Level up your productivity and life with new essays, videos, event invites, and other resources every Tuesday. Join 125k subscribers exploring the frontier of modern work, experimenting with new ways of doing more with less, and discovering what it means to fulfill our human potential. 100% free and 100% useful!
Share
How to Prepare Yourself For an Uncertain Future
Published 26 days ago • 4 min read
For much of my life, I’ve run full speed after a vision of what it means to be maximally productive.
I’ve tried countless apps, methods, frameworks, habits, and psychological tricks to try and squeeze more output out of myself.
I’ve had a lot of success following that path, but it has also led me to a realization: that there is something deeper than productivity. Lying just below our desire for more, better, faster, there are more fundamental things we are seeking: love, connection, intimacy, and fulfillment.
As I’ve begun to pursue those things more directly in my life a few years ago, a whole new world has opened up for me – the world of personal growth.
And since, I’ve seen dramatic shifts in my business, new creative heights in my work, more intimacy in my relationships with family and friends, and a deeper love toward myself even when I fall short of my own expectations.
I've put together a series of emails to share my personal growth journey, which was largely facilitated by my mentor Joe Hudson, an executive coach and former venture capitalist.
You'll get a front-row seat as I recap some intense shifts and revelations. You'll also learn how to embark on your own personal growth journey.
If you'd like to get this email series starting May 1st, click the button below.
"I feel like a failure if I don’t get to every to-do in my task manager."
Sounds familiar? Many feel this sense of obligation to their to-do list. So how do you know when it's ok to delete a task? My approach might surprise you...
I assume by default I won't do a given task. The average task that enters my task manager will never get done, and that's not only okay, it's the ideal situation! It means I considered an option for how to spend my precious time/attention, and disregarded it in favor of a better one.
I feel no sense of commitment or attachment to any open loop or task UNTIL it makes it all the way to my "Today list" (that's what it's called in my task manager of choice Things).
This is the list of tasks I've decided to say yes to for the upcoming week based on MY values and priorities.
And even for tasks that make it to the Today list, I only probably complete half of them. Another quarter becomes irrelevant or obsolete in some way, and another quarter gets deleted because they turned out not to be the best use of my time.
I invite you to let go of any sense of guilt or shame you have about not getting to the end of your to-do list for good.
At a book signing event in Brazil with my parents.
Launching Building a Second Brain in Brazil and Mexico
One of the aspects of writing a book I most looked forward to was releasing it in my family’s country of origin, Brazil.
I’d spent years daydreaming about what that would feel like, returning to my homeland bearing the gift of hard-won knowledge to share with the people who had given me so much.
Criando Um Segundo Cérebro came out in July 2023, about a year after the US release, and I decided to travel to Brazil the following month for a press tour to promote it.
In this blog post, I’ll recap our strategy for launching the book in Portuguese and Spanish, the results we achieved, what we found to be most effective, and what I learned.
Yesterday was Earth Day, so this is timely. If you're interested in preparing yourself and your family for climate change impacts, I have a great recommendation for you…
Alex Steffen's upcoming class on Personal Ruggedization on Thursday, April 25th at 2 pm ET (view in your timezone).
Last year, I took his intensive 6-week course on the same topic, and it was one of the most impactful learning experiences I’ve had in the last decade. Now he’s offering a condensed 2-hour version, an incredible steal.
I’ve been following Alex for years now and what I enjoy about his work is that he (mostly) sidesteps the raging debate about exactly how climate change will play out and precisely how bad it will be.
What most people can agree on is that the future will likely be more risky and uncertain. Alex's class focuses on preparing you, your family, and community for a wide range of potential scenarios, whatever those might be.
He addresses a remarkable range of topics, from the all-important choice of where to locate yourself to the psychological mindset shifts needed, to basic provisioning and preparing for utility interruption, to adapting your career, finances, and business for likely future changes.
If you'd like to dive into Alex's work first, here’s a good primer from him on personal ruggedization.
Have you ever noticed that so much of our work is simply transferring information from one website or app to another? This holds across all professions. We format, personalize, and organize information so it becomes usable for others.
This is necessary but not the best use of our time and talents. With AI, we can now accelerate these mundane tasks considerably.
Take the free Magical AI browser extension, for example, which helps you...
Reply to emails and messages 10x faster by saving frequent responses (while still personalizing them)
Fill out forms and spreadsheets automatically with data instead of manually copy and pasting the information
Write entire emails, messages, and replies quicker than ever with a 1-click, contextual AI writer
You’ll have Magical AI installed in your browser in less than a minute to save you time on 10M+ websites. And it doesn’t store your data so it never leaves your computer.
Level up your productivity and life with new essays, videos, event invites, and other resources every Tuesday. Join 125k subscribers exploring the frontier of modern work, experimenting with new ways of doing more with less, and discovering what it means to fulfill our human potential. 100% free and 100% useful!
I'm incredibly excited to announce my next book! It will be the definitive guide to what I believe is the most undervalued tool for personal (and professional) growth... A year-end review to reflect on what you've learned, how you've changed, and what's to come. I don't have a title or publishing date yet. But please do send me any interesting ideas or sources you come across around this topic. What to Capture in Your Second Brain? My 4 Criteria The biggest pitfall I see people falling into...
Only one more week to go until the tickets for our inaugural Second Brain Summit go live on May 14th. My team and I are working around the clock to create the best possible experience for you on October 3rd and 4th in LA. I can't stress enough how big of a difference in-person events made in my career. People I met became pivotal collaborators or mentors. Ideas I heard in passing ended up being cornerstones of my work. Mindsets and perspectives I absorbed from thought leaders changed who I am...
This is a rare opportunity: I want to invite you to work with one of my most influential mentors live on a pressing problem in your life. Join Joe Hudson and me for a rapid-fire coaching session next Tuesday, May 7th, at 12 pm ET (view in your timezone). Joe's courses and coaching have been nothing short of transformational, accelerating my personal and professional growth. And his ability to create breakthroughs in just a few minutes of interaction with someone is incredible to witness. Sign...
