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I hope you've had a productive week! If you are new here, welcome to our Friday Roundup.
What is the Friday Roundup?

A roundup of the best in productivity & systems for Entrepreneurs and small business owners with a ‘TLDR’ summary and our take on how to take action to systematize your business and your life.

Be on the lookout for our Tuesday Swipe file & Case study! Every Tuesday a free behind-the-scenes swipe file from an entrepreneur with the systems, tools, and hires that helped them build sustainable success.

-Jenae :)

The Rundown

• Tired of Feeling Like You Fell Short? How to Set and Achieve Your Biggest Goals, Backed by Neuroscience

• Startup Experts Reveal Their Top Productivity Advice (Video)

• ChatGPT Prompts to Create Awesome Content (That Actually Sounds Like You)

• Video you can’t miss + 3 awesome products for sleep-challenged business owners or travelers/nomads

Shortform Introduces 10-Minute No-Fluff Guides to Actionable Books

(Use Partner Link for free trial + 20% off 👉here)

I’m hooked on Shortform — it’s a game changer and here’s what I love:

• Get the actionable content from a book without the stories and fluff in between.

• Add your own highlights and notes.

• It has its own app. Stop doom-scrolling on social media and replace with Shortform.

• LISTEN to the guides (yes, there was audio for all the books I tested).

• Shortform adds context and examples really helping turn the books into actionable content (even when the book doesn’t have an action item).

🔥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 to use the 15% rule to maximize productivity (and not wear yourself out)

Avoiding constant busyness and managing time wisely enhances productivity and well-being. A suggested approach is to operate at 85% capacity, leaving a 15% reserve for adaptability and unforeseen demands. The article gives the example of Olympian Carl Lewis, who would be last-ish out of the gate in a 100-meter sprint but finish first. He did this by being hyper-aware of the sustained energy required to win and staying steady whereas others would slow down by the end. The insights below are examples of how this same strategy applies to our productivity:

Key Insights:

• Adopt the 15% Rule: Work at 85% capacity, leaving a 15% buffer, which, for instance, allows for handling unexpected challenges or exploring creative pursuits without feeling overwhelmed or stretched too thin.

• Leverage Circadian Rhythms: Align tasks with natural body clocks, such as scheduling intellectually demanding tasks during peak alertness periods in the morning and saving routine, coordination-required tasks for the afternoon, to optimize focus and efficiency.

• Mitigate Decision Fatigue: Allocate decision-making and crucial tasks to the morning hours, for example, scheduling important meetings or decision-required activities before noon, to ensure choices are made with a fresh and undiminished cognitive reserve.

• Prioritize Impactful Task Timing: Ensure that the timing of tasks aligns with their impact, for instance, dedicating prime energy periods to high-value activities that significantly move projects forward, while allocating lower-energy periods to less critical tasks.

⚙️ Optimization

Tired of Feeling Like You Fell Short? How to Set and Achieve Your Biggest Goals, Backed by Neuroscience

Stanford neurobiologist Dr. Andrew Huberman shares neuroscience-backed strategies for setting and achieving significant goals through a systematic and psychologically informed approach, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing one major goal and aligning brain functions to work towards it.

Key Insights:

• Prioritize One Major Goal: Focusing on one primary goal, while having sub-goals, ensures that your efforts are not diluted across multiple objectives. This approach helps in maintaining focus and directing energy towards achieving something significant without being overwhelmed by "goal creep."

• Embrace the Associated Work: Achieving a goal is not just about the end result but also about embracing and wanting the work and routine that comes with it. It’s crucial to define the actions and processes involved in reaching the goal, ensuring that the steps taken are specific, measurable, and consistent.

• Maintain Consistency, Not Perfection: Consistency in actions and routines is pivotal for goal achievement. While maintaining a steady progress towards the goal, it’s essential to avoid being overly critical about the journey. A 90% adherence to your plan still signifies remarkable progress and should be appreciated.

• Utilize Randomized Rewards: Implementing a system of random rewards upon reaching milestones can help in modulating dopamine effects, ensuring that the motivation remains intrinsic and does not solely depend on external rewards. This approach also aids in maintaining a healthy level of motivation and satisfaction derived from the work itself.

⏲️ Time Management

Startup Experts Reveal Their Top Productivity Advice (Video)

This addition to the newsletter is a little different as it’s a video so below you’ll find the biggest takeaways shared but feel free to watch the full video for more from Y-combinator startup founders.

Key Insights:

• Focus Singularly on Tasks: Hyperfocus on the most important tasks rather than trying to multitask or switch back and forth.

• Constantly think about the “why”: "Founders need to start with why they are doing something, because otherwise they end up with an infinite list of distractions and tasks that never stop."

• Steer Clear of Excessive Productivity Content: Be mindful to not fall into the trap of "productivity porn," where the overconsumption of productivity-related content becomes a distraction itself.

• Balance "Maker" and "Manager" Schedules: Regardless of whether you are a solopreneur or have a team, if you mix and match your “deep work” or knowledge work activities (maker) activities with your “admin” or meeting activities (manager), it kills productivity. For more on this check out this article by Paul Graham.

