One of the things I hear all the time from educators is “we need more neuroscience in our work,” and “my team wants to understand how brains develop and how we think.”

The trouble is that it takes a lot of time and money to get a Ph.D. in neuroscience and become an expert. The good news is that there are a few books you can read to enhance your understanding of how our brains work so that you can improve at work and at home.

Finally, it’s here. The definitive list of neuroscience books for educators.

These books are not just educational; I promise that they will also hold your attention and spark genuine curiosity.

Here’s The Definitive Neuroscience Reading List For Educators:

1. “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers” by Robert Sapolsky

Author: Robert Sapolsky

Published: 1994

Link: Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers

In "Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers," Robert Sapolsky, a renowned neuroscientist, explains the science of stress. He explores why chronic stress is harmful and how it differs from the stress experienced by animals in the wild. For educators, this book is crucial as it provides a deep understanding of how stress affects learning and behavior in students. Sapolsky's engaging writing style makes complex scientific concepts accessible and enjoyable. Readers have praised the book for its blend of humor and science, making it a standout read in the field of stress physiology.

2. “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman

Author: Daniel Kahneman

Published: 2011

Link: Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel laureate in economics, presents a groundbreaking exploration of the two systems that drive our thinking: the fast, intuitive system and the slow, deliberate system. "Thinking, Fast and Slow" is essential for educators as it sheds light on how students make decisions and solve problems. Kahneman's research reveals the biases that influence thinking and how to mitigate them. The book is widely acclaimed for its clear explanations and practical applications, making it a must-read for those interested in cognitive psychology and its implications for education.

3. “Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning” by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel**

Authors: Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel

Published: 2014

Link: Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

"Make It Stick" offers practical advice on how to improve learning based on scientific research. The authors, experts in psychology and education, debunk common myths about learning and provide evidence-based strategies that enhance memory and comprehension. This book is particularly valuable for educators looking to implement effective teaching techniques. Readers appreciate the clear, actionable insights and real-world examples that make the science of learning both understandable and applicable.

4. “The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat” by Oliver Sacks

Author: Oliver Sacks

Published: 1985

Link: The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat

In this collection of fascinating case studies, neurologist Oliver Sacks explores the lives of patients with unique neurological disorders. "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat" offers a deep dive into the human brain and its mysteries. Educators will find this book enlightening as it provides a compassionate look at the challenges faced by individuals with neurological conditions. Sacks' storytelling prowess and empathetic approach have garnered widespread acclaim, making this book a timeless classic in the field of neuroscience.

5. “Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious” by Gerd Gigerenzer

Author: Gerd Gigerenzer

Published: 2007

Link: Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious

Gerd Gigerenzer, a leading psychologist, delves into the power of intuition and how our gut feelings guide decision-making. "Gut Feelings" argues that intuition, often dismissed in favor of rational thought, plays a crucial role in making good decisions quickly. For educators, this book provides insights into how students can leverage their intuitive abilities alongside analytical thinking. Readers have praised the book for its accessible writing style and compelling argument that intuition is a vital component of human intelligence.

6. “Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain” by Antonio Damasio

Author: Antonio Damasio

Published: 1994

Link: Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain

Antonio Damasio, a pioneering neuroscientist, challenges the traditional separation of emotion and reason in "Descartes’ Error." He argues that emotions are integral to rational thought and decision-making. This book is particularly relevant for educators who seek to understand the emotional aspects of learning and behavior. Damasio's compelling narrative and scientific rigor have earned high praise from readers, who appreciate his ability to make complex ideas accessible and relevant.

7. “Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst” by Robert Sapolsky

Author: Robert Sapolsky

Published: 2017

Link: Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

In "Behave," Robert Sapolsky takes readers on an epic journey through the biology of human behavior. He examines the factors that influence our actions, from neurological processes to societal influences. For educators, this book offers a comprehensive understanding of the biological underpinnings of behavior, which can inform teaching strategies and classroom management. Readers have lauded "Behave" for its depth, breadth, and Sapolsky's engaging writing style, making it a valuable addition to any educator's bookshelf.

That’s it.

What’s special about these books is that they find a way to strike the right balance of providing accurate and modern neuroscience without being dry academic textbooks. They use unique case studies and stories to make learning points understandable and memorable. You’ll have a blast reading these and you won’t be able to unsee all the information in your day to day work and life.

But also, this is my own, biased list.

What do you feel is essential but missing here?

I’d like to make this post a resource for educators, so please comment with your recommendations in the comments—but don’t just drop a book title and walk away. Share what made it special, what unique learning you took away, or share what specific point was relevant for educators.

As you know, educators have an impossible amount of work on their shoulders, so let’s give them the information they need to decide if a whole book is truly worth their precious time.

Thanks. And happy reading.

The idea is that writers (or creatives, or whatever the heck we’re called) can post short thoughts, half-baked ideas, prompts, images, or even snippets from other people’s work.

I just made a few posts to test things out. Here’s an example:

If you’ve been paying attention on Twitter, you’ve noticed that Twitter didn’t like this. Some people alleged that links were blocked and posts were silenced.

From what I can piece together, Twitter blocked shares and likes (a critical input for it’s algorithm to spin up popular posts) as a response to the legal use of the Twitter API (the Application Programming Interface, which is the way all apps talk to each other).

Here’s a quick summary of an exchange that happened between Elon Musk (The CEO and co-owner of Twitter) and Chris Best (Substack’s CEO).

So, I guess we’ll see what Twitter’s lawyers say about whether or not Substack is in compliance with the use of Twitter’s API, but many Tweeters and Substack writers are speculating that Substack’s new “Notes” feature is making Musk feel threatened.

I’m withholding judgment until more info comes out, so stay tuned—but this is a wild ride for writers.

Is This The Community Building Tool We’ve All Been Waiting For?

It might be.

Substack has tested a variety of tools, like “Chat” and “Threads” to engage reading communities with writers—but “Notes” engages communities with each other. By following the “Notes” feed, writers are already noticing how easy it is to bump into other writers.

stated it cleanly:

Not only does it allow for smaller, more frequent touch points with readers, but readers also get to feel like insiders, having closer access to writers. This was one of the major initial tenets of Twitter when it launched 17 years ago in 2006.

Twitter’s Great Concept

The idea was based around conversations and developing relationships. What was cool about Twitter was that it suddenly became possible to get a reply from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Twitter’s use of hashtags allowed communities to organize conversations around topics and let new users find their people.

has since deleted this Tweet, but I still love how surgically precise it is.

The problem that plagued them was twofold:

1 - It was never supposed to be Twitter.com, it was always supposed to be search.Twitter.com

Twitter.com was a uncontrollable firehose that beat most people off the platform. But the people who understood the value of hashtags and conversations knew to start at search.twitter.com to find what/who they were looking for and engage.

The firehose was (and still is) unsurvivable.

2 - Insane overhead burn and no plausible consumer strategy

Twitter burns a wild amount of cash.

When Musk took over, arstechnica reported that:

“Overall costs at Twitter in 2021, the last annual period that the company reported before being taken private, were $5.6 billion, during which time it made a net loss of $221 million.”

But that was just the latest period. Allegedly, Twitter was looking at a negative $3 billion (with a “B”) cashflow.

If you’re curious about Twitter’s cash flow situation, Forbes did a decent write up about how to understand their P&L sheet, as well as some of the limitations of their modeling. It’s 4 years old, but the context might help you dive into the new data better.

So, despite the fact that Twitter’s concept was this field-leveling, community engaging, free speech outlet for journalists—they’ve been running with, in my opinion, poor leadership and direction. But that’s another post.

What will make or break Substack Notes?

Substack Notes will need to figure out how it incentivizes writers and readers with it’s content algorithm. Twitter is totally fine with doubling down on the power of hate. Hate is shareable, actionable, like-able, and unites people against a common enemy. It’s insidious and it’s super profitable.

But somehow, from what I’ve witnessed from the community development team at Substack, specifically with the guidance of I just don’t see them falling for this trap.

Right now, Substack is using subscriber counts as a proxy for authority. You can see this by the orange and purple checkmarks next to writers’ names. I’m not sure I have an opinion about whether this is good or bad yet, so I’m sure I’ll be using Notes to do more thinking.

Substack has developed many features over the last year or so to lift up writers. They mandate a minimum $5/month for paid subscriptions because they know that writers tend to sell themselves short. They developed better search for publications because they know that writers hate self-promotion. And they have been testing features like Chat and Threads to help writers oxygenate the lifeblood of their publication: community development.

Overall, this feels like a smart, thoughtful move.

As writers figure out how to best use this new tool, I think the way Substack sticks (or doesn’t) to their values will determine their success.

Not Another Social Network

I know you don’t need another social network. I know you don’t need another account. I know that your attention is valuable and at a huge premium right now.

I think this is worth your time.

I’ve deleted most of my social media accounts and I’m teetering on the edge of deleting Twitter and Instagram. I don’t like the way I feel when I’m on their platforms and I don’t like how intensely they can grab my attention.

I think Substack Notes might be just the alternative I’ve been looking for, and I think you should consider snooping around to see if it solves these problems for you, too.

Here are some insights that really helped me shape my opinion about it:

Just look at the way the community brags about each other and lifts others up:

It keeps going on like this.

And on.

And on.

This community of writers and readers is already winning me over.

Join Us On Substack Notes

Head to substack.com/notes or find the “Notes” tab in the Substack app. As a subscriber to Strategic Altruism, you’ll automatically see my notes and everything I post is free. And you won’t hurt my feelings if you turn off my notifications.

You can also share notes of your own. This is your chance to lift up others, and be part of something that brings us together in a healthy way.

Go to Notes

Hope to see you, there.

Enemies of Altruism

It seems like ego and vanity can get in the way of purpose, but it also seems like they can get in the way of altruism. In fact, the word altruism is pretty definitively not about the altruist at all.

The problem is that we’ve been sold the idea that, in addition to the great work and huge successes we need to achieve in our lives, we must also consider the afterlife: legacy.

Right. No pressure.

Legacy, as defined by these terms, is the idea that our names are living on after we die. Our children “carry the torch” by picking up the family business, or we generously donate our life’s savings to a foundation in exchange for our names to be posted on a building or a wall or a placard somewhere.

I’m not saying that these actions are bad. In fact, I think there aren’t nearly enough people putting what’s left of their life into social impact work—after all, you can’t take it with you. The trouble is that these gifts are not only about the impact they create, they’re also about the benefactor.

A few months ago, I had an idea.

What if I did some really nice, really good things for people in my day-to-day life, but then intentionally didn’t tell anyone about it? I’m not just talking about holding doors and helping old ladies lift luggage into the overhead compartment on an airplane. I mean full blown good-samaritan stuff. Like stopping what you’re doing in the middle of your day to go buy a Chipotle burrito for that homeless guy who hasn’t eaten in 2 days. Like pulling over on the highway, in the middle of your drive, to make sure that driver has a jack to fix their flat tire. Like giving someone your jacket. Like giving someone your food. I’m talking about making a personal sacrifice to help someone else who needs it more than you.

I’m sure this sounds like a nice idea at this point, but read on because the rest of this post might make you a smidge uncomfortable.

I’m making this point because I feel like the people with the power to support others the most often feel like supporting others should just feel easy. It should be as simple as writing a check. We don’t want to get our hands dirty. We don’t want to take on personal risk. We don’t want to be inconvenienced. We don’t want our own plans to be interrupted. That’s fine, I get it, I don’t really want to be inconvenienced either. Stopping what I’m doing is a tremendous pain. But consider for a minute that not engaging with people directly can remove us from the human connection that altruism is all about.

Altruists don’t need to hear “thank you.”

I’d like to go a bit further here and be even more specific to drive this home. Sometimes, it seems like the people with the power to support others have their own, hidden ideas about how they should be thanked for their generosity. Often, we celebrate them with the recognition of placards and letters, or we hold a gala to make them feel special. I get it. Donations go up when we do this. That part is super practical.

What I strongly dislike is that it seems like the people with the power to support others also get pretty upset if they’re not recognized in the way they want. 

Writing a check in exchange for a name on a building doesn’t necessarily hurt anyone, but it also isn’t really true altruism.

In some religions, the person who gives just a few dollars at great personal sacrifice is heralded as more generous than the high net-worth person who writes a check for a thousand times more.

Let me tie this together.

We want to be powerful benefactors more than we want to do good.

It just feels like we’ve displaced the human element (personal sacrifice) with an egotistical one (legacy). It feels like we’ve traded human connection for a shot at some low-level fame. And vanity just doesn’t sit right with me.

And if I’m being honest, it’s not like I don’t feel the pain of not being recognized. I can count a few times when I handed food to a homeless person only to be asked for money instead.

Sure, I didn’t like that, but also, I have no idea what happened in that person’s life to create that response—and the second my ego is bruised because I didn’t get my dopamine hit from being thanked for my generosity, I’ve made it about me. And that’s the distinction I’m trying to make.

Where does your motivation come from?

I’m sure that this will come across as yet another one of my unpopular opinions, but I hope it encourages you to think about where your motivation to help people comes from. 

To be clear, we all get a little hit of dopamine when we do something nice for someone else. There’s no avoiding that. I’m not saying that giving or supporting others can ever be purely altruist—but I am saying that we can do better.

There have been several, well-documented studies that show that “pro-social behaviors” are generally the default for people, but also that we always get behavioral reinforcement from brain chemicals. Here’s a decent summary of how psychologists and philosophers think about altruism:

Harvard Health: The Truth About Altruism

So, again, I’m not saying that pure altruism is even possible.

I just think we can challenge ourselves to remove our own long-term interests from the focus we’re intending to make on other people. If we’re truly in it for others, we will be happy to remove ourselves. If we get a little uneasy about not getting credit, it may be an opportunity to evaluate the true origin of our motivation.

I’m saying that I bet we can think of ourselves less.

And I think that’s probably a good thing.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Does this warrant another post/conversation about “virtue signaling?” Let me know in the comments if it’s useful to dive into how companies tout their altruism to get more customers.

Chat is a conversation space in the Substack app that’s set up exclusively for us—kind of like a group chat or live hangout. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, yet—but I see some potential.

One of the mistakes I’ve made in writing Strategic Altruism is how little I reach out to you, the readers, and ask for input on what you think I should be writing more about.

My bad.

I feel like this Chat tool provides a fast, easy way to have conversations about what could be developed into thoughtful posts that directly relate to what you’re interested in or what you need.

To join the Strategic Altruism Chat, you’ll need to download the Substack app, now available for both iOS and Android. Chats are sent via the app, not email, so turn on push notifications so you don’t miss conversation as it happens.

How to get started

1. Download the app by clicking this link or the button below. Substack Chat is now available on both iOS and Android.

Get app

2. Open the app and tap the Chat icon. It looks like two bubbles in the bottom bar, and you’ll see a row for my chat inside.

3. That’s it! Jump into the thread to say hi, and if you have any issues, check out Substack’s FAQ.

Join chat

I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of leadership lately. I feel like we don’t have a shortage of good leaders, human beings are just really bad at electing them into office or positions of authority. So, I wanted to define what good leadership looks like so that we can have an honest conversation about what we need in our world right now.

The only problem was that when I tried to define what leadership was, I realized that the definition of leadership is still too fluffy. Let me explain.

What Most People Think Leadership Is:

What do you think of when you hear the word “leadership?”

You might be thinking of anything from military decisions to politics to little league baseball to sheep dogs.

The truth is, I started writing a whole blog post on “leadership,” and specifically how it applies to students in schools, and then I deleted it. I deleted it because what I was writing was what we all already know about leadership.

In a moment of curiosity, I even asked ChatGPT (the now famous AI bot from OpenAI.com) to conjure something about Leadership.

What ChatGPT Thinks Leadership Is:

Here’s what it came up with:

Leadership is the art of inspiring and guiding a group of individuals to work towards a common goal. Effective leadership requires a combination of skills, including strong communication, problem-solving, and decision-making abilities. A great leader should be able to motivate their team to achieve excellence, while also fostering a positive and supportive work environment.

With the right leadership strategies, any organization can achieve success and thrive in today's competitive business landscape. Explore our resources and gain valuable insights into the world of leadership and how it can benefit your career or organization.

-ChatGPT, by OpenAI.com

Quick sidebar on AI tools like ChatGPT:

ChatGPT is a “predictive-text” program. You know that little suggestion that your smartphone keyboard gives you when you’re texting? That’s predictive text.

ChatGPT reads tons of writing, there’s a lot on the internet, and then forms predictions about how words are likely to to be laid across a sentence. So, we can expect what it gives us to be a culmination of what typical humans are writing on the internet, often designed to be discovered by Google and other search engines.

If you want a more in-depth look at how ChatGPT works and whether or not is has diabolical intentions to enslave humanity, check out this helpful podcast from The Daily.

True But Useless

The point I’m making about this is that most people, (including the proxy I’m using for most people, ChatGPT,) are really good at providing a true but very unhelpful definition of leadership. This is what I mean by the definition being too “fluffy.”

In fact, if I’m being honest, I feel like ChatGPT writes like a college freshman. You know the cadence:

“Webster’s dictionary defines Leadership as blah, blah, blah. Good leaders are able to unite teams and move them effectively in the direction of their goals, blah, blah, blah.”

All true, but also totally useless garbage. What action can you take from statements like these? What guidelines can you take to measure how effective your leadership is? What insights help you change the paradigm that you’ve had in your mind about leadership?

Sorry, but the sentence “With the right leadership strategies, any organization can achieve success and thrive in today's competitive business landscape” says exactly nothing about what leadership really is.

Let’s explore what some human experts think about leadership.

What The Experts Think Leadership Is:

Here are some better definitions of how I think we should think about leadership:

Here, Sinek highlights what I think is a main characteristic of a leader: serving and lifting up others. That is a very specific action that can be observed by a team, a family, or any other group of people.

Gosh, if there was ever an example of a world-class leader right now, Zelensky is it. Here’s a recent tweet where he heralds the people around him. Go through his posts and feed, not once does he talk about the great work he’s doing. He commends others and shows gratitude at every opportunity. Zelensky sets the bar so, so high.

Grant’s post really struck me. There’s this general confusion between authority and leadership. Good leaders don’t control or intimidate others, good leaders show vulnerability and flexibility that helps people around them feel like they can speak the truth without being attacked.

Ginsberg really impacted me over the last few years. She was a trailblazer in her field and a stoic rock in her mission to improve the United States legal system. No matter what your political alignment is, I think we can all agree with her words about leadership. It doesn’t matter if you’re arguing or what you’re arguing about, what’s important is the relationship you’re developing with others. This is the fabric of respect and trust.

Okay, just because I mentioned sheep dogs earlier, I had to share this. Don’t let your jaw hit the floor when you watch this sheep dog clear this pathway for these sheep. Aside from the dog’s incredible skill and expertise, what I love is that the dog is just providing guidance, it’s not barking or using physical aggression. Go ahead watch this as many times as you want. It just makes me want to need a sheep dog for something. What do you think the dog’s consulting rate is?

What I’ve Learned Leadership Is:

If we’ve learned anything from history, when things go wrong, humans decide that what they need is a strong, authoritarian leader. There are many examples: Trump, Hussein, Qaddafi, Mussolini, Hitler, Putin, etc. etc. It’s common to think: “this person is a jerk, but maybe we need that right now.” What we fail to learn is that it doesn’t usually work out in the long run. I can’t think of any example when it has.

Another sidebar:

This is why I feel like religious leaders like the Buddha, Gandhi, or Jesus would never be elected into a government position if they ran for office today. Let’s be honest, they’re too soft on crime and they would put too much emphasis on social services and regulations instead of reducing taxes.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve learned about leadership through others and through my own journey:

• An effective leader removes their own ego from the process and outcome so that they can focus on supporting their team.

• An effective leader isn’t just able to make changes quickly, they’re able to sustain their impact over time by investing in relationships with the people around them.

• Leadership is a life-long journey with no end. This means we can’t smile at the peak of the mountain, we can only strive to continue improving at a sustainable pace.

• Effective leaders earn respect by going to bat for their teams when the work environment becomes hostile or threatening.

• Effective leaders can be both liked and respected.

• Effective leaders know that “toughness” means “durability” and not “meanness.” Enduring is essential. Lacking kindness makes you a jerk.

• An effective leader can lead you into the dark and make you feel comfortable going there.

I hope these few bullet points can help you picture good leadership and also give you guidelines by which you can measure your own behavior.

What You Think Leadership Is:

I’d like to invite you to comment or reply with your own thoughts about leadership. But before you type a truism or idiom, I’d like to challenge you to think deeply.

Take the first few thoughts you have and throw them away. Dig deep and pull out something that has sentiment or feels personal to you somehow.

We need good leadership in everything we do, now more than ever.

I hope this post helped you clearly define, or ask yourself what that means.

Thanks for reading.

Prologue

How many times have you set a New Year’s Resolution? How many times have you tried to change a habit or create a new one? How many times have you found yourself failing to stick to a new routine or goal in February, only weeks after you set out to create a new you?

If this path sounds familiar, this post is for you.

If you want to skip ahead to the template, just scroll down to the header:

The Comprehensive Self-Audit.

If you want to understand the mechanics and evolution of how I got here, just keep reading from here.

An obligatory warning about Self-Audits:

We all want to improve ourselves, that’s normal. What’s unhealthy is expecting perfection. Perfectionism is the delusion that we should be whatever imagined ideal our brain envisions. This leads to inevitable self-loathing, guilt, shame, and a bunch of other fun emotions. If you’re not a brain scientist, let me explain why this is really bad.

We take in the world with our senses and then our brain tries to parse it. We feel and then we think. What we feel has a direct impact on what we think and how we see the world. How we see the world then continues to impact how we feel. The spiral continues.

All of this to say: this is not a path to perfection. This is a path to progress.

Before you dive into this template and start thinking about how to improve and be better, understand that your goal is not your goal. Your goal is a vector: magnitude and direction. That’s it. It’s not the outcome. The desire for perfection is just vanity, anyway.

The Evolution of the Audit

Year after year, I’ve checked in with myself in different ways.

I’ve asked myself many questions about my goals, my health, my mindset, my financial situation, and just about everything else. I’ve also used different tools to ask myself these questions so that I can stay consistent and accountable to my efforts.

I’ve changed my tactics incrementally and in spurts over the years, and I feel like I’ve learned a lot about myself but also about the process I put myself through.

Here are some of the iterations I’ve been through.

1st Iteration - The Personality Triangle

I think I can count my first effort at auditing myself when I was about 18 or 19 years old. I didn’t want to go to college, in fact I didn’t want to participate in life in nearly any way, so I was just working a retail job and reading a lot.

I started thinking about the characters I was reading in stories, but also about who I was. Engulfed in literature and philosophy, I saw pieces of myself everywhere. Classic. The strange thing was that I felt like I wasn’t completely whole or even solid. I felt like everyone around me was a monolith and I was an odd, inconsistent, fractured glue-job. I’m not saying this was all true, but it was how the world felt. I picked up my pen.

In order to call my thoughts into clarity, I drew out three characters who I felt represented different parts of me. They contradicted each other and were at odds with each others’ values. If I was one character in a moment, it was nearly impossible to also be the another character. 

I developed them by giving them values, motivations, and even names. I tried, but I couldn’t find the notebook in which I first described them, but I still think about those three characters today and how much I’ve grown. Their definitions helped me choose, consciously, who I wanted to be.

My first self-audit had no spreadsheets, no pie charts, and definitely no input from others. It was purely introspective and I’ve kept it to myself for nearly my whole life.

It looked like this:

The Baron

The Baron was a wealthy philanthropist. He was generous, resourceful, creative, and someone who could appreciate quality. The Baron’s weaknesses were emotional dependency, ego, and confusing aggression with assertiveness.

The Wraith

The Wraith was the most prominent character for me at the time, and was also the most destructive. The Wraith was an eternal contrarian, infinitely self-critical, and unfortunately, highly addictive. Since The Wraith’s strengths were obscuring reality and convincing you that being yourself was scary and there was no realistic path forward. The obvious antidotes to this character were clarity of purpose, selflessness, and exercise. The only trouble was how hard it was to see clearly enough to know what to reach out and grab.

The Chief

The Chief was probably my favorite character. He seemed like the fully self-actualized version of my potential. Wise, calm, and fair, The Chief was my North Star. I wanted to be more like him than the others. The only downside to being The Chief full-time was that he could be quickly quieted by authoritarian rule, loud voices, and trusting others to do the right thing. The tragedy here is that I knew I couldn’t be The Chief full-time and also accomplish what I wanted because of his fatal weaknesses—which still upsets me.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but this introspection was the first real self-audit I ever performed. I don’t know that I’d recommend that you start in this way, but that’s for you to decide. 

What was helpful about this first iteration was that it made me realize that I actually wanted to do something with my life. It made me realize that not seeking self-actualization was about the same as rolling over and dying—and that didn’t feel like the right thing to do. I still had a little gas in the tank.

2nd Iteration - The Employee Review

By the time I’d passed through college and gotten my first “big boy job,” I was primarily interested in performance and management. After just a small taste of doing the work I wanted to do, becoming who I wanted to be, and getting some validation that I was valued on my team: I was hooked. I wanted to dial the knob all the way to 11. I made a Google Form with 2 questions on it. I then sent the form to people I’d worked with and to old friends who knew me well. I stressed to them that I’d made it anonymous because I didn’t want to make my own judgements about who saw what in me. I just wanted to look at the raw data as best I could. I repeated this, roughly annually, for several years.

The two questions I asked were:

1. What are my 3 biggest strengths?

2. What are my 3 biggest weaknesses?

What was helpful about this was that the patterns helped me validate my self-image and it gave me the opportunity to evaluate unexpected feedback. I was able to take these opinions and take them to people who knew me best and could help me interpret or dissect what might be useful.

