The Rundown

• Cognitive Distancing Appears to Enhance Decision-Making Performance, New Study Reveals

• Social Media Is Dead: Group Chats and Messaging Apps Killed It

• Want to Be More Productive? Use This Timeline Technique to Make Progress in Your Business

• Chrome’s Sidebar Apps Are the Best New Productivity Feature No One’s Talking About

• How to Manage Your Time for Happiness

🔥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

Cognitive distancing appears to enhance decision-making performance, new study reveals

A new study published in Psychological Medicine suggests that cognitive distancing, a technique commonly used in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), can improve decision-making by making individuals more deliberate and sensitive to negative outcomes. As business owners, the decisions we make are often make or break so optimizing our ability to make the right decision at the right time is crucial.

Key Insights

• Cognitive Distancing Enhances Decision-Making: The study found that people who practiced cognitive distancing performed better in a reinforcement learning task, making more advantageous choices.

  • Why This Matters: Incorporating cognitive distancing techniques could help you make more deliberate and effective choices in business scenarios and avoid emotional decisions.

• Increased Appropriate Responsiveness to Negative Feedback: Participants who used cognitive distancing were quicker to update their choices based on negative feedback.

  • Why This Matters: Being appropriately responsive to negative feedback allows you to quickly pivot or adjust your business strategies, which is vital for small businesses that need to be agile and responsive to market changes.

• Potential Common Mechanism with Pharmaceuticals: The study hints that cognitive distancing may share a similar mechanism with drug-based treatments like antidepressants in affecting decision-making and learning processes.

  • Why This Matters: If cognitive techniques and pharmaceuticals work in similar ways, this means the technique can be used as needed for business owners relative to decision-making when they might not be diagnosed with a condition that requires pharmaceuticals.

• Limitations and Future Research: The study's findings may not directly extend to clinical populations, and further research is needed to understand the long-term effects and applicability of cognitive distancing in therapy.

  • Why This Matters: While the study is promising, it's important to note that the results may not be universally applicable. Still, what an awesome study — and we can always use tips and hacks to help us in making the right decision at the right time!

Constant Contact Incorporates AI — Write AI Marketing Emails (Partner - Free Signup!)

Out of nowhere, ChatGPT took the world by storm this year, thrusting Artificial Intelligence into the spotlight where it still remains today. So it may surprise you to learn that AI isn’t that new after all. 🧐

Have you used a website’s chat bot to help you find what you’re looking for? What about smart-assistants like Alexa or Siri? Yup – AI.

One of my favorite examples comes from Constant Contact, who’s been quietly revolutionizing the email marketing and CRM industry. With its cutting-edge technology, they’ve been incorporating AI automations into their platform for years making it easier for customers to create and send highly targeted and effective campaigns.

Tired of staring at a blank page, struggling to find the right words to connect with your audience? Their AI content generator can banish writer’s block for good. Think of the time you’ll save crafting the perfect copy for marketing campaigns while increasing your open rates, without breaking a sweat.

Say goodbye to the frustration of content creation and hello to more time doing what you love with who you love. 👋 

⚙️ Optimization

Social media is dead: Group chats and messaging apps killed it

The era of public social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok is waning as users increasingly prefer private group chats and direct messaging for more authentic interactions. Traditional social media has become more about media consumption than social sharing, leading to a rise in closed, niche communities.

Key Insights:

• Public Social Media is Losing Appeal: Users are frustrated with the highly curated and professional nature of content on platforms like Instagram, leading to a decline in regular posting.

  • Why This Matters: You may need to rethink your social media strategy to adapt to changing user behaviors. Overly curated content may no longer resonate with your audience.

• Rise of Private Sharing: Features like Instagram's "Close Friends" and various group chats are becoming popular as they offer a less pressurized environment for sharing personal content.

  • Why This Matters: Consider creating exclusive content or private communities to engage your audience in a more authentic way, which could lead to stronger customer loyalty.

• Shift in Platform Focus: Even Instagram's leadership acknowledges the shift, reallocating resources to enhance messaging tools over public feeds.

  • Why This Matters: Messaging and direct engagement may become more important than ever. Focus on building relationships through DMs or personalized interactions to stay relevant.

• Challenges for Brands and Influencers: The move towards private, closed communities makes it difficult for brands and influencers to penetrate these spaces, posing challenges for traditional social media marketing strategies.

  • Why This Matters: Traditional advertising methods may be less effective in these private spaces. You'll need to find innovative ways to gain access to these closed communities, possibly through partnerships or exclusive offers.

⏲️ Time Management

Want to Be More Productive? Use This Timeline Technique to Make Progress in Your Business

Boost your productivity and business progress by employing a timeline review technique that focuses not just on future goals but also on past experiences. This six-step method helps you learn from the past to better prepare for the future.

Key Insights

• Schedule Time for Review: Allocate specific time and space for your timeline review. This focused approach enables you to dig deep into past experiences and learn from them.

• Choose a Timeframe: Opt for a specific period—be it yearly, monthly, or even weekly—to review. The timeframe you select should align with what you aim to learn from the review.

• Log Major Events: Document significant events that have impacted your business or personal life. This helps you identify patterns and areas for improvement.

• Analyze and Connect: Evaluate each event in context with others, asking open-ended questions about challenges, beliefs, and outcomes. This helps you make meaningful connections and derive actionable insights.

💻 Tools & Technology

Chrome’s sidebar apps are the best new productivity feature no one’s talking about

Google Chrome's Side Panel API allows third-party extensions to run as mini-apps in the browser's sidebar, offering features like vertical tabs, ChatGPT shortcuts, and more. Despite being around for over a year, this feature remains largely overlooked.

Key Insights:

• Under-the-Radar Feature: Chrome's Side Panel API has been around for more than a year but hasn't gained much attention. It allows for a variety of extensions to operate in the browser's sidebar.

• Easy Setup: To access the Side Panel, click the box in the top-right corner of Chrome. Users can also move the Side Panel to the left side via settings.

• Third-Party Extensions Add Value: Extensions like Manganum, Tab Shelf, and Raindrop.io offer additional functionalities ranging from favorite sites to advanced bookmark management.

👀 Read, Watch, Listen

This week’s awesome books, YouTube videos, newsletters, etc. to add to your list!

Ryan Serhant: How to Manage Your Time for Happiness (Podcast episode)

Ryan Serhant is a multi-faceted individual—real estate entrepreneur, TV star, husband, and father—who has a rigorous daily schedule, starting at 4:00 am and often ending at 11:00 pm. However, the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 gave him a moment to pause and reflect on his career. Faced with uncertainties in the real estate market, he contemplated whether to stay with his current brokerage or start his own during the pandemic, each option having distinct implications for his time and flexibility. Harvard Business School associate professor Ashley Whillans and her co-author Hawken Lord explore Serhant's time management techniques in their case study, emphasizing the importance of time as a valuable commodity and offering lessons for achieving repeatable success.

🔒Inner Circle: Events & Announcements

• Announcement: The future of Doers! Read here

• Tuesday: Work ON Business. Theme: Marketing

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

• Accelerators: Friday, Sept 8 is office hours RSVP here

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I hope you found this valuable!

Wishing you much productivity!

- Jenae :)