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- #210: Stop Making Yourself Dumber: 5 Daily Habits That Kill Your Intelligence
#210: Stop Making Yourself Dumber: 5 Daily Habits That Kill Your Intelligence
Time Blocking Doesn't Work Unless: The 6 Apps That Make It Actually Stick for Entrepreneurs
Jenae Spry
August 22, 2025
Productivity Stacks Newsletter
(Formerly Productivity Express)
Issue No. 210
The Best in Evidence-Based Productivity
for Small Business Owners, Freelancers & Founders
Helping You Work Smarter and Live More
The Rundown
Stop Making Yourself Dumber: 5 Ways We Make Ourselves Less Intelligent Each Day
ChatGPT with ads: 'Free-user monetization' coming in 2026?
Time Blocking Doesn't Work Unless: The 6 Apps That Make It Actually Stick for Entrepreneurs
Microsoft Excel adds Copilot AI to help fill in spreadsheet cells
The 'shadow AI economy' is booming: Workers at 90% of companies say they use chatbots, but most of them are hiding it from IT
👉Did you miss an issue? Check out previous Productivity Stacks issues anytime here
🔥Quote/Prompt
Always make new mistakes!
Use the quote as a writing or thinking prompt to finish your week strong.
A bit from mine:
(posted in our Doer Entrepreneurs Free Community — off social media)
When disruptions hit, we have two choices:
1) Keep doing what isn't working (aka same mistakes on repeat)
2) Adjust and risk making new mistakes
Guess which one actually gets you unstuck? […]
Did someone forward this to you?
📈 Performance
Those moments when your brain feels sluggish and you can't think clearly aren’t just bad luck. They're often the result of daily habits that quietly sabotage our cognitive performance. This research from Psychology Today reveals how we unknowingly dull our mental edge and what we can do about it.
The concept cares less about abstract numbers and focuses entirely on what we actually get out of our brains. It is a practical blend of cognitive performance, executive function, fluid intelligence, and the real-world application side of intelligence... When we zero in on the practical choices that either sharpen or dull our thinking, we see just how much of the outcome is in our own hands.
Key Insights:
Fixed mindset literally stunts brain performance - students who learned intelligence could grow like a muscle improved their math scores while peers with a fixed mindset flatlined. For example, simply changing your internal script from "I'm not good at this" to "I'm not good at this yet" can alter your performance trajectory.
Sleep deprivation creates measurable cognitive drag that goes beyond feeling tired. For example, just 24 hours without sleep significantly increases reaction time and impairs decision-making, while even modest nightly sleep restriction damages attention and working memory.
Even moderate alcohol consumption leaves lasting brain damage - consuming eight or more drinks per week increases vascular brain lesions by 133% and makes Alzheimer's markers 41% more common. For example, what seems like "moderate" drinking can exact a serious long-term toll on mental clarity.
Procrastination isn't just a time management issue - it creates measurable impairments in executive functioning. For example, students who procrastinated more showed worse performance on neuropsychological tests, proving that structure and deadlines aren't just helpful but necessary for peak brain function.
Your mental environment shapes your baseline cognitive performance through emotional contagion. For example, research shows that negative moods spread through peer groups, meaning the mental "diet" of inputs you consume literally rewires your brain's default state.
Read the full article for specific strategies to reverse each of these cognitive drains and practical steps to optimize your daily mental performance.
⚙️ Optimization
Search and AI are converging whether we like it or not, and OpenAI's potential $1 billion ad play shows exactly where this is headed. For small business owners who rely on search visibility and digital advertising, this isn't just tech news—it's a preview of the next major battlefield for customer attention. With 600 million monthly ChatGPT users potentially seeing ads by 2026, the landscape of how we reach customers online is about to shift dramatically.
OpenAI appears to forecast a billion dollars in new revenue from 'free user monetization' in 2026. That figure is forecast to grow to nearly $25 billion by 2029 of OpenAI's total $125 billion projection. [...] ChatGPT has an estimated 600 million monthly users. The ability for advertisers to reach ChatGPT's users represents a significant new opportunity. But converting ChatGPT into an ad-supported product will also be a huge shift.
Key Insights:
This represents a complete reversal from OpenAI's stance—CEO Sam Altman previously said "I kind of hate ads" and worried about AI that "will manipulate the truth to suit the advertisers," yet internal documents show they're projecting $25 billion in ad revenue by 2029.
For advertisers, this creates a new frontier: instead of bidding on search keywords, you might soon bid to have your business recommended when someone asks ChatGPT for advice. For example, asking for restaurant recommendations could trigger paid placements.
Small businesses need to prepare for this shift now by understanding how conversational AI differs from traditional search—it's not about keywords anymore but about being the trusted answer when AI systems make recommendations.
Read the full article for the leaked revenue projections chart, Sam Altman's complete quotes about why he "hates ads," and analysis of what this means for the future of digital advertising.
