive techniques to guide the reader on a journey to experience and to explore the land of mental concentration through diligent practice.
The book's engaging drawings, familiar storylines and witty remarks stir the imagination, creating synergy between the mind and the body. We learn how to reach a state of calmness. With care and encouragement, the book has offered me imaginative ways to go beyond practicing the exercises. And I have integrated new ways to respond to barriers and uncertainties. Practicing what I have learned from Three Minutes a Day has taught me to change my habits in many ways, to make choices and to engage with daily events in my own rhythm.
Lei-Ching Chou, CA
The book's engaging drawings, familiar storylines and witty remarks stir the imagination, creating synergy between the mind and the body. We learn how to reach a state of calmness. With care and encouragement, the book has offered me imaginative ways to go beyond practicing the exercises. And I have integrated new ways to respond to barriers and uncertainties. Practicing what I have learned from Three Minutes a Day has taught me to change my habits in many ways, to make choices and to engage with daily events in my own rhythm.
Lei-Ching Chou, CA
March 28, 2025
Three Minutes a Day is a refreshing and empowering guide that proves transformation doesn’t require hours of silence or impossible discipline—just a few intentional moments each day. Dr. Richard Dixey distills the essence of meditation into clear, accessible practices that fit effortlessly into even the busiest life. With wisdom, clarity, and a truly practical approach, this book offers a powerful path to mental clarity, emotional balance, and deeper self-awareness. Whether you’re new to meditation or returning with fresh intention, this course makes mindfulness feel not only possible, but deeply rewarding. A must-read for anyone ready to experience lasting change in just minutes a day.
September 10, 2023
This book does what it sets out to do: provide a step-by-step methodology for learning to meditate. It is a beautifully structured guide that is a pleasure to read and will be a boon to anyone who wants a secular approach to understanding their own mind. The Buddhist influence is present, but this is a book for those who are unaffiliated with that or other practices and prefer to work things out for themselves. It's also a great guide for a deeper understanding of the mind for those already on a wisdom path.
September 7, 2023
I found the book to take me on new adventures with a path to a knowing and understanding that does not rely on our ordinary concepts and ideas. It is a knowing that seems to come from nowhere. We have all experienced such knowing at certain points in our life and we acted on them with meaningful results. Ricard Dixey's book can open a path that brings that Knowing into our daily life.
August 21, 2024
This is helpful. After 8 years of practicing mindfulness meditation, I wanted some more perspective. This was great. It took me 15 weeks, more or less, and I learned many new techniques. Looking forward to repeating the exercises now that I’ve finished the intended program.
August 31, 2023
Terrific read - Dixey skillfully navigates the landscape of meditation, blending accessible techniques with insightful wisdom for both beginners and experienced practitioners alike.
October 13, 2025
meditation is an art.
October 28, 2023
Three minutes a day – even the busiest people have time to meditate. Each of the fourteen short chapters guides the reader through meditation exercises and demystifies the ideas we may have about the practice. He explains exactly what we are doing and why, without the use of technical language. Especially helpful is the ‘Questions and Comments’ section after each chapter where he addresses his students’ difficulties and doubts. I wish I had had this book when I first started to meditate.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews