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- Issue No. 198: Stay Informed Without Doomscrolling (According to Science)
Issue No. 198: Stay Informed Without Doomscrolling (According to Science)
The AI Disaster No One's Talking About — Except the Fixers Getting Rich
Jenae Spry
July 11, 2025
Productivity Stacks Newsletter
(Formerly Productivity Express)
Issue No. 198
The Best in Evidence-Based Productivity
for Small Business Owners, Freelancers & Founders
Helping You Work Smarter and Live More
The Rundown
Stay Informed Without Doomscrolling (According to Science)
What Could a Healthy AI Companion Look Like?
'Dopamine Anchoring' Is A Genius Hack For Actually Getting Things Done
25 NotebookLM Pro Hacks for Research, Organization and Creative Projects
Companies That Tried to Save Money With AI Are Now Spending a Fortune Hiring People to Fix Its Mistakes
Add this book to your reading list
👉Did you miss an issue? Check out previous Productivity Stacks issues anytime here
🔥Quote/Prompt
All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.
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)
Today's quote is a powerful reminder that no matter how difficult the circumstances, hope and positivity can prevail.
As entrepreneurs, we may face challenges and setbacks that […]
Did someone forward this to you?
📈 Performance
Distressed by all the bad news? Here's how to stay informed but still look after yourself
Ever heard "don't read the news" productivity advice? Yeah, that's not exactly realistic when you're running a business and need to know what's happening in the world. But let's be honest, doomscrolling until 2 AM isn't helping anyone either. This research from Monash University reveals a middle ground: mindful news consumption that keeps you informed without tanking your mental health.
Instead, we recommend engaging more mindfully with news. This means paying attention to shifts in your emotions, noticing how the news makes you feel, and slowing down when needed.
Key Insights:
Your brain treats bad news like actual danger, activating survival responses that drain mental resources. No wonder you feel exhausted after scrolling—your nervous system thinks you've been running from bears.
Physical symptoms are your early warning system. If news consumption gives you an upset stomach, disrupts your sleep, or has you panic-buying toilet paper again, your body is telling you to step back.
Strategic breaks beat total avoidance. Taking a few minutes or days away from news when you're emotionally maxed out helps you return with the capacity to process information constructively.
Read the full article for a 6-step mindful news consumption framework and specific warning signs that your news habits are affecting your mental health.
⚙️ Optimization
AI is here to stay and, in my opinion, it's as revolutionary as the industrial revolution. But like all big changes in technology, we're still figuring out where it fits (and doesn't fit) into our lives and businesses. This article is a great breakdown of how people actually feel about chatbots and the surprising ways they annoy us…which tells us a lot about optimizing our own AI use and understanding it as well.
Chatbots can also irk users in surprising ways. Last April, OpenAI said it would modify its models to reduce their so-called sycophancy, or a tendency to be "overly flattering or agreeable", which the company said could be "uncomfortable, unsettling, and cause distress."
Key Insights:
AI that's too agreeable actually backfires. OpenAI discovered their chatbots' excessive flattery was causing user distress, proving that even positive interactions need boundaries for optimal human-AI collaboration.
Memory isn't always better. Portola found that chatbots remembering everything creates an "uncanny" experience, suggesting selective memory might be key to more natural AI interactions in business applications.
Built-in friction improves outcomes. These AI companions actively discourage overuse and push users toward real-world activities, with 72.5% of users reporting improved real-life relationships as a result.
Read the full article for insights on how 2.9% of AI interactions involve psychological needs and what this means for designing better business AI tools.
⏲️ Time Management
Something similar to this (or maybe exactly this) is in Atomic Habits, so if this speaks to you, that might be a good book to pick up. I've used this trick myself on and off—and yes, it's definitely on and off. Here's the thing: this is an engineered mechanism, not magic. The second you're stressed, sleep-deprived, or overwhelmed, it can fall apart quickly. But with eyes wide open about its limitations, dopamine anchoring can be a solid tool for tackling those tasks you'd rather avoid.
Dopamine anchoring is the idea of pairing a nonpreferred task with something you enjoy, hopefully making the boring or annoying task less aversive and maybe even something you seek out because the positive activity is more salient.
