Hello hello, boys and girls, any productivity fiends among you? Don't worry; this is a safe space.
I have a running list of productivity hacks, tactics, and strategies meant to make me that extra 1% more productive - Iām sure we all do.
But how many is too many?
I have 50+ strategies out there, and I share them openly, but the kicker is that the 80/20 rule, a productivity tip in itself, means that only about 20% of these strategies give me 80% of the results.
And I know this (in principle), but here I am every damn morning trying to implement everything to the point where Iām not productive anymore.
Itās the equivalent of me cooking a fantastic Italian dish from scratch.
Iāve bought the expensive wine, handmade the pasta, sourced the best produce, spent hours cooking, set up the dinner table, lit the candles, sat down - but now Iām too tired to stuff my face.
And I love stuffing my face.
How bad.
š§ Productivity Overload Is A Pain In The š
The point of these tactics is to make life easier for us, but 17 routineās in, and suddenly, itās the tail wagging the dog.
I needed to fix the nightmare, so I quickly perused the database and found the ones that gave me disproportionate value.
Of course, as a caveat, I kept the whole database intact because we change, and so do our goals, plans, and lives. So the other tips will be helpful eventually, just not right now.
I found my favorites. They were simple, they worked well, and I relied on them every day:
ā#16 Have an overarching goal for the day. This means that whatever happens, however unproductive I feel, Iāve won the day if I complete that one thing.
I have ideas for what this might be the night before, but I decide what it is in the morning while journalling - making it practical/actionable is a great move.
āØ#39 Only having 3 things on your to-do list. This keeps me focused like nothing else can. Endless to-do lists used to be the bain of my existence.
And it doesnāt mean I only have 3 things to do in a day, but it highlights the important/urgent quadrant for things I need to do.
š#43 The best productivity app is your phoneās notepad. Forget about all the fancy bells and whistles of trying to create a āsecond brainā or a ālife managementā solution.
And look, many people disagree with me here.
But, unless you have an express purpose for Trello or complicated Notion templates, just use the notes app. Ideas come up all the time, and simple is usually better.
I pair these with weekly/biweekly slight-bigger-picture-goals, and thatās it.
Everything else fits neatly into place.
And now, I want to show you something recently born from that productivity.
šØ I Made A Thingā¦ Itās Bad.
But good enough to share.
So hereās the opportunity: There are dozens of Instagram (and other social) accounts doing bloody well by literally posting text on an image.
Hereās an example:
This account almost has 1 million followers, itās 100% making money, and itās essentially a list of quotes with a 50% opacity picture in the background. So I thought, shit, this can 110% be automated.
So I decided to build an app - starting with the visual aspect.
I wanted it to be something between Canva and Photoshop (for the templating part) - and itās so much worse than both of them at the moment - but I have high hopes (for this very small niche).
Itās simple. You put text on a canvas, style it how you want, and add a picture - this part is done (albeit really bad, buggy, with many missing features). Iāve named it textpl.us, and it looks like this:
The second half is in the works, and itās going to be a spreadsheet where after you make a template, you can add as many captions as you want, schedule them, and boom - auto-posting images to Instagram (and other sites).
Something like this:
And the reason Iām releasing this piece by piece is because of startup principles.
I want to build in public, so I get feedback and advice as I go - hell, it might turn out that people donāt want this. Or they just want a nicer graphic design app.
Whatever the case, ya boy has just launched a barely passable MVP.
Enjoy.
š Link Dump
Lots of ranting this week, thatās for sure. But hey, weāve got a few golden nuggets too.
š» I wrote a SPICY article arguing that the word āProblematicā is full of sh*t - if you like rants, youāll love this one.
š§ I also wrote a breakdown on why I deleted ~800 of you from this list, obviously not you, but some people had to go (I swear it was innocent).
š° My controversial YouTube article has been making $100+ a day for over a week, yet Iām exhausted with the comments.
š¤ A tweet I laughed at for way too long.
š¼ Some unconventional work advice - careers are like exclusive nightclubs.
Hope you enjoyed this one - feel free to let me know what you think with a comment on the Substack post or just a reply.
Iāll catch you in the net one :)
āš¼ Sah