Not only did the process show strengths and weaknesses that I could evaluate for myself, but it also required me to ask my community for help. This act was something I didn’t realize was important at the time, and showed to the people around me that I valued their perspective.

It also showed me that I cared about myself, which is a big deal when you’re a perfectionist.

3rd Iteration - Energy Audit

At some point, I started realizing how important my focus was on my career and life mission. I wanted to change education. I wanted to change kids’ lives. I wanted to make learning more fun. I wanted to make it possible for young brains to develop into amazing, productive, healthy, adult brains. I realized that the fire that burned inside me was a powerful tool that could help me put my ego aside and just focus on improving myself.

At the same time, I started thinking differently about productivity. After a conversation with a friend, it became clear that my productivity was less based on how I managed my time and more based on how I managed my energy throughout my day, week, and year. Working hard was working fine for me by itself, but I realized that I might be able to take some of the load off by balancing my work with things that gave me energy. I was less interested in managing my input and output, and I was more interested in creating a symbiosis.

Instead of asking about strengths and weaknesses, I asked myself questions like:

• When do you feel the most alive?

• When do you feel the most dead?

• When you look back at your life, what are you afraid to regret most?

• When you look back at your life, what memories will make you happiest?

(I stole these first two questions from a professor I had in high school: Mr. Ryan. It was one of the few things I took with me from my high school experience.)

Finally, in an especially hardcore and eccentric moment, I built what I called the “Death Bed Timer.” I made a rough estimate of how many days, weeks, months, and years I had left on the planet. And then I started counting down. And then I posted the timer on my website. And then I started logging my remaining number of weeks in my journal after each daily entry. I actually did this for a few years.

Here’s a screenshot of the timer from my website, back in August, 2018.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but this audit was less about the work itself and more about values. I was auditing how I spent my time, but only as it related to what I valued. This was a very, very formative iteration for me.

This was the foundation I would later use to create the work-life symbiosis I had been seeking.

4th Iteration - The Sustainable Balance 

After the COVID pandemic began, I found myself in a low-stress, remote job, in a very comfortable home office. I was working with people I respected and loved, but something critical was missing. I was watching my work skills and experiences slide into a category I didn’t like: marketing. I was half-decent at it and most of the social impact companies I worked with genuinely needed help in this area—which was why I learned it—but I realized a few important things in my self-reflections:

1. It wasn’t a sustainable contribution for me.

2. It wasn’t my most uniquely valuable contribution.

3. Every day I kept going in this direction was making it harder to go in another direction.

This time, in my self-audit, I realized that I couldn’t just hold my foot down on the pedal and “red-line” my work engine anymore. It wasn’t healthy and I definitely couldn’t keep up the pace forever. I realized that I would regret how much of the rest of my life I’d miss, at the end, if I continued this way.

I needed to find a way to dovetail the intense purpose of my work with a sustainable effort, and also with enough fun to be able to look back and feel like I didn’t miss my own life.

So, I sat down, several times over the course of several days, and drew up some new guidance for myself. This time, I was thinking about how my work and personal life goals fit together. I think it was also probably the first time I let myself consider doing work that was easier for me, but still had high-value to others. For the first time, I wanted to carve out a life where the wind was at my back.

Here’s what I came up with:

• I wrote a job description for an ideal job. I even allowed myself to have contradictory requirements in the description.

• I wrote the “about us” page for a company I would be hypothetically obsessed with.

• I reviewed my values. I wasn’t generating them for the first time, I was just looking over what I felt resonated with me in the past.

• I chose “one big word” (A word that summarized my existence or purpose.)

• I asked “Where are you holding yourself back?” (I stole this from a TEDx talk by Ashley Stahl)

• I asked “When do you feel the most trapped?”

• I asked “When do you feel the most freedom?

I mapped these out across several blank, unlined pieces of printer paper. They are still sitting in a box in my office, 2 years later.

What was valuable about this was finally being able to see both my life and my work on the same page. For most of us, we spend most of our life at work. Auditing the integration seems pivotal, now.

5th Iteration - The Comprehensive Self-Audit

This last iteration was one of my most pivotal for me. It forced the merger of every part of me. It brought together my unreasonable aspirations, my personal baggage, my career achievements, my values, everything.

The only trouble was that it wasn’t super coherent or replicable. It was a series of drawings, questions, and journal entries. I still needed a way to repeat the virtuous cycle so I could track my progress.

Here are some of the new questions I integrated:

• What are you proud of yourself for?

• When are you disappointed in yourself?

• Whose life do you wish you had? Talk to them and ask yourself if you still want that life. Are you willing to do what they did?

• In what part of your life do you have the most control?

• In what part of your life do you have the least control?

• When are you too hard on yourself?

• What motivates you?

One of the other main realizations I had during this process occurred while sitting on the toilet scrolling through Instagram. If you haven’t been on Instagram lately, let me tell you what it looks like. It looks like everyone is having the time of their lives on vacation while also in the world’s best relationship.

My realization was this:

Your life doesn’t look like others because you chose this path.

I chose social-impact work in the education sector over higher-paying sales jobs. I chose to risk my own, small, personal savings and start some entrepreneurial projects. I chose to stick to my low-paying career path while getting out of debt.

I chose this path. Of course it doesn’t look like everyone else’s.

What a productive trip to the bathroom this was.

The Comprehensive Self-Audit Template

Okay, finally. Story time is over. Here it is.

The Comprehensive Self-Audit Blue Print is just the latest iteration. It’s not perfect. In fact, I know that if it doesn’t change I’ve done something catastrophically wrong. What’s cool about it is that this is the best tool I’ve seen/developed that looks at us as whole people who are balancing life, work, aspirations, disappointments, emotional baggage, and everything else.

Keep in mind that it’s the iterative process that led us here, but it’s also how you’ll use the template.

How To Use The Template:

1. Use the resources to set values and rituals.

2. Move through the cycle to iterate.

3. Reiterate.

The Comprehensive Self-Audit Blue Print is broken up into a few categories:

Values

These are the guiding principles that help to realign and recalibrate our actions. They are principles, rules, or whatever other parameters we feel will help us remember who we are or where we’re going. These are the most important part of the entire process. Everything else is based on these, so it’s worth the extra time to evaluate and re-evaluate them as they inevitably change as you move through life.

The goal isn’t to belabor over your values and get them “right.” Just get close. As you continue audit yourself, these will feel more and more true.

Rituals

These are the habits and thought patterns that make up the practice. They are the metal that sharpens your values and show you the truth. What we know about the human experience of life is that we live from day to day. We chip away each day and it’s only when we look back at our life that we feel how fast the years have gone.

Days are slow. Years are fast. All we can do is operate within the realm of today, so that’s where we must focus our attention and action. By setting up systems of rituals today that consistently give us space to zoom out, we afford ourselves the convenience of focusing on the present and knowing our future is being planned for.

Resources

These are the tools, documents, and templates that get the job done. Unfortunately, this is where most people feel the secret lies because these are the easiest to focus on. They’re tangible. They may even require an account or a credit card, which makes us feel like we’re really investing in something that will help. Unfortunately, we are the operators of these vehicles—so try not to worry so much about having the right tools at first. The Values and Rituals are most important. The role and value of Resources will be revealed when you are deep in the process.

Start The Process

Set Your Values

Choose: 1 Big Word. 3 Values. 6 Areas of Focus. 11 Rules.

This is the format that worked for me. If you’re just starting this process for the first time, I’d say don’t worry about the 11 Rules. Focus on the high-level stuff and work your way down the list in each iteration.

I want to be really clear about something: these are the numbers that worked for me. You may find that you need a different number of rules—but you can’t have more than one big word and you can’t have more than 3 values. Those constraints are essential to this process.

1 Big Word

This is the highest-level focus that summarizes what your life is about. Don’t worry about picking the right word. Just get close. Iterate. Reiterate.

My big word right now is: Leadership

3 Values

It’s easy to write a long list of values. Instead of thinking of all the things you value, consider this approach: every value on your list must fight for it’s life to stay on the list.

My Values have stayed the same for the last few years. Here they are:

1. Simplicity

2. Authenticity

3. Fun

6 Areas of Focus

Sure, you can set goals based on your values, but I’ve found that it’s more helpful to be a bit more granular. In fact, it’s easy to think of work and life as the only things competing for our time and I wanted to make sure I was accounting for the things that I loved and that give me energy.

Here are the 6 Areas of Focus that I’m using to set goals.

1. Career

2. Creativity

3. Relationship

4. Finance

5. Fitness

6. Environment

11 Rules

These are the rules I set out for myself many years ago. They’ve changed only slightly. I have these sitting on my wall in my office to remind me of the person I need to be when I make decisions.

I wrote a complete blog post detailing these already, so I won’t dive into explaining how I came up with each one. If you choose to read that old blog post, be aware that I wrote it in my old style of “rah-rah-motivation-guy” writing. You’ve been warned.

Set Your Rituals

Consider A Daily Launch Sequence Or Reflection

By starting each day the same way, we condition our brains and bodies to be ready for what we throw at it. I wrote an in-depth blog post about this years ago, which gets the point across but the routine has evolved.

Since this blog post isn’t about productivity or habits, I won’t dive into that—this ritual is designed to help you collect data about yourself. Consider it a log of whether or not you’re making space in your day for the essential.

For me, my Daily Launch Sequence is about checking off the essentials before getting lost in the day. It’s about making sure I take care of my brain and body first, so I can be set up for success.

Also, this isn’t prescriptive. You choose a “wind down” sequence instead, or in addition to something like this. This is just a framework with a bunch of ideas. This is one that’s worked for me. That’s all.

Warning: Don’t make Rituals a huge string of activities. One or two habits are plenty.

Review How You’re Allocating Your Time

I only recommend this for beginners who are just starting their journey. If you feel like you could be more clear on your values or you want to calibrate your integrity (how well your actions line up to your values), consider logging your time.

I used to do this for years and I still do it in my work—just not as much in my personal life anymore. Any timer will work. I like Toggl.

You may not need to be super strict about logging your time in an app, in fact, the more I audit myself, the more easily I’m able to realize that I’m spending more time than I want to on things that don’t matter or that aren’t serving me.

You know yourself best. You may just need to set a reminder to look back at your calendar each week or maybe you just need to set a recurring smartphone reminder that asks you how you spent your time that day. Reflection and introspection is the secret here, not meticulously tracking every minute of every day—that’s not sustainable. See the next section about using different types of reminders.

Warning: Don’t track everything. Just track high-level categories. If you can’t get to the end of your day and roughly assign what time was spent doing what activity, then you’re getting too specific.

Set Some Reminders And Micro-Checkins

There are two main types of reminders I would consider here.

Timed Reminders, which you can set up through your phone or calendar system, and Visual Reminders, which can be physically placed in your environment to keep something top of mind—like a post-it note, or the poster of the 11 Rules I mentioned above.

The only flaw with this method is that if you set up too many reminders, the system becomes overwhelming, perfectionism will start to get louder, and then you’ll start to ignore reminders and the system will break. I can’t express how important it is to start off small, here.

I promise, if you’re sitting there thinking “there’s just no way this could possibly be enough,” then you’re doing it right.

Pro-tip: Try sticking with 3-5 time reminders and 1-3 visual reminders like wall art or post-it notes. More than that will make your visual field cluttered and surely lead to burnout.

Pro-tip 2: Your calendar is not your to-do list. Don’t try to “check” things off. The purpose is to remind you to create a task to do something or it’s to remind you to think about something. Don’t ask too much of reminders.

A good example of using reminders would be as a “micro-check-in” with yourself.

This is just a quick, simple pulse check and they can easily take the form of smart phone reminders.

I currently have a reminder set on my phone that asks me, every 3 months “How are you progressing on your fitness goals? Do you need to change anything about your approach?”

This doesn’t mean I need to stop what I’m doing and re-evaluate everything. It’s just a helpful nudge that will inform my deeper reflections. The Purpose of the Micro Check-in is not to solve anything, it’s just to take your temperature.

Gift Yourself Private Space For Deep Retrospectives

These are quarterly and annual check-ins that give you the time to look at what’s working and where you have opportunities to improve your system. This is a chance for you to review your values, goals, and progress to see if you need to change your strategy or put more gas on the fire.

No value, ritual, or focus area is off-limits for assassination. Everything in your audit must fight for it’s life to stay on your list of to-dos. If it’s not serving you, stop doing it. You can always add it back later on if you discover that there was something useful about it after all. Your goal in these retrospectives is to reduce friction and audit the things that give you energy and require energy from you.

I have found that quarterly check-ins are super helpful, but only if I can contain them to 90 minutes or less.

The real magic comes when you do annual audits that look across all of your logs, notes, calendars, and focus areas. If you don’t have a space at home that is guaranteed to be free of interruptions, I suggest you invest in yourself and gift yourself your own personal retreat. Get an AirBnB cabin in the woods. Go drive to a lake and sit in the sun. Being “off-site” can sometimes be an important, refreshing factor that can put your brain in a new mindset.

