WLW #47

📸 1. Instagram Hates Me Right Now (& Why I’m Not Worried About It)

It’s a weird time on Instagram.

Over the last few weeks, my posts have suddenly gone from being shown to millions of new people a month, to mostly the people that already follow me.

Some people would be worried by this.

Here’s three reasons why I’m not.

1. I Don’t Own Instagram

Here’s the truth: IG doesn’t owe me anything.

They can do whatever they want.

It’s their company.

Relying on one platform for growth is extremely risky.

You can get banned, hacked, or have the algorithm change at any time.

Instead, I hedge this risk by:

• Encouraging people to join Work Less Wednesday.
• Repurposing my content on Twitter and other platforms.
• Insuring my account through Notch

2. Instagram Is A Sh*tshow Right Now

You’ve seen the news.

The rollout (and rollback) of the new video feed.

The weird focus on reels.

They are clearly trying a lot of new stuff and seeing what sticks.

I’m not surprised.

I’ve only been on IG for about 15 months, but in that short time period things changed CONSTANTLY.

What worked last year doesn’t work now.

What works today might not work tomorrow.

That’s why instead of worrying about the latest changes, I focus on…

3. Process-Based Goals, Not Outcome-Based Goals

If I had a goal like: “Get 1,000 new followers a week,” I’d be in trouble.

Instead, my goal is simple: “Post 7 times a week.”

If I do that I win.

The followers and likes will take care of themselves.

When you focus on the process, not the outcome, you focus on what you can control.

That’s the only way.

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🪟 2. How Much Time Do We Waste Toggling Between Apps? – Article by Harvard Business Review

Our constant toggling between applications is a massive problem.

One example from corporate America:

“To execute a single supply-chain transaction, each person involved switched about 350 times between 22 different applications and unique websites.”

“That meant a single employee would toggle between apps and windows more than 3,600 times.”

Here’s the thing: Context switching drains our brain power.

Don’t believe me? Check out the data…

Excessive toggling:

1. Increases the brain’s production of cortisol (the primary stress hormone).
2. Slows us down at work.
3. Makes it harder to focus.

This problem isn’t going away any time soon.

Here’s what I’m doing to avoid context-switching:

1. Try to focus on one task and one app at a time.
2. Set up Freedom.to to block distracting websites.
3. Remove all notifications and red badges from apps to help with focus.

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😫 3. What To Do If You Don’t Know What To Post About Online – Video From Vanessa Lau

If you’re a content creator, this whole video from Vanessa Lau is worth checking out, but I wanted to highlight this specifically:

Vanessa’s research process for generating engaging topics to talk about online (starts at 0:58)

Step 1. Go the the social media accounts of people who have the audience that you want (could be YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, etc).

Step 2. Look at their top performing videos.

Step 3. Go the the comments section.

Step 4. Study on the questions the audience has EVEN AFTER watching their content.

Why does this work so well?

These questions are the unanswered pain points that people want to have addressed.

It will give you insight on:

• What content you should create
• The gap in the market that exists

Really smart. Wish I thought of it. 😄

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🪄 4. My New Favorite AI-Based Tool – Magic Eraser

AI is blowing up.

New tools are coming out every week, and Magic Eraser is one of my favorites.

What it does:

Remove unwanted things from images in seconds.

You just upload an image, mark the part you need removed, download the fixed image.

It works really well.

And even better?

If you are struggling to remove the backgrounds from your images, they also have another tool: Background Eraser.

Check out Magic Eraser here and Background Eraser here.

Not an ad, just something I’m using.

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⚖️ 5. The 85% Rule – Tweet From Michelle Qin

There’s this concept I like called the 85% rule. Apparently when athletes are told to run at 85% capacity, they run faster than if they're told to go 100%. It’s a bit counterintuitive, but relaxing and not being so serious can go a long way for productivity.

— Michelle Qin (@michelleqin_) September 14, 2022

The 85% Rule: When athletes are told to run at 85%, they run faster than if you’re told to go 100%.

It turns out giving it your 100% actually gets you less.

Food for thought.

​Read more about it here.

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