That’s like saying, “I just need to breathe better.” It sounds right, but it’s useless.

Your brain runs on limited attention units. Spend them badly and you go broke before lunch.

Focus is a skill that can be trained. Today, you’ll learn how to do it.

In this Concept Crackdown:

1. What focus actually is

2. Component 1: Clarity

3. Component 2: Attention control

4. Component 3: Energy Management

5. 4. Environmental changes

6. Component 5: Recovery systems

7. Common mistakes people make

8. The focus formula

What focus actually is

In one sentence: The deliberate act of directing limited cognitive resources toward one priority while ignoring competing inputs.

“Limited” is the keyword here.

You have a small tank of high-octane fuel each day (about 90 minutes of peak, resets after sleep).

Waste it on TikTok and doomscrolling, and by the time you sit down for real work, the tank is dry. More on that later.

Focus is:

• Like a laser that can be pointed at one thing at a time.

• Exhaustible resource.

• Value creator.

Component 1: Clarity

Nothing stops starting like a lack of clarity. I said it many times and will say again: making a very detailed plan of the exact steps you need to take is one of the best productivity hacks out there.

Think of your brain as a processor: a powerful unit that is useless if you don’t give it detailed instructions.

As in coding, one missing “;” can stop the program from running, your projects will be bugged too if you don’t have steps to follow.

“Just start” is one thing, but doing everything on the fly will unnecessarily take a lot of your mental power.

More here:

Speaking of clarity:

• You can’t focus on fog. Vague goals = getting lost.

• Be specific: “Write 300 words” beats “work on the book.”

• Every focus session starts with “what exactly am I focusing on?”

• Action: Before each session, write the exact steps. Perform one at a time. Don’t religiously stick to it, adjust if step 1 changed what needs to be done in step 2.

Subscribe now

Component 2: Attention control

The core skill here is catching yourself when you drift and coming back.

It requires a lot of practice, but you will get better over time.

Train your attention muscle:

• Notice when you've drifted without judgment.

• Redirect back to the task. You can put a piece of paper on your desk and make a dot every time you go back.

• Track how quickly you return (it gets faster with practice).

• Use external cues: timers, focus apps, simple pen marks on paper (like dots).

How to implement?

• Meditation—read more in the book.

• Focus on the present moment in whatever you do.

• Form the habit. Habit is the king of change.

• Focus on one thing at a time and one thing only.

More here:

Speaking attention control:

• Focus = returning quickly when pulled away. Train like a muscle.

• Kill multitasking: every context switch burns brain fuel.

• Action: Try 25–45 minute “attention reps.” Phone in another room, one tab only, one task. When distracted, note it and come back.

  Subscribe now

Component 3: Energy management

Read more

After breaking down every chapter, I'll show you what actually works for regular entrepreneurs, what's complete BS, and the one strategy that changed everything for his business.

This is Part 2 of my Million Dollar Weekend breakdown—where we get into the real money-making tactics.

Chapter 6: Social media for growth

This chapter starts with Noah telling us how he raised $30,000 from his audience for Bo Jackson’s charity bike ride.

Then he tells us how great it is to have an audience. We already know that. Real question—how to build it?

Lesson:

Unique angle and unfair advantage.

Take, for example, Ben Kenyon. Ben is the head strength and conditioning coach for the Philadelphia 76ers NBA basketball team…

Unfair advantage here is as clear as day. Ben can start a YouTube channel or newsletter with very little competition.

Anyone can talk about NBA online, but Ben has a strong authority card in his hand. And even more important—insights!

“What’s your unique angle in thirty seconds or less?” In other words, why would anyone care to read his newsletter?

You can answer that for yourself (look below, Chapter 6 challenges). Do it before you start anything. Here’s a template:

I write about [topics]. [Results they will get from your offer].

More about that here:

Don’t make the same mistake I did—writing about anything that interested me. If you go to “Archive” and scroll for a while, you’ll see a random jumble of topics. Turns out that’s not the best way to write a newsletter.

Truth to be told, that’s something I struggle with a lot. Even today. I rebranded the newsletter, but I’m still not sure.

I’m for a lookout for that “That’s it!” feeling, but I can’t find it. Reply to this email and let me know what you would like to see here.

Content circle framework:

1. Core Circle: Start with a very narrow audience. Ali started with the medical school exams for British people. Your niche within a niche can be the most obscure thing imaginable, as long as it makes you and your audience passionate.

2. Medium Circle: As you move bigger, your content should overlap somewhat with what concerns your Core Circle, but it should appeal to a broader audience. Ali started talking about studying and productivity in general, since that’s required for all students.

3. Large Circle: Here you go for the largest audience possible that’s still related. Some of Ali’s most watched videos are about his salary—made possible by his medical video fame—or the latest Apple product—which he uses to increase productivity. All the circles should still include your core audience but keep expanding your circle of influence.

Keep in mind that something that works well as a YouTube channel won’t necessarily work well as a newsletter.

Share

Summary:

1. Write your unique angle.

2. Pick a platform.

3. Create.

Be the Guide, Not the Guru

Chapter 6 challenges:

1. Write out your unique angle. There are no right answers here. You can change these any time you'd like.

1. Who are you?

2. Why should people listen?

3. What are you passionate about?

4. What will you do for people?

2. Update your bio.

   Choose your one platform, and using the unique angle pitch you wrote out before, clean up and rewrite your profile/bio on that platform to reflect who you are and how you help your ideal customer.

3. Create your own Content Circle.

   Think back to your validation days: Who are the customers you want to appeal to and what’s the outcome you can create content for? What’s the unique point of view in your content they’d be excited to hear about?

4. Post one piece of content.

   Now it’s time to post content publicly. Now, this piece of content can come in any format.

Chapter 7: Email for profit

Noah starts by telling us how he 95x his per email revenue by telling a story instead of selling.

Lesson:

Normally, Nikola would have just written: “There’s a deal on this product and you get to save $1,000!” Throw in a buy button and that was my typical email. It was just “Go buy!”—not much more than that.

About $100/email

It started with a line I will never forget:

“If you get a boner when I whisper the word ‘Garamond’ into your ear .. . you might be interested.”

$9,563 in 24h. Garmond is a font, and they were offering a deal for Kernest, which included it.

Part of final copy:

…You see, my friend, today we’re reaching out only to the community of people known as font fanatics.

You know who you are!

If your knees go weak when I whisper, “GARAMOND.”

. . . you might be one of ’em….

Why is email so important? If you're interested in newsletters, you know that already.

To quickly sum up what Noah said:

• AppSumo generates $65M annually: nearly 50% comes from email (consistent for 10+ years).

• Email beats social media followers: 1M+ social followers < 100K email subscribers.

• Guaranteed reach vs. algorithm luck: 40K people open every email vs. unpredictable social reach.

• Email isn't dead: 4+ billion users check it daily (89% check every day).

• Platform risk: Algorithm changes killed LittleThings ($100M loss, 75% traffic drop). And you can get banned any time.

• You own your email list: It's portable if your business shuts down.

• Cost-effective growth: Growing/messaging email lists costs less than paid ads.

How to get first subs?

1. Create a lead magnet: something you will give out for free in exchange for an email (ebook, checklist, resource)

2. Get people there.

Lead magnet examples from the book:

• A checklist that can be used to properly perform something I explained in a video.

• A template for determining, say, a business’s profit margin.

• An advanced guide that goes further into the details of a subject of one of my videos.

• A unique book that provides substantial value but is offered for free. For me, it is 11 Side Hustle Ideas to Make $500/Day from Your Phone.

  ---

• A DIY carpenter could offer plans to make a corner table.

• A marketing YouTuber could offer scripts of what to say on sales phone calls.

• A landscaping expert might offer recommendations for which kinds of

  grass to use around the United States.

Getting your first 100 subs.

Noah’s advice—use your network.

My advice—start on Substack. Currently, that’s the best place on the internet to gather emails. Use any existing social media to direct people on your list.

The law of 100.

Photography professor Jerry Uelsmann split his photography into two groups: the Quantity group and the Quality group.

The Quantity group had to take 100 pictures to get an A grade by the end of the semester, and the Quality group could turn in just one photo by the end of the semester —but it had to be perfect to get the A.

Can you guess what happened?

The Quantity group kicked the Quality group’s ass—in terms of quality!

Why?

The Quantity group experimented more! They took tons of photos, learned from their mistakes each time, spent more time in the darkroom, and they got better with time.

That’s what the Law of 100 is about.

Quality beats quantity, but quantity is the way to learn.

• If you want to start a YouTube channel, publish 100 videos.

• If you’re doing a newsletter, write 100 emails.

• If you’re starting a new hobby like chess or guitar, practice for 100 days.

• If you’re creating a business, directly pitch 100 customers.

Do it 100 times before quitting. Consistency grows tasty fruits.

Summary:

Your email list is your most important asset.

Chapter 7 challenges:

1. Build your landing page. You can set up one like Julien’s for free with SendFox.com (a service I helped build).

You can use free sites: Wix, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Carrd, and Google Sites, or even Canva.

2. Update email signature and social media bios. Put your landing page address in your email signature and your social bios.

Guide I used to create my email signature:

3. Create a Lead Magnet.

   It’s time to create your first Lead Magnet using the process we’ve just outlined above. You can use your piece of content from the previous chapter as a base or start something new. Don’t spend more than two hours on the first iteration.

4. Set up an autoresponder.

   I happen to think SendFox.com (I helped build it) is pretty darned good, but there are a bunch of others that I recommend, like ConvertKit.com and Mailchimp.com.

5. The Law of 100.

   Commit to doing 100 emails, posts, or whatever action will move you closer to your goals.

A little help for you.

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Chapter 8: The growth machine

After Noah was rejected as a director of marketing at Mint, he came back with a detailed marketing plan. What happened next?

Read more

Noah Kagan promises you can start a million-dollar business over a weekend. Here's what he doesn't tell you about why that might not work for most people.

Don't get me wrong, "Million Dollar Weekend" is packed with actionable steps, practical challenges, and value. But after breaking down each chapter, I realized there's a gap between Kagan's advice and reality for most people.

This breakdown is too extensive for one post, so I'm releasing it in two parts. I'll show you what works, what doesn't, and why you should still read the book yourself. Get it here (affiliate)

This post has the format of:

• Intro

• Lesson

• Summary

• Chapter’s challenges

Chapter 1: Just fu*king start

Noah’s Background: He went to Berkeley and was the 30th employee at Facebook, from which he was fired later.

Neat start that comes with a packet of skills and knowledge. Then he talks about his successful businesses. In short, there’s a lot to learn from this man.

Every chapter has its own challenges that will be listed at the end of each section.

Lesson:

What actually stops people from starting?

In 2013, I set out to solve that mystery and launched a course called “How to Make a $1000-a-Month Business.” I started with a group of five beta testers—a programmer, a horse trainer, and three people with ordinary day jobs—all of whom had everything they needed to start their own business.

Two weeks after we started, I was shocked to discover the entire group practically made ZERO progress. To understand what had happened, I got everyone in a room together and did some entrepreneurial group therapy, breaking down what was holding them back.

It turns out, it wasn’t a lack of skill, desire, or intelligence.

The whole group was derailed by the same two fears:

1. Fear of starting

2. Fear of asking

Start. That’s the whole lesson. Start without overthinking. Start when you aren’t ready.

Is there a right time for having kids? Probably? But surely not now? The same is true with business, and it’s much less scary than having kids.

I’ve written about this many times on AchievR (like here or here, for example).

To give you the wider picture, let’s list the most common causes for not starting and the cure for them:

• I’m not ready, I don’t know enough yet. Just start!

• I will fail. You will fail. You will learn. You will fail less. Just start!

• I’m not cut out for this. What’s that presumption based on? Was it enough to determine? Just start!

• There are so many things that could go wrong. Most of them are in your head. Just start!

I like the term “wantrepreneur” Noah is using. Don’t be one.

