Work Less Wednesday: July 22

👋 Hey Reader!

This is issue #164 of Work Less Wednesday, where I share with you 5 things you should know about, in 5 minutes or less. That leaves you with 10,075 other minutes this week.

🎟️ 1. I’m Hosting A Virtual Retreat On August 1/2 - Here's How To Come

On August 1st and 2nd I’m hosting a virtual retreat.

It’s going to be epic.

I’m going to be speaking on a variety of topics, and I’ve got some (special!) guests booked.

But here’s the thing…there’s only one way to get a ticket:

You've got to be one of my clients.

The good news?

I’ve opened up the doors to work with me for the next 8 days.

If you’re a creative solopreneur earning $10k/m, I want you to click here and I'll give you all the details.

But here's a quick preview:

If you sign up before July 31st, here’s what happens…

🎟️ You’ll join us live for the virtual event.
🤝 You’ll have your 1:1 deep dive onboarding with me ON YOUR CALENDAR for August.
🧠 And the best thing? You’ll get me as a “co-founder without the shares” for your business for the next year.

If you want to join us, click here to learn more.

2. 10 Disciplines To Manage & Maximize Your Energy - Article by Geno Wickman

Last week I came across this article from the founder of EOS, Geno Wickman.

In it, he breaks down the “10 things I do to manage and maximize my energy.”

I was pleased to learn there was not one mention of “working harder.”

In fact, most of them center around:

Planning.
Doing less.
Knowing yourself.

His 10 Disciplines are:

⏰ 10-Year Thinking: Time slows down, a peace comes over you, you make better decisions and, ironically, you get there faster.
🏖️ Take Time Off: You have to recharge your batteries.
💗 Know Thyself: The secret is to be yourself in every situation, but to fully be yourself, you must first know thyself.
🧘 Be Still: Enjoying 10 to 30 minutes of silence every day will transform you.
💯 Know Your 100%: Understanding your work capacity and protecting it will increase your productivity.
❌ Say No … Often: As Warren Buffett says, “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.”
💵 Don’t Do $25-an-Hour Work… If You Want to Earn Six Figures: Enough said.
✏️ Prepare Every Night: If you go to bed knowing exactly what you’re going to do tomorrow, you will sleep better, wake up with solutions and hit the ground running.
✍️ Put Everything in One Place: Commit to that place and you’ll be less scattered and more organized and stop letting people down.
🌱 Be Humble: As Rick Warren said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less.” More people will fight for you and follow you if you’re humble.

The one that I most enjoyed was his concept of “10-Year Thinking.”

"If you’re like most human beings, you are preoccupied with today, this week, this month, maybe this year at the most. This shortsightedness is limiting you. When you shift to long-range thinking, time will suddenly slow down. A peace will come over you. … Ten-year thinking will help you to burn less energy, because you’ll stop worrying about the short-term small stuff. And it will increase your total energy because you’ll have a long-range vision to motivate you."

You can grab the Kindle version of the book it came from (The EOS Life) here.

🐟 3. How I Spent My Summer Vacation - On Phish Tour

If you’ve been following me, you’ll notice I’ve been quiet recently.

Why?

I was at 4 Phish shows in 6 days.

I went to two shows (show 1 setlist, show 2 setlist) in Charleston, SC and two at The Mann in my hometown of Philadelphia (show 1 setlist, show 2 setlist).

Here’s a collage of some pics I took from the shows:

One of my secret missions with this newsletter is to create a few Phans.

So I’m just going to drop this here…

42 minutes minutes of magic from Phish’s summer tour:

Enjoy.

📝 4. Henry Miller on Writing - 11 Writing Commandments

From The Marginalian:

'In 1932-1933, while working on what would become his first published novel, Tropic of Cancer, novelist Henry Miller devised and adhered to a stringent daily routine to propel his writing. Among it was this list of eleven commandments (listed below), which is included in his book Henry Miller on Writing:'

'Under a part titled Daily Program, his routine also featured the following wonderful blueprint for productivity, inspiration, and mental health:'

MORNINGS:

If groggy, type notes and allocate, as stimulus.

If in fine fettle, write.

AFTERNOONS:

Work of section in hand, following plan of section scrupulously. No intrusions, no diversions. Write to finish one section at a time, for good and all.

EVENINGS:

See friends. Read in cafés.

Explore unfamiliar sections — on foot if wet, on bicycle if dry.

Write, if in mood, but only on Minor program.

Paint if empty or tired.

Make Notes. Make Charts, Plans. Make corrections of MS.

Note: Allow sufficient time during daylight to make an occasional visit to museums or an occasional sketch or an occasional bike ride. Sketch in cafés and trains and streets. Cut the movies! Library for references once a week.

🖐 5. More Things I'm Into This Week...

📕 Book I’m Reading - Understanding Your Clients through Human Design by Robin Winn

🥤 Energy Drink I Bought From An Airport Vending Machine That I Actually Enjoyed - Karma Energy Water

👗 Incredible Chinese Fashion Designer I Just Learned About - Guo Pei (P.S. There is about documentary about her as well - Trailer here)

😶‍🌫️ Great Article On Substack - Compression Culture Is Making Your Stupid & Uninteresting By Maalvika

💬 Quote I’m Pondering…

My business mentor Sam Cupp taught me what he called the “10-year business cycle.” He said, “Every 10 years you’re going to have two great years, six good years, and two terrible years that can put you out of business.” The point is to be prepared. Knowing that it is going to come, you must have cash reserves. Always have six months of operating expenses in cash sitting in an account, both in your business and personal accounts, so you can endure six months of not bringing in any income.

From The EOS Life by Gino Wickman

🎧 ON THE PODCAST 🎧