WLW #139

👋 Hey Reader!

This is issue #139 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. Challenge I’m Starting 2025 With – 30 Days of Morning Pages

If you pay attention to my Instagram stories, you’re probably aware that I’m on Day 8 of a 30 Day Morning Pages Challenge with my consulting/mentorship clients in The Lab.

✍️ What are Morning Pages?

“𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘗𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥, 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘗𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴–𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩 𝘢𝘳𝘵. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 “𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨.” 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥– 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺. 𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘗𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘰𝘬𝘦, 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘺, 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵, 𝘤𝘢𝘫𝘰𝘭𝘦, 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘻𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘺𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥. 𝘋𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳-𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘗𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴: 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘨𝘦…𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘸.”

Morning Pages is a concept introduced in the book: The Artist’s Way.

🔗 You can read a more detailed explanation here.

But you don’t need to read the book to do this exercise.

This is my second time doing it (last time was in March of 2024.)

I credit Morning Pages with helping me uncover some of the most useful insights and perspectives on my business, my life, and how my brain works.

And after 8 days, I can feel it happening again.

I’ll record a podcast/video sharing the whole experience when the 30 days wraps.

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💻 2. Two New Apps I’m Experimenting With – Monarch & Craft

New Year, New Apps.

At least that’s how it always seems to happen for me. 😂

I’ve got two new apps I’m working with that I want to share.

🦋 1. Monarch – Personal Finance

Monarch has 100% replaced my previous personal finance pick, Copilot.

It just does everything I wanted Copilot to do, but better.

We’re using it for:

• 💵 Budgeting,
• 💸 Saving, and
• 💰 Net worth tracking.

You can grab a free 30 day trial through this link. (Not an ad, but it’s my link)

📝 2. Craft – Notes & Daily Planning

Craft is very similar to Notion.

It just looks MUCH nicer.

Will I abandon Notion for Craft?

Not a chance.

But it’s really fun to play with.

And I will probably stick with Craft for one thing: Daily planning.

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📘 3. Book I Read This Week – The Gap & The Gain

This week I read The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan & Dr. Ben Hardy.

They also wrote 10X Is Easier Than 2X, which I have praised extensively in WLW in the past.

Here’s the Amazon description:

Most people, especially highly ambitious people, are unhappy because of how they measure their progress. We all have an “ideal,” a moving target that is always out of reach. When we measure ourselves against that ideal, we’re in “the GAP.” However, when we measure ourselves against our previous selves, we’re in “the GAIN.”

The core framework of the book is basically why you should read it.

If you want to see it in action, I went ahead and clipped a 8 minute excerpt from one of my client calls where I explained it:

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📼 4. If You Plan To Grow On YouTube, Watch This – 6 Part YouTube Series by Vanessa Lau

I’m dipping my toes into the water of YouTube this year.

Do I think I’m going to become a YouTuber?

Unlikely.

But I will be sharing more videos.

Part of sharing meaningful work is taking the steps to advocate for it.

So I’m trying to make sure the videos get in front of the people who need to see them.

This means the necessary evil of learning YouTube best practices:

Thumbnails, uploads, edits, etc. etc.

​This series of videos from Vanesa Lau is a one stop shop for how to do it all.

I’m confident this video series alone is worth 6-7 figures in the right hands.

And it’s totally free.

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🖐 5. More Things I’m Into This Week

🎥 ICYMI: My Latest YouTube Video – 10 Lessons I Learned About Entrepreneurship & Life In 2024​

🪐 Soundtrack For This Week – Space Mountain (Live in Tokyo) by DOMi & JD Beck​

🕹️ Sick Tool That’s Like Loom For Product Demos – Arcade​

🌷 Design In 3D And Have It Printed And Mailed To You – Watch This Video​

⚔ Watch This Speedrunner Beat Elden Ring (+DLC) In Under 2 Hours – Video By Mitchriz​