Resources

The Essential Tools

Here are some tools I’ve used to help me throughout the self-audit process:

• Values Assessment Toolkit

• Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

• Assertiveness Training

• The Blueprint itself

All of these things exist in my personal VAULT of resources. This is just a public Google Drive folder that I’ve been adding to for the last 15 or so years. It’s totally public and totally free, so take whatever you want from it. I made it for you.

A Physical Journal

I use this exact journal. I like these because they’re small and simple. I date each one and file it away in a box when it’s full. I have years of journals for reference at my fingertips. If you wanna be all smart and put these in a digital format, that’s cool—just do yourself a favor and don’t underestimate the value of writing by hand.

You can type faster than you can write. Writing things by hand allows your mind to think more slowly. You can choose the right words more easily and you can be free of digital distractions that interrupt your flow.

I strongly suggest doing this the old fashioned way—but do what works for you.

Final Thoughts

Set targets as aspirations, not goals.

You’ve heard the platitude “we overestimate what we can do in a year and we underestimate what we can do in 10 years,” but it’s true. We have wild ideas about what we could do or be, but we don’t know the path to making it reality. For me, the times that I’ve had success in achieving a dream have been when I follow my current curiosity.

The only path that’s been fruitful for me has been to focus on what’s right in front of me and then pause to take frequent and momentary breaks to pick my head up and see if I’m digging in the right direction—hence this audit blueprint. Sometimes there’s no way to know where curiosity, interest, or motivation will lead, so I think my new perspective is to just be present for the ride.

I didn’t come up with this idea. I heard it from someone on the internet and I can’t find the original source. I’ll post a link to it as soon as I remember where it came from.

In times of great stress, you can’t expect this system to work the same way.

Several years ago, I broke up with a romantic partner, quit my job, and moved into a new place all in the same month. I found that journaling every single day was insanely useful. I made it part of my launch sequence, which was effective because it allowed me to process the thoughts and feelings I was waking up with and put them away so I could focus on my work. This was really, really hard—but I would have been a complete mess without this outlet.

Just because something is working really well right now doesn’t mean it will continue to work when life throws something at you. I don’t journal the same way anymore because my needs have changed. This process is really just a simple, continuous evaluation of “is this working for you right now?” If not, it’s time to adapt.

Days are long, years are fast.

We live in the present, but all of our memories are in the past. This makes it easy to do what’s pleasurable right now and regret all the ways we didn’t spend our time more wisely. It means that we are flying around the sun, orbiting at a wild speed, but have no sense of pace.

These rituals and check-ins are designed to help us calibrate and see if we’re doing the things we said we would without going too far down a path we don’t like.

Kintsugi

Literally “golden joinery,” the Japanese word “Kintsugi” encourages us to embrace imperfection. When we drop a plate and it breaks, we glue the pieces back together with gold filament instead of throwing it away—making the object unique and shaped by it’s experiences.

A few years ago, one of my mentors said something very important to me that I still refer to when I feel beat up or when I feel like I can’t keep going.

I’ll close with his immutable words:

“I had an old favorite t-shirt back in the days when my wife and I were full-time rock climbers.

Years of living full-time in the elements, carrying heavy packs up approaches, stuffing hands into cracks, and never quite having enough money for great food or shelter made a gradual but fairly dramatic change to our physical appearance. We became stronger in many ways that were essential, despite the fact that there were some inevitable injuries, deformities, and damage.

In the end, we were obviously much better off than when we started. We had adapted to the struggle, and it was precisely those adaptations that allowed us to perform well at our craft.

In small writing, the t-shirt simply said:

Shaped by the pursuit.

It’s a quality that I still notice about the form of people or tools or objects that have been subject to a lot. It often brings a beauty and a purpose to what otherwise might have been considered merely ‘wear and tear.’“

-sw

Have fun. Don’t pull your hair out.

As you develop your own self-audit blueprint, remember to seek progress, not perfection.

This is your life.

Invest in the things that serve you. Audit your time but give yourself permission to be imperfect. Keep your focus but remember that energy comes in waves.

If it feels good, you’re doing it right. Obsess over what gives you energy. Watch yourself become shaped by the pursuit.

You’ve wrestled with your rates, how much you should charge, and how you should charge. If you’re like me, you’ve also accidentally discounted your services by either solving problems for free, or by working extra hours beyond the original scope of a project. After over a decade of failing at this, here’s a definitive, ethical way to bill as a consultant.

And if we’re being honest, I didn’t invent this idea. The first (and still the best) articulation of blended-hourly rates is by David C. Baker. So you might just want to stop reading this post and just go read his first to see if it’s what you’re looking for. Back in the day, he used to write a blog called Recourses. He’s since changed the name of his firm and the New York Times now calls him “the expert’s expert.”

How is Hourly Billing Unethical?

It incentivizes the contractor to take more time or bill more than they should, and it incentivizes the client to pressure the contractor into working faster.

This is a poorly designed system. Straightforward.

You should both be focused on doing the best work possible—not looking at the clock.

One of the problems with holding this opinion is that most clients are not used to billing any other way. They’ll be very confused by the word “unethical” and “poorly designed system” because this is the way they’ve always done things and nothing bad has happened yet.

Plus, if you provide them with a flat rate or “day” rate, they’ll need or want to divide it by the time on the project so they can set an hourly rate to the work. Sometimes this is necessary so they can benchmark you against other offers, but most of the time this is because they just don’t understand what their project is actually worth and they don’t have another way to measure work.

Another common response from a client after hearing this is: “okay, well then how do you suggest we move forward?”

Some Alternatives to Hourly Billing

Retainer

Sometimes the work you’re doing is based less on the direct output you’re providing and it’s more about being available for support, emergencies, or spontaneous discussions that require your deep expertise.

In this case, you may consider a retainer relationship.

In a retainer relationship, you’re both saying:

“We both agree that I’ll need to be available to work with you for ~x hours per month. Since the work is fluid and doesn’t really have a clear ending, we won’t try to nitpick precisely how many hours are left in our gas tank. We’ll just say that we know some months will be a little less than x hours and some months will go a little over. This will allow us to use the expertise of the consultant without feeling like we’ll go over time when we need it most.”

A retainer can also work as a base on which other statements of work can be built. You may be on a retainer because your client wants to buy out your schedule, in order to avoid having the consultant balance multiple clients at once. Depending on the need, you may find that the retainer fee is worth it to the client because they know that you’ll be available when they call—even if you’re not directly producing work during that time.

Flat-Rate Project

You already know what it means to charge a flat-rate for a project. The client and the consultant choose a scope of work and a timeline. After that, they both agree on what that work is worth to the client. That’s your flat-rate fee.

A flat-rate is a form of what’s known as “value” pricing.

Coined in his book “Pricing Creativity,” author Blair Enns defines Value-Pricing loosely as uncovering the estimated or perceived value of a product or service to a client.

This wiki article is a good place to start if you’re curious about the term.

Enns also has a wealth of resources for value-pricing, including the critically important “value conversation,” which is arguably the most important conversation between the client and the contractor.

He’s already written about how to have that conversation and discover value from a project so I won’t try to take that on in this post.

Hopefully, this has made enough of a little crack in the old paradigm you’ve had in your head or in your business that you’re willing to try a new approach.

The Benefits of Value-Pricing

I can only speak for myself here, but personally, changing my approach from hourly billing to value-pricing has afforded me:

• Less stressful work.

• Wildly better margins.

• More focus on what I’m doing.

• Higher-quality outputs.

How To Explain It In Plain Language

For starters, take a look at the exact language I use at the beginning of my Master of Services Agreement (MSA) for every contract I take on:

Quick aside about contracts:

If you’ve never heard of an MSA, it’s basically the platform on which the Statement of Work (SOW) is built. The MSA has all the high-level details, like what to do if there’s a disagreement or who belongs what Intellectual Property. It also outlines how payment should work. The SOW should have the specific pay schedule, but the MSA should have the terms of payment. Basically, anything that’s standard for every client you work with should be in the MSA. Anything that is specific to a client or to a new project should be in the SOW.

Does This Mean I Shouldn’t Track My Time?

Absolutely not. You should absolutely track your time, but understand the purpose is very different. You’re tracking your time to monitor your organizational efficiency.

If performance is low on a project, you can check to see if it’s being neglected. If you’re putting in the work but the project isn’t on pace, you have an efficiency issue.

Use your time tracker as a diagnostic tool, not as the heart that pumps the blood of the business.

I use Toggl to track my time but there are many other options out there and I have no affiliations.

Other Resources For Consultants:

• Free MSA Template

• Free SOW Template

• Hourly Billing by David C. Baker (previously Recourses). This is the resource that first put this idea in my head and helped me make the switch.

• All of these documents are located in my personal VAULT of resources. It’s a public Google Drive that I share with people who are trying to do good things in the world. I made it for you, so share, steal, copy, do whatever you need to do.

Thanks for reading.

If you feel like something was missing from this post, just comment in below and we can either have a conversation or I can update the post with edits. This is intended to be a resource for you and for others, so consider sharing it with someone who needs to hear this.

It all began years ago.

On July 25th, 2015. I published an article on Medium called 24 Life Changing Productivity Tools. When I hit the publish button, nothing happened. A few weeks later, someone from a Medium publication called “Personal Growth” reached out and asked if they could publish my article in their publication. I didn’t really understand what that meant, so I just said “sure.”

Within 24 hours, the article had thousands of views and likes, and I had thousands of new followers. This continued for several days until my article was on the front page of Medium.

At the time, I was focused so much on productivity. I was focused on going faster. I was focused on that “startup hustle” thing. Ugh.

Eventually, my values changed and the focus on my writing followed. After years of writing about productivity, brain hacks, and motivation, I shifted to writing about going slow, moving with intention, doing less, and the importance of leadership.

Every once in a while, I would go back to my post on Medium and see what was happening, respond to some comments, and then log out again.

But not this year.

To this day, the post still gets hundreds of views per month—and to this day, I have been ignoring all of those readers.

This year, I’ve decided to take my old list of essential productivity tools and overhaul it. There are still some tools that I still use, but most of them have changed—along with my values.

In this list, you’ll see more of a focus on solving the boring day-to-day, real-world problems of everyday life. You’ll see more of a focus on privacy and personal development.

Without further prologue, here’s my recast list.

24 Life-Changing Productivity Tools: Updated for 2024.

In no predetermined order.

1. Reject All Cookies — A new Brave Browser feature.

Most people use Google Chrome as their default web browser. What they likely don’t know is that roughly 50% of the power used by Chrome is for running advertising surveillance on you, the user. Gulp.

Enter Brave, a browser that is built on Chromium, which means that it’s basically Chrome but with a commitment to privacy. No ad surveillance. Plus, Brave recently introduced the “Reject All Cookies” feature.

Modern day interactions with websites go something like this:

1. Launch website.

2. Close 15%-off offer popup.

3. Close “subscribe now” popup.

4. Click into cookie settings.

5. Reject all cookies.

6. Accept only mandatory cookies.

7. Finally, go do what you came to the website to do.

It’s brutal.

Try Brave and turn on the “Reject All Cookies by default” feature.

You’re welcome.

Go to Brave.com

Read the article on setting up “Reject All Cookies by default.”

2. World Time Buddy — See multiple time zones at once.

Many of us started working remotely in 2020. Some of us never stopped. If you’re like me and you work in multiple time zones, try using World Time Buddy. There are other tools out there, but this one is my favorite because of how ridiculously simple the interface is.

Go to WorldTimeBuddy.com.

3. Yalla Oats — Breakfast in 3 minutes under 300 calories.

This totally new brand is based in Fishtown, Philadelphia and is focused on making healthy, fast, and ridiculously delicious oats. They have fewer than 300 calories, have 10 grams of protein, and are ready in 3 minutes. These things are a home run.

And if you don’t already know, “Yalla” translates closely to “Let’s gooo.”

Go to YallaOats.com.

4. Toggl — A straightforward time tracker that disappears to let you work.

One of the lessons employees and employers are learning as they switch to hybrid and remote work environments is that working remotely is a skill. It’s not something you’re born with and it’s not something you can just start doing perfectly.

Toggl is a time tracking tool with a simple interface that hides itself away when not in use.

One of the principles of improvement is measurement. If we measure it, it will likely improve. If you’re a freelancer or a contractor working on multiple projects, Toggl will help you keep track of where your time is going just by flipping a switch.

If you use this tool, remember to be forgiving and flexible with yourself. The goal shouldn’t be to track every second of your day — but instead to get a general sense of whether or not you’re putting in the time you think you are. That’s it.

Go to Toggl.com.

5. IfTTT — Web triggers that automate boring tasks.

6. Zapier — Automates like IfTTT, with some different software integrations.

This one is a little more business focused. Love this for transferring files between different Google Drive accounts.

7. Mural — A digital white board for highly collaborative teams.

If you’ve found yourself working remotely in a creative field, have no fear. Mural is here.

Mural is basically a giant digital whiteboard that allows you to collaborate with your team in realtime.

The interface is intuitive and smooth. This tool is high-quality and here to stay for teams that need to jam together on a regular basis.

Here’s a teaser of a Mural board I made recently.

Go to Mural.co.

