About

A research brand that builds tools.

Inner Work Co reads the books, distils what every leading thinker actually agrees on, and turns it into structured tools you fill in.

The reading comes first. The tools come from the reading. We put a pen in your hand and say: do the work.

The Problem

The personal development consumption trap

Imagine someone who's read 20 self-help books. Subscribed to 5 podcasts. Saved hundreds of Instagram posts. They know exactly what they should be doing. And yet nothing has actually changed.

That's the consumption trap. The feeling of progress without actual progress. The dopamine hit of learning something new without ever applying it. Three years of content and a life that looks exactly the same.

"If I rated every area of my life 1–10, what would the honest numbers be?"

That question is where Inner Work Co started. Not as a brand. As a tool. A structured self-assessment that forced honest answers instead of comfortable assumptions. It worked. So we built more.

Philosophy

What we believe

01

Doing over consuming

You don't need another book, podcast, or YouTube video. You need a pen and structured questions. Every tool we make puts action first.

02

Structure over motivation

Motivation is unreliable. Systems stay. Scoring rubrics, fill-in frameworks, and repeatable processes replace vague intentions with clear action.

03

Honesty over comfort

Real growth starts with a truthful audit of where you actually are. Not where you wish you were. Not where you tell people you are.

04

Evidence over belief

Our tools are built on CBT, behavioural psychology, and neuroscience. Not manifestation. Not vibes. Research that's been tested in clinical settings.

Methodology

Built on research, not vibes

Every exercise, scoring rubric, and framework in our tools comes from one of three evidence-based disciplines.

CBT

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Thought records, cognitive restructuring, belief inventories, and behavioural experiments adapted from clinical CBT protocols.

BPS

Behavioural Psychology

Habit formation science, identity-based change, environment design, and reward system architecture from academic research.

NSC

Neuroscience

How the brain actually rewires. Neuroplasticity principles, stress response regulation, and attention-practice loops.

We don't claim to replace therapy or professional coaching. We build structured self-guided tools that draw from the same evidence base, at your own pace, on your own terms.

The Approach

Tools first. Content as the on-ramp.

We write essays, threads, and a free 7-day course because the research deserves a wider audience. But the products are workbooks, structured exercises that force you to rate, score, write, and confront what's actually happening.

Every product is a fill-in workbook. Tables to complete. Scores to tally. Questions to answer honestly. The format itself is the method, because writing forces clarity in a way that reading never does.

See the Tools Try the free assessment
How It Works
01

Assess

Rate yourself honestly across structured rubrics.

02

Write

Fill in exercises that force clarity and self-confrontation.

03

Score

Tally results. See patterns. Identify gaps.

04

Act

Build systems from your answers. Track progress.

Repeat every 90 days to track your growth

Who This Is For

You already know enough

Our tools aren't for beginners looking for advice. They're for people who've done the reading and are ready to finally do the work.

The over-consumer

You've read the books. Listened to the podcasts. Saved the posts. You know what you should be doing but you're not doing it.

The stalled professional

Career's plateaued. You're competent but not progressing. Something's off and you can't pinpoint it without a structured audit.

The life-transitioner

New parent. Career change. Post-breakup. Post-burnout. You need to reassess who you are, not who you were.

The therapy-adjacent

You've done CBT or coaching before. You want structured exercises to keep working on yourself between sessions or after finishing.

The honest self-improver

You're not looking for affirmations or manifestation. You want scoring rubrics, hard questions, and measurable progress.

The couple or accountability pair

You want to do the work together. Structured exercises give you a shared framework instead of vague conversations.

289+

Total exercises across all tools

12

Structured modules

5

Core life areas

3

Evidence-based disciplines

A Note from the Founder
R

I'm Rashano. I founded Inner Work Co after two years deep in the literature on behaviour change, habit formation, identity, and clinical psychology, and noticing that almost no personal-growth product on the market actually translates that literature into tools you can pick up and use.

Most of the category sells motivation, identity costume, or generic affirmations. The research base, Lally, Clear, Fogg, Neff, Schwartz, Pennebaker, Cloud & Brown, Oettingen, van der Kolk, Frankl, sits in academic books that almost nobody reads cover-to-cover.

So I built the bridge: structured workbooks with real citations, fill-in scoring rubrics, and exercises adapted directly from the source material. The reading comes first. The tools come from the reading. The byline is real, the citations are real, the work is real.

Rashano Plooij

Founder, Inner Work Co

Where do you actually stand?

Take the free 5-Area Life Assessment. Rate yourself across Mental, Emotional, Physical, Social, and Spiritual wellbeing. Takes 2 minutes. No signup required.

Take the Free Assessment