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The Rundown

• Quick Tip: Will AI Take Your Job? I’ve been through this before.

• The Ancient Japanese Art form that completely changed my view on failure (LinkedIn Post)

• My Top Productivity Tips From Being A Creator In 2024 (YouTube video)

• Do you have "hot spots" and "not spots"? You should. (5 pointers from Google’s productivity expert’s new book)

• The future of SEO in an AI-powered world

• Thanks to AI, we’re in the golden age of freelancing

• 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)

Did someone forward this to you?

📈 Performance

The Ancient Japanese Art form that completely changed my view on failure (LinkedIn Post)

Fair warning — this will take you to LinkedIn but it’s worth it. I love this Japanese art form (Kintsugi - filling in chipped and broken pottery with gold). And to be honest, this isn’t the first time I’ve seen a business and performance take on this art form but…it’s one of the first times I felt like it was worth the read and not a forced SEO BS article.

If you’re in a place right now (or have been…or hey, will be) where you feel like you might slap the next person who tells you to “learn from mistakes” this is a bit more of a healing and peak performance take on the concept.

Do yourself a favor and read the full post — definitely worth it.

Here’s an excerpt:

The Ancient Japanese Art form that completely changed my view on failure

• It’s human to “break” and “breaking” won’t kill us.
• It is actually the thing that keeps us alive

Modern American society demonizes making mistakes with its “cancel culture”. There are lessons we can learn from ancient Japanese artists about finding value in mistakes.

Oftentimes, it is the “mistakes” or the imperfections in a piece or a process that lead to the genius.

The Japanese understand this concept well. Kintsugi is a Japanese art form created by forging broken pieces of pottery back together with gold, platinum, and silver plating.

The artists can easily choose to reunite the broken pieces with camouflaged adhesive.

The point is that they CHOOSE not to. They want to celebrate the repair– they remind us that broken isn’t ugly or something to hide.

It’s a powerful metaphor: Broken is beautiful and it should be showcased.

⚙️ Optimization

My Top Productivity Tips From Being A Creator In 2024 (YouTube video)

This is a YouTube video instead of an article but it’s a good one. If you are a business owner then you likely do some level of creation, even if you’re not a content creator necessarily. What I really like about this video is how he discusses some ideas for not just the logistics of productivity but the mental aspects and what trips us up there as well. Those parts definitely apply whether you’re a content creator or just working on your company’s slogan or website, etc. Any aspect of “putting yourself/your company” out there. Great take.

Here are some quick spots to check in the video but the whole thing is just under 12 minutes long, so might as well watch!

• 00:57 Start without worrying about others' opinions.

• 06:39 Utilizing systems to streamline content planning and idea organization.

• 07:20 Learning to delegate tasks can significantly improve productivity.

• 08:09 Focusing on creating great content can have a positive impact on helping others.

• 09:01 Planning tasks around a single context is a powerful productivity tool.

• 10:51 Learn to say 'hell yeah' or 'no'.

⏲️ Time Management

5 pointers from Google’s productivity expert’s new book

Back to articles! Often posts that are titled this way have almost all the same information but not this one! Here is my favorite but all 5 are definitely helpful! If you don’t work from home, this could even be applied to popping out to a coffee shop to get out of the office or different areas in your office. This is also why I try to go to the gym even if I’m only there for a few minutes…it’s my “spot” for working out/physical activity.

2. Create "hot spots" and "not spots"

“Our brains take in more than just what we’re doing at any given time; they also catalog context clues like where we are, what we smell and what we hear — information we then associate with what we were thinking about or doing,” Laura says.

We can use this tendency to associate certain places with certain tasks to our advantage by designating "hot spots" for specific types of work. Maybe you always do expenses at your kitchen table with a cup of coffee or start your in-office days by catching up on news during your commute. “By being consistent about the places we do certain work, we’re training ourselves to slip into a rhythm of productivity when we enter these spaces,” Laura says.

Conversely, create "not spots" — areas where you never do work or difficult tasks. For Laura, that place is her “cozy corner,” a space in her bedroom where she’s placed a large comfy armchair and bookshelf. “The cozy corner is where I finish my coffee before my kids wake up. It’s where I read books or meditate. It’s where my daughter meets me in the morning, bringing a book of her own,” she says. “I sometimes catch myself wanting to bring my laptop there, but I resist because I associate that corner 100% with my kids, reading and relaxing. It’s so easy for me to unwind there. Why would I ruin that?”

💻 Tools & Technology

The future of SEO in an AI-powered world

Most articles that are written about this topic frankly fall short of truly assessing both the benefits and the pitfalls and where those of us who hope to have a few eyeballs land on our website or content might fit into the mix as the future unfolds. This is a great walkthrough of the landscape as it is now, and, I think, some accurate predictions for the future.

In case you’re worried about clicking and feeling depressed for the rest of the day, let me assure you with the author’s response to ‘Is SEO dead?’:

Only time will tell what the exact landscape will look like, but one thing is for sure: the world will need a lot more “SEO.”

See? Safe for consultation.

Here’s my favorite excerpt but read the entire article if you want a great assessment of the situation. If you’re confused by the “aforementioned butler”, get more context by reading the beginning of the article.