The freedom number.

It’s a number that will allow you to cover all the necessary expenses. It’s not the number for getting rich (yet), it’s the number that buys freedom.

I’ve had mine in mind for a long time. and believe everyone should have one. Come up with one for yourself (remember—starting).

From my eighteenth birthday until I turned thirty, my monthly Freedom Number was $3,000. Why $3,000? Because adding up what I paid for rent, the cost of the tacos and steak and wine I liked to eat and drink, and the plane tickets that would let me work from Argentina or Korea or Thailand, all together that came to a little less than $3,000 a month. At the time, that’s what my living expenses were. Roughly speaking: $1,000 for housing, $1,000 for food and travel, $1,000 for savings and investment.

Summary:

Act first and figure stuff out along the way. There’s no better lesson than failing and iterating on your own.

Super-successful people do the opposite—they take action first, get real feedback, and learn from that, which is a million times more valuable than any book or course. And quicker! […] Any analysis ahead of action is purely speculation.

Chapter 1 challenges:

1. Ask someone you know for a dollar investment in you and your future business—one measly dollar!

2. Ask one person you respect for a business idea.

3. Choosing your Freedom Number.

Chapter 2: Embrace rejection

Noah tells a little story about his dad, who sold copiers with a hard, foreign accent.

“Love rejections! Collect them like treasure! Set rejection goals. I shoot for a hundred rejections each week, because if you work that hard to get so many noes, my little Noah’le, in them you will find a few yeses, too.”

Lesson:

Ask. That’s the whole lesson. Because what’s the worst that can happen? Noah doesn’t say it that directly, but—have no shame in asking for what you want.

Most people don’t directly ask for what they want. They drop a hint here and there, and then are disappointed they didn’t get it.

We cringe at people like this, but we’re jealous after the question is answered.

Rejection is scary, it hurts. But it also doesn’t matter. None of those people who made fun of your cold DM will come to your funeral. Even more, they won’t remember it tomorrow.

Squid Game creator Hwang Dong-hyuk turned a decade of no’s into a chart-beating hit. Whatever you are doing, it won’t take 10 years for you.

Who is the type of person that starts a million-dollar business?

• The type of person who asks for what they want.

• If you want a new job at a new company, you have to ASK for it.

• If you want more money from your boss, you have to ASK for the raise.

• If you are selling something, you have to ASK the customer to buy it.

• Even at home, if you want your spouse or kids to treat you better, you have to ASK them.

I once did sales training for various renewable energy companies. This involved identifying homes that looked like they needed upgrades, knocking on doors, making small talk (which I hated), and then pitching our product (which was a solid offer). Some people were scared, others were rude, and a few were downright hostile. But it was an experience that made cold DMing people online feel like a peaceful walk in the forest by comparison.

This is going to suck, but there’s something very satisfying about casting this net.

What do you need?

• Persistence: most nos are actually a “not nows.”

• Follow up: a lot.

• Selling is helping: If you believe your product or service improves the lives of your customers, selling is just education. And here’s when I have an ask:

  AchievR is a highly nutritious media diet for your brain.

Summary:

Ask. Ask a lot. Ask despite discomfort.

Chapter 2 challenges:

1. The Coffee Challenge: Go to any coffee shop or anyplace in person. Make a simple purchase and ask for 10 percent off.

Chapter 3: Finding million-dollar ideas

The chapter starts with another story—about the business that flopped, sank $100k+, and how that led to $15 million opportunity.

It is deadly to build a business without first verifying that there are paying customers

Lesson:

…when it comes to generating business ideas, customers come first. Before the product or service. Even before the idea. To build a business, you need someone to sell to.

I can’t tell you how many times someone has emailed me saying, “What do you think of this business idea?”

My auto-reply? “Have you asked what the customer thinks?”

Steve Jobs said, “You have to start with the customer experience and work backwards.”

[..]

If you do it this way, you’re assured of nailing the three Ws of business right from the start:

• Who you are selling to?

• What problem you’ re solving?

• Where they are?

The core lesson here (which repeats in the book many times) is that you need to test your idea first, to see if customers are there and if they will pay for the solution you provide.

Founder first vs customer first approach:

Okay, you have an idea for a dog-walking app. How would you go about doing it? Here’s the way most people—most wantrepreneurs—would do it:

1. Spend hours at home thinking about the app (and coming up with clever names for it).

2. Set up an LLC

3. Spend $100 hiring their cousin to draw a cool logo. Set up an LLC.

4. Watch YouTube videos about apps and programming and business. And dogs.

5. Consider signing up for a developer boot camp and quickly realize coding is hard.

6. Buy the domain name for the snazzy website they’re going to build.

7. Look into hiring a developer on Upwork, and quickly realize it’s prohibitively expensive.

8. Give up. Again.

vs:

1. Call or text three people right now who have dogs and ask them to pay you to walk their dog.

2. Turns out none of these dog owners have problems walking their dog. You discover their real problem is finding dog sitters when they’re traveling.

3. Ask for their next travel dates and have them pay you a deposit.

They pay: jackpot!

Personal network.

Long story short: Noah describes how he launched AppSumo (discounted software bundles) by emailing the Imgru founder and an important person at Reddit. I can’t help but notice this part is not relatable at all.

Email to Chris Slowe, Reddit’s founding engineer:

Wanted to treat you to a breakfast at Pork Store Cafe to give you some suggestions on the site and run by a cool promotion I’m working on with Imgur.

You free this Wed at 9am?

If any mortal like me and you were to do this, we would never get an answer. And that’s when the brilliant plan would stop.

However, the lesson is there. And it’s valuable—use your existing network. People you already know can be a great potential. You are on some WhatsApp groups, Discords, etc. Everyone knows this, few use this. Combine with the lesson from before—asking.

Finding business ideas.

And the 3 questions you need for that:

1. What’s the most painful (aka valuable) problem you can solve for people...

2. That you also have passion for and/or unique expertise in...

3. For the largest niche possible that you belong to and understand . . .

Business is all about solving problems, pains, frustrations. You’ve got enough of them, and some are shared with other people, some you know way more about than others. Solve your own problems, win-win.

A tip I really liked is latching onto existing products. Like stickers for an iPhone, PS5 custom controller skins, or cool Lego displays.

It’s easier to sell to a large group of people who’ve already spent money on a product or service.

Summary:

Ask. Ask a lot. Ask despite discomfort.

Chapter 3 challenges:

1. Top three groups. Let’s write out your top three groups to target. Who do you have easy access to that you’d be EXCITED to help? This can be your neighbors, colleagues, religious friends, golf buddies, cooking friends, etc.

2. Solve your own problems. Use the questions (above) to find three ideas.

3. Write down two accessorizing ideas in your MDW Journal.

4. Use search engine questions and Reddit forums to find two more ideas.

Chapter 4: One-minute business model

Students of Noah’s Monthly1K challenged him to make $1k in the next 24h from the ideas they chose. The beef jerky idea was the winner. The next 2 chapters show how this business was later sold for $120k.

In this chapter, you will learn how to determine if the idea has $1M potential.

Lesson:

3 questions to help you decide on the business:

1. “Is this a million-dollar opportunity?” You’ll research the market to find out.

2. “What’s my model?” You’ll create a simple budget by sketching out revenue, cost, and profit, so you know how many units you’ll need to sell and for how much to make $1 million.

3. “What if it turns out it’s not going to work?” You’ll pivot and evolve: You’ll use customer feedback to adjust the variables of the business (pricing, model, offer, category—all that) into something bigger and better.

Find customers that will pay.

You, dear reader, are a surfer. What you’re selling—the product or service—is your surfboard. The market is the wave, and the wave is what matters most.

Even if you’re a great surfer with an amazing board, you will still fail if you don’t have a good wave to ride.

You don’t have to hop on a new trend. There are many examples in the book, including selling dog treats and cookies. Students are generally broke, solving rich people’s problems pays—you get the idea. Example:

…Robert Samuel. After getting fired from his customer service job at AT&T, he noticed the frenzy created by every new iPhone release. So he put an ad on Craigslist in 2012 to validate whether anyone would pay for him to wait in line. When he was paid $325 for his first fifteen-hour stint, he knew he had a wave.

Today, his business Same Ole Line Dudes (SOLD) employs thirty dudes and dudettes, charging a $50 minimum up to two hours and $25 for each additional hour to wait in line for everything from hot new sneakers to the DMV to the newest iPhone release—and Robert himself takes home $80,000 a year.

To have a million-dollar business, you need a million-dollar opportunity—how do you prove you have one?

1. Is the overall market dying, flat, or growing?

2. Is this a million-dollar opportunity?

For 1:

Use Google Trends/Ads Manager, as well as Facebook Ads. Keyword research, any other tool to determine the market’s potential.

For 2:

1. Pick a price point you think will be ideal for your customer.

2. Multiply that by the number of ideal customers.

3. Does that equal at least a million dollars? Yes or no?

Noah gives an example of beard oil.

• Problem: Beards are itchy

• Solution: Beard oil

• Google Trends: Flat with some growth

• Size of market: 2,500,000 people

• Cost of your product: ~$50

• Total Value: $125,000,000

• Million-dollar idea? Yes!

How to generate your own $1M?

As you won’t take 10, 5, or even 2% of the market—what would it take for $1M?

Revenue (all the money you make) — Cost (how much it costs to make it) = Profit (what you get to take home)

Our Beard oil sells for

$ 50.00

Cost to make, package, and ship

$ 37.50

Profit per unit sold

$ 12.50

Target Profit

$ 1,000,000

Profit per unit sold

$ 12.50

Total sales needed

80,000

This will never be that easy, but it gives you a rough mental image that you will base further decisions on.

AND, we are skipping the competition aspect here, which in this example is massive.

Pivot and evolve.

Coming back to jerky:

1 Bag of Jerky

$ 20

Cost to acquire, package, and ship

$ 15

Profit

$5

Uh-oh . . . That meant:

Target profit

$ 1,000

Profit per unit sold

$5

Total sales needed

200

In 24h? Too much. Solution: recurring sale—subscription.

I also realized that if I sold to offices that offered snacks, it would be easier to find customers with larger disposable budgets. Plus, I figured I had a lot of close friends at companies who could buy for their employees or refer me to their office managers.

Once again, connections. A huge part of business. Pitching offices to buy your jerky sub would definitely take more than 24h.

One-time sale: $20/1, 200 sales needed after costs.

6-month subscription: $120/1, 33 sales needed after costs.

AND, we are skipping the burnout aspect. Not that difficult to find a high-potential idea, very difficult to find an idea that won’t burn the absolute shit out of you.

If you do a non-obligatory thing that you don’t care about for the pure sake of money, you will burn out. Profitable ideas are often boring as hell! Does doing taxes for crypto traders sound sexy? I bet there’s money in it.

Overall, the book has a lot of shortcuts. Worth reading, solid, but some aspects are simplified to the maximum.

If all this info is overwhelming. I recommend coming back to it a few times. Chapter 4, steps 1-4 in the book if you want a deeper dive. Now let’s move on.

Summary:

Validate the idea before starting anything.

Chapter 4 challenges:

Find your $1M idea, like above.

Chapter 5: Validate your business by getting paid

You wonder how that 48h jerky challenge ended up?

Read more

Most people treat ChatGPT like Google with personality, but LLMs are great at extracting clarity from mess and analyzing data. Here’s how..

In this Premium Mind Bullet:

• Step 1: Time audit.

• Step 2: Turn chaos into plan.

• Step 3: Project breakdown.

• Step 4: Put in the calendar and prioritize.

• Tower Brick + Prompt for clarity + Power quote + This Week’s Resource

Step 1: Time audit

You can't manage what you don't measure.

Before GPT can help you, it needs to understand where your time actually goes.

We will use this template by Ali Abdaal,

which you can get here.

The template has 3 pages, we are interested in two:

• 168 hours template: How much time per week I spend on what.