💻 Tools & Technology

ChatGPT Prompts To Create Awesome Content (That Actually Sounds Like You) 

Dr. Jeremy Nguyen shares his methods to harness ChatGPT for crafting content that genuinely mirrors a user's distinctive writing style and voice, offering detailed prompts and tactics to instruct the AI in replicating individual writing peculiarities.

Key Insights:

• Train ChatGPT in Your Writing Style: Nguyen emphasizes the importance of guiding ChatGPT to comprehend and mimic your unique writing style by using specific prompts and a writing sample.

  • His example: “You are an expert ghostwriter, world-class at capturing your client's authorial voice. You are also an expert in natural language processing. Below is an [email/blog post/document] written by your client. Please use natural language processing to create a paragraph that describes key characteristics of your client's voice, so that an LLM could write in a similar voice using only the paragraph as input: [Paste a sample of your writing]”

• Blend Influential Writing Styles: Introducing a mix of your style with that of an admired writer or speaker can enhance content, achieved by directing ChatGPT to integrate a portion of that style with yours.

  • His example: “You are still an expert ghostwriter. You already have a natural language processing analysis describing the client's authorial voice. The client has indicated that they also like [person whose voice you admire, eg. Robin Sharma, Oprah Winfrey]’s voice and character, so please mix in 15% of [person you admire]’s writing style]. Can you please write a [blog, article, newsletter] to [desired outcome of the content].”

• Embed Unique Perspectives: Nguyen suggests a technique where ChatGPT helps pinpoint conventional industry wisdoms and, through an interactive Q&A, distills your unique or contrarian perspectives, which can then be utilized to create distinctive content.

  • His example: “You are an expert in the [your industry] industry. Please create a numbered list of at least 10 conventional wisdoms commonly communicated to [your target audience, eg. ‘aspiring screenwriters’] looking to [audience’s goals or frustrations, e.g. ‘break into the industry’]. Then ask which numbers I think are unhelpful for my audience’s goals. Interview me, one question at a time, pausing for my answers, to find and distill my unique perspectives. The final output will be a bullet point list of my contrarian perspectives, the results I achieved from holding them, and how they differ from conventional industry wisdom. Start by showing me 10 conventional wisdoms.”

• Incorporate Personal Experiences: Engaging ChatGPT in a simulated conversation with a hypothetical team of diverse writers can stimulate ideas and explore whether your personal experiences can be integrated into the content, thereby making it more relatable and authentic.

• Amalgamate Voice, Perspective, and Experiences: The final strategy involves directing ChatGPT to create content that not only speaks in your style but also reflects your viewpoints and narratives, ensuring a genuine and impactful communication.

The last couple of examples are lengthy but I really recommend bookmarking this article if you want to learn to get ChatGPT to do better at writing like you! It’s truly very good. Check it out here. Keep in mind the publisher, Forbes limits how many articles you get for free.

👀 Video & Product Recommendations

This week’s awesome video and some products I love.

How I Won Productivity (As A Sales Rep) (Video)

This video is particularly good if you are a solopreneur or if you are responsible for the sales for your company in addition to having to wear other hats. It emphasizes the importance of focusing on income-producing activities and adopting strategic work habits to enhance productivity and earnings for sales reps. Key strategies include implementing "Prospect Time Blocking" and using visual indicators like a door hanger to signal concentrated work periods. Scheduling specific times for email checking, blocking off dedicated times for various sales activities, and obtaining referrals from satisfied clients are highlighted as pivotal. The speaker also advises against using common phrases like "following up" in communications to stand out and recommends limiting distractions, such as frequent email checking and negative coworkers, to maximize productivity.

If you find this relevant to you, you’ll also like our interview with John Papaloni who shares a lot of similar methods of handling time management around prospecting and then also executing your work. Check it out here.

Sleep Headphones (Product)

I have a horrible time sleeping and it’s taken me a long time to find the right combination of products. This one is so key that I always have two of them in case one breaks (I even travel with two). It’s also a great product if earbuds hurt your ears but other things fall off for working out.

Mobile Keyboard, Portable Foldable Travel Keyboard (Product)

This one is my first choice for a mobile ergonomic keyboard and I travel with this one and the one below. This one could be used for long-term use whereas the one below is more of an in-between in that it’s more ergonomic than the actual laptop keyboard but not as ergonomic as this one. I travel with both as this one is more involved to set up.

Portable Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard (Product)

This one is super slim and can fit almost anywhere. It’s about the size of my Kindle and I love that it is Bluetooth so I can set my Surface laptop higher so I don’t need to be constantly looking down and it’s great for the plane where the space isn’t really enough for the one above.

🔒Inner Circle: Events & Announcements

• Tuesday: Work ON Business. Theme: Money

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

• Accelerators: Oct 20 is your Office Hours RSVP here

• Nov 15: RSVP for book club here

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I hope you found this valuable!

Wishing you much productivity!

- Jenae :)