WORK LESS WEDNESDAY
WLW #116
🥩 1. The 95/5 Rule For Managing Expenses – Clip of Restauranteur Will Guidara
Fascinating 3 minute clip of restauranteur Will Guidara describing his obsession with managing expenses in his businesses.
He treats managing expenses as another opportunity to exercise his creativity, the same way chefs are creative about designing their menu, picking silverware, and crafting a wine list.
95% of the time, he manages his expenses like a maniac.
Which earns him the time to spend “foolishly” 5% of the time.
When he talks about “foolish” spending, he says “that is the kind of spending that preserves, protects, and ultimately grows your business.
➖ 2. The Solution to All Our Problems: Subtraction – Article by Joel Miller
Last week I was having a conversation about one of my most loved/hated books: Subtract.
Subtract suffers from the problem of an absolutely BRILLIANT concept, and very poor execution as a book.
But the point is essential:
Humans are wired to solve problems by addition, not subtraction.
As a result, we make our lives and businesses much more complicated than they need to be, and we suffer as a result.
If you’re interested, this article is a great summary of the key takeaways.
Then you can grab the book here, if you really want to.
✨ 3. Air Purifier I Just Bought – Molekule Air Mini+
Just picked up the Molekule Air Mini+ for my office.
From their site: Molekule Air Mini+ purifiers use PECO technology and true HEPA 99.97% particle-capture efficiency rate to capture and destroy pollutants in small rooms and spaces.
I’ve always been turned off by the price point, but after a few years, decided to pull the trigger on it.
You can check out their site here.
😲 4. The Diary of a Solopreneur – SoloDiary
Solopreneur Blake Emal just started sharing his diary every weekday at SoloDiary.com.
He calls it: “A daily transparent look into one creator’s business as a solopreneur. See what I learn, struggle with, change, and ask.”
Each day he answers 4 short questions:
What did I work on today?
What did I struggle with today?
What did Iearn today?
What questions am I asking today?
📕 5. The Optimization Paradox – Email from Ali Abdaal
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my business recently.
I’ve got some exciting updates to share, but that’s for another time.
But for now, here’s a clue…
This is my edited version of an email from Ali Abdaal wrote about his decision to restructure his 2 year old podcast, Deep Dive.
All words are Ali’s:
“Left unchecked, players will optimise the fun out of the game they’re playing”.
I found myself thinking about this quote in the context of my own life and business. In particular, my podcast: Deep Dive.
The podcast started as a source of fun for me. It was supposed to be a fun, chill way to have interesting conversations with interesting people, and share those conversations with the audience.
But somewhere down the line, the scale tipped. What started as a passion project slowly morphed into something less… fun.
Over time, the focus shifted from the joy of conversation to the strategy of audience engagement, retention and growth.
That’s where I’ve come to with the podcast. I’ve optimised the fun out of it.
And a few weeks ago, I decided after some long journaling sessions, to “de-optimise” the podcast, to bring the fun back into it.
I’ve made a video covering this in more detail, but in a nutshell, it involves:
- Not being wedded to an upload schedule
- Not seeking to batch-film multiple episodes at a time
- Recording conversations with guests I’m interested in talking to if the opportunity arises
- Having the conversation that I want to have, rather than the conversation I think the audience wants to hear
This has been a hard decision to make because, by all accounts, the podcast is doing really well.
Because things are going well, it’s felt harder than it would’ve otherwise to take my foot off the proverbial gas pedal. But after some soul searching, I came to the conclusion that it has to be done.
So moving forwards, Deep Dive will continue as a podcast, but it’ll be less “optimised”.
So I’ll leave you with this question: In your own work and life, are there any areas where you’re at risk of optimising the fun out of them?