• Ideal week: What would my ideal time spent per week be like.

Fill them up. Be as accurate as you can.

More about the template in this week’s resource section.

Step 2: Turn chaos into plan

Once you have your time audit, download it as PDF and use this prompt:

I filled out two time tracking templates - my current reality vs. my ideal week. Here are the results:

[download filled templates in pdf and paste to the chat]

My main goals right now are: [list your top 3 goals or 1 main] 


Analyze this data and help me:
1. Identify the biggest gaps between current and ideal
2. Find the easiest 2-3 hours to reclaim first
3. Spot time categories that are bloated vs. starved
4. Prioritize which changes will have the most impact
5. Create a realistic bridge plan to move toward my ideal for the next week, give me exact steps to take for each day with estimate of how much time I will save

Adjust every time aspect to the given goals. Be specific about what needs to change and how to change it. Ask anything if you need. 

I recommend taking some time to review the output yourself. Rate by priority: 1-3, highest to lowest. That will give you more insight than just reading the output.

Step 3: Project breakdown

Read more

I used to think deep work meant locking myself away like a monk and grinding for 8-hour stretches until my brain turned to mush.

I'd last maybe 45 minutes before my mind started wandering. I was doing the equivalent of trying to build muscle by lifting weights for 12 hours straight.

Everyone's optimizing their monk-mode setup with $300 noise-cancelling headphones. The most productive people I know can get work done in crowded cafes.

This post is my understanding of deep work. If you want the view of Cal Newport who popularized the term, read this Wisdom Hit:

In this Concept Crackdown:

• What deep work actually is

• Component 1: Preparation

• Component 2: Attention

• Component 3: Value creation

• Component 4: Mental recovery

• Summary bullet points

• How to make your work deep work

• Common mistakes to avoid

• Best resources on deep work

What deep work actually is

In one sentence: The skill to focus without distraction on cognitively demanding tasks for sustained periods.

Working smarter by creating internal and external conditions where your brain can operate at its highest capacity.

Deep work isn't sitting at your desk longer. It's a skill. Like any skill, it requires practice, proper technique, and gradual progression.

Active meditation, as I like to think about it.

Note: Not all work is deep work. Not all work needs to be deep work. It's reserved for complex, challenging tasks that require high mental capacity. Not daily, repetitive activities.

Deep work is 4 main components working together:

Preparation. Attention. Value creation. Mental recovery.

Component 1: Preparation

First things first: you must know what to do in the session.

Before you start, you need a concrete plan with tangibly described tasks to cross out. A clear, paved path for your brain to follow.

Instead of:

1. Write the newsletter.

Make it:

1. Pick a topic from the saved list.

2. Come up with a title and subtitle.

3. Outline with short notes under each headline.

4. Write the intro and first section.

5. Complete the body paragraphs.

6. Proofread, edit.

7. Design thumbnail.

Clear instructions so you don't have to think about next steps. All your mental energy goes into execution.

Warmup

1. Your brain needs a signal that it's time to switch into deep work mode.

2. In creative work, it takes some time to get the engine running smoothly. When I write, I often have to sit for 40 minutes deleting and rewriting the intro over and over before things click and words start spilling out on my keyboard.

Mine is simple:

1. Close all browser tabs except the work document, timer, and task list.

2. Write what I specifically have to do, like above.

I also have a “focus indicator” on my desk.

The idea is to give your brain a visual representation of entering “work mode”. What I do is put the figurine on my desk and tap it 2 times on its head every time I am about to work. This is a kind of signal that the focus block just started.

From:

Action: Before your next deep work session, spend 5+ minutes writing down the exact steps you'll take. Be so specific that someone else could follow your plan and complete the task. Clear checkpoints, like in a video game.

Component 2: Attention

This is where most people completely miss the point.

Attention isn't binary. It's not focused or distracted. It's more like a muscle that gets stronger with training and weaker with abuse.

Common mistake: Switching attention mid-session. Even checking a single email interrupts the flow state. Quick notification check doesn't feel like it costs anything, but it's like throwing a small stone on the surface of water.

During the session, you work on one thing and one thing only. Obligatory rule, no exceptions.

Attention management means:

• Single-tasking religiously: One task for a given time, hit F11 on your keyboard. Period.

• Batch distractions: There’s time for shallow and deep work. Defend your deep work time like your paycheck depends on it (it does). Shallow tasks often consist of actions that take less than 15 minutes/each, which means switching attention before you get deep is necessary. Assign time for them, but never mix with deep work sessions.

• Progressive overload: Mental gym is a cool little metaphor that I like. Depending on your level, but if you spend 2+ hours on TikTok daily, don't jump straight to 4-hour marathons.

• Exercise vs supplementation: Deep work skill is exercise. Putting your phone in another room and distraction blockers is supplementation. Nothing will stop you from scrolling TikTok if you really want to do it.

• Use when it’s here: I know many of you have exhausting 9-5’s. Best thing I can advise you here is to go to bed earlier and wake up an hour (minimum) before your normal schedule, and make it deep work time.

Be ruthless about protecting your attention during deep work hours. And I don’t have any magic trick here. It’s a damn hard habit to develop. I got something that will help you do so, though.

Environmental attention design (remember it’s only supplementation):

• Use website blockers.

• Phone in another room.

• Noise-cancelling headphones.

• Close unnecessary browser tabs.

• Non alcoholic drink of your choice (with caffeine, preferably).

• Clear your desk of everything except what you need for this specific task.

More here:

Action: For one week, track every time you switch tasks or check a distraction during work. Don't try to change anything yet, observe. Tape a sheet of paper on your desk (like one from my tracker) so you remember to log.

Component 3: Value creation

It's not about how many hours you log.

At the end of the day, all that matters is how much you got done. Busy doesn’t equal productive.

You can spend 8 hours and end up shocked by how little you have done. You can spend 18 minutes moving forward.

Drop the vanity metrics:

• Hours logged.

• Apps used.

• Number of Pomodoro timers completed.

Focus on outputs:

• Problems solved.

• Words written.

• Concepts learned.

• Tasks completed (and what completion of those means).

The question isn't "How long did I work?" It's "What did I create?"

I recommend doing outputs summary every evening. Although I log my sessions, those are just numbers in Excel. What I do to realize is writing down what I’ve done today and what for.

Shallow work = necessary admin stuff, maintance.

Deep work = creating value, moving the needle.

Action: After your next deep work session, immediately write down what you completed.

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If you want practical steps, reset protocols, social detox tools, and mental clarity without the jargon, this is for you.

📘 Grab your copy here — Make a gift to your future self!

Component 4: Mental recovery

Deep work is cognitively exhausting. Your brain, despite making up about 2% of total body weight, consumes about 20% of your body's energy.

Your brain continues processing information subconsciously during rest periods. Ever notice how solutions come to you in the shower or during walks? That's your default mode network connecting dots while your focused attention relaxes.

• After sessions: Take downtime to consolidate what you learned/did, and restore mental energy. This is when insights form and problems solve themselves. Catching a breath while running is forced by body, letting the mind breathe is not, but as important. Take a nap, go for a walk.

• Recovery day: Every 2 weeks plan at least one full day where you don't do any cognitively demanding work. I know you can, but that’s to avoid burnout.

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Know when to stop

Quality over quantity. Correcting the mistakes of exhausted you is stupid self-sabotage. Trying to do deep work all day is like trying to sprint a marathon.

Don’t push when it’s time to rest. Staying up late when you must wake up at 6 am is not productive, it’s stupid.

1. Tired, you make mistakes that are harder to fix than to start over the next day.

2. You will have to get that energy back from somewhere. You will have to get that sleep anyway, but at different hours.

As I said before, deep work requires high mental capacity. Tiredness and distractions are enemies of it. Deep work performance is directly linked to sleep quality. If you are getting little of it, you are operating at reduced cognitive capacity. No amount of coffee can substitute for proper rest.

Summary points

• Deep work is for cognitively demanding tasks.

• Better to sleep 8 hours and get 2 hours of work done than sleep 6 hours and get 4 hours of work “done”.

• Deep work requires your mind (therefore your body) to be well rested.

• Optimal time: No more than 4h/day.

• Session lenght: 90min.

• Preparation time: 10 minutes of planning/90, not counted as the session.

• Progress tracking: Write down specific output after every session.

• Weekly quota: 20 hours of true deep work per week is truly elite-level productivity. Most people achieve 2-3 hours.

I know it’s a lot of info. If it all sounds terrifying, keep in mind that in the age of distraction, this skill is not a default anymore and more valuable than ever.

How to make your work deep work

In practical steps.

Read more

As a Stanford psychologist, she's researched what separates high achievers from everyone else across schools, sports, business, and relationships.

I picked this book because it explains something I have observed but couldn't articulate: why some people bounce back from failures while others crumble?

Today, you will gain a deep understanding of the differences between these two ways of thinking through examples in:

1. Dealing with challenges.

2. Leadership.

3. Relationships.

4. An illustrative story.

5. Questions to identify which mindset you are closer to!

Growth & fixed mindsets

This is the main lesson from the book. If you grasp its essence, there’s not much left in it. It’s one of those books that heavily relies on a single concept and explores it for many pages, which doesn’t mean it’s not immensely valuable!

That’s why, instead of the usual format of the 5 most important lessons, I decided to identify the core features of both mindsets and deeply analyze them with tangible examples.

The book in one sentence: Your beliefs about where ability comes from (whether you think success is based on innate ability or developed through effort) determine everything.

The core concept is solidly backed up by studies described in the book. There are a lot of examples, studies, athletes, and other hyper achievers mentioned.

All quotes are from “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Carol S. Dweck. If you liked the post, get the book here (affiliate).

Fixed mindset:

Intelligence, talent, and abilities are static traits. You either have them or you don't. Success comes from proving you are naturally gifted. Effort is a sign of inadequacy because truly talented people shouldn't need to try hard.

Every situation becomes a test of your worth. Challenges threaten to expose your limitations, so it's safer to stick with what you already know you can do well.

Core beliefs

• Highly sensitive to criticism and failure, which are interpreted as proof of inadequacy.

• I either got talent or I don’t, and there’s not much else I can do about it.

• Success means proving you are naturally gifted.

• Looking for something or someone to blame.

• Egocentric focus: afraid to look incompetent or flawed.

• Avoid risks and challenges that might expose weaknesses.

Dealing with challenges

Fixed mindset people avoid challenges that might reveal inadequacy. When they face obstacles, they give up quickly because struggle means they lack natural ability.

Example: In Dweck's studies, students with fixed mindsets chose easier problems after failing difficult ones, even when told their performance wouldn't be evaluated. They preferred to look smart over learning something new. When these students hit academic challenges, their grades continued declining because they interpreted difficulty as proof they weren't "math people" or "good writers."

As soon as children become able to evaluate themselves, some of them become afraid of challenges. They become afraid of not being smart. I have studied thousands of people from preschoolers on, and it’s breathtaking how many reject an opportunity to learn.

We offered four-year-olds a choice: They could redo an easy jigsaw puzzle or they could try a harder one. Even at this tender age, children with the fixed mindset—the ones who believed in fixed traits—stuck with the safe one. Kids who are born smart “don’t do mistakes,” they told us.

If you are a parent, this book is a must-read. There’s a lot about how certain ways of talking to children influence their mindsets.

Leadership

Fixed mindset leaders surround themselves with people who won't challenge them. They take credit for successes and blame others for failures. They are threatened by talented subordinates because it might make them look less exceptional. They prioritize protecting their ego over what’s good for the organization, even if it’s the organization they own. They want to be the smartest in the room.

Example: Dweck contrasts Lee Iacocca (fixed mindset, Chrysler) with Jack Welch (growth mindset, General Electric. About Welch’s later career—keep in mind the book was released in 2006. At that time and context, the example was on point.) Iacocca became obsessed with his image as a business genius, stopped listening to feedback, and Chrysler declined. He blamed external factors and refused to adapt. Companies led by fixed mindset CEOs underperform because these leaders prioritize looking good over getting good.

