Adding value, Staying Organized & Artificial Intelligence
The hodge-podge issue
👋Hello, my friend. I’ve got a hodge-podge for you this week! Several small, not necessarily related ideas—but hopefully ones that just might improve your life ever so slightly.
Specifically…
Some thoughts on adding value
My secret method for getting way more done than I really should
An experiment I ran with ChatGPT
Let’s go!
Adding value
I slapped the sticky note pictured above on my computer screen this past week. You know when you’ve got an idea that you feel strongly about but you just need to be continuously smacked over the head to remember it?
For me, that’s this idea: That whatever I do, I need to constantly be adding value.
I’ve written before about how I’ve identified that my purpose is to SERVE OTHERS and to use my skills, time, and resources to do just that. Sounds altruistic. It’s actually kind of selfish. Because I realize that:
1. serving others is the one thing you can do that will actually make you the happiest
2. serving others is the best way to generate economic value in this world (aka to make money).
But lately, I’ve been getting a little distracted—scrolling social media for just a bit too long, or working on tasks at work that don’t really move the needle.
And this conflicts with what I’m trying to do:
To add value to others, in every part of my life, pretty much at all times.
Okay, maybe “all times” is a little aggressive but I don’t like wasting time. When I’m at work, typically every minute of my day is planned. And I like it that way. I’ve predetermined what needs to be done and I focus on executing. But I also want to be adding value with my kids. I realize I’ve got a limited amount of years with them at home. Even with this newsletter and my podcast, I don’t want to waste anyone’s time. If you’re giving me your valuable attention, I want to make it worth it for you. I’m thinking ADD VALUE with every keystroke.
To me, it’s about remembering…. “It’s not about YOU. It’s about THEM.” Them meaning my readers and listeners. Them meaning my kids. Them meaning my colleagues at work.
Nobody really cares about me. They care about what I can do for THEM. Sounds cold and heartless. But I for one do a hell of a lot better in every part of my life when I remember this simple truth.
The secret to productivity
If you follow me on Twitter, this probably won’t be new news to you, but I’ve become a little bit of an evangelist for my simple 30-minute Sunday planning routine.
Someone asked me recently “How the heck do you work a full-time job, coach your kids’ teams, make podcast on the side, stay fit, etc. etc.?”
My first reaction was “I definitely DO NOT have it all figured it when it comes to getting things done.” My second reaction was: “But I do have a pretty damn good system in place to help me.”
What is that system? Every Sunday, I sit down for 30 minutes and I plan the upcoming week. Based on the work I did at the beginning of the year, I already know what my goals are so I know what actions I need to take every week - these are pretty standard week-to-week and include things like:
Workout daily
Take a walk with my wife once a week
Write for 30 mins / day
Spend 1-hour reaching out to podcast guests per week
Meditate 3x week (I’m so bad at this one but working on it)
Hit one golf ball per week
Etc.
Then I literally just sit there for 30 minutes on Sunday and drop all of these things into my calendar. That’s pretty much it. Sounds simple, because it is.
But it’s also powerful. My stress levels instantly go down once I see everything slotted into my calendar. This is partly because I know that I’ve just dramatically decreased the chances of decision fatigue (Should I workout today? What workout should I do? etc.). No, that internal conversation isn’t necessary. It’s already planned. I just need to execute.
I love this method of productivity because I ensure upfront that I am working on the things I want to. The things that are important to me. Otherwise, I’d just be blowing in the wind and it would be very unlikely that I’d accomplish any of my goals - in my career, in my writing, in my fitness — you name it.
If you want to try this method out, I detailed it more in the Twitter thread below.
Artificial intelligence
ChatGPT is all the rage. It’s wild to see artificial intelligence taking off before our eyes. But it reminds me of Tim Urban’s visual below that I’ve used in this newsletter before. I wrote here and here about how technology is about to get absolutely bonkers. I still think most people way, way underestimate how much this is going to change things in our lifetimes. I think about the change that’s happened in my parents’ generation - going from black & white TV sets to FaceTime in their pockets, for instance. I believe that change will look miniscule when we look back at what’s about to occur, even in the next decade. I’m serious. I think the change we will see in the next 10 years will be more dramatic than what we’ve witnessed from the 1950s to now.
The hard thing is that our brains cannot even fathom what this could look like. That’s part of the reason why we don’t appropriately discount it. Our internal software is calibrated to see change take place sloooooooooooowly. Like over thousands of years. Not a hell of a lot changes for hunter-gathers over millennia on the prairie. And that’s when the wiring we’re working with dates back to. So we literally cannot fathom exponential change, yet that’s what we’re about to see. AI is here and it’s real. My little experiment this week was to talk into my phone for 20 minutes and then to drop the transcript into ChatGPT and ask it to turn what I said into a coherent article. Spoiler alert: It succeeded. And this is pretty much considered a basic AI function at this point. You can read more about my experiment here:
So what can we do about it? It might be easier to say what we shouldn’t do. Personally, I think a bad strategy is to ignore all this change. To pine for simpler days. Think about what would have happened if you buried your head in the sand and refused to figure out email, the internet, all the basic technologies we take for granted today that didn’t exist when many of us were kids. I mean… you’d have a pretty hard time operating in the world today, especially if you desired to have things like… ya know… a job, a house, a bank account. The same goes for AI. In 10 years, it will probably be a bigger part of your life (and your/your kids’ livelihoods) than the internet. Will you read lots of scary stories about how people are falling in love with their AI companions? Absolutely! Will Fox News and CNN want to scare you and make you think the world is going to hell in a handbasket because of it? Obviously! What else would they do? That’s how they make their money. Also - stop watching those immediately if you care about your mental health even a little bit.
So… you don’t need to be an AI expert. But consider this to be your warning. Things are about to get crazy! Yes, some super weird and scary stuff will happen as a result. But some amazing advances are also on the way that will probably dramatically improve things like our health (think: AI disease diagnoses) and even how long we live. So… I’m just saying: pay attention.
Okay…. this turned into some newsletter. I better end it here.
But before you go, here are few pieces of content that you may just enjoy as much as I did.
See you in two weeks!!
Also - one more thing: Congrats to reader Charles Darby who won my recent contest for the LMNT (electrolyte supplement) variety pack. It’s on it’s way to you, my man!
Content Diet
Full Swing - PGA Golf meets Netflix
Okay, here’s the section of the newsletter where I try to convince you to watch a golf documentary. Stay with me…. Yes, I do love some golf. Played my first round of the year two days ago. Let’s not discuss how it went. Maybe you don’t love golf. But here me out. There’s a surprising amount of drama in the sport. And some big personalities. And last year was a CRAZY year on the PGA tour as the Saudi-backed competing LIV tour tried to lure players away for hundreds of millions of dollars. Netflix captured all of this. And turned it into an 8 episode docuseries - akin to what they did for F1 racing with Drive to Survive. I’m six episodes in. It’s great. And my wife is even watching it with me (and developing strong opinions - both positive and negative) of the featured players. Drama meets golf. And my wife is watching. I approve.
Intentional Wisdom Podcast: Louie Ruvolo - The Long Road to Sobriety
I highlighted this one in last week’s newsletter but just in case you missed it, this episode is getting rave reviews. Louie is a super impressive guy. He conquered his decades-long battle with alcoholism, and now, at 58-years-old is accomplishing some incredible feats from running 100-mile ultramarathons to completing his first Ironman triathlon. I am personally drawing a ton of inspiration from Louie. I hope you’ll check this one out and share your reaction to it with me or on social media. I want to hear what you think.
And that is it, my friends.
See you in two weeks!
— Greg