The Rundown

• The Psychological Power of Words

• A Simple Exercise to Take Back Time to Focus on What Matters

• Time Management: Become a Vampire Killer

• Spotter launches AI tools to help YouTubers brainstorm video ideas, thumbnails and more

• Frontier content: How to survive online in the age of AI

• Add this book to your reading list

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🔥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)

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📈 Performance

The Psychological Power of Words

If you’ve been following me for a while you probably know I am the least “woo” person ever — I like science and evidence-based everything. And that is exactly why I am sharing this. It turns out that negative self-talk has a very real effect and even if that is our tendency, we have the power to change it.

Label Thyself (Not)

Cognitive therapists recognize that pinning negative labels on ourselves is a type of cognitive distortion that can affect our moods and how we feel about ourselves. If Jane screwed up a presentation at work, she might take failure as a learning opportunity and resolve to make changes the next time around. But if she smacks the label “screw-up” on herself, she might think, “What’s the point of trying?”

A tiger who thinks it is a lamb will act like a lamb. A person who pins a screw-up label on themself may find the expectation of failure fulfilled. Attaching labels to oneself assigns us to a prison of our own making, as we begin to construe ourselves based on the label and act accordingly. Labeling yourself a failure or a loser only makes you feel miserable about yourself. It does not direct you to ways of resolving problems you face.

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⚙️ Optimization

A Simple Exercise to Take Back Time to Focus on What Matters

I love this exercise! My method is: Systematize, Eliminate, Automate, Team (SEAT) and this one is very similar so it scratches my productivity itch for sure. I also love that you rank items so you get to see a bit of the numbers.

Rank your tasks by their impact-to-time ratio

1. Write down your goal

You can’t prioritize your tasks without a clear goal. For example, I want to grow revenue for my creator business this year.

2. List all your tasks during a typical day

Reflect on your past week and list every task you did to make progress on your goal.

For example, as a creator, I did everything from writing this newsletter to researching podcast guests to posting on social media.

3. Calculate your impact-to-time ratio for each task

Go through each task and write down the:

1. Impact towards your goal (1 = low impact, 10 = high impact)

2. Hours you spent on it over the past week

⏲️ Time Management

Time Management: Become a Vampire Killer

I honestly didn’t have high hopes for this article until I got to this:

#2. Track donations.

Keep a ‘Time Donated’ Log. For one week, note who you spend time with, how much, and why. Reflect on whether these are the right people to invest in.

Respect people who give their time to you.

I couldn’t agree with this more. We often don’t think about the time and energy we are spending with people and whether or not that is actually a rewarding experience. As business owners we might track our return on time investment but it is equally important in the rest of our lives. The whole article has several truly interesting and unique time management methods so I recommend a full read here.

💻 Tools & Technology

Spotter launches AI tools to help YouTubers brainstorm video ideas, thumbnails and more

If YouTube is one of your content marketing channels or you plan for it to be, this could be a great way to take some of the guesswork out of creating things like thumbnails. Excerpt below to give you an idea! If you’re not a YouTuber, it’s still good to understand these tools as it’s likely many similar tools will be created for other platforms.

Its thumbnail tool is also personalized to each creator. It takes a creator’s profile image and uses their likeness to generate thumbnail concept art.

Additionally, Spotter Studio’s “Projects” tool acts as an all-in-one project planner for organizing tasks and collaborating with teams. It also tracks projects throughout the different stages, from in development, post-production, ready to publish and published.

🤖 AI

Frontier content: How to survive online in the age of AI

The TLDR here is that the days of being able to pump out loads of keyword heavy content nobody wants to read are basically gone. Instead, we’re looking at personal touches with storytelling and unique perspectives. So if you’re frustrated with how AI has bombarded content, check this article out. It has some good news for small businesses.

Unique perspectives and experiences

Rauch also predicted that when AIs know almost all the facts already, human perspectives and experiences will become more valuable.

A description of a new piece of software is likely to be handled by AI, but a developer's own experience using this software will stand out.

"This is my experience with this piece of software; no one can deny that. Right? And this is not something that will be so subject to summarization by the AI," Rauch said. "Actual opinions are going to be worth more."

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👀 Read, Watch, Listen

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

Feel-Good Productivity: How to Do More of What Matters to You (Book)

Note: This is currently free on Kindle Unlimited!

From Amazon:

The secret to productivity isn’t discipline. It’s joy.

We think that productivity is all about hard work. That the road to success is lined with endless frustration and toil. But what if there’s another way?

Dr Ali Abdaal – the world's most-followed productivity expert – has uncovered an easier and happier path to success. Drawing on decades of psychological research, he has found that the secret to productivity and success isn't grind – it's feeling good. If you can make your work feel good, then productivity takes care of itself.

In this revolutionary book, Ali reveals how the science of feel-good productivity can transform your life. He introduces the three hidden 'energisers' that underpin enjoyable productivity, the three 'blockers' we must overcome to beat procrastination, and the three 'sustainers' that prevent burnout and help us achieve lasting fulfillment. He recounts the inspiring stories of founders, Olympians, and Nobel-winning scientists who embody the principles of Feel-Good Productivity. And he introduces the simple, actionable changes that you can use to achieve more and live better, starting today.

Armed with Ali’s insights, you won’t just accomplish more. You’ll feel happier and more fulfilled along the way.

🎉 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 was able to keep up w/ work schedule (billable projects) and workouts.

• Managed to hit most of my goals and made some progress on WOB aspects

• North Star section for content business

• I checked off everything on my list here.

• I managed all my billable on time and had another lucrative week.

• I published one blog article and finished the draft for the next one. I enjoyed writing them. I'm still a content writer at heart and should leverage that skill for my own business!

• Going to the gym twice a week (on Thursdays and Saturdays) has become a new habit. 🥳 

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

🔒Inner Circle: Events & Announcements

• Reminder: Content Challenge deadline is Monday 9 AM PT Participate here

• THIS MONDAY: Doers Monthly Mastermind RSVP here

• Wed. Sept 18: Book Club RSVP here

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

• Tuesday: Work ON Business. Theme: 4️⃣ Client Fulfillment RSVP here

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

• Accelerators: September 13 is your Office Hours RSVP here

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I hope you found this valuable!

Wishing you much productivity!

- Jenae :)