Context: Refers to a study conducted by Dweck and colleagues at the University of Hong Kong, which explored how students with different mindsets approached the opportunity to improve their English skills. At the university, all courses, exams, and materials were in English, but not all students were proficient. Researchers asked students if they would take a high-quality remedial English course if it were offered.

Remember the study where we interviewed students from the University of Hong Kong? […] Students with the fixed mindset were so worried about appearing deficient that they refused to take a course that would improve their English. They did not live in a psychological world where they could take this risk.

And remember how we put students into a fixed mindset by praising their intelligence? […] Later, after some hard problems, we asked the students to write a letter to someone in another school describing their experience in our study. When we read their letters, we were shocked: Almost 40 percent of them had lied about their scores—always in the upward direction. The fixed mindset had made a flaw intolerable.

Gladwell concludes that when people live in an environment that esteems them for their innate talent, they have grave difficulty when their image is threatened: “They will not take the remedial course. They will not stand up to investors and the public and admit that they were wrong. They’d sooner lie.”

Obviously, a company that cannot self-correct cannot thrive.

If Enron was done in by its fixed mindset, does it follow that companies that thrive have a growth mindset? Let’s see.

Relationships

In relationships, fixed mindset people judge their partners for flaws and expect them never to change. They believe that if you have to work at a relationship, it means you are incompatible. Problems are seen as character defects rather than issues to work through together.

Example: Fixed mindset individuals often end relationships when conflicts arise because they interpret disagreements as proof of fundamental incompatibility. They might think, "If we were meant to be together, this would be easy." They avoid having difficult conversations that could strengthen the relationship and clarify expectations because addressing problems feels like admitting failure.

Spoiler: There are no 2 people exactly cut out for themselves.

Aaron Beck, noted marriage authority, says that one of the most destructive beliefs for a relationship is “If we need to work at it, there’s something seriously wrong with our relationship.”

Says John Gottman, a foremost relationship researcher: “Every marriage demands an effort to keep it on the right track; there is a constant tension between the forces that hold you together and those that can tear you apart.”

As with personal achievement, this belief—that success should not need effort—robs people of the very thing they need to make their relationship thrive. It’s probably why so many relationships go stale—because people believe that being in love means never having to do anything taxing.

Growth mindset:

Intelligence, talent, and abilities can be developed through effort, learning, and persistence. Success comes from continuous improvement. Effort is the path to mastery. Even the most talented people need to work hard to reach their potential.

Every situation is an opportunity to learn something new. Challenges are exciting because that's where growth happens.

Example: Students praised for effort ("You worked really hard on that!") performed better on subsequent tasks than students praised for intelligence ("You're so smart!"). The effort-praised students sought out harder problems because they understood that struggle leads to learning. They saw difficult tasks as opportunities to get smarter.

Core beliefs

• Failure is just a part of the learning process.

• Persistence leads to improvement.

• Success comes through continuous improvement.

• Taking responsibility and seeking to improve is essential.

• Care about getting good more than being perceived as good.

• If they are incompetent, they ask questions and want to improve.

Dealing with challenges

Growth mindset people seek out challenges because they understand that's where learning happens. When they face setbacks, they persist and try different strategies because failure is just information about what doesn't work.

Example: In business, growth mindset entrepreneurs treat failed ventures as expensive education. They extract lessons, adjust their approach, and try again. Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, talks about how her father would ask her and her brother at dinner what they failed at that day, teaching them that failure was a necessary part of learning and growth.

Same fragment with puzzles for comparison:

Children with the growth mindset—the ones who believed you could get smarter—thought it was a strange choice. Why are you asking me this, lady? Why would anyone want to keep doing the same puzzle over and over? They chose one hard one after another. “I’m dying to figure them out!” exclaimed one little girl.

So children with the fixed mindset want to make sure they succeed. Smart people should always succeed. But for children with the growth mindset, success is about stretching themselves. It’s about becoming smarter.

One seventh-grade girl summed it up. “I think intelligence is something you have to work for ... it isn’t just given to you. . . . Most kids, if they’re not sure of an answer, will not raise their hand to answer the question. But what I usually do is raise my hand, because if I’m wrong, then my mistake will be corrected. Or I will raise my hand and say, ‘How would this be solved?’ or ‘I don’t get this. Can you help me?’ Just by doing that I’m increasing my intelligence.”

Leadership

Growth mindset leaders hire people who challenge them and aren't threatened by others' success. They focus on developing their teams and organizations rather than protecting their own image. They take responsibility for failures and share credit for successes. At the start of the chapter, there are a few examples of CEO’s

Example: Jack Welch transformed GE by creating a culture of continuous learning and development. He looked for feedback, admitted mistakes, and focused on growing the capabilities of his organization rather than just his reputation. Growth mindset leaders create environments where people can take intelligent risks and learn from failures without fear of punishment.

Atmosphere of fear is not good for employees nor for employers. How many times have you had a good idea at a meeting but realized it would bring you additional responsibilities with no extra cash, so you stayed quiet?

Speaking of reigning from atop a pedestal and wanting to be seen as perfect, you won’t be surprised that this is often called “CEO disease.” Lee Iacocca had a bad case of it. After his initial success as head of Chrysler Motors, Iacocca looked remarkably like our four-year-olds with the fixed mindset. He kept bringing out the same car models over and over with only superficial changes. Unfortunately, they were models no one wanted anymore.

Meanwhile, Japanese companies were completely rethinking what cars should look like and how they should run. We know how this turned out. The Japanese cars rapidly swept the market.

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Relationships

In relationships, growth mindset people support each other's development and view conflicts as problems to solve together. They believe that with effort and communication, relationships can improve over time. They see their partner's flaws as areas for potential growth, not permanent character defects.

Example: Growth mindset couples approach relationship problems by asking "How can we work on this together?" rather than "Why are you like this?" They have difficult conversations because they believe the relationship can get stronger through addressing issues. They support each other's growth and development instead of feeling threatened when their partner improves in some area.

When people embark on a relationship, they encounter a partner who is different from them, and they haven’t learned how to deal with the differences. In a good relationship, people develop these skills and, as they do, both partners grow and the relationship deepens. But for this to happen, people need to feel they’re on the same side.

Laura was lucky. She could be self-centered and defensive. She could yell and pout. But James never took it personally and always felt that she was there for him when he needed her. So when she lashed out, he calmed her down and made her talk things through with him. Over time, she learned to skip the yelling and pouting.

As an atmosphere of trust developed, they became vitally interested in each other’s development. James was forming a corporation, and Laura spent hours with him discussing his plans and some of the problems he was encountering. Laura had always dreamed of writing children’s books. James got her to spell out her ideas and write a first draft. He urged her to contact someone they knew who was an illustrator. In the context of this relationship, each partner was helping the other to do the things they wanted to do and become the person they wanted to be.

Apart from romantic relationships, there’s also a part about friendship in the book.

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How to grow your mindset

We talked about one of the issues in last week’s post:

There’s another one I selected from comparing both mindsets. That’s something that will keep you stuck and declining afterwards, and one of the core features of the fixed mindset—being scared of looking bad. I will illustrate it with a short story about 2 workers in a Japanese packing company: Kenji and Minato.

Story to illustrate, all similarities to real people are coincidental.

The packaging company

Minato straightened his tie as he walked past the new employee orientation room. Through the glass, he saw a young man enthusiastically asking questions about quality control procedures. Typical rookie energy, he thought. He'll learn soon enough to keep his head down.

That rookie was Kenji, and he was indeed full of questions.

The senior employee

Minato had been with Kozutsumi Packaging for eight years. He occupied a comfortable middle management position, overseeing the production line for their premium gift box division. His desk was positioned perfectly. Close enough to the executive offices to feel important, far enough from the factory floor to avoid getting his hands dirty.

But comfort came with a price. Every morning brought a familiar knot in his stomach. What if today was the day someone discovered he wasn't as competent as his position suggested? What if the new automation systems exposed gaps in his knowledge? What if he will struggle to understand the new CRM software while his younger subordinates learn it fast? What if someone asked him a question he couldn't answer?

When the company introduced lean manufacturing principles, Minato nodded along in meetings but avoided volunteering for the pilot program. Too risky. When his manager suggested he attend the advanced logistics training in Osaka, he declined, citing "private concerns." When junior employees brought problems to his attention, he deflected them to other departments rather than risk revealing he didn't know the solutions.

His strategy was simple: maintain the illusion of competence by avoiding anything that might challenge it.

The new guy

Kenji started in the same division three months later, stacking boxes and learning the basics. While Minato focused on preserving his reputation, Kenji focused on understanding everything he could about the company’s systems.

"Minato-san," Kenji approached him during his second week, "I noticed our rejection rate spikes every Tuesday morning. Do you know why?"

Minato felt his stomach tighten. He'd noticed the same pattern but never investigated it—what if he couldn't solve it? "The quality control team handles those issues," he replied curtly.

Kenji didn't stop there. He talked to the quality control team, the night shift supervisor, even the maintenance crew and janitor. He discovered that the weekend cleaning crew was using a chemical that left residue on the machines, affecting Monday night production that was processed Tuesday morning.

When Kenji presented his findings to management, they were impressed. When they asked Minato why he hadn't identified this obvious pattern in his eight years overseeing the line, he had no good answer.

This was just the beginning.

What happened next reveals exactly how these two mindsets create completely different career trajectories. You will see the automation challenge that exposed Minato's limitations, watch his world unravel as his fear of looking incompetent made him genuinely incompetent, and discover which specific mindset traps might be sabotaging your own growth right now.

The story gets much more intense - and much more instructive.

The automation challenge

Read more

In this Mind Bullet:

• Anti-To-Do: flip the script.

• Done list.

• Minimum viable consistency.

• You might be doing enough, you just might not do enough of what matters.

• Tower Brick: Actionable step to make yourself 1% better (includes a printable Google Doc with both lists).

• Prompt for clarity.

• Power Quote.

• One valuable resource I’ve found this week.

Anti-To-Do: flip the script

I don’t have to explain what a to-do list is, but what’s an anti to-do list?

Instead of writing down things you want to get done, you write down things you want to avoid.

Mine for today is:

• Don’t spend more than 15 minutes on Instagram.

• Don’t move to the next task before I finish the current one.

• Don’t watch YouTube while eating.

• Don’t complain.

• Don’t drink.

Simple as that. Write down things that you know will be bad for your progress.

When it’s time for fun, it’s time for fun. But when you need to push the pedal to the floor, identifying what you don’t want to do comes in handy.

When to check things off the list? At the end of the day, or when you stay strong during the chance to do whatever it is you want to avoid, and won’t have another one for today.

If you want to visually see the consistency of your habits, use my tracker.

Done list

When you wake up, do you feel like you are already behind?

Do you feel like “I need to make up for yesterday”?

Start at zero.

Instead of writing down things you need to do, you write down things you already did.

Mine from yesterday:

• Replied to 12 emails.

• Took a 30-minute walk.

• Workout: legs.

• Finished editing 2 chapters.

• Made dinner.

• Finished newsletter draft.

• Changed tires.

Simple as that. Write down what you accomplished, no matter how small.

To-do lists are great and all, but can become overwhelming debt collectors. Every morning, it reminds you of what you haven't done. If it grows longer, not shorter—try out this.

A done list is the opposite. Proof you are moving forward.

When to add to the list? Whenever you complete something worth noting.

Effects show in weeks and months. A single day can blend in and feel wasted. The goal is to remind yourself that you are making progress day by day.

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Minimum viable consistency

Unlike your computer, you can't be on all the time.

16h workday, hustle, no sleep—that’s not the way to do anything mentally demanding.

In short bursts of time, achievable for a very few. In the long term, unrealistic and unproductive for all.