8. Anker 747 Charger (GaNPrime 150W) — Charge multiple high-draw devices at once.

Wow. Finally, a power adapter that can handle the new 16" Macbook Pro’s wildly excessive power draw — plus your phone and headphones.

I’m super impressed with Anker’s entire GaNPrime lineup since it also seems to reduce heat and energy consumption overall.

I can’t believe that an actual physical tech product made this list, but here we are. It’s just that high-quality.

Go to Anker’s site to buy the Anker 747 Charger (GaNPrime 150W).

9. HealthTap — Quick, free answers to health questions from real doctors.

They’re generally pretty quick. You can pay for a membership if you want faster answers or personalized help.

10. LoungeBuddy —Move through any airport like you’ve been there before.

I travel a lot. Lounge Buddy lets me quickly see what airport lounges I have access to by aggregating all my perks from my airline rewards accounts as well as credit cards.

Even if you don’t have these kinds of perks, this is the best place to find airport maps when you find yourself in one of those stupid airports that doesn’t match the number of the terminal to the gate. (Ex: Gate B24 is located in Terminal 1 at ORD.)

Go to LoungeBuddy.com.

11. Airfare Watchdog— Finding cheap flights so you don’t have to.

Go to AirfareWatchdog.com.

12. Personal Finance Sheet — Get out of debt or calculate your budget.

Years ago, I found myself with a fancy college degree and a lot of debt. In fact, a few years into my career and I was stuck in high-interest credit card debt.

By the good grace of my mentors, my family, and random people on the internet, I was able to get out. This is the sheet that helped me get out of credit card debt.

Once I found myself on the other side, I fully built out the sheet to also function as a Balance Sheet and as a Cash Flow Sheet. This is the single most important tool I use in my day-to-day budgeting and financial planning outside of stocks and investments.

This is a public document. Please steal/copy/share or do whatever you wish to make it your own. For the record, this sheet also exists in a folder in the DANILO VAULT as listed below in #14.

Go to Personal Finance Sheet.

13. Personal Online Privacy Resource — Don’t be a target online.

Like it or not, your information is everywhere on the internet. That fight is lost. Just look at the endless string of hacks and breaches at LinkedIn, eBay, Marriott, Nintendo, and Zoom. Sometimes we hear about these intrusions via the website’s owners, and sometimes we don’t.

It’s best to think of online security as a bike lock: if someone really wants to get your stuff, they’re going to get it. Yes, you could go off-grid and live like a hermit, but that’s not practical. What we can do is take enough precautions that we are not easy targets and avoid major problems.

Since there’s a lot of noise out there around online privacy and security, I made this easy to read document that will walk you through the things we should all be doing to protect ourselves online.

Don’t be a target.

For the record, this document also exists in a folder in the DANILO VAULT as listed below in #14.

Go to Personal Online Privacy Resource.

14. Chris Danilo’s Personal Vault of Resources

Yep. This is just a public Google Drive that I’ve been building for the last 10+ years. It has everything from academic literature to old-school sales letters for people who want to improve their copywriting skills. There’s even a spreadsheet that I built to help me get out of high-interest credit card debt when I was at the beginning of my career.

It’s all public. Steal it, share it, use it. It’s for you.

Go to chrisdanilo.com/resources.

15. Christian Baum’s Biz Resources

One of my favorite entrepreneur’s collection of useful tools for business. If you’re a small business owner, a solo-preneur, a contractor, or someone on the edge of starting their own venture, this is a library of life-savers made just for you.

16. 1Password — Store and share passwords without compromise.

I’ve used a lot of password managers over the years and this one is the best. It’s the most secure, the easiest to use, and it allows the best features for sharing passwords with team members or family.

Go to 1Password.com.

17. ToDoist — An omnipresent to-do list.

Syncs with everything, everywhere, gives great visuals of project velocity, and adds a human touch with due-date options like “due next Monday,” and “Every Monday and Tuesday until September.”

I’ve been using the free version of this tool for maybe 10 years!

Go to ToDoist.com.

18. Unsplash — Stock images that don’t suck.

You may have seen Unsplash explode in popularity over the last few years. It’s not integrated with website builders like Squarespace as well as design tools like Canva.

Its vast, wide open resource for stock images that don’t suck.

Go to Unsplash.com.

19. Canva — Digital design for non-designers.

Possibly the single most easy to use design tool for non-designers. With an impossible amount of templates and pre-made design ideas, you can skip outsourcing for many design projects.

Canva even has resources if you want to gain some design skills as well as special pricing if you’re a teacher.

Go to Canva.com.

20. Libby — Your digital public library.

Most audio book nerds know about Audible, but if you’re like me and you’re trying to get off the Amazon drug, try Libby.

Libby is an app for your smart phone that allows you to use your public library card to “check out” audio books from your local library for free.

This is a lower-cost way to listen to audio books and you don’t end up having a huge library of audio files you’ve paid for but will never listen to again.

Go to Overdrive.com/apps/libby.

21. Wirecutter — Comprehensive consumer reviews with decisive short-lists.

Wirecutter started out as a blog for gear-heads who like buying quality products but hate the process of testing them. A few years ago, Wirecutter was acquired by The New York Times and has expanded into every consumer category you can think of.

I like that their lists span categories like “best value,” “best quality,” “best performance,” and others. They also narrow their results down to just a few winners. If you’re in the comparison market, you know that decision fatigue is real and human beings are statistically happier when we have fewer overall options to pick from.

Use this resource and you’ll keep coming back for everything from “Baby Strollers” to “Portable Steamers” to “Best Christmas Gifts Under $50.”

Go to Wirecutter.

22. Knock ‘em Dead: Secrets and Strategies

The ONLY book you should read if you’re looking for job interviews and resume building. There’s quite a bit of “rah rah, get off the couch and go do the thing” kind of language, but there are some seriously powerful gems scattered everywhere.

One powerful nugget that stuck with me was the concept of “transferrable skills.” Since thinking about this, I’ve been able to adjust my career and between industries with confidence.

Go to “Knock ’em Dead” on Amazon.

23. Gut Feelings

A straightforward, intuitive explanation of the science behind why we should listen to our gut feelings. It turns out that people with expertise in their field can trust their guts to be right most of the time.

It also turns out that when we trust our guts, we tend to be happier with out decisions — right or wrong. If we don’t trust our gut and we’re wrong regret seeps in. If we trust our gut and we’re still wrong, well at least we can adjust and move forward without regret.

Go to “Gut Feelings” on Amazon.

24. Kid President’s Guide to Being Awesome

Pep talks, Celeb interviews, and 100 ways to change the world. This book is a great way to add some positive perspective and get you motivated again.

Our world is divided and the only remedy is everyday people actively looking for the good in others. This is a book we need more than ever in 2023.

Go to “Kid President’s Guide To Being Awesome” on Amazon.

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’s still a lot.

Take your time, implement one or two things at a time. Bookmark this article or set a reminder to come back to it a few months from now when you’re ready. Don’t try to take this all on at once. This article isn’t going anywhere and it’s free so you can come back as many times as you want.

Thanks for reading.

A few days ago, I had to call some old teammates of mine.

It’s been years since we’d worked together, but we still stay in touch. Even so, this call was different. I had to apologize to them.

Several years ago, when we were working together, I said some things I shouldn’t have said. I did some things that were against my values. Instead of handling the conversation rationally and logically, I leaned into a new style of leadership: command and conquer.

I needed to apologize because I did things that were wrong, but I also needed to apologize because everything that went wrong in our department was my fault.

It’s always all your fault.

I’m sure this sounds ridiculous, but it’s true. Everything that goes wrong is the fault of leadership.

If my team snapped at each other, it was my fault. I made them work long hours with few breaks, and across time zones with massive jet lag. I made them work with little vacation time and for low wages. I put them in the perfect position to snap at each other.

If they broke something, it was my fault. I made them buy cheap tools and didn’t give them the resources to store equipment safely.

If they took too much time to organize or manage our warehouse, it was my fault. I didn’t give them the space or equipment they needed to do their jobs effectively.

If they slacked off and didn’t do their work, it was my fault. I didn’t create an environment with autonomy, mastery, and purpose.1

And if they straight up sucked at their jobs, it was my fault. I hired the wrong person and put them in the wrong seat on the bus.

Unfortunately, there’s just no way out from the ultimate responsibility of a leader.

Taking responsibility creates high-performance teams.

Years ago, Google did a study to figure out what the secret was among their highest performing teams. They found 5 or so traits that stood out, but there was one that counted more than everything else—and brace yourself because it’s really fluffy:

Psychological Safety.

Here’s a quote from a re:Work article about the study:

“The Google researchers found that individuals on teams with higher psychological safety are less likely to leave Google, they’re more likely to harness the power of diverse ideas from their teammates, they bring in more revenue, and they’re rated as effective twice as often by executives.”2

Of course, the article goes on to to define Psychological Safety as:

“a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking.”

Creating an environment of trust requires taking responsibility.

In his book “Extreme Ownership,” ex-Navy SEAL Jocko Willink explains that successful SEAL teams are built on the ability of the leader to take responsibility for errors. In fact, in a military study, the worst performing SEAL teams were found to have leaders who pointed fingers and blamed others. Remarkably, as soon as the team leader was replaced with someone who took ownership of the team’s outcomes, their performance would not only increase, but sometimes lead the class. Same team of people, just different leadership.3

Once we take on this necessary and meaningful burden, we can find more areas in our life we can control or influence. Once we step into the yoke, we can build the life-long trust that is required of high-performance teams, healthy relationships, and the freedom to enjoy success.

One of the burdens we each face in our individual journey through life is figuring out how to stay present in the moment without rushing to get to the next phase.

When we’re kids, all we want to do is grow up. When we’re old, all we want to do is be young again. Its universal and leads to so much unhappiness, yet we fail to solve the root problem.

Last weekend, I was on a bike ride with one of my mentors and complaining about how I was beginning to feel burnt out in my endurance exercise training. He reminded me that the mountain athletes who accomplished big things were committed to the sport for life because they loved it—not because training hard somehow made it fun.

Duh.

Sure, it’s nice to feel strong and set records, but most training is long slogging days with no crowds or support. If the work isn’t fun, no one could sustainably bear it.

In fact, it’s common in the ultra-endurance world for a new athlete to rise through the ranks and win events for 2 or 3 years, and then disappear.

It’s easier to fall in love with the process than it is to push yourself forever.

In fact, it’s essential.

It turns out that most elite endurance athletes do most of their training at an excruciatingly slow pace, keeping their heart rate low. This builds an “aerobic base capacity” that affords them more efficient recovery when they do “tempo” and “threshold” workouts later on. If they skip the hours in this heart rate zone, they would be prone to burnout, overtraining, and injury.

Let’s be honest, there’s no sport or industry where it’s particularly fun to go slow. We humans are addicted to breakthroughs, activity spikes, and high-intensity-interval-training workouts in the Nike app.

The goal of the ultra-endurance athlete is not to go fast, the goal is to go far.

Similarly, in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, you must wait 48 years after your black belt to even be considered eligible for the grand master’s red belt.1 The system is set up this way to remove the motivation to strive for it. It helps reminds students to be humble by removing ego and status from their practice.

A funny thing happens when you’re forced to slow down

You see the world more clearly. You see yourself in it. You see others in it. You think more clearly. You can smell, taste, and remember more moments.

You rely less on instinct and intuition and you begin to feel more awareness of your own thoughts and logic.2

It’s fun to move fast, but mastery comes from moving slow.

And mastery gives us so much. It can give us confidence, the power to change the world around us, and in many cases, it has tangible economic value.

When we look back at our life from our proverbial death beds, I think we will all want to see special memories, purpose, and well-spent time.

And it seems that falling in love with moving slowly through the world is a damn viable path.

Where have you been?

It’s been about a year since you last heard from me. Wow.

During that time, I’ve thought a lot about the purpose of this blog, about the purpose of my work, and the purpose of my life.

We’re in a time right now where democracy in the United States is under attack, where “being kind” has become a bullshit platitude that people wear on t-shirts but don’t practice, and following the Golden Rule doesn’t matter because we’ll still vote for you as long as you make a lot of money.

Old news, I know. I’ve been processing this for many months.

I’m not sure how this blog will fit into my strategy going forward, but I felt inspired to share some of the thoughts I’ve been having—so here we go.

Iteration.

This blog has undergone several makeovers.

At first, I felt the best way to help people was by focusing on productivity. The idea was that the people who are hungry and want to go after their dreams can do it—but they could be even better with a little structure, discipline, and habit.

Of course, that’s not how the world works. Working hard doesn’t always yield results—just ask any single mom.

Then, as my career shifted into marketing and business, so did my approach to life. My eyes were open to the power of influencing people through marketing and advertising. It’s real—but how you do it matters.

Finally, after letting go of that identity, I noticed my writing started to shift back into a core trope that has been woven through all of my work, seemingly non-consciously.

Leadership.

I looked back at the work I did in a developmental (pediatric) neuroscience lab at Penn State. I looked back at the mission I had carved out for myself of helping kids grow into incredible adults. I realized that while much of the work I did was “directionally aligned” with my goals, I wasn’t making the impact I wanted and I wasn’t even living up to my potential effectiveness.

