A&B #79

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👋 Hey everyone,

Here are a few popular posts you may have missed:

• 20 Frequently banned books you should read

• 10 Podcasts that will help you build a successful business

• 20 Documentaries that might just change your life forever

PS: Ever wonder what the day in the life of a book influencer looks like? Probably not, but if you did

here's a short video.

📚 Book Lessons:

This week's book is Stress-Free Productivity by Alice Boyes.In the book, psychologist Alice Boyes shares dozens of different ways to be more productive and creative while minimizing stress and burnout.Here are three lessons from the book:1) Avoid Overfocusing On One Goal It's great to set goals, but you need to be careful about over-monitoring them because it can lead to negative consequences. As Goodhart's Law says: “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” For example, setting a goal to work out every day can lead you to possibly overexercising and pulling or tearing a muscle. Or, it can cause you to miss socializing with your friends and make you lonely.As with anything, you want to be careful about going too extreme with any goal you set. Always remember the big picture of what you want to accomplish. 2) Take More BreaksIt's impossible to spend all of your time being productive.If you try to force yourself to be creative or productive for too long, you'll soon hit a wall, get stuck, and feel burnt out.That's why it's so important to take breaks to recharge your mental batteries. Multiple studies have shown that walking (especially in nature) can boost your creativity by up to 50%.And don't label all these needed breaks as procrastination, it'll lead to self-criticism. Just how professional athletes schedule breaks from their physical workouts to recover, you need to schedule breaks from your knowledge work to mentally recover.3) Focus On Direction Over SpeedIt doesn't matter how fast you work on a project or how hard you work if you're not working on the right thing.That's why it's so important to remember that what you work on will have a far greater impact on your productivity than how fast you work.The direction you are rowing will determine where you will end up much more than how quickly you paddle.It's much more productive to work slowly on one important task than it is to work quickly on a dozen irrelevant tasks.

✅ Actionable Advice:

1) Don't over-optimize on a single goal:

• Be careful about overfocusing on one goal, it can lead to unseen negative consequnces.

2) Take more breaks:

• Take breaks to recharge your batteries, otherwise, you'll get burned out.

3) Focus on direction over speed:

• WHAT you work on is much more important than how FAST you work on something.

🎧 Podcast Update:

Here are my 3 most popular YouTube short videos:

• 5 Books To Understand Human Behavior

• 5 Books To Become A Better Storyteller

• 5 Books To Get Over A Breakup

📖 Reading Lesson:Spend 1% of each day reading.1% of 24 hours is 15 minutes.Read for 15 mins every day for a year and your life will be 37x better. 

⭐️ Weekly Quote:If you are overthinking, write.If you are underthinking read.(source)

Thank you for your support everyone, I'll see you next Sunday!Read on,Alex W.