Sometimes your days will get busy due to external factors. If you still want to make progress, then:

1. Identify your focus window: what time of the day makes you perform best? Morning? (More energy).

2. Evening? (Fewer distractions).

3. Set your focus windows. About 45–90 minutes. Adjust alarms accordingly.

4. Make it your absolutely, 100% sacred time. No matter what, you do what you planned. Becomes easier with each completed section if you stick with it.

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You might be doing enough, you just might not do enough of what matters

“Do you think I’m stupid?” No.

I think you may be lying to yourself.

You are busy. You are working. You are checking things off lists. But are you moving the needle on what actually matters?

Motion isn’t progress. Being busy isn’t being productive.

It’s very easy to make that mistake, especially when circumstances change and once established routines and actions don’t. That’s why you should reflect and adjust from time to time.

Quick exercise for identifying the most important actions:

1. Write down “What I can do to achieve my goal over the next 12 months”?

2. Write at least 15 answers to that question.

3. Out of all the answers, which one are you sure will make the most impact in the least amount of time?

4. Cross out all other answers and make an actionable plan for the answer that won the battle royale.

Tower Brick

To write down now. From Monday to Today:

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Not because it's a bad question, but because it’s like asking someone how to "be successful" or "get healthy."

It's not one thing. It's a collection of very specific, very boring micro-habits that nobody wants to talk about because they are not sexy enough for Instagram captions.

So let's crack this concept wide open.

What Discipline Actually Is

If I had to explain discipline in one sentence, I would say: “Repetitively doing hard things even when you don’t feel like it.” It’s a form of self-respect, the highest one.

How easy it is for you to wake up early and not skip leg days has to do with brain chemistry.

At the center of it is a balance between two key systems: the prefrontal cortex, which handles planning, self-control, and long-term goals, and parts of the limbic system, which are more reactive and emotion-driven.

The prefrontal cortex helps you make rational decisions, the limbic system pushes for immediate gratification and emotional comfort.

When it feels like you "lack discipline," it’s because your brain’s reward circuits are overriding your long-term thinking.

Willpower feels limited because mental fatigue and decision overload are real. Mental fatigue, stress, poor sleep, and constant decision making wear down your cognitive control.

That's why you are more likely to demolish a bag of chips at 11 PM than 11 AM.

This is an simplified description.

But you can hack this system.

You can set up your environment and behaviors to work with your brain's design instead of against it. You can automate decisions to preserve mental energy for when you really need it. You can build neural pathways that make good choices feel automatic.

That's what discipline actually is: neural pathway optimization.

Does it actually help you, knowing neuroscience stuff? Not really? So, let's crack this concept open now.

Discipline is 6 main components working together:

1. Long-term, short-term gratitude.

2. Identity shift.

3. Good decisions.

4. Environmental design.

5. Routine automation.

6. Recovery systems.

Component 1: Long-term, short-term gratitude

One thing to start with: Learning how to delay gratification is a must to be successful in life.

But, before it gets interesting, pushing through the work is boring as shit.

You crave immediate gratification because… it’s immediate.

So it has to do with your relationship with time. What that really means is that you have no instant reward after doing the hard thing.

When you do the hard thing—hit the gym, write for an hour, study instead of scrolling Instagram—there's no instant reward waiting for you. Just the work itself, which sucks.

But the reward is there. It’s much more satisfying and fulfilling than smoking a cigarette or binging a TV series for 5 hours straight. It’s just not there yet.

Trust me on this: after you build an impressive physique, it will be harder to stop lifting weights than to continue doing it.

If you start and have no consistency to carry with a thing for a few months, the idea of discipline in your head is associated with pain.

If you have never experienced a reward from the discipline, it’s gonna be tough for you.

That’s the trick with delayed gratification. The reward is better, but not instant.

But here's where it gets interesting: you can try to flip the script. You can get so hooked on the delayed rewards that immediate pleasure starts feeling cheap and hollow.

Become addicted to the process itself. A lot of young guys, after feeling the satisfaction of completing a hard workout and seeing the first changes in the shape of their body, become obsessed with the gym.

When you have experienced the satisfaction of building something meaningful over months, when you have tasted what it feels like to be proud of yourself—scrolling Twitter feels like empty calories. Because you have a comparison.

Like upgrading from gas station coffee to single-origin beans. Once you know what the good stuff tastes like, the cheap stuff just doesn't hit the same.

This happens because delayed gratification rewards compound.

Each cigarette is the same hit. But each workout builds on the last one. Each page you write adds to a book that eventually will be published. Keep writing and in a few months, you will show your family and friends a book and tell them that you have written it. Wouldn’t that be cool?

The reward gets stronger over time instead of staying flat.

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Action: Pick one small project that will be completed within a month. Commit to doing it every day for exactly 30 days. Track not just that you did it, but how you felt after. Rate your satisfaction from 1-10 each day. Create your first digital product, publish an iceberg YouTube video on the topic that interests you, set up a portfolio website. It has to be measurable and a reminder that you can.

More here:

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Component 2: Identity shift

This is about self-respect and ego. Long-term identity change, tangibility and action are the core of this newsletter.

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.

This is one reason why meaningful change does not require radical change. Small habits can make a meaningful difference by providing evidence of a new identity. And if a change is meaningful, it is actually big. That’s the paradox of making small improvements.” — James Clear

Disciplined people aren't disciplined because they are special. They are disciplined because they consistently act like disciplined people, which reinforces their identity as disciplined people.

Identity shapes action.

No way you will be consistent with something if the current you hates every second of it.

It's like trying to get a smoker to not smoke while they still see themselves as a smoker.

It's like expecting a dog to meow.

You can't willpower your way out of an identity mismatch. The mind follows identity like a heat-seeking missile.

If you see yourself as lazy, undisciplined, or a quitter, your brain will find ways to prove that identity right.

If your core belief is “I can’t do it”, then guess what: you can’t.

Your mind loves being right more than it loves being better.

That’s why, do this:

• Reward small wins. (every workout is evidence you are athletic). Don’t reward yourself with a beer if you want to lose weight though.

• Use identity-based language ("I'm someone who works out" vs. "I'm trying to work out").

• Focus on systems, not outcomes. Writers write, regardless of whether today's pages are good). “I only write when inspiration strikes, fortunately it strikes every morning at 9 o'clock sharp.”

• Track behavior, not just results (you lifted weights = you are someone who lifts weights).

Your actions shape your identity, which shapes your future actions. It's a compound loop that either works for you or against you.

Collect enough evidence to tip the scales. You don't need to transform overnight, you just need enough votes to win the internal election.

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Co-founder of AngelList, he's invested in over 200 companies, including Twitter, Uber, and Postmates.

But his real influence comes from his ability to distill complex ideas about wealth, happiness, and success into actionable insights.

I picked this book for the first of the refreshed issues of Wisdom Hit because, despite how different our lives are, I relate to his philosophy.

I don’t think there’s a person who has figured out everything in life, but Naval seems like he’s close.

The book isn’t written by Naval himself. It’s a compilation of his best thoughts from podcasts, interviews, and tweets (where he’s active and profound), put together by Eric Jorgenson with a foreword by Tim Ferriss.

It’s kinda like Poor Richard's Almanack, but for the digital age.

Today, I'm sharing 5 most important lessons that can reshape how you think about building wealth and living well.

This post has the formula of: My outlook → quotes → action step.

1. Seek wealth, not money or status

Isn’t it the same? Not really.

Money is how we transfer time and wealth.

Status is your position in the social hierarchy.

Wealth is assets that earn for you while you sleep.

Owning shares, intellectual property, systems that generate value without your constant input. Glorified but hard to reach passive income.

You are not going to get rich renting out your time.

You must own equity—a piece of the business—to gain your financial freedom.

This may seem trivial to us, but a lot of people, including your friends and family, don't realize it or choose to ignore it.

If you work a standard 9-5, you will eventually hit the time-money ceiling. And that ceiling is nowhere close to being rich.

By being rich, I mean having so many or so valuable assets that you don’t have to do what you don’t want to do.

Not being forced to look for a job, tolerate idiot bosses and managers, and annoying coworkers. Being able to go on an all-day hiking trip mid-week just because you feel like it.

It’s not really about hard work. You can work in a restaurant eighty hours a week, and you’re not going to get rich. Getting rich is about knowing what to do, who to do it with, and when to do it. It is much more about understanding than purely hard work. Yes, hard work matters, and you can’t skimp on it. But it has to be directed in the right way.

If you don’t know yet what you should work on, the most important thing is to figure it out. You should not grind at a lot of hard work until you figure out what you should be working on.

I came up with the principles in my tweetstorm for myself when I was really young, around thirteen or fourteen. I’ve been carrying them in my head for thirty years, and I’ve been living them. Over time (sadly or fortunately), the thing I got really good at was looking at businesses and figuring out the point of maximum leverage to actually create wealth and capture some of that created wealth.

Chasing the next salary bump is not the way to wealth in the digital age, in today’s economy.

What can you build or own that will work for you?

Maybe it's building digital products. Maybe it's starting a YouTube channel. Maybe it's investing in index funds that grow while you focus on other things.

When you solve problems for others at scale, everyone wins. You get wealthy, and society gets value.

Obviously, value can be faked, and scamming people is one of the few get-rich-quick ways that work, but we are good guys here.

Action step: Identify one thing you could build or own in the next six months that might generate passive income.

Don't go to YouTube, where talking heads who spend 10 minutes on a Reddit thread promise you $2000 a day. Don't look for shortcuts—it's not a fast process. Think in years more than months.

And yes, it’s way easier if you have some budget to start with.

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2. Leverage is everything

If you consume self-improvement content, you have heard this before. New influential people in space, like Dan Koe, are highly influenced by Naval.

Understanding leverage is crucial for understanding wealth creation in the modern economy.

Few types of leverage:

• Labor leverage: Hiring people to work for you. This is old-school leverage. Comes with management headaches and high costs.

• Capital leverage: Using other people's money. Powerful, but you need access to capital first.

• Code leverage: Software and automation. Write code once, run it infinitely with near-zero marginal cost.

• Media leverage: Content, personal brand, audience, email lists. Create once, distribute to millions. A single podcast episode, YouTube video, or newsletter can reach more people than a medieval king could address in their lifetime.

The last two are what Naval calls "permissionless leverage." You don't need anyone's permission to automate or start creating content.

These forms of leverage are democratized and available to anyone willing to learn.

Products with no marginal cost of replication.

This includes books, media, movies, and code. I would add digital products and royalties in general.

Previous generations needed significant capital or large teams to scale their impact. Today, a single person with a laptop can build an audience and products around their interests or create content pieces that influence global conversations.

We live in an age of infinite leverage, and the economic rewards for genuine intellectual curiosity have never been higher. Following your genuine intellectual curiosity is a better foundation for a career than following whatever is making money right now.

Think about MrBeast's YouTube empire or indie developers building SaaS products. They built machines that scale without proportional increases in effort.

Or newsletter authors—I hit the same publish button whether 100 or 100,000 people will read it.

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Katie's first book was a bestseller. Two years later, her fanbase had moved on to other authors. She never wrote the sequel.

Harold built a successful marketing agency. Then he abandoned it to play video games.

Roman got very lucky with his position, but got fired for missing deadlines.

What do these three have in common? They are all victims of procrastination, but not the kind you think.

Type 1: Scared of Failure

Core belief: "If I don't try, I can't fail."

You delay starting because as long as you haven't begun, you can still imagine perfect success. The moment you start, reality might not match your vision, and that terrifies you.

This type is a person who has had previous success and now sets themselves to standards so high they are scared of not living up to them.

How it shows up:

• Endless research and planning without execution.

• Starting multiple projects but finishing none.

• Perfectionism that prevents you from shipping anything.

• Constantly comparing yourself to others who are "further ahead".

Katie is a chemistry student during the day and a fiction writer in the teen romance category at night. Her first book, “Werewolf Dates a Shy 4'8" Girl”, was an instant bestseller.

Instead of continuing the series, she waits for the perfect moment to write.