Oof.

I don’t know if I’ll even go back to writing a blog post every day, but I do know that the healthy future of humanity requires healthy leadership. So, that’s where I’m headed.

Leadership.

Healthy leadership looks like generosity. It looks like doing the work to make sure you actually help people instead of just having good intentions or doing what you know how to do and hoping for the best. Healthy leadership looks like human connection. It looks like friendship. It looks like respect. It looks like gratitude.

That’s all fine and nice and fluffy to say, and most people are happy to stop there and let themselves feel good—but here are some implementation hurdles:

• You can’t be generous if you’re broke.

• You can’t help people unless you understand the root issue of their problems.

• You can’t have a human connection unless you show genuine curiousity.

• You can’t be a good friend unless you can consistently put someone else first.

• You can’t be respected unless your actions align with your values.

• You can’t be grateful if you don’t do the work to truly understand someone else’s journey.

Strategic Altruism

As you already noticed, I just changed the name of this blog from “Up To Something,” (which was a name I was really proud of) to “Strategic Altruism.”

Altruism is a fine and dandy ideal, but it requires real-world implementation and intention to be effective. If we’re truly going to help people and the world around us, we will need to be masters of ourselves, challengers of the way things are, and healthy leaders who lift up others.

Altruism has a catch. By definition, it requires that the altruist receives no credit for their work.

This is the way.

Strategic Altruism affords us the ability to let go of vanity and legacy—the things that can cloud our judgment and make us put ourselves first—and simply focus on the task at hand.

Altruism isn’t sustainable by itself. Just ask yourself how many times you could donate to UNICEF or United Way before you were broke. Just giving 100% of ourselves isn’t good enough because it doesn’t last.

Strategic Altruism maximizes impact by accounting for real-world variables and problems.

Strategic Altruism is a long-term mindset that negotiates the challenges we actually face. Strategic Altruism is not blind idealism. It’s not optimism. It’s not positivity.

It’s a framework for thinking about practical social impact.

What’s next?

I feel like I could write a whole book about this idea—and maybe I will someday. If this shift in focus feels like the right thing for you, just hang tight and you’ll see more posts like this.

If you were really hoping to get content from me about productivity, marketing, and business concepts, please feel comfortable unsubscribing—you truly won’t hurt my feelings.

Onward.

Some of you are in sales because you have to be.

You don’t like sales, you don’t like marketing, you don’t like any of it. You may even already have a great product or you may already be doing a great service for the community, but you’ve realized that your hard work will be for nothing if you can’t put it front of more eyeballs or put more butts in seats at your event. 

Before we get into Google Adwords and how to use Eventbrite, we need to address an important issue: you don’t like sales. 

It’s true. No one really does.

This is because when we think of the word “sales,” we also think of words like “pushy” and “con-artist.” We think that in order to be successful, we also have to bend the truth, speak only in superlatives, or pressure someone to do something they’re not ready to do.

The best example is the used car salesman.

The reason the used car salesman is such a great example is because most of us don’t know enough about cars to challenge them on any of their claims. We have to trust what they’re saying is true and that they’re not omitting any critical details. This, of course, creates some serious anxiety, because cars are expensive and that feeling in our gut just isn’t going away.

Most of what we’ve been taught about sales is wrong. You don’t have to be pushy. You don’t have to bend the truth.

Marketing vs. Manipulation

Let’s get this first concept into your brain: Marketing is what helps people find things they’re looking for. Manipulation is an attempt to convince someone they will be happy with something they weren’t looking for.

Did you see Wolf of Wall Street? Glengarry Glen Ross? It’s full of pushers. People who interrupt you to tell you about what they want to sell. Then, they tell you how much you need it. They pressure you and you almost want to give them the money just so they’ll go away. This is how we’ve seen the role of the salesman--but that’s not what it’s all about.

Sales is a mutual exchange of value. As a salesperson, my job is you-centric. It’s all about the client, the customer, or the attendee. It’s never about my quota or timeline. Sales isn’t something you do to people, it’s something you do with them and for them. You can only help someone solve a problem by listening and understanding their problem--then you can start the collaborative process of solving it.

Focus On Trust

The main thing missing from ineffective marketing or sales campaigns is trust.

Let’s unpack this with an example. Most of us don’t really understand cars that well. When we go to the mechanic, we have to trust that they will not only diagnose the problem successfully, but also recommend a viable solution. On top of that, we have to trust that the work they did, the solution they proposed, and the price of the whole ordeal is correct. Since most of us don’t know much about cars, we have to just hope that they’re being honest. Sure, we can go down the rabbit hole of Yelp and TripAdvisor reviews, but we know that businesses can pay to appear at the top of those sites, now. We really are at the mercy of the garage because.

Trust is important because it not only creates new business, but it makes the buyer feel good. When a client is confident in your work or product, they will be happy with the price you charge because they understand and appreciate the value you provided.

Trust doesn’t come from being a master negotiator

I’ve worked with a lot of startups. There’s this strange idea around how a “pitch” is supposed to work. The idea is that I tell you my startup concept and how amazing it’s going to be and then you decide that it is, in fact, amazing, and you pull out your wallet. This isn’t at all how it happens.

There’s also this lie that if we use the right words, in the right order, the human brain will react in precisely the way we want it to. 

What actually happens is the entrepreneur is expecting a 60 minute meeting with the investor and they set up their laptop and projector. The investor comes in and says “hey, unfortunately, I only have 15 minutes, whaddya got for me?”

Gulp. All of a sudden, the plan has to change. What the entrepreneur doesn’t realize is that the purpose of this meeting isn’t to get a deal. The purpose of the meeting is to start a conversation around a concept that the investor might want to ask deeper questions about.

It’s the same in the startup world as in the sales and marketing worlds. Your job isn’t to present all the right information and negotiate a great deal. Your job is often to start the conversation and continue to ask questions and see where you can best be helpful.

Bring value first

In order to gain trust, you need to do something valuable first. If you’re running ads on Spotify, you will have much better success making potential buyers feel good about you if you “sponsor this ad-free playlist” than if you interrupt the playlist with your ad. This is a perfect example of an “anti-ad.” You’ve gone against the grain by figuring out what the customer actually wants: no ads. And you gave it to them!

The Golden Rule of sales

I think the main lesson here is that everyone feels better when they are authentic and really trying to help others. That’s the key. Start there and figure out how others want to be sold to.

I hope this little mini-lesson is helpful!

Resources

I hope this little blurb was helpful. Also, I didn’t invent this way of thinking. Here are some non-skeevy resources that I’m stealing from to bring you this article:

“How Clients Buy” by Tom McMakin and Doug Fletcher

“Integrity Selling: Values and Ethics.”

Up To Something post: The Anti-Marketer

Up To Something post: Jedi Marketing

Do you ever take breaks?

I don’t, usually. Sometimes that’s because it’s better to push through and if you’re not used to hitting your limits, it can be easy to let yourself slide too much.

Not recently, though.

In fact, you may have noticed that I haven’t posted in weeks—which is crazy. How does someone go from writing every day to not writing for weeks? I’m not sure, honestly. You’d think the habit would be so ingrained that it would be hard to break at this point, but that’s just not the case.

It’s also kind of hilarious and ironic that the last post I wrote was about Falling in Love with Structure and Discipline. Ha!

Some of the things I’ve noticed after deciding to stop publishing daily:

1. The posts got bigger.

2. The posts got easier to procrastinate.

3. The posts got easier to skip entirely.

I am definitely a person who needs pressure or urgency to make something happen. Without a deadline and accountability to others, it’s just so easy to put things off. For some reason, if I don’t have to answer to that big red “publish” button, everything seems less urgent—maybe even less important.

In the private “Up To Something” slack group, I mentioned the idea that I’m probably just inherently lazy. I really believed it, too.

Then, Dana Ray posted a link to this book.

I guess I should read it eventually. Maybe later. Seems important.

The relationship I’ve made with myself has been around forcing behaviors. Trying to hack “will power” by controlling external factors. We all do this to some degree.

Have you tried any of these?

• Putting your alarm clock on the other end of the room to force yourself to get out of bed.

• Freezing your credit card in ice to force yourself to think before you make a big purchase. (Not sure this works in a virtual world anymore.)

• Writing a $1000 check to a friend who will cash it if you don’t take the actions you said you would.

There are so many ways to manipulate extrinsic motivation.

Humans. We’re just not the robots I wished we were.

From a personal perspective, I’m sure most of you can relate to the kind of year it’s been. It’s one of those, “eating peanut butter from the jar” or “sitting down in the shower” kind of years.

If you’re a new subscriber waiting for posts, check out my archive of past posts to hold you over for a bit. I’ll bet you can find something useful in there.

I’ve been writing for years, so I bet you can’t even scroll to the bottom. :)

I hope this post helps put some perspective for you productivity nerds out there. If you’re like me, you’ve probably gotten a lot of your self-worth from your productivity. I’m not saying that this approach is 100% right or wrong, but I’m starting to think that it’s the wrong question to ask.

Comment below if you ended up getting something from this. It might be fun to share more personal failure if you learn something or if it makes you feel good.

Have you ever really wanted to accomplish something and realized that you just simply haven’t made time for it? And then, to your excitement, your brilliant, innovative mind decided you could just block off some real-estate on your Google Calendar? How easy! Once I put this 90-minute block on my calendar, it will be impossible to schedule over it! How brilliant!

And then, I ask, how does it end? Do you spend that 90 minutes entrenched in your work? Did you already have your coffee brewed, your Spotify “Chill Mix” playing, and your cursor blinking while you cracked your knuckles and looked at the computer screen with determination? Did you fall into your chair with a satisfied grin and take a deep breath just before starting the plunge into a hypnotic state of deep work?

Hell no. That almost never happens. It’s not the calendar’s fault and it’s not the process’ fault--not entirely.

There are two things at play here: structure and discipline. I’d like to break these down in a way that you might not be used to, so stick with me here. There are examples. There are graphs. This is going to be a fun post.

Your Calendar Will Whisper Sweet, Sweet Lies To You

The calendar represents the structure that can be so helpful in getting things done. The discipline is the habit, not the act, the habit, that enables us to leverage the structure we’ve created for ourselves.

Let’s be clear about something, I’m using this example because I’ve done this plenty of times. I’ve carved out the time and then skipped it. I’ve made the space and then pushed it back. I’ve taken the first steps and then quit before really getting warmed up. This isn’t about judgment, this is about unpacking some of the mechanics of long-term, high-output work.

Together Forever

In order to see results, both structure and discipline have to be firing simultaneously and with the same vigor. Structure with no discipline leads to a bunch of calendar events with no action and a ton of shame and disappointment. In fact, when we do this, we reinforce the idea that we can’t trust ourselves with projects and it’s easier to slip into depressive bouts.

Every time you fail to make something happen, it’s like someone showing up at your door with one of those huge novelty checks and balloons, only the check is for $0 and the guy kicks you in the knee, twists his evil mustache, laughs a diabolical laugh, and then speeds away in his unmarked 1977 Chevy Express. And there you are, standing there, with a bruised knee, a bruised ego, and a giant piece of useless cardboard. Happens all the time.

Discipline

Discipline with no structure means that we can accidentally over-work without proper rest or over-work in the wrong direction. Discipline, all by itself, can also lead to bureaucracy, which is a system of constraints that inhibit growth. It’s like a plant that’s too big for the pot. It will strangle itself.

Discipline, if done correctly, will unlock new growth.

Consider the daily practice of an instrument. I practice drills on my guitar, not because they sound good or they’re fun to play--they’re boring and miserable--but I do them because I like suffering. No, that’s not why, I practice drills because they enable me to then play freely and however I want when I’m finished. Proper discipline creates freedom. Say it with me: “discipline creates the freedoms!”

If we think about discipline, at its core, it’s really just about following through on the structure we’ve set. If you hear the word discipline and think it means “punishment,” like I did for many years, you’ve got it wrong. And you’re probably Catholic. Are you Catholic? Delete that thought. Let’s unlearn and relearn together, here.

For the most part, punishment doesn’t work for modern humans. It only works in certain scenarios and has some serious limitations. Just to over-clarify, I’m defining what’s known in psychology (specifically behaviorism) as “positive punishment.” In other words: “I’m inflicting this specific pain on someone so they won’t want to behave that way again.” We do this to others, but we can also do this to ourselves. The best example is smacking the snout of a dog who just did something bad. It works better if it’s immediate. It works better if it’s consistent. (Cheney & Pierce, 2004).

The greatest drawback of positive punishment is that it fails to teach the replacement behavior. Plus, punishment can create unproductive and damaging emotional reactions such as passivity, fear, anxiety, or hostility (Skinner, 1974; as cited in Cheney & Pierce, 2004). It’s nasty. This is what happens when you use the dark side of the force. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.  But still, for some reason, punishment is seen as more acceptable than other forms of behavior management, like positive reinforcement, because "people believe they are free to choose to behave in responsible ways to avoid punishment" (Maag, 2001).