Key Insights:
Start small with sustainable anchors. Folding laundry while watching Netflix works; needing a shot of whiskey to answer emails doesn't. Your 80-year-old self should approve of your chosen rewards.
Avoid reward inflation and dependency. If you can only process your inbox with a fancy latte, what happens when you're traveling? Keep anchors simple and within your control.
This works best for boring or uncomfortable tasks, not complex or fear-based ones. Tasks you're avoiding due to perfectionism or overwhelm need to be broken down first—dopamine anchoring alone won't fix everything.
Read the full article for specific examples of effective anchors, warning signs of overuse, and why "micro-weird" anchors like eating exactly three blueberries might work better than you'd think.
💻 Tools & Technology
I'll be honest, I'm still working on getting into NotebookLM so I'd love to hear from you if you're using it and how. (Just hit reply to this email!) But I'm convinced I'm missing out, so I keep reading articles like these and will keep testing it until I unlock this tool! If you're already a user or just curious, these hacks are really selling me that this is definitely something many of us are sleeping on…and shouldn’t!
These tools not only simplify the process of analyzing data but also make it easier to present your findings in a compelling and digestible format.
Key Insights:
Citation heatmaps automatically highlight your most-referenced sections, instantly showing which parts of your research matter most. No more manually tracking what you've cited where.
The Chrome extension lets you clip web content directly into notebooks, eliminating the copy-paste dance between browser tabs. For freelancers researching client projects, this could be a game-changer.
Preset buttons generate study guides, FAQs, or summaries with one click. Instead of spending 30 minutes formatting outputs, you can create client-ready deliverables instantly.
Read the full article for 25 specific hacks including mind map creation, audio overviews, and how to integrate NotebookLM with ChatGPT and Gamma for enhanced workflows.
🤖 AI
Companies That Tried to Save Money With AI Are Now Spending a Fortune Hiring People to Fix Its Mistakes
OK, something important here because I feel like most people who don't love AI will immediately scream "SEE?! IT SUCKS! HUMANS RULE!" But that's not the takeaway. AI is here to stay, and it's natural for new technology to be overhyped until we figure out where it actually fits. This should be a reminder that the choice isn't between using AI for everything or avoiding it like the plague. It's about getting "fluent" in AI so you know when and where to deploy this tool effectively. If you’re not fluent yet, that’s ok. Today is a great day to start.
"While it seems like a quick and inexpensive option, AI rarely takes into account unique brand identity, target demographics, or conversion-focused design," Warner said. "It simply cannot replace the value of human expertise and context in our industry."
Key Insights:
The hidden cost of AI shortcuts is staggering. One marketing manager charged $2,000 to fix AI-generated copy that would have been cheaper if written by a human from the start—20 hours at $100/hour versus maybe 5 hours originally.
Small AI mistakes create massive headaches. A single line of bad ChatGPT code left a client without a website for three days and cost nearly $500 to fix what would have taken 15 minutes to do manually.
AI specialists are becoming the new plumbers. Just like you call a plumber when DIY goes wrong, companies now hire "AI fixers" who charge investigation fees just to figure out what went wrong, because clients don't want to admit they used ChatGPT.
Read the full article for more examples of companies learning expensive lessons about AI's limitations and why professionals who can fix AI mistakes are now commanding premium rates.
👀 Read, Watch, Listen
This week’s awesome books, YouTube videos, newsletters, etc. to add to your list!
Switch by Chip and Dan Heath explores why lasting change is difficult. The authors explain that our minds have two competing systems: the rational mind (wanting positive change) and the emotional mind (preferring comfort and instant gratification). This internal conflict often sabotages change efforts. Through compelling stories—from medical interns revolutionizing dangerous practices to managers transforming underperforming teams—the book reveals a pattern for successful change. By uniting both the rational and emotional minds, everyday people can achieve dramatic results. The Heaths combine decades of research to provide practical tools for making meaningful changes in organizations, communities, and personal lives.
🎉 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 worked in my simple [business] setup this week, and I like it.
Published an article.
Stuck to my routine the whole week.
What did you do this week? We feature non-member successes too. Just post them here!
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I hope you found this valuable!
Wishing you much productivity!
- Jenae :)
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