When she finally does, nothing feels right. She writes one page but deletes it immediately after. Her writing hasn't gotten worse—if anything, it's improved.

But she’s crushed by how well her first book was received.

Weeks turn into months, then years. Two years later, her fanbase has moved on to other authors.

Now she blames herself for chasing perfection instead of simply writing.

You might publish a viral YouTube video and be paralyzed by the vision that the next one won’t repeat this success.

You might do well in school but struggle in the work environment.

The pattern is the same:

Initial success → stagnation → regret.

Your work will never be perfect. It will sometimes be very good. It will sometimes be mid. It will be good most of the time.

Type 2: Scared of Success

Core belief: "If I succeed, everything will change, and I might not be able to handle it."

This type is the opposite of the first one. This type is scared of success. Ridiculous?

Success feels dangerous because it means stepping into an unknown version of yourself. You procrastinate to stay in your familiar comfort zone, even if that zone is limiting.

How it shows up:

• Worrying that success will isolate you from friends and family.

• Self-sabotaging when you are close to a breakthrough.

• Fear of impostor syndrome if you achieve your goals.

• Downplaying your abilities and accomplishments.

  ---

Harold is 34 and works as a plumber in a small town near Manchester.

Harold also has his own, small social media marketing agency that recently got some traction.

He’s been in this business for 4 years, but was treating it more like a side hustle than a real opportunity. Now that he got more clients that he can serve, he can raise prices and hire his first employee. He knows it very well, he knows what to do, but puts it away in time.

His day job as a plumber pays well but brings him little joy. His marketing agency, however, energizes him. He has tangible proof of his success and knows exactly what to do next. In his gut, he knows it will work.

But he's terrified of standing out. For his wife, it’s just a “stupid gig” for students. He fears outgrowing his social circle—long-time friends he meets at the pub every weekend, the comfortable life he's built.

Rather than face these fears, Harold decides to abandon his endeavor and dedicate more time to video games instead.

In a few years, Harold will try to revive his business, but as things have changed, he won’t find much success in it.

Harold regrets not acting on his momentum when every objection that seemed so terrifying now seems ridiculous.

You might land your first big client, but then avoid investing in marketing to get more because "What if I can't handle the workload?"

You might get accepted to your dream graduate program but decline because "What if I don't belong there with all those smart people?”

The pattern is:

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Every environment helps form habits and either encourages or discourages daily behaviors. It’s a double-edged sword. It either makes you or breaks you.

Learn how to utilize your environment and make it support your goal(s).

1. Declutter

Simplest one first. A cluttered environment is a cluttered mind. Get rid of the stuff you don’t need. Don’t give your brain too many open tabs to handle.

• Clear your desk: Only keep what you use daily. Computer, notebook, pen, maybe a lamp. Everything else? Move it.

• Designate a dump zone: Use a box or drawer for random items instead of leaving them scattered. Keep whatever there, just get it out of sight.

• Remove visual noise: Take down posters you no longer like, file loose papers, remove unnecessary gadgets.

2. Reminders everywhere

Keep important info in plain sight. Let it stare at you.

I have my goals and some frameworks taped right above my monitor.

Sticky notes will do, whiteboard will do, wallpaper will do, to-do list as a starting page in your browser will do.

3. Place friction in the way of bad habits

Don’t just make good behaviors easier, make bad behaviors harder. Increasing the friction required to engage in distracting behaviors. What is friction?.

• Log out of distracting apps. Or even better: uninstall the apps and use social media in the browser. That’s a way worse experience, and that’s the point.

• Unplug your PS5, store the controllers out of sight. Or get a VA monitor—this shit sucks.

• Put your phone in your car during work sessions. If you have to physically get up and leave not only your room but your house to check it, that’s a lot of friction.

Make good habits frictionless. Make bad habits frustrating.

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4. Set up your digital space

It’s easy to be defeated by the 6-inch screen in your pocket. No wonder, great minds worked on infinity pools to suck you in and not let go.

It’s not your fault that you fall for those traps. That’s very advanced behaviour engineering.

You fall for them because you are human, which also means you are able to adapt and change.

The most tangible step. Instead of explaining why it’s important, I will give you specific tools and you will decide on them.

Desktop:

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1. Breaking down

The strongest weapon in your arsenal. Even simple things can have many layers to them. Breaking them down to the parts you can understand is like climbing a mountain—every step reveals more of the horizon.

For the sake of clarity, let’s go with a general and relatable example.

Say you want to learn how to cook. You open a recipe and feel overwhelmed—so many steps, terms, everything seems complex.

Breaking down in that case looks like:

1. Chop an onion.

2. Heat the pan.

3. Throw in garlic.

4. Now it’s not cooking a whole meal, it’s just doing one small thing at a time. From confused to capable by stacking small, clear actions.

The same rule applies everywhere—from building a pottery business to learning Python.

Complexity disappears when you break it down into something your brain can grasp and your hands can do.

One general concept → many single actions → plan (optional) → execution.

1. Complicated thing: You don’t know where to start, it scares you, very tempting to leave for later, a progress killer.

2. Single actions extracted from the complex thing: Start with those giving either clarity for next steps or have the biggest leverage.

3. Plan: Identify tasks, put them on your to-do list, block time in your calendar. If the thing isn’t very time-consuming, don’t plan—do it at once.

4. Simplest but hardest part: You know what to do. Now you just have to… do it. How to do difficult things that you don’t have to do? You will find tons of posts about it here.

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2. Copy the process

Let’s say you need to put together a PC, but you have never done it before. You open YouTube, find a step-by-step tutorial, and watch how the expert does it—the tools they use, the order of steps, how they handle each part with calm precision

You don’t just learn what to do. You absorb how they do it. Their posture, pace, habits, and mindset.

The same applies to anything else that feels overwhelming—business, fitness, writing.
When you are unsure where to start, don’t try to figure it out alone—copy the process of someone who’s already mastered it.

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Unfamiliarity is the cause of overwhelm

Unknown is scary until it’s known. That applies to pretty much anything.

Overwhelm is not triggered by small, nor by familiar things. That leaves us with 2 things—the problem you are facing is:

1. Unfamiliar.

2. Big.

Difficult? Only if you think so. Now we need to deal with 1 and 2.

Unfamiliarity remedy

The opposite of unfamiliarity is clarity. One of the things I can’t (and won’t) shut up about. Read: lack of clarity stops you from making progress. Instead of just telling you stuff, here’s an actionable framework:

1. Pen + paper + timer for 5 min. Write about your problem. Don’t think, just dump thoughts on paper. If you haven’t finished in 5 min (which is the point) take as much time as you need. Write until your head is empty.

The previous step was for “initial clarity”, think of it like wiping a fogged-up car window. Now you see the road but don’t know where to drive.

2. Break things down into parts you can understand. Identify the actual steps you need to take. The first step will often be filling knowledge gaps.

Now the simplest but hardest part.

3. Take action.

Buffer time

The time between getting educated and solving the problem.

In between those 2, all that information you have consumed is settling in your head. Be aware of this process and be patient.

Do the right thing today and the problem will be easier to solve for tomorrow you. You can’t speed up clarity. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is go for a walk.

Control what you can control

In other words: Stop f*cking worrying about what you can't change. Your brain loves to obsess over hypothetical disasters, other people's actions and unchangeable past mistakes. It feels good, even productive sometimes, but it solves nothing and leads nowhere.

The bigger picture—look at the past

Huge problems of today will become smaller tomorrow, and smaller tomorrow, and so on.

It’s often not that the problem is difficult, it’s that you have to deal with it now.

Don’t believe me? Write down your five biggest current struggles on a piece of paper. Put it in a drawer and forget about it for 3 months. No immediate effect but you need to start somewhere. When you check back, you will realize that what felt overwhelming then has either faded or been solved.

The point is—your current problems will vanish for the future you if you face them today. Something that is a pain in the ass today will be laughable in 3 months.

Make it a regular practice. Write, schedule a check-in, forget. In 3 months you will have a nice reminder of the progress you have made.

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Framework to make things clearer and more digestible

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The world isn’t what it is, it’s what you notice.

Your brain is constantly filtering information based on what matters to you. If you are not intentional about what you focus on, you will end up absorbing random, unhelpful ideas instead of the ones that actually move you forward.

What if you could train your mind to filter for success? To spot patterns, connect the dots, extract insights that change your life?

Four people watching the same movie will pay attention to different things depending on their goals and motivations.

A bodybuilder will pay attention to actors’ physiques and google their training plans.

A fashion geek will wonder what brands they put actors in.

A guy starting to bald will carefully inspect every character's hairline.

A schizophrenic will… notice something the rest of us don’t.

Same input, different takeaways. Your mind filters information based on what matters to you. This principle applies to everything you consume and participate in—books, podcasts, conversations.

The ideas you focus on shape your reality. You don’t see everything—you see what aligns with your goals, fears, and obsessions.

Planting seeds

In the first phase of the creative process, we are to be completely open, collecting anything we find of interest.

We can call this the Seed phase. We’re searching for potential starting points that, with love and care, can grow into something beautiful. At this stage, we are not comparing them to find the best seed. We simply gather them.

A seed for a song could be a phrase, a melody, a bass line, or a rhythmic feel.

For a written piece, it may be a sentence, a character sketch, a setting, a thesis, or a plot point.

From Rick Rubin’s “The Creative Act: A Way of Being”

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You throw seeds on the ground, notice how they grow, and water the ones you like. There's a ton of space for seeds but not much space for fully grown plants. In fact, growing more than 4-5 is rarely possible. Most of us have one to two plants that we take full care of and a few supporting ones.

Some plants bear nourishing fruit. Some just taste good. Others are complete trash. They all have something in common thought—once those plants grow deep roots, they are hard to replace.

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Net of ideas

The more knowledge and ideas you have, the more reality you unlock. Like getting access to hidden layers of the world, unraveling reality. Sounds cool, because it is.

How to use this to your advantage

1. Be intentional about what you consume

   • Better seeds = better fruits. Give your brain better material to work with.

   • Read, watch, and listen with a clear purpose—what are you looking for? What’s your goal? If you don’t know what’s your goal yet, turn everything off, and sit in silence as long as you find it. Or use my template from the welcome email. This is definitely the most important point here.

2. Expose yourself to high-quality inputs

   • A well-chosen book is worth more than 100 random YouTube videos.

   • Talk to smart people. Borrow their mental filters. Talking to people who have already walked the path you want to take is one of the best pieces of advice I have ever received.

3. Write, reflect, revisit

   • Writing clarifies thoughts. If you don’t write, your ideas stay vague and foggy.

   • Go back to old notes—connect them to new ones. Compare your problems, worries and goals. Build a living network of insights.

4. Take action on what you learn

   • Knowledge without application is just entertainment.

   • Start before you are ready. Experiment. See what actually works.

Pattern Recognition

As you fill your mind with more and more concepts, they start connecting. Ideas don’t exist in isolation—they form patterns.

The ideas you plant in your mind shape everything in your life. Consuming good ideas results in better ideas of yours.

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If you struggle with focus, anxiety, stress and brain fog meditation is a 0 cost simple tool that can help you with those problems. It’s also pretty cool and feels good to perform, makes life more bearable and peaceful.

What is meditation even about?

Quoting from my post:

First thing first, I want to clarify what I mean when I say meditation. It's nothing about metaphysics or spirituality. While some may perceive it that way, we are not interested in this. We are interested in scientifically proven technique that have a positive impact on your brain. If you had the image of some magic “wolololo” in your mind, get rid of it. Try to erase any preconceived notions of meditation from your mind and approach the following information with a fresh perspective, as if you're encountering it for the very first time.

How to start?

It's nothing complicated. Actually, there are not many things less complicated than this. Just get in a comfortable position and start… doing nothing. Don't think about… anything. It may feel strange and uncomfortable at first, especially if your brain is overstimulated on a daily basis, but trust me–it’s worth it. Also, set a timer so you know when to stop. And no, your phone isn’t muted, it’s just the time slowing down when you lay down and do nothing but focus on the present moment.