Putting this into simple workplace terms, this is known as the “carrot or the stick” method. It’s intended to incentivize good behavior and disincentivize bad behavior but that’s not the whole truth of the consequences. It typically just means that people work just hard enough to get the carrot (and not to their fullest potential) or just hard enough to avoid the stick. What a well-intentioned and terrible limitation!

There’s no infinite upside. There’s no fulfillment of potential. Just a sad ebb and flow between the upper limit of the carrot and the lower limit of the stick. It’s more suffocating than the time you were stuck in the middle seat in the back of the car between Aunt Bess and Uncle Rico on a 100 degree July drive while they were both smoking unfiltered cigarettes. Not fun.

Okay, end rant about punishment. Let’s go back to discipline.

Basically, the punchline is that discipline is the route to self-mastery. Self-mastery is the sharp tool that helps us achieve our goals.

Structure

Structure is less focused on the self and more focused on taking actions to control the world around you. It’s about setting yourself up for success. For instance, I love having a morning routine. I love having a minimalist, capsule wardrobe. I love keeping everything in the same place. I love setting up the systems and environment around me as much as I can.

Rather than just your calendar, think of structure as the sequence of situations you put yourself in throughout the day. Instead of getting ambushed by urgencies like emails and meetings, you have the opportunity to set up the battlefield however you want.

Over doin’ it.

Okay, quick time out for a caveat. One of the places that I and others struggle is over-structuring. When every minute of every day is accounted for, it doesn’t allow flexibility to adapt to the problems that life undoubtedly throws at us.

The best example of this is flight delays. For several years, I traveled 100-150 days per year. I was always flying. Only just a few months of this, anyone can easily tell that flights in the morning tend to fly as scheduled. Flights in the afternoon and evening tend to be more vulnerable to delays.

One of my favorite places for statistics, FiveThirtyEight, breaks this down. In his analysis, FiveThirtyEight states that flights departing between 6 AM and 8 AM are about the same, with very few delays. Flights after are more and more likely to see delays.

Just to be super clear about the data, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics also states that there are 5 main types of delays: aviation system delays, severe weather delays, late-arriving aircraft, security delays and carrier delays (such as those caused by mechanical or crew problems).

Here’s the breakdown by each type. As you can see, factors like weather and system errors don’t come close to the same level of impact as a plain ol’ late flight—in other words: life happens.

This works just like your Google Calendar. If you have meetings stacked up back to back to back, and you are 15 minutes late for your first one, you run the risk of never catching up and being late for every remaining meeting throughout the day. 

To avoid over-structuring my day and becoming too rigid to adapt to problems, it might be helpful to schedule more flexible blocks of time as the day goes on. This would put you in a position where you have the resources to fight the problem that you are more likely to face--it’s you setting up the battlefield before the fight instead of walking into the ambush.

A Lesson From Software

A few years ago, I was managing a software team. They were brilliant and dedicated and they asked for some operational help. I asked them about their typical day and when they felt most productive. The answers I got formed a pattern. Most developers said they were most productive in the morning and dreaded long meetings where they couldn’t work on their part of the project. They also expressed the understanding that meetings were necessary for communication, but the interruptions were really the painful part.

So, what did we do? We added just a little bit of structure. In the mornings, we scheduled 4-hour “flow” blocks. This was slated to be uninterrupted, headphones on, head down, keyboard clackin’ time. They loved it. We also held a team meeting after lunchtime when everyone was feeling more ready to interact socially and discuss challenges after already feeling somewhat accomplished. 

The key here was that we weren’t really managing our time. We were managing our energy. When did the team feel the most ready to code? When did the team feel most ready to interact with others? Nothing brilliant here. Just listening and taking action.

The other part of this that worked well was that huge 4-hour “flow” blocks gave developers the freedom to work however they wanted during that time. If they wanted to take a coffee break, they could. If they wanted to take a walk and clear their head, they could. They could do whatever they needed to do to be brilliant without worrying about the next meeting. Energy management. Not time management. Frameworks that served the team, not rigid obligations that made everyone a slave to their calendar.

Also in the category of structure, falls things like how and when you wind down. A few years ago, I was traveling a lot for work and moving through different time zones. I couldn’t always go to bed or wake up at the same time. This was challenging, especially because I’ve always been someone who has benefitted from a morning routine.

What I could do, though, was create a ritual of behaviors at these times to let my body and brain know it was time to sleep. Exercise and writing worked best in the morning and reading or meditating worked best in the evening. By having these tools ready to go at the right times, we are setting ourselves up for success instead of just hoping that we’ll be energetic or ready for sleep at the right times. Even though the time of day I performed these habits was somewhat inconsistent, the habits themselves were the familiar muscle memory I needed to shift gears into the next type of activity or thinking.

Don’t be a hero.

I have seen this pattern of heroism in many work cultures. You know what I mean. Something goes wrong, the project is late, and someone needs to pull extra hours to reconcile. This would happen all the time when I worked in the events industry. Events are inherently time-based, which means it always feels like everything is urgent all the time. It can be exhausting.

The dangerous part of this is that it can work the first few times. You stay late, you make things happen, and your work culture will most likely reward the behavior--remember behaviorism from the example above? It’s the same concept here. The first hit is free. Stimulus, behavior, reward. Problem at work, work overtime, get a solid “atta boy” from leadership. This is called a behavioral feedback loop and it’s the exact same neurological conditioning used to train a dog to sit or poop outside.

So, what do our brains do? They repeat the loop. Before you know it, you’re in a chronic pattern of swooping in and saving projects instead of diagnosing operational errors and empowering other team members.

If you need heroism to save your project or your schedule, something went wrong with your systems. Systems are in place to provide protection from old problems and help prevent possible new ones. If you’re chronically saving the day, you have an operations problem, not a sudden or emergent problem.

In a Harvard Business Review article titled “Productivity Is About Your Systems, Not Your People,” author Dan Markovitz cites:

“As legendary statistician and management consultant W. Edwards Deming argued in his book Out of the Crisis, 94% of most problems and possibilities for improvement belong to the system, not the individual.

I would argue that most productivity improvements belong there as well. Personal solutions can be useful, but the most effective antidote to low productivity and inefficiency must be implemented at the system level, not the individual level.”

The Elephant In The Room.

There’s this lie that if you do all these things, work and life will fluidly dance together in a glorious midnight tango of romantic productivity where they hover an inch above the ground and hum in some kind of telepathic orgasm. But you know better.

Tell me if you’ve heard this one:

“We identify issues, we discuss them, we crush them. Our organization doesn’t have chronic issues because we’re on top of them before they start.”

If you’ve heard this, then congratulations, you’re part of a team with delusional leadership! That’s right folks, please step right up and take your golden trophy. That’s right, now step along quickly because we need to give these out to everybody.

Chronic issues happen. Sometimes they’re obvious. Sometimes they’re not. It’s not that they can’t or won’t be solved eventually, it’s just that no one’s perfect. Yes, yes, I know this is obvious, but I still think it needs to be said. I have accidentally written with fervor in my posts and left little room for hedge or (in some cases) reality. Having reasonable expectations is half the battle--probably more.

Anyway, there’s a lot to think about in this post. Discipline and structure work together but they are absolutely separate concepts. Without each other, neither one works as well. In fact, without each other, they can go dangerously awry.

You may have more or less flexibility to do these things depending on your work, lifestyle, or personal schedule. Just because you can’t get up at 5 AM like a navy seal every day doesn’t mean that you can’t have any structural components in your day. Sometimes, a loose framework is better for some personalities anyway. Mileage may vary. I’m not telling you what to do, I’m not your dad.

Ultimately, it’s up to you how you want to set up the battlefield each day. You can’t control everything, but it’s worth thinking about where that line is. It’s worth the long, slogging path to developing discipline (it’s a skill, not a trait) and combining it with structure to become some kind of Captain Planet super mutant force for good.

TL;DR: Discipline takes practice but it unlocks new capabilities. Structure is best used as loose guidelines not rigid obligations. Using discipline and structure together amplifies their impact on your life. You can do it.

I hope this post was useful and FUN!

If you’re liking this new approach, write me back and let me know. If you think I should tone it down and go back to less rambly, more straightforward posts, I want to hear from you, too.

Thanks for reading.

I’ve caught myself, many times, saying “I really should be doing ____.” Sometimes that’s fine, but I have a tendency to do it a lot. (Sidenote: I liked the “too many tabs open” sentiment in this header image, but like, what’s with the fall theme? What?)

Anyway, it turns out that it’s really easy to create a long list of things to do. It’s also really easy to convince yourself that all of those things are important--even critical to accomplish.

Tell me if you’ve had a conversation like this one in your own head:

Brain: “Hey, do you ever think you should be better at life?”

Me: “Well, yeah, all the time. I have a whole blog about it.”

Brain: “You have a whole blog about it? Well, you’re really not that good so we should get crackin’ on some things.”

Me: “Yeah, I guess you’re right. What should I do?”

Brain: “Well, let’s come up with a list of things that smart, impactful people do.”

Me: “That sounds like a good idea!”

Brain: “Well, let’s start with diet and exercise.”

Me: “Diet and exercise, right.”

Brain: “And really, if we’re gonna do this, we’d better be great at it so we should probably train for some kind of goal. How about a marathon?”

Me: “Wow, okay. Doesn’t that require a lot of training?”

Brain: “Sure, but it’s not a big deal if you’re working on it every day.”

Me: “Okay, what else?

Brain: “Since we need to be a good citizen, we should be reading the news every day.”

Me: “Right, that makes sense. But it can’t just be one source of news, right? We don’t want to develop a bias.”

Brain: “Bingo. So let’s pick a bunch of news sources and give them your email address so they just send you articles to read on your time.”

Me: “Yeah, that seems like it would work.”

Brain: “Okay, and since creativity and productivity are muscles, we should probably throw in some kind of creative, high-output habit to the daily routine.”

Me: “Oh, yeah, I guess that’s true.”

Brain: “How about writing every day?”

Me: “Every day?”

Brain: “If you don’t do it every day, what’s the point? We’re talking about habits and excellence here!”

Me: “Okay, let’s add that in. Well, I guess that’s kind of a lot.”

Brain: “Whoa, did you think we were done already?”

Me: “Um, well . . . ”

Brain: “Look—smart, productive, healthy citizens of the world do much more than this. We haven’t even added how many books per month you need to read or how many volunteer hours you should give. When was the last time you looked over your budget to make sure you’re spending on groceries is reasonable? You’re still cooking all your meals at home, right?”

Me: “Um, well . . . “

Brain: “Oh great. This is worse than I thought. We haven’t even talked about how much time you should be spending on practicing guitar, learning a new language, meditating, and reaching out to old friends.”

Me: “Um, well . . . “

Brain: “And you’ve said you always wanted to learn Jiu-Jitsu, right?”

Me: “Well, yeah, but . . . “

Brain: “Oh, no sir, no buts. This is about achieving your dreams! This is about becoming the best version of yourself!”

Me: “But won’t I have to give some stuff up if I’m gonna make all this happen?”

Brain: “What? No way! We need to keep adding more! If you can dream it, you can do it! Let’s add in travel and culture. We should always be cultured, right? When was the last time you went to the Art Museum?”

Me: “Uh, I’m not really sure.”

Brain: “You’re not sure!? What do you mean!? Did you even know there was a limited access Chihuly exhibit running right now? Please tell me you knew about the Chihuly exhibit at the museum.”

Me: “Well, no.”

Brain: “Are you even serious about this at all?”

Me: “This really seems like a lot. I feel like these are all reasonable things to seek on their own, but putting them all together like this is pretty overwhelming.”

Brain: “Yeah, sure, but don’t you think you’re just making excuses?”

Me: “I . . . I actually don’t know. How can you tell the difference?”

Brain: “An excuse is something you say to stop yourself from doing something.”

Me: “But, isn’t it more nuanced than that?”

Brain: “Do you want to make this happen or what?”

Me: “I do! I do.”

End scene.

Rowdy applause.

Confetti and fanfare.

This might sound ridiculous and rambly, but this is actually how events unfold in my brain. And for the record, I DID see the Chihuly exhibit because I do just happen to be cultured. Your brain probably has some similarities and I think the main point is that it’s literally impossible to do everything and especially if it’s all at once.

There are only a few things we can do to get more done:

1. Move the gears faster.

2. Produce things of less quality.

3. Do some of the things at the same time (parallel processing).

4. Do some of the things now and some of the things later (serial processing).

5. Eliminate some of the things.

Outside of this list, there really isn’t much we can do.

It’s crazy how much time we spend on creating the list of tasks and managing the list of tasks. For some reason, we just don’t spend as much time thinking or developing a system for vetting tasks in the first place. 

We plan according to capacity.

One of my favorite questions to ask of a task or project is “what will happen if I don’t do it at all?”

Truly thinking through the consequences of not doing something can often lead to a realization that there is no short- or long-term consequence of any significance. Sometimes it’s easier to just eliminate a task or a project altogether.

