Alex & Books Newsletter
Posts
📚 Cure Your Time Anxiety, Genius Reading Tip, and more.

📚 Cure Your Time Anxiety, Genius Reading Tip, and more.

A&B #241

May 11, 2025

In partnership with

👋 Hey everyone,

Here are a few popular posts you may have missed:

PS: There’s still time to join the 50-book giveaway (more details below).

This week’s newsletter was made possible by Nautilus:

Science Stories You Can’t Get Anywhere Else

Feed your curiosity with Nautilus — a science newsletter for thinkers, seekers, and the endlessly curious. Each week, we bring you beautifully written stories at the intersection of science, philosophy, and culture. From the physics of time to the psychology of awe, our essays, interviews, and ideas dive beneath the surface and linger in the mind.

Join a global community of readers who believe that big questions deserve thoughtful answers. Whether you're a lifelong learner or just love a good mystery of the universe, Nautilus will challenge how you see the world — and maybe even yourself.

📚 Book Summary:

You guys voted on which book to summarize in last week’s newsletter and the winner was “Time Anxiety“ by Chris Guillebeau!

Here are 3 lessons from it:

📖

1) How to Cure Your Time Anxiety

If you frequently lose track of time or underestimate the time required for tasks, you might be experiencing time blindness.

This is especially common for people with ADHD and those who’ve experienced trauma.

Time blindness is when you consistently misjudge the time you have, often leading to lateness, procrastination, or anxiety about all the things you haven’t done.

Time blindness doesn’t mean you are careless or irresponsible. It just means that you process time differently.

A key point in the book is that the more time blindness you have, the more time anxiety you will experience.

Fortunately, Chris shares 3 quick tactics to help you:

1) Make time more visible in your home and work area.

Don’t try to keep track of time in your head; instead, put multiple clocks around your house and near your desk so you can always easily see how much time has passed.

2) Set more timers and reminders.

Your phone is a timer, alarm clock, and calendar built into one device–take advantage of it. If you want to scroll social media for 15 minutes instead of 45, set a timer that notifies you when time is up. Or if you need to leave the house in 30 minutes to meet up with a friend, set a timer for when you need to head out.

3) Make timekeeping multidimensional.

If you only have time to work out for 30 minutes, put on a podcast that’s 30 minutes long. Or if you only want to spend 5 minutes picking out what outfit to wear in the mornings, put on a song that’s 5 minutes long.

Use all three of these tactics to overcome your time blindness.

📖

2) Always Leave 15 Minutes Earlier Than You Think

If you have time blindness, you likely stress about being late and hate having to rush.

Luckily, there’s a ridiculously simple tip that will help you: Leave 15 minutes earlier.

For instance, let’s say you plan to meet a friend at a restaurant.

Leaving 15 minutes earlier gives you extra time in case:

There’s unexpected traffic.
It’s hard to find a parking spot.
You miss your exit and have to take the long way around.

Or let’s say you want to go to the gym in the morning before work.

Leaving your home 15 minutes earlier will give you time incase you want to:

Make a protein shake after your workout.
Take a long shower or use the bathroom.
Chat with your gym buddy for a bit.

By allowing a little more time than you think you'll need, you'll reduce your stress, create a buffer for unexpected delays, and arrive at your destination calm and composed.

📖

3) Don’t Half-Ass It, Three-Quarters Ass It

We literally don’t have the time to do everything perfectly.

It’s great to strive for perfectionism, but if you strive for it in all areas of your life, you’ll get very little done.

On the other hand, you don’t want to, as the expression goes, “half-ass” things. Doing so might make it seem like you don’t care about the task.

Fortunately, there’s a third option–the three-quarters-ass rule.

When you’re getting stuck on some tiny detail, make sure it’s good enough and then move on to bigger things.

For instance, if you’re planning a birthday party, it would be a waste of time to make sure every balloon is exactly the same size. Fill them up, and don’t worry if some are smaller and others are bigger. People are attending the party to celebrate the person’s birthday and have a good time, not for the decor.

Not everything needs to be done with excellence, so stop wasting time trying to meet an impossible standard in all areas of your life.

✅ Actionable Advice

1) Decrease your time blindness and anxiety by:

Adding more clocks to your home and workspace
Setting more timers and reminders on your phone
Using podcasts or songs to keep track of time

2) Leave 15 minutes earlier for every appointment so you never have to rush or stress out about being late.

3) Don’t half-ass things, three-quarters-ass them instead.

💎 Weekly Gem:

Podcast: The Cost of Glory

History contains countless valuable ideas and life lessons, but reading ancient texts can be quite boring and difficult to understand.

That’s why The Cost of Glory podcast is awesome. It’s by my friend Alex Petkas, who has a PhD in Classics but left academia to start this pod and make history accessible to all.

In it, he shares the best stories, lessons, and ideas from the greatest ancient Greek and Roman heroes (such as Julius Caesar).

If you’re curious about ancient history or want to be inspired by history’s boldest figures while picking up real wisdom, check out The Cost of Glory.

🥳 50 Book Giveaway:

To enter the giveaway, simply refer 1 new person to this newsletter using your unique referral link below.

Example: Share your link on X/Twitter, Threads, or LinkedIn (and feel free to tag me).

Note: If you enter fake emails or people’s emails without permission, you will be disqualified from all giveaways.