And that's basically it. Simple, right? It's about giving your mind some time to “recharge” and “clean the cache”, as I like to think about it.

Now that we have an understanding of the general concept, I will give you more specific instructions on how to begin.

As I said before, you can simply get comfortable, set a timer on your phone for a few minutes, and try to do the above. However, I highly recommend starting with the easier and more convenient option–the apps. As there are apps for everything nowadays, there are apps for meditation too. I started with “Waking Up” by Sam Harris, and that’s probably the best one out here. Sam will walk you through 10 minutes of daily meditation in a very relaxing way. Unfortunately, the app is based on a subscription model, so if you are like me and don’t want to spend about $20 every single month for an app, you may be interested in the one I currently use–Medito. It’s very easy to use, free, and does the job. Plus, it shows statistics, such as total time spent meditating, sessions listened to etc. Nice touch.

Now, pick a time in the day when nobody will interrupt you and make meditating your daily habit. Personally, I like to do it right before sleep, and I’m doing it almost every day (almost is being drunk or exhausted). Sometimes it may be hard to get yourself to do it (even for me and even now), but after I start, I always find myself surprised why I don't do it more often.

The best starting tip I can give, and it's worth trying not only with meditation but in other aspects of life as well, is to commit to the practice for 40 days. After this time, it will be just a part of the day, not a new challenge. Whenever you feel like “I don’t know man”, just keep practicing without overthinking it.

One more thing—when you begin, you might find yourself wondering if you're doing it right or if it should feel different. I felt the same way at first. Don't worry too much about it. Just focus on the process and try not to think about anything—it's truly that simple. If counting your breaths makes you more comfortable, go ahead and do that. Counting backwards from 100 is also very relaxing.

Having the basics out of the way, let’s dive deeper.

High-like state during practice

One thing I noticed, and I’m sure you will notice it too if you focus deep enough, is getting “into the zone.”

At the start, your mind will wander and search for anything to think about.

The initial phase is difficult and annoying. I'm not going to give you any fancy tips here. Meditation is not about exploits that give you 1% better performance, it's literally a practice of focus.

Your mind at the start is like a bucket full of holes through which focus will flow out. Remember that flex tape meme? Practice will work just like that, not that quickly though.

Your brain is like a highway—there are tons of vehicles running back and forth, a lot of them carry no value inside. Some vehicles just drive there for no reason, only increasing the traffic.

Meditation is the art of controlling this traffic and intentionally shutting it up.

When you are able to do that—that’s when the magic happens.

After keeping an undistracted laser-like focus for about 10 minutes you build a gate that is difficult for thoughts to go through.

That’s when you get into the zone.

I would describe this state as calming, relaxing, weird (probably the most accurate word here), pleasant but slightly uncomfortable.

The definition of inner peace can be stretched back and forth but this is what I would describe it, more about that later.

The most frequent recommendation is to focus on your breath. What I like to do is to stare into the blackness in front of closed eyes. It's not something you would ever pay attention to, but focusing carefully on it is a strange, sometimes uncomfortable (to the point you have to open your eyes), feeling.

I also like to pick a particular sensation in my body (itching, tension) and focus fully on that one thing.

Numbness in the long run

After regularly meditating for about 2 months for 10 minutes before sleep I noticed one important change—emotional numbness.

It means both being less touched by bad events in my life and less joy from good.

If you have a lot to process at the moment, no matter for what reason, clarity from meditation will help you.

It’s like growing deeper roots. Is it bad, or good? I guess it depends on how's your life going.

Don't worry though, you won't become as emotionally detached as Gregory House after 2 sessions. It takes time to see change. If it’s not a routine, it won’t work for you.

It's also important to note there that this is not a guaranteed effect. Meditation is a very personal experience. Don't create any preconceptions in your head just because I told you my experience. You will know how it influences you only after you try.

If you want to dive deeper into this, this phenomenon goes under the cool name of “a stone Buddha syndrome.” Don’t confuse with “stoned”.

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Making it a useful tool for reducing stress

How I look at mediation is to use it as a tool—a natural first aid for dealing with stress you can use in any circumstance.

Meditating is fairly easy, but getting into the zone on cue is a skill, and to develop a skill you need practice.

So, practice:

• On a bus.

• In a line.

• When you wait for the water to boil.

• Try to quiet your brain right before sleep.

• Focus on how your muscles feel during a workout.

• Put on noise-canceling earbuds but don't play any music.

• Focus on the sensation of water hitting your skin while taking a shower.

It's a great way to “reset” your brain after you bombard it with stimuli.

When thoughts will come (can’t avoid that) imagine a pair of scissors cutting off a ribbon and get back to practice.

What did it help and what did it not help with?

I heard quite a few stories of meditation transforming people’s lives. I can’t relate to that. For me, it’s nothing spiritual, it’s a tool.

It’s a good habit, it changes life for the better, but don’t expect it to make you go “Aha!” and turn your life around.

What did it help with?

• Bringing you back to the present moment and reminding you that it’s all you have. More about that:

• Regaining clarity in mental clutter: after a session, it's likely to get a similar satisfying feeling as you just cleaned up your room.

• Focus: Not surprising. It’s easier to keep focus after doing nothing but focusing on something for 10 minutes. Don’t grab your phone right after though, do anything else.

• Much calmness after a session.

• Better coping with sadness and anger.

• A habit of doing something daily is constructive just by itself.

• Best ideas come to you when your mind isn’t constantly occupied.

• Meditation has a scientifically proven positive influence on your brain, which I don’t mention here (but I want you to know) as it’s all about my personal experience. There are also tons of different kinds of meditation (described later).

• This illustration, for me, is what meditation is supposed to help with:

What it did not help with?

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Apart from giving you the actionable steps to follow, I will tell you why it's so important to start and how to keep the momentum going.

If you find yourself not very eager to answer all those questions and dive inside your ego, read the part titled “From moving sand to ice — about momentum” first. It will make things much easier (there’s also an editable Google doc at the very bottom.)

Realize & accept

Understand the rut you are in and gain clarity about your current situation.

The tricky thing about the rut is that it’s easy to get into without realizing it.

That’s why now we will go through a set of exercises to gain clarity, awareness of the situation and the direction of the next steps.

Vision and anti-vision. This is the idea I have been familiar with before but I looked into it deeply inspired by Dan Koe’s newsletter. We will take a slightly different approach but based on the same concept.

Anti-vision

A detailed description of the life you don’t want to live, the habits you want to avoid, and the environment you refuse to tolerate.

Basically: how you don’t want to end up. What are potential current red flags for the future? It serves as a warning system—pulling obstacles out of the shadow to make them visible, tangible, and easier to avoid.

Vision

A detailed description of what you want. Frame/compass that dictates daily decisions. A north star guiding your actions and habits. Decisions are easier to make if you ask yourself “Does this bring me closer to my vision?”

Let’s create the vision then.

Reset

Reflect on your current identity and habits, comparing them to your vision.

The first set of questions is for identifying your current situation, the second is for vision, the third is for anti-vision. Take out a journal and answer those questions.

1. Who am I now?

Imagine yourself as a movie character.

• What are the most important scenes in the movie?

• What does the character do?

• What habits does the character have?

• What addictions?

• What obsession?

• What is the first thing the protagonist does after waking up?

• What takes up the most time in a day?

Be honest with yourself — this is your starting point.

2. Who do I want to become?

Think of the rut as the time between parts of the movie.

This is the same character in the sequel. Maybe not a completely clean slate, but there’s space and time to change, and that’s all that matters.

Ask the same questions + what you would like the climax to be.

3. The bad sequel.

We want the sequel to be like Godfather II, not like Jaws 2.

This is your anti-vision — how you don’t want to end up. answer the same questions from the 1st point + what you wouldn’t like the climax to be.

Prioritize — One vital activity

Focus on high-impact activities and identify one vital action that will consistently move you closer to your vision.

Write down all your daily tasks.

• Which are day job/school/necessary chores related?

• How can you make them less draining so you have more energy for your stuff?

• Which tasks from your stuff are low leverage and you are doing them to avoid real impactful work?

• Which thing are you putting away for the longest? Why?

A lot of overwhelming questions, I know. If you are thinking “I'll do this later,” let's make a deal.

To make things easier, split to:

• Health

• Wealth

• Relationships

Pick the one you want to work on the most for now and answer only related to the field of your choice. Let’s make the other 2 optional (but recommended).

Now, write down what you spend time on and how much.

• Do you want to spend that much time on those things?

• What specific, actionable steps can you take to adjust the time in the desired direction? Be specific and sincere.

Don’t try to turn your life around with these, it's a starting point.

One vital activity

Now identify one crucial thing that moves you closer to the vision and away from anti-vision. Hint: often the one you often procrastinate the most on.

That’s the thing you will do tired, sad, angry. This is the thing you will do even if the world falls apart.

Every iteration of this thing will bring you closer to the vision and away from anti-vision.

If you aren't friends with consistency and commitment, then (apart from getting my tracker) schedule those prioritizing sessions at least every quarter. Put them in your calendar, and set a reminder. Now.

Remove

Eliminate things that drain your time and energy, prioritize what truly matters.

Which things can be reduced, which completely removed without impacting your life as much?

Which tasks from your list can be:

1. Completely removed.

2. Reduced.

Identify them as (one can fall into many categories, the more, the easier is choice to throw it off):

• Time suckers.

• Unimportant bullshit.

• Not improving you in any way.

• For the comfort of others, not mine.

• Energy drainers.

• Unintentional defaults.

• Neglectable outputs.

Restructure

Create a realistic, tangible routine aligned with your vision to sustain progress.

New routine, new updated you — more aligned with your vision.

After the previous steps, things should be more clear. Let's make a plan then.

We will focus on specific, tangible and ambitious realistic structure so you actually will get things done instead of aiming at the stars and falling in the clouds.

Prioritize by numbers:

1. Vital activity: This is your non-negotiable, the one thing that will consistently move you closer to your vision. It’s your “must do” every day, the most impactful task that will give you momentum.

2. Need to do: Important but not as crucial as the vital activity. They support your progress but can be done after the most important work is complete. High-leverage tasks that need to be tackled soon.

3. Should do: Add value but aren’t urgent. Useful but not critical. You can work on them once you have tackled the first two categories.

4. Would be nice to do: Low-priority activities that could be helpful but aren’t essential. They can be put off or skipped if you are pressed for time or energy.

2 Weeks agenda

Let’s start with a realistic agenda for 2 weeks.

Following the rules from the previous steps (tangible, realistic) set a weekly and daily goal.

Review the week after.

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From moving sands to ice — about momentum

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Read part 1 if you haven’t yet:

What you feed your brain—how ideas are born

Listening to an audiobook instead of music while driving is effortless. Clearing your feed by unfollowing accounts with no value is effortless. Reading one page before bed is effortless. Search for such easy fixes in your area and let’s start with that.

The input is everything you consume on a daily basis: your social media feeds, books, YouTube videos, etc. The output is your creative work. If you input shit, guess what’s gonna be the output.

There are also factors you can’t control, such as past experiences, cultural background, and exposure to diverse influences. These (among all the other things, more later) are what make some people more creative than others.

Ideas are already there

Your brain is a mine full of ideas, you just need to dig them out. The simplest practice I know for this is allowing your mind to idle. Why do the best ideas come to you in the shower, on a walk, while performing an easy and repetitive manual task, or just before falling asleep? Why do you dream of things that seem unimaginable when you're awake? Because our mind has time to actually think, compute, sort, analyze and create conclusions.

Especially today, when we constantly bombard ourselves with stimulation, take a break to do nothing. The examples above might be the closest some people ever come to experiencing a meditative state in their lifetime. We don’t want to be those people.