What does SEO look like in an AI-driven world?

To answer the question of what SEO will look like in the future, we need to think about what search itself will look like.

As every SEO knows, today most people search for head terms. A recent Semrush study said that 69.8% of searches use 1-4 keywords in the Google Search bar such as “weather tomorrow,” “restaurants near me,” “nfl scores.”

It’s a terribly awkward way to communicate, but it’s what we’ve all been conditioned to do since the 1990s.

That’s about to change.

Let’s think back to our aforementioned butler. Why would you say “restaurants near me” when you can have a conversation:

You: “Where should I eat tonight?”

Butler: “What are you in the mood for?”

You: “I don’t know. Maybe some Italian. Do you know a good place to get pasta around here?”

Butler: “Yes, Luigi’s Pizzeria is about a half mile away and has pretty good reviews.”

You: “What do the reviewers recommend?”

Butler: “A lot of them recommend the rigatoni with bolognese sauce or the grandma slice.”

You: “I never heard of this place. Have they been around very long?”

Butler: “Yes, they’ve been in business for 15 years, although they recently moved to this location.”

Search is going to the extremely long tail.

In other words, the search demand curve we all know and love will be changing. The fat head won’t be going away, but the curve will flatten as people get used to asking more specific questions to AI and getting more specific answers. 

🤖 AI (New Section!)

Thanks to AI, we’re in the golden age of freelancing

Yes, this is a new section. If you’re thinking, “oh no, is this becoming just another AI newsletter? “, never fear, I’ve just added the section because it’s hard to completely leave the best AI articles out of an evidence-based productivity newsletter but it keeps dominating the tools section when there are other great tools and tech out there. 🙂 

And we’ll keep sticking to one article that we think is truly unique, interesting and helpful to you. This week, it’s about “super builders” which is something we’re predicting also. We believe that there will be a segment of freelancers and solo(ish)preneurs who develop a unique way to connecting AI-driven technology where it should be, and leaving it out where it shouldn’t, allowing them to focus on two things: their specific zone of genius without necessarily having to hire a ton of people AND strategy (working on your business). Many freelancers get so bogged down by working in their businesses, that they can’t strategize and grow. This article discusses how this is likely to change.

NOW ENTERING THE GOLDEN AGE OF FREELANCING

There’s no doubt that the threat of AI replacing jobs is real, and requires serious investments in rethinking everything from reskilling, to education, to the nature of jobs, and the work week itself. AI poses a serious risk to many freelancers whose jobs focus on easily automatable tasks: writing formulaic SEO articles, data analysis, and basic graphic design.

Conversely, however, there appears to be a huge upside for the most highly-skilled independent workers. We may be entering an era in which these workers leverage this new technology to grow—personally and professionally. Ninety-one percent of respondents believe that having generative AI experience will make them more attractive to future employers.

But it’s not automatic. Independent workers must cultivate these new capabilities. Our survey respondents confirmed this, with 86% saying that every knowledge worker needs to learn how to use generative AI to remain relevant.

👀 Read, Watch, Listen

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

Uptime: A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity and Wellbeing (Book)

We included this author’s article above and it was so good, we think the book is worthwhile too!

In "Uptime," Google's Executive Productivity Advisor Laura Mae Martin shares her proven strategies for optimizing productivity and well-being in the new hybrid work environment. Drawing from her experience coaching Google employees at all levels, Martin offers actionable steps to conquer email overload, master calendars, run effective meetings, and maintain a healthy work-life balance. She emphasizes the importance of focusing on priorities, establishing efficient systems and routines, and leveraging technology to enhance productivity. "Uptime" provides a blueprint for achieving "calm accomplishment" and thriving both professionally and personally in today's rapidly evolving work landscape.

🎉 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!

• Confidence book work every day. Met LI goals for this week. Good progress on market research and successful Deep Dive.

• I was able to stick with checking the board most of the week.

• Took some time off consciously on Friday afternoon […] and also I felt like I made really good progress this week with WOB/Deep Dive/even some admin so I could cut myself some slack.

• I managed to get something from my list done every day. I also managed to stick to my morning routine every day, except Wednesday when I went out early, but did the stuff later on that day.

• I finally launched the Instagram channel for my new business. 🎉 

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

🔒Inner Circle: Events & Announcements

• Announcement: Book club is officially up! RSVP HERE!

• Announcement: Doers Merch is coming! Check out the full post HERE!

• Monday: Doers Mastermind RSVP here

• Monday: {EU Time} Work ON Business. Theme: 5️⃣ Finances RSVP here

• Tuesday: Work ON Business. Theme: 5️⃣ Finances RSVP here

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

• Accelerators: May 17 is your Office Hours RSVP here

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As a reminder, you’re getting this twice-weekly newsletter because you opted in to receive awesome productivity and systems tips through one of these methods:

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If you’re not interested in improving your and your business’s productivity so you’d like to break up, that’s definitely a bummer. But, you can always use the unsubscribe link at the bottom if you do not want to get these tips — but keep in mind I am hyper-focused on making these twice-weekly emails as valuable as possible.

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I hope you found this valuable!

Wishing you much productivity!

- Jenae :)