WORK LESS WEDNESDAY

WLW #147

March 05, 2025

👋 Hey Reader!

This is issue #147 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. 5,000 Days.

Today I celebrate 5,000 days of recovery from addiction.

That is 5,000 days of clean time.

That is 5,000 days of completely abstinence from mood or mind altering substances.

Being in recovery is the most important thing I will do in my life:

  • My marriage wouldn’t exist without recovery.
  • My business wouldn’t exist without recovery.
  • This newsletter wouldn’t exist without recovery.
  • How To Work Less wouldn’t exist without recovery.
  • I may not even be alive without recovery.

This year I plan to share even more about my recovery is fueling my entrepreneurial path. If you want to hear