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- Issue No. 174: 5 expert-backed tips to get better sleep
Issue No. 174: 5 expert-backed tips to get better sleep
ChatGPT just released an update to its memory
Jenae Spry
April 18, 2025
In partnership with
Productivity Express
Issue No. 174
The Best in Evidence-Based Productivity
for Small Business Owners, Freelancers & Founders
Helping You Work Smarter and Live More
The Rundown
5 expert-backed tips to get better sleep - especially if you own a health-tracking wearable
Entrepreneurs Use Social Media All Wrong. Instead of Creating Content, Treat Your Profile Like A Sales Page
3 Ways To Fight 'Time Sickness'—By A Psychologist
Anthropic rolls out a $200-per-month Claude subscription
ChatGPT just released an update to its memory – and it’s game-changer
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🔥Quote/Prompt
Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.
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)
Anyone else tired of hearing things like "live now like no one else so one day you can live like no one else" or "I'll sleep when I'm dead!" to make entrepreneurs feel like they don't deserve to be happy now...only later...after they've practically […]
Did someone forward this to you?
📈 Performance
Those fancy sleep trackers strapped to your wrist aren't just expensive jewelry – they can actually transform your sleep game if you know what you're doing with them. This piece from a wearables editor who literally gets paid to sleep (okay, and test devices) reveals how to turn those confusing sleep scores into actual restful nights.
"Quality sleep isn't just about time in bed -- it's about consistency and efficiency. A stable nighttime routine and an ideal sleep environment play a crucial role in optimizing rest," a Whoop spokesperson wrote in an email.
Key Insights:
Your bedtime heart rate matters tremendously – the earlier it drops in the night, the better your recovery will be, which explains why that "relaxing" glass of wine before bed tanks your sleep score.
Late-night snacking isn't just bad for your waistline – eating heavy meals before bed forces your body to digest when it should be recovering, keeping you in lighter sleep stages longer.
Reclaim your evenings by shifting social meetups to breakfast or lunch instead of late dinners, preserving those crucial wind-down hours for yourself.
Your sleep environment directly impacts your scores – investing in quality earplugs and a proper sleep mask can overcome even the noisiest Brooklyn street (without requiring you to move).
Read the full article for specific product recommendations and a breakdown of how alcohol specifically disrupts your REM cycles.
⚙️ Optimization
What if you didn’t need a huge following for your social media to do what YOU need it to do…get you paid? While everyone's busy creating their 254,000,001st #entrepreneur post, this refreshingly contrarian take suggests you've been playing the wrong game entirely. Turns out, feeding the algorithm beast isn't the only path to business success.
For the earliest adopters and the most skilled, the rewards are huge. However, democratization of technology results in what can only be compared to a developing country's economy: A few super-rich elites, no middle class, and the majority of the population working hard, yet poor, hungry, and hopeless.
Key Insights:
Social media is a lagging indicator of success, not a leading one – it amplifies what's already there instead of creating it from scratch.
The problem isn't that trendy marketing tactics don't work, it's that they work equally well for everyone, creating an exhausting race to nowhere.
Instead of competing with full-time influencers (a game you'll probably lose), find people who already have your audience's attention and collaborate with them.
Your social profile works better as a conversion tool than an attraction tool – fill it with case studies and testimonials instead of chasing viral content.
Read the full article for a real-world case study of how one entrepreneur generated 100+ community members through a single collaboration instead of endless content creation.
⏲️ Time Management
If you ever feel like you’re in a constant sprint to your next time block, zoom call or delivery…there’s a reason…and an answer. It’s called "time sickness." And no, adding another productivity app won't fix it. This refreshing take from a psychologist offers a completely different approach to your relationship with the clock.
Time sickness can trick you into believing you're stuck in a relentless race. But once you step off the treadmill of constant hurry and learn to work with time rather than against it, life opens up in unexpected ways.
Key Insights:
Your worth isn't defined by your productivity – shocking concept for entrepreneurs, I know, but try listing moments that brought joy instead of completed tasks at day's end.
Multitasking is actually making everything worse – "attention residue" from switching tasks means part of your brain is still stuck on the previous task, even when you've moved on.
