The Rundown

• How Negative Thoughts Relate to Procrastination

• Is this product 'human-made'? The race to establish an AI-free logo

• Why Time Blocking Feels Like a Straitjacket (And the Simple Fix)

• SocialFocus – Undistracted Social Media Experience

• Perplexity's new Computer is another bet that users need many AI models

👉Did you miss an issue? Check out previous Productivity Stacks issues anytime here

🔥Quote/Prompt

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)

Did someone forward this to you?

📈 Performance

How Negative Thoughts Relate to Procrastination

Procrastination isn't a time management problem — it's an emotional one. And if you've ever found yourself avoiding a task not because you don't know how to do it, but because it just feels bad to start, this research from Psychology Today will hit close to home. Turns out, the mental loop keeping you stuck isn't just stress about what's ahead. It's the replaying of what's already behind you.

Key Insights:

1. Rumination, not worry, is the biggest driver of procrastination, meaning dwelling on past mistakes or failures is more likely to keep you stuck than anxiety about future tasks.

2. Procrastination is a short-term mood fix with long-term consequences, so recognizing the emotional trigger behind avoidance is the first step to breaking the cycle.

3. Self-compassion is one of the most research-backed antidotes to ruminative thinking, because accepting past failures without harsh self-judgment reduces the emotional spiral that feeds procrastination.

Read the full article for the research breakdown on how anxiety, depression, and negative thought patterns connect to procrastination, plus practical implications for moving forward.

⚙️ Optimization

Is this product 'human-made'? The race to establish an AI-free logo

My dad was a darkroom photographer. When Photoshop arrived, he smartly positioned himself as the "no filters, no manipulation, pure craft" guy. People loved the idea. And then, eventually, everyone threw a filter on everything anyway and nobody really cared anymore. He adopted Photoshop too.

Here's the thing about enshittification and our purchasing habits: we talk a big game about quality and craft, but is every piece of furniture in your house handmade by an artisan? Did you shop at IKEA? Are your dishes hand-thrown by a specialist ceramicist or did you grab them at Target? We care about craft in theory, and some of us genuinely do seek it out, but we don't buy every single thing that way. Someone will fill their entire house with handmade furniture. It just probably isn't the average person on an average salary.

I suspect the same pattern will play out with AI. Right now the "human-made" movement feels urgent and meaningful, and it is worth paying attention to. But history has a way of repeating itself, and if you're a creative or service provider thinking this certification trend is your salvation, it's worth asking honestly: will people still want this in five years, and more importantly, will they pay for it consistently? This BBC News piece lays out exactly where that movement stands right now.

Key Insights:

1. At least eight competing "human-made" certification initiatives have launched globally, meaning there is currently no universal standard, which makes the label harder for consumers to trust or act on.

2. Some certifications require rigorous third-party auditing while others are essentially self-reported, so the credibility of any "AI-free" label varies wildly depending on who is issuing it.

3. Defining "AI-free" is genuinely complicated since AI is embedded in so many everyday tools, making a binary human-versus-AI classification increasingly difficult to enforce or even agree on.

As business owners, the real question worth sitting with is whether to position yourself as the handmade plate or open the plate factory. Or both. Hit reply and tell me where you land on this one.

Read the full article for a breakdown of the current certification systems, how each one works, and which industries are leading the push for human-made labeling.

⏲️ Time Management

Why Time Blocking Feels Like a Straitjacket (And the Simple Fix)

Time blocking has a reputation problem. It sounds great in theory, gets recommended constantly, and then falls apart by day two for most people. If you've tried it and quietly abandoned it, you're not doing it wrong. You're just missing the framing that actually makes it work.

Key Insights:

1. Time blocking works best when treated as an experiment rather than a rigid system, meaning your first schedule is just a starting point you refine over three to four weeks before deciding if it works for you.

2. Research on written goals and accountability shows that putting tasks on a calendar with specific time windows dramatically increases follow-through compared to simply thinking about what needs to get done.

3. Tracking what actually happens during your blocks, even with quick end-of-day notes, is where the real optimization occurs, because you cannot improve a system you are not paying attention to.

Read the full article for a step-by-step setup guide and a breakdown of the actual research behind time blocking.

💻 Tools & Technology

SocialFocus – Undistracted Social Media Experience

Social media is genuinely useful for running a business. The problem isn't the platform, it's the slot machine wrapped around it. I started using SocialFocus specifically for LinkedIn, and the difference is notable. I can pop over to read an article or check someone's profile without being ambushed by notification red dots and an endless newsfeed I never asked for. The feed only appears when I want it. Same with notifications. It turns out that when you remove the compulsion triggers, social media becomes a tool again instead of a time warp. If you want to understand why those triggers work the way they do, my recent video on why dopamine detox doesn't work is worth a watch before you set this up.

This is not sponsored, just a useful find worth sharing.

Key Insights:

1. SocialFocus works across seven platforms including LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube, with over 115 customizable options so you can hide specific elements like feeds, suggested content, or notifications without losing access to the features you actually need.

2. Password protection and launch delay features are built in specifically to guard against the compulsive "just checking" habit that bypasses your own intentions, making it harder to undo your own settings in a weak moment.

3. The extension works on Safari, Chrome, and Firefox, meaning it follows you across browsers rather than being easy to sidestep by just switching tabs.

Read the full article for the full list of supported platforms, available hiding options, and user reviews breaking down exactly how people are using it to reclaim their time.

🤖 AI

Perplexity's new Computer is another bet that users need many AI models

If you've been following this newsletter for a while, you already know Perplexity has a special place here. This TechCrunch piece came out before Perplexity opened Computer access to Pro subscribers at the $20/month tier, so the $200/month price tag you'll see referenced is no longer the whole story. If you're already a Pro user, you can go check it out right now. Not sponsored, just worth knowing.

The article is still a solid breakdown of what Perplexity Computer actually is and why it exists, which is worth understanding before you start poking around in it.

Key Insights:

1. Perplexity Computer runs entirely in the cloud, meaning it can handle complex multi-step research and analysis tasks without requiring anything on your end beyond a subscription, and it automatically routes queries to whichever of its 19 models is best suited for the job.

2. Perplexity dropped its advertising business late last year specifically because it was undermining user trust in the accuracy of answers, which is a notable signal about where the company is positioning itself relative to competitors.

3. The company's "multi-model is the future" argument is backed by actual user behavior data, with their users already gravitating toward different models for different tasks like coding versus research versus visual outputs.

Read the full article for a deeper look at Perplexity's broader product roadmap, how its approach differs from OpenAI and Google, and what the company's shift toward enterprise users means for everyday subscribers.

🎉 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!

• Finished quarterly planning.

• Good personal well-being habits which lead to better productivity this week and ticked off all my main goals.

What did you do this week? We feature non-member successes too. Just post them here!

🔒Inner Circle: Events & Announcements

• EVENT KICKOFF: The 90-day Planning Formula Bash kick off RSVP here

• SPECIAL EVENT: The 90-day Planning Formula Bash Asynch Sprint RSVP here

• Monday: {EU Time} Work ON Business. Theme: 4️⃣ Workflow & Customer Fulfillment  RSVP here

• Tuesday: Work ON Business. Theme: 4️⃣ Workflow & Customer Fulfillment RSVP here

• Monday/Friday: Goal Setting + Plan Your Week Party

• Accelerators: March 27 is your Monthly Goal Setting  RSVP here

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Wishing you much productivity!

- Jenae :)