Make Something Cool with Alex Sugg

When you say, "I don't know," you're taking the place of confidence in any interaction. You're being honest with yourself and whoever you're speaking with. It also frees you up from being some sort of expert about everything, which no one truly is.

So today, instead of feeling the need to 'fake it till you make it,' what if you responded with "I don't know. Tell me more about that." or "I don't know. Let me find out."

It is a good feeling, and you will be less stressed this week.

I am a huge productivity nerd. Anyone who knows me, knows I am a huge geek when it comes to systems and methodologies and lots of ways of thinking about how to get work done.

Out of all the systems and ideas I've tried, only one has given me 5,10,100x return on my time.

This trick is called batching. Batching is where you look at all the tasks you do in a given day, week, month, or quarter and do similar style tasks all at once.

So this can look like answering emails at work. Instead of seeing the mess of messages coming in all day, You can batch to where you only read and answer email at 9am, 12pm and 4pm.

This not only helps you get all your emails done and not fall behind, but it also keeps the rest of your day clear and untouched by email. You can hopefully start to see the power of this?

If you create content, you can set aside a day and make 4-6 pieces of work to go out the coming month, so you aren't scrambling from week to week to make it happen.

Tim Ferriss does a great job explaining how he does it here. And a warning, this is extra nerdy stuff.

Experimenting with your projects is an essential part of doing good work.

The truth is when you try new things, the people who are following (or in my case, listening) to your work will not always like the changes. It feels like you're flip-flopping on your commitment to bringing them a certain kind of content. They think this because... you are doing precisely this! You're totally changing the promise of what they signed up to get from you.

As a creator, you must acknowledge this and take it into account before just changing things all the time. Try your best to honor your audience in letting them know what is going on and what they can expect moving forward from you.

What your audience won't always see is the sustainability of your project behind the scenes. And they shouldn't ever be able to feel that (unless that story is part of your brand).

This then becomes a leadership problem. Do you keep driving your car in the wrong direction when you've learned you took a wrong turn? Or do you turn around and start fresh?

You "lose" either way, but one still gets you to your destination, while the other leads to your entire project dying over time.

So today, think about how you may need to start experimenting with your work to make it more sustainable. Do this while still honoring your commitment to your audience.

I used to journal every day. Unfortunately, I've fallen off the wagon for the past few months. Today, I woke up and decided to give it a shot again.

And let me tell you, It feels good.

My mind (as I'm sure your mind) has been in a sea of noise for months now. With the pandemic, a social justice movement, and a lot of political unrest, it is difficult to fully grasp your part in the story when you have infinite amounts of information flying your way all the time.

When I journaled, the world suddenly became still. It felt quiet again. I felt like I could see myself and give myself space.

It felt like a good stretch, just for my mental health.

So this morning, find some time, even 5 minutes to write your thoughts and how you feel. I promise you'll be happy you did.

Data doesn't change people. At least, not on its own.

Have you ever wanted to make a point so badly, but just couldn't convince someone else of your side? You could pull up spreadsheets and tell them every number and statistic to try and convince them of what you're trying to sell.

We all know this won't work. Why? Because we all have our biases. We all have stories running through our heads of what is real, and the only thing that can change our minds is a more compelling story.

So instead of trying to win people over with prescribing them data, try telling a more compelling story.

If you're in a bad situation at work or in life, it can be tough to see or notice anything else.

Maybe you're unhappy at your job, or battling illness, or even managing life in this pandemic. How can we see anything else when facing these scenarios?

As suffering goes, there are times in life that we neither can't run nor hide from it. If we try to escape something we have no control over, we are fighting the wrong battle.

I believe one of the best things we can practice in tough times is examination.

An examination is more than just feelings. It's note-taking, future planning, and problem-solving. If you can't change something right now, decide how this feeling will change you in the future.

I am examining a lot right now. I also have days where I avoid examination altogether because it's difficult work. It's okay to have hard days. I just don't want to leave a bad situation unchanged, so how can I take my current experience and translate it into future self-development?

People spend too much time doing and not enough time thinking about what they should be doing. -Naval Ravikant

The quote above makes an interesting point. I feel like this all the time. But, I would agree with this inverse quote as well...

"People spend too much time thinking about what they should be doing instead of doing" -Alex reversing Naval's quote

I bet you land on one of these two sides. Which would you say you are feeling more today? Do you need to do more, or do you need to think about the right work to do? How can you begin to move that direction?

I am a positive person by nature. I see opportunities in almost any situation. But lately, I have not been feeling that way.

My default response to most things has been negative.

Now, I am giving myself some compassion here. The world has been in a state of injustice, pain, and sickness, and I'm sure that contributes to my perspective. Not to mention, staying inside all the time hasn't helped much either.

The part that I want to focus on is that this shift didn't happen overnight. I've been slowly turning toward negativity 1 degree at a time for a while now, without even realizing it.

When I finally took a look at myself and realized what was happening, a light bulb went off for me.

I haven't designed certain aspects of my days and life to support being positive. So this morning, this is what I am going to try to do to fix it.

Replace social media scrolling with reading a book

Replace conversations with negative co-workers by ones with positive co-workers

Replace negative self-talk with positive self-talk

Replace mindlessness with mindfulness

I'll report back tomorrow on how it goes. If you've been feeling this way too, give it a try as well.

Also, if you've found solutions to this, reply to this email and teach me your ways.

I believe insecurity is the source of most of the world's pain. Insecurity causes wars. It causes painful words to be said. It causes necessary words to be left unsaid. It causes us to say 'no' to our true desires because we are afraid of what others might think.

Defeating insecurity in myself, and helping others overcome theirs is one of my primary goals in life. Whenever I begin to feel insecure (which is often), I try and step back, gather myself, and ask: "How is this moment asking me to stay quiet or overcompensate or change who I want to become?"

If you can step outside of the moment and be objective based on your values, you tend to not go with the crowd.

Is there an insecurity that stands out to you? Can you give yourself patience, compassion, and persistence as you try to unravel it this week?

I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying.

-Michael Jordan

Today is a simple letter. Whatever your goal is, whatever you want to achieve, don't give up.

I'm reminded all of the time of the instant success we all want to see, but that isn't how it works most of the time. We generally only see the tip of the iceberg of someone's success, without all of the patience and hard work it took to get there.

You can do this. You can get closer to achieving your goal. Just keep taking steps. Small steps. One step. Just don't stop moving.