Oof. And that’s the hard part. In theatre, there’s a messy process that literally involves printing out pages of script and cutting lines of text with scissors to shorten it. It’s called “killing the baby.” It was your baby and now you have to edit it. It’s not fun.

If you’re a painter, it’s similar. You’re constantly wondering if this brush stroke is the last one or if the painting is already perfect and even one more brush stroke will ruin it. Also not fun.

When do you stop? What do you not do? What a terrible question for a bunch of overachievers.

I think I heard about the “don’t do” list from some of Ben Franklin’s writing. (I could be wrong about this, so jump in the comments and correct me.) At some point, in the process of listing out all the things you need or want to do, you must prioritize just a few things that you can work on right now. That’s your to-do list. Everything else is your “don’t do” list. This seems pretty useful, but it still focuses on generating all the tasks with no vetting, first. The vetting comes later and it’s based on capacity—a potential weakness in the process in my opinion.

The reality.

The wrestling match with our brains is real and I don’t ever really expect it to stop. There are some systems and guidelines we can put in place to mitigate it, but there’s no real solution.

I’m also optimistic that my practice of minimalism (something I’ve been working on for several years, now) will provide some support to this process as well.

At the moment, I’m watching my own shift in philosophy from a focus on volume and output to a focus on quality. It’s more interesting to make a few amazing things than a ton of pretty good things. Hence the new, weekly blog posting schedule.

There are a million things we could do. There are a million things we even desperately want to do. Still, we have to pick. And we can’t let capacity be the only dictator. We must use other values like quality, quantity, impact, and fun to help us decide.

We’ll never have enough time, so that can’t be the reason we stop. We’ll never have enough money. We’ll never have enough of a team. We’ll never have everything we think we need—so giving yourself permission to let go of these things is critical.

It might be more useful to think about what impact our work might have—or whether it’s just the right thing to do—and then do that.

Routines are great. They help us eliminate extra decisions, they help us save time, and they help us make incremental progress towards goals.

Routines can also be annoying, boring, and wear us down.

For the last year, I’ve written a blog post every single day. Every. Single. Day.

It’s not the first time. I’ve done this in years past. For the past 5 years or so, I’ve either written a blog post every day or once a week. That’s a lot of blog posts. I don’t have them totaled up anywhere, but I’m probably just under 1,000 posts in total.

So, now what?

I think the daily blog posts are a great part of my routine. They force me to dig deep and create something. I wrestle every morning with the blank page and some days are better than others. This is part of the problem.

I’d like to get out of the “tips and tricks” business.

I’ve kept my blog posts intentionally small most of the time. The idea was that small, daily, consistent actions can lead to big things. Which is true! If I tallied up my 1,000 blog posts that are each 2 minutes in length, I’d probably have a book!

Now there’s a thought.

Truthfully, though, while each blog post had an insight or intention, none of them dove too deeply into any one thing. Recently, I snuck in a few longer-form posts that did fairly well and generated quite a bit of response.

I think the few conversations that occurred from deeper posts are worth more than the many one-way, small interactions I’ve had with readers for so long. To me, the two-way interaction seems much more important.

The only downside is that a blog post every day is a lot—not just for me. It’s a lot for anyone to keep up with. If you’re like me, you get a ton of emails already. So, anything that you let into your inbox had better be worth your time.

I’ve asked myself:

“Self, is this about you or the reader? Are you grading yourself on the number of blog posts you write or on how many people you’ve inspired? How will you know if you have a net positive outcome?”

So, in order to focus more on conversations and deeper, richer insights:

I’m switching to weekly blog posts.

I’m going to be shifting to a weekly blog post for the next several weeks to see how it impacts readers. I think Tuesday is a good day to publish.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that I won’t be writing every day—that demand on my creativity needs to continue.

You might not know this but I’m inherently lazy. Forcing myself to do things is the only way I actually do them. This system works for me, but I’m not sure it would work for everyone.

It also means I’ll be putting more time into the private Up To Something community on slack.

Writing vs. publishing every day.

Really, for me, the demand of writing every day is a useful one. It forces the repetition of being insightful, inspiring, creative, and helpful. To me, those things are more muscle memory than they are unpredictable surges of genius.

The trouble is that no one can perform at their peak every day, which means that sometimes I write low-quality posts and hit “publish” anyway.

So, while I believe in the power of writing every day, I’m going to make most of that private. At the end of the week, I’ll have something that’s a little more impactful for you. Hopefully, I can deliver more for you in a smaller container.

But what do I know?

Hit me up with comments if you have strong feelings about this in either direction. I’m making this up as I go and it’s all for you.

I heard a conference talk once about software design. The best talks on these complicated topics, to me, are almost always the ones that make complex topics simple without losing any clarity.

For some reason, I can’t seem to find the link to the talk or the speaker’s info. Bummer. They deserve the credit.

Regardless, it’s worth sharing the concept.

In software, the terms “UX/UI” refer to “user experience” and “user interface.” The user experience comes from the behaviors and emotions that a user has when using the software.

You know those terrible ads that show up on your mobile phone with that tiny, tiny little “x” in the corner? The ones where you try to close the window but you accidentally click on the ad, sending you to some awful landing page? That’s a bad user experience. The user tried to do something and couldn’t because the design was intentionally bad.

The user interface is the look and feel of the software itself. It’s the buttons, menus, colors, and shapes displayed by the software. They’re the things the user clicks, types into, and opens.

What does this have to do with anything?

There can be a huge difference between what we design and how it’s actually used. The best example of this comes from that amazing talk:

Have you seen this image before? It might be a little over-used at this point, but I still feel like there’s no better illustration to get the point across.

The design that is intended to serve your users may not be serving them in the way you thought.

This doesn’t only apply to software. This applies to anything else you make and deliver to people, product or service.

Let’s take a service company to hammer the point home.

McKinsey is one of the largest consulting firms in the world. They provide expertise. Sometimes, big consulting firms say they have a product, like a database or something, but really, they’re a service company.

By reading all the information about them on their website and in news articles, we’d think that McKinsey is selling expert advice—plain and simple. You have a problem, McKinsey can give you a solution. Of course, those who have hired McKinsey (or other similar firms) know that the truth can be a little more nuanced.

What often happens is this:

An executive of a sugar company wants to close the plant in Puerto Rico. The only problem is that they can’t be wrong. If they’re wrong, they’re fired. So, the executive hires McKinsey to tell them what to do.

McKinsey rolls up, 100 new college grads do combat rolls out of their taxis and perform a gazillion interviews. Finally, they write a report saying that it’s a good idea to close the sugar plant in Puerto Rico. Now, the executive can say to the boss “I want to close the plant, McKinsey says it’s a good idea.”

The nuance here is that the value of McKinsey isn’t the advice. The value is that the boss is likely to approve the request because of the trust in the McKinsey brand. If things go poorly, the executive is more likely keep their job and live to hire another consultant another day.

McKinsey is selling trust more than they’re selling advice.

There’s the intended service (advice) versus what’s actually being provided (trust).

Product, service, music, classroom, hospital, national park, urban agriculture, or those 32 oz. glass jars for pickling—it doesn’t matter what you’re making.

It’s not how you designed it, it’s how people use it.

Personal example:

This blog is mostly written at an 8th-grade reading level and has many paragraphs that are only a single sentence. This is because the average American reads at an 8th-grade reading level and they’re usually doing it on their mobile device.

I could write the best paragraph in the world, but if it doesn’t meet users where they are, no one will read it.

The challenge then, once you’ve got your customers/users/readers/listeners/students/patients/etc., is watching your users’ actual behavior and uncovering the truth in their motivations.

You know, we haven’t talked about the power of slow, small, daily actions for a while.

So, let’s assume that we all know that small, consistent, daily habits lead to larger impact later on. It almost doesn’t matter what category, I think we’d probably all agree that this is mostly true.

Yet, despite knowing this, it’s so easy to fall into the trap of setting huge, audacious goals.

Let’s look at New Year’s Resolutions. Today is April 2nd. How’s the resolution going? I think it might be worth unpacking that sometime soon since we’ve still got the rest of the year to make things happen.

One of the most difficult parts of goal setting, for me, is keeping the goals small. I get so wide-eyed. I want to do more. I even believe that I can do it!

But one of my favorite things about getting older is being endowed with the gift of data. The older I get, the more data I have on myself. I can see patterns more clearly and it’s easier to catch myself falling into a bad recurring habit. I hear people complain about getting older, but so far I really think the benefits outweigh the challenges.

One of my mentors said it this way:

“It’s better to have a bunch of wins that are small than a bunch of big failures.”

That’s not to say that there’s no benefit from trying to do something big, but the bread and butter of our actions should be small. It’s this platform of base-wins that helps build the confidence to take on larger goals and not be crushed when we fail.

In this way, it’s not really about the failure itself, it’s about developing the immunity to failure so that we can keep moving forward with confidence.

So, I’m curious. How’s the New Year’s Resolution coming? As we start the second quarter of the year, it’s the perfect time to reevaluate, recalibrate, and refocus.

Last night (March 31st), I stayed up pretty late diving into the subject of human genius. Over the last 16 hours, I’ve done an analysis of 134 known geniuses and their daily habits.

Of course, lucky us, 5 habits stood out—at least, once I was able to pin enough red string to my walls connecting all the old news articles, photographs, and letters so that I could connect the dots and see the pattern this morning, on April 1st.

It took a while, and my underground lab is a mess, but it was worth it.

Alas, I reveal them to you here:

Drink more water than you think.

Did you know that the human body is made of 104% water? To keep ourselves moisturized, it’s important to drink no less than 6 liters of water with those expensive little electrolyte tablets dissolved in them.

Don’t wash your hair.

I know, it sounds weird, but it’s true. The oils produced by your scalp actually help lubricate it and keep your brain’s temperature regulated properly. By using shampoo and combing your hair every day, you’re losing the ability to keep your brain at top performance. Drinking enough water helps with this.

Blast classical music.

Classical music makes people smart. In fact, it’s only smart people who can bear to listen to it at all. What’s interesting about this is that by turning up the volume of your classical music, we see better ear drum penetration. Another useful but unintended benefit is that others will think you’re crazy and leave you alone with your work. Amazing.

Use dry ice for everything.

Oddly, there were no obvious connections to how dry ice impacted the 134 geniuses I studied, but nearly all of them had it in their labs. Although this one isn’t understood quite yet, I think it’s best to just have some dry ice in those glass beakers anyway—just in case. Use it for cocktails, take it with you into the bath, or just make it part of your hydration schedule (see Drink Water above). Dry ice should be part of your normal routine.

Get into rocket propulsion.

I’m sure a career change doesn’t feel practical for everyone, but a startling percentage of the geniuses I analyzed were into rockets and nuclear physics. There’s something about uranium exposure that really lights up new neural pathways. I’m not quite sure what it is—there is little documentation on this—but nuclear radiation is a powerful and underutilized tool.

That’s it! Those are the biggest, most influential factors in becoming a real, live genius.

I hope these never-before-revealed habits spark your curiosity and help you become the mad genius you were always meant to be.

Happy April Fool’s Day.

If you’re performance-oriented, like many people who subscribe to this particular blog, you may wrestle with the impacts of the last year or so.

For me, I get into a mental trap where I think to myself “if I accept that this past year of living in the pandemic has impacted my performance, then I’ll also be accepting that I don’t have control over my performance.”

This is a sneaky thought. Like the best lies, there’s a sliver of truth in it. While it’s true that we don’t have control over everything, it’s not true that we have control over nothing.

The difficult part about this is that I’ve never, ever, ever found a clean line that can be drawn between how much performance is due to external factors and how much is due to internal factors. Don’t get me wrong, naming the factors is easy (COVID, isolation, the economy) it’s gauging their impact and comparing their impact that’s impossible.

You can’t say “it’s 50% COVID, 20% the economy, and 30% internal factors.”

There’s no way to assess this! All of these things interact with each other and there’s no clear delineation. It’s like the Nature vs. Nurture debate. It’s not either one alone and it’s not even 50% nature and 50% nuture. They interact and impact one another so the pie chart is an inadequate visualization tool. It would be more accurate to say it’s 100% nature and it’s 100% nuture at the same time.

In the same way, we have to see our performance over the last years as 100% COVID and 100% the economy and 100% internal factors. There’s just no way to pull them apart.

Yes, we all know we should pay attention to what we can control and ignore what we can’t—but that’s not how performance-oriented people operate! We care about the outcome! We care about the number that says how we did.

Of course, this is the struggle. It’s not a logical fight, but when has performance ever been logical? Performance is about willpower! Performance is about brute force! Performance is about precision!

The only antidote I’ve found to this is letting go of the number. You know the number. The one we use to measure our performance. It could be sales closed, songs written, kids taught, app store downloads, TED talks given, etc.

You might not even be conscious of all the numbers you’re tracking for yourself in your head. I certainly didn’t. Paying attention to how we keep score is not just a path to self-awareness, it’s also a path to verifying that we’re focused on the right numbers.

Either way, the number isn’t the most important thing. So, maybe we don’t let go of the number entirely, but we just loosen our grips.