Meditate. I have been meditating for 2+ years now. Meditating will allow you to reach the areas of mind for which there’s no time in your daily, busy life. Meditation creates space for the mind to rest, recharge, and explore states of thought that otherwise remain out of reach. If you have never meditated, try today. I will give you 3 examples of what might happen. Go back here after your first session and leave a comment on how it went. How to even meditate though?

• Unlocking past memory: Once while meditating, I unlocked a memory that had vanished for years. I specifically used the word “unlocked”, as it magically reappeared in my head after all those years of not being there. Quite an interesting experience.

• Idea forming: As I said before, when your brain has time to take a breath it will use its power to put all the puzzles together and gather the fruits from previously planted seeds.

• High-like state: Won’t leave dealers jobless but after you lay down and focus on breath or specific sensation in your body for 5-10 minutes with no thought crossing your head, it sometimes may feel like a slight high.

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Consistent, repetitive actions

The harder part, but that’s a must. Even if the bonfire has 1000 sticks and 10000 pieces of paper, you still need a spark to light a fire. One spark is rarely enough, and fire needs to be fed to keep burning. Sitting down to plan out a project is like using a flint in this metaphor. Sitting down to do your work every day is adding fuel. Your best ideas are useless unless you bring them to life.

Taking advantage of inspiration

Inspiration is like a thunderbolt that lights your bonfire with no effort at all. It’s more likely to strike from a cloudy sky, but it can strike from a clear one too. When the fire is burning, we need to take full advantage of it. Feed it until you run out of fuel, you don’t know when the next lightning will strike.

No wrong way, only your way

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If you don’t know who Rick is: Nine-time GRAMMY-winning producer, named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time and the most successful producer in any genre by Rolling Stone. He has collaborated with artists from Tom Petty to Adele, Johnny Cash to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys to Slayer, Kanye West to the Strokes, and System of a Down to Jay-Z.

Every person reading this knows at least one song produced by him.

1. Experimenter and finisher - which one are you?

In their nature, many artists lean toward one of two categories: Experimenters or Finishers.

Experimenters are partial to dreaming and play, finding it more difficult to complete and release their work.

Finishers are the mirror image, a backward reflection. They move quickly to the end point with immediate clarity. They are less interested in exploring the possibilities and alternatives that the Experimentation and Craft phases can suggest.

Each might find it helpful to borrow from the other.

I’m the experimenter, definitely. This chapter takes up about a page and a half in the book, but we will break it down in detail here.

The Experimenter

• Eager to start new projects and explore fresh ideas (often before finishing the previous project, kind of a shiny object chaser).

• Curious, wants to discover stuff.

• Flooding with ideas but struggles with sticking to one.

• Leaves projects unfinished due to distractions or lack of focus.

• Enjoys the process more than the outcome (sometimes).

• Likes to tweak unimportant details to perfection.

• More started projects than finished ones.

  ---

  Example artists:

• Kanye West

• Andy Warhol

• Pablo Picasso

The Finisher

• Focused on refining, perfecting, and completing projects.

• Driven by the satisfaction of bringing work to closure.

• Would skip the process if possible.

• Maintains focus and determination through to the end.

• Struggles with starting new projects due to fear of failure or imperfection.

• Prefers familiar processes and approaches.

• Risks over-polishing or delaying completion in pursuit of perfection.

• More finished projects than started ones.

Example artists:

• Michelangelo

• Leonardo da Vinci

• Stephen King

Didn’t ask them though.

2. Planting seeds

In the first phase of the creative process, we are to be completely open, collecting anything we find of interest.

We can call this the Seed phase. We’re searching for potential starting points that, with love and care, can grow into something beautiful. At this stage, we are not comparing them to find the best seed. We simply gather them.

A seed for a song could be a phrase, a melody, a bass line, or a rhythmic feel.

For a written piece, it may be a sentence, a character sketch, a setting, a thesis, or a plot point.

Everything is a remix, everything comes from, greater or lesser, inspiration. You throw seeds on the ground and nourish those that grow. You can choose your seeds: what you listen to while commuting, what you watch while eating, what you scroll on the toilet. Collecting seeds doesn’t require much effort. You can put more pressure on it to speed up the process, but it comes naturally as you just go through life.

Seeds can grow unexpectedly and rapidly. An inconspicuous one thrown in a dark and dry area of the field can spike up and bear a beautiful fruit. On the other hand, some seeds die despite watering.

Quantity breeds quality

The more seeds we collect, the more context we gain for deciding which to pursue. It’s rare that a seed brings no value at all. Placing more seeds in the strainer of circumstances and character reveals the good ones. Revisiting the seeds can reveal which germinate with low effort.

Practical takeaways: always write down good ideas asap, you can’t control when inspiration strikes but receive it well when it’s there.

3. When flowing, keep going

Ride the wave as long as it can be ridden. If you are fortunate enough to experience the strike of inspiration, take full advantage of the access. Remain in the energy of this rarefied moment for as long as it lasts. When flowing, keep going.

If you’re a writer and you tap into a stream of ideas before bed, you may want to stay with it until dawn (literally how my book originated). If you’re a musician and you’ve reached your goal of creating one song or ten songs, yet the music is still coming, capture all you can.

The work yielded may not be used in the current project, but it may be of use another time. Or it may not. The task of the artist is simply to recognize the transmission and stay with it in gratitude, until it truly runs its course.

The hardest part is starting. You can't swim without going into the water. Throwing yourself into water too deep will make you fight for survival, stepping into the water too shallow, will make a boring crouch walk. The middle is where the flow state is:

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I chose the things that give the greatest possible results with the least possible effort.

1. Screen Zen

I have tested many apps that are supposed to prevent me from getting distracted by the funny little screen in my pocket and this one is the best for me. How it works? By increasing the friction in using your phone:

It gives a few seconds to reflect before you open a distracting app.

The setup is very simple, it will ask you for some permissions but don’t worry about that. The desktop equivalent for it is the “With Intention” Chrome extension.

Combine it with Grayscale mode! The idea is—putting your phone in grayscale will make the screen less appealing. I covered it in detail in the post linked below.

2. Use a clock instead of your phone

Your day won’t be productive after scrolling TikTok for an hour first thing in the morning. If your first reflex after waking up is reaching for the phone, get a traditional alarm clock and put the phone in a different room. You won’t waste time on your phone if it’s not there—so simple, yet effective.

3. Bag for essentials

Sometimes you have too much stuff for your pockets but not enough to carry a backpack. That's why I got a small bag for essentials, turned out to be a great idea. I don’t unpack it—it’s always ready, waiting by the door with everything I typically need inside.

I got the one from Carhartt and so far I have no complaints. Here (affiliate).

4. Switch to traditional books

If you read on Kindle or any form other than physical books, switch. There are two reasons for that:

• Tangible physical object: This means 2 things: easy to just pick up and read, and more accountability—the physical cover staring at you is not the same as just a text file on your device.

• The collecting aspect serves as a motivator: I often recommend creating visual indicators of progress, and books on the shelf are a great form of this.

And I’m talking only about reading here, audiobooks are great.

5. Two-Minute Rule

If a task takes less than two minutes, do it immediately. It prevents small tasks from piling up and gives you a quick sense of accomplishment.

6. Small tasks session

If a task takes longer than 2 minutes but is still relatively small—batch those and set aside a dedicated hour to do as many of them as possible in this time frame.

7. Goals in sight

Put your goals in sight, that’s basically it. I keep my short-term goals stuck up right above my monitor. The piece of paper with them is always in my peripheral vision. I like thinking of it as a direction sign—if I feel lost, I just look up to see where to go.

Write short-term goals and put them as your wallpaper, stick them on a piece of paper, or use this—my latest find:

Whiteboard wallpaper! It’s exactly what the name says, great stuff. You can buy this from this link so I get a small cut (affiliate).

8. 8-minute meditation

Find 8 minutes in your day for meditation. There are tons of meditation benefits including stress reduction, better focus and patience, lower anxiety and the list goes on. More here:

9. Rearrange your room

Your environment has the shape of you. Make it nice, clean, organized, and pleasant to look at. Changing something in your room also has that refreshment feeling to it + visible effects give you a quick motivation boost.

10. Combine stuff

I feel stupid saying this because of how obvious this is but apparently, it’s not so clear to everyone. Do 2 things at once! This doesn’t mean multitasking, this means listening to an audiobook while you drive, brushing your teeth while showering, doing Duolingo as you die in a multiplayer game, and… I don’t know, you come up with more examples.

11. Simple habit tracker

Log your daily habits to clearly see the path of your progress! I created a minimalistic habit tracker that includes everything for tracking habits effectively and nothing more. That is basically a checklist for your dream life! Get it here! (Or become a premium subscriber and get it for free in digital!)

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12. 15 Minutes to keep up

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Causes

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression. It happens during certain seasons of the year, most often fall or winter. It is thought that shorter days and less daylight may set off a chemical change in the brain leading to symptoms of depression.

source

No sun—the biggest problem is no sun. We will get the obvious out of the way first, I saved the best for later.

• Supplement vitamin D (2000–4000 IU is a common recommendation, but you can use vit. D intake calculator). Add Omega3 (linked to improved mood and brain health).

• Walk outside: expose yourself to as much natural light as possible.

• General supplements and diet: No better time to take care of your diet than Winter. The likelihood of getting sick is at its peak during this time of year. Even if you're someone who rarely falls ill, catching a cold is likely.

• Bonus: Light therapy. If outdoor exposure is limited for whatever reason, invest in a light therapy box. These devices simulate sunlight, helping to regulate your circadian rhythm and improve mood. Use it for 20–30 minutes in the morning to feel more energized and balanced. I add it as a bonus as I’m not sure of the effectiveness of that method.

The mental pressure of New Year’s Eve

That’s not what people usually talk about when they hear “winter depression”, huh? But it’s real and it’s crushing for people who want more from life. If you're ambitious, there aren't many worse feelings than looking back and seeing no progress, and there’s no better indicator of a “new chapter” than the end of the year. If this chapter is not finished with a happy ending, it can bring you down.

You also don’t need to spend a monthly paycheck on a New Year’s Eve party just because people around you do it. There’s nothing wrong in working on your stuff or just watching a movie when fireworks pop outside the window.

Quick mental health toolkit

If you can relate to the previous headline, here are the absolute basics to take care of:

• Gratitude: I write down 5 things I’m grateful for every day before going to sleep. It can be literally anything: water bottle, pillow, nice dreams.

• Meditation: I bet you have heard about meditation already and that’s for a good reason. Learn how to start here.

• Reading: Reading gives you more ideas, helps you understand things, see more patterns, and connect some dots that weren’t even there before.

• Writing: Writing unravels your mind. Thoughts cluttering around your head can make a mess, that’s why it’s good to run them through a filter from time to time. Writing down your thoughts is like putting together individual Lego blocks that get tangled up in different parts of the room: not always what you wanted, but something will always come out of it.

• Be social: Winter brings Christmas, and Christmas brings socializing with people you don't necessarily want to be in the same room with (I’m being diplomatic with that description).

• Sleep: Bears fall into winter sleep, you may not need that much time to rest but when it’s dark outside most of the time sleep cycle can get disrupted. Read:

• Exercise: Cardio preferably.

• Savor small pleasures.

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Leverage new year

“This is gonna be my year!” Ye, I know. But this time, we will make it really happen.

We like things like a new year, a clear line separating the present and the future. A chance to “reset”, an impulse to finally change things.

This is Dan Harmon’s story circle. Where are you now? Obviously, this is not a map of how human life goes, but you can use it for imagination.

Approach the new year as like a new chapter in a book, a chapter in which things you never dreamed of will happen. Make this year a movie worth watching.

So that you don't end up thinking, planning and giving up in mid-February, take action right away, 1st January. Do what you have been procrastinating on the most, start the year by taking risks and stepping on unknown ground, that's where the chances are.

1. Goal: First thing first, you need a goal, a good and clear one. Just read below and use the template to set it.

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