Those "ready-to-resume" plans aren't just productivity jargon – taking 30 seconds to jot down where you left off before switching tasks actually clears mental space and reduces the cognitive load of context-switching.
Create intentional gaps between tasks instead of stacking meetings back-to-back like some kind of corporate Jenga puzzle – even five minutes can prevent that frantic feeling that follows you all day.
Read the full article for specific mindfulness techniques that take less than a minute and research showing how they reduce depression and anxiety.
💻 Tools & Technology
We've all been hitting those annoying usage limits with Claude lately, right when you're in the middle of that perfect AI workflow. (Nothing like getting cut off mid-conversation when you're finally being productive!) Well, it looks like Anthropic has a solution—if you're willing to open your wallet a bit wider.
Anthropic announced on Wednesday that it's launching a new, very expensive subscription plan for its AI chatbot Claude: Max. An answer to OpenAI's $200-a-month ChatGPT Pro tier, Max comes with higher usage limits than Anthropic's $20-per-month Claude Pro subscription, as well as priority access to the company's newest AI models and features. A bit confusingly, Max comes in two flavors with different price points and usage limits. There's a $100-per-month Max tier with 5x higher rate limits than Claude Pro and a $200-per-month Max option with 20x higher rate limits.
Key Insights:
This move mirrors OpenAI's strategy, which reportedly increased their revenue by $300 million within just two months of launching ChatGPT Pro.
Anthropic isn't ruling out even pricier subscriptions—when asked about a possible $500/month plan, their product lead kept the door open.
Unlike OpenAI, Anthropic still doesn't offer an unlimited usage plan, which might explain why some power users remain frustrated.
The company is also exploring other revenue channels like Claude for Education, targeting universities with specialized capabilities.
Read the full article for details on how Anthropic's new Claude 3.7 Sonnet reasoning model is driving demand and why these expensive subscription tiers might be just the beginning of a new frontier in AI pricing.
🤖 AI
Remember when your AI assistant had the memory span of a goldfish? OpenAI has apparently fixed that with ChatGPT's new memory features, making it less like talking to someone with amnesia and more like chatting with someone who actually remembers your preferences. (Revolutionary concept, right?)
ChatGPT can now remember useful details between chats, making its responses more personalized and relevant. As you chat with ChatGPT – whether you're typing, talking, or asking it to generate an image – it will remember helpful context from previous conversations, like your preferences and interests, and use that to tailor its responses. The more you use ChatGPT, the more useful it becomes. You'll start to notice improvements over time as it builds a better understanding of what works best for you.
Key Insights:
There are two memory settings: "Reference saved memories" for things you explicitly ask it to remember (like dietary preferences) and "Reference chat history" which learns from your past conversations.
You can actually teach ChatGPT new things about yourself by simply stating them - just say "Remember that I'm vegetarian" and it will supposedly keep that in mind when suggesting recipes.
Free users only get access to "Saved Memories" while Plus and Pro accounts get both memory features (shocking that the good stuff is paywalled, I know).
For our European friends - sorry, but this feature isn't available in EEA, UK, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, or Liechtenstein (presumably because their privacy laws are actually functional).
Read the full article for details on how to manage your memory storage, how to delete things ChatGPT knows about you (for when you've shared too much after midnight), and why these features are still rolling out slowly to Plus and Pro users.
👀 Read, Watch, Listen
This week’s awesome books, YouTube videos, newsletters, etc. to add to your list!
"Atomic Habits" by James Clear presents a framework for building good habits and breaking bad ones through tiny, consistent changes. Clear explains that successful habit formation depends on your system, not willpower. The book teaches practical strategies to:
Make time for new habits
Design your environment for success
Maintain motivation
Recover from setbacks
Drawing from biology, psychology, and neuroscience, Clear illustrates his principles with stories of high achievers across various fields. With over 20 million copies sold, this bestseller provides actionable tools for personal transformation, whether for individuals seeking personal improvement or organizations aiming for industry breakthroughs.
🎉 Celebration Corner
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Implementing and adjusting systems to manage projects and terminology more efficiently
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I hope you found this valuable!
Wishing you much productivity!
- Jenae :)
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