⏲️ Time Management
Time blocking sounds great in theory until you're trying to juggle it all in your head or on sticky notes. This comprehensive guide breaks down the six best time-blocking apps that actually work for entrepreneurs – from AI-powered schedulers that defend your focus time to simple tools that don't overwhelm you with features you'll never use. My favorite is reclaim! It’s been a game changer for me.
Time blocking is a time management technique wherein you schedule specific blocks of time for specific activities. This technique aims to help you maximize your time by ensuring that you're focused on the right tasks at the right times. [...] Time blocking is beneficial for entrepreneurs who take on different tasks every day, struggle with work-life balance, and have difficulty focusing due to interruptions. Those who procrastinate and postpone goals to complete more urgent tasks will also find this technique helpful.
Key Insights:
The most effective time-blocking apps use AI to automatically adjust your schedule based on priorities and availability. For example, Reclaim syncs your calendars and uses machine learning to defend your work time, while Motion's AI schedules your entire day including buffer time between meetings.
Different apps excel at different needs: HourStack is ideal for teams tracking billable hours across multiple clients, Fantastical works best for Apple users who need natural language input, and Sunsama keeps things simple for beginners with its morning planning and evening reflection flows.
The key to successful time blocking isn't just scheduling tasks but tracking whether your time estimates match reality - most of these apps include time-tracking features that show you exactly how long tasks actually take versus what you planned.
Read the full article for detailed pros and cons of all six apps, pricing comparisons, and a free Schedule Success Bundle template to get started with time blocking.
💻 Tools & Technology
Your hours spent manually categorizing customer feedback, writing product descriptions, or summarizing data in Excel might just be a thing of the past. Microsoft just rolled out a new AI-powered function that automatically fills cells based on natural language prompts – and it actually works with the data you already have in your spreadsheet.
Microsoft Excel is testing a new AI-powered function that can automatically fill cells in your spreadsheets, which is similar to the feature that Google Sheets rolled out in June. You would use the "COPILOT" function followed by a natural language prompt and (optionally) specify the cells you want it to reference; the AI would then classify information, generate summaries, create tables, and more. If you have a column of cells filled with feedback about a coffee machine, for example, you can use the COPILOT function to quickly classify it with AI. To do this, you'd use this formula: "=COPILOT("Classify this feedback", D4:D18)," while ensuring that you change the cells to match your Excel sheet. Microsoft Excel will then output AI-generated classifications inside each specified cell.
Key Insights:
The COPILOT function works like any other Excel formula—just type =COPILOT followed by what you want it to do and which cells to reference. For example, =COPILOT("Create a description for this product based on its specs", B2:B8) automatically generates product descriptions from your spec list.
You can combine this AI function with existing Excel functions like IF, SWITCH, or LAMBDA, meaning it integrates into your current workflows rather than replacing them entirely.
There's a usage limit of 100 functions every 10 minutes, and Microsoft explicitly warns against using it for numerical calculations or anything with legal implications – so keep using your regular formulas for financial projections.
Read the full article for specific formula examples, GIF demonstrations of the feature in action, and details about which Microsoft 365 licenses include access.
🤖 AI
If you're not using AI tools for your business yet, you're already in the minority. This MIT study reveals that workers at 90% of companies are using ChatGPT and Claude for daily tasks – often without telling anyone. The message is clear: AI adoption isn't coming someday in the future; it's already here, and those who aren't fluent in these tools are getting left behind.
The study finds that workers at more than 90% of companies are using personal chatbot accounts for daily tasks, often without approval from IT, while only 40% of companies actually have official LLM subscriptions. A sweeping new report from MIT's Project NANDA, State of AI in Business 2025, has uncovered a dramatic split in the landscape of enterprise artificial intelligence: While official AI adoption in companies stalls, a robust 'shadow AI economy' is flourishing under the radar, powered by employees using personal AI tools for day-to-day work.
Key Insights:
The "shadow AI economy" delivers better ROI than most formal initiatives because people use tools that actually fit their workflow. For example, 70% prefer AI for drafting emails and 65% for basic analysis, while keeping humans for mission-critical work.
Consumer AI tools win because of three factors: immediate utility without waiting for IT approval, flexibility to customize for specific needs, and the ability to experiment freely without complex enterprise integrations.
Despite $30-40 billion invested in enterprise AI, only 5% of organizations see transformative returns, while 95% report zero impact on their P&L statements from formal AI investments.
Read the full article for MIT's full analysis of 300+ AI initiatives, survey data from 153 senior leaders, and specific recommendations for bridging the gap between official and shadow AI usage.
🎉 Celebration Corner
Every week Doers Inner Circle members do a weekly review & get help when they need it — check out the progress they made this week!
I met the income goal for the month in only two weeks.
Made progress in making marketing and working on the business into consistent habits.
What did you do this week? We feature non-member successes too. Just post them here!
🔒Inner Circle: Events & Announcements
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Wishing you much productivity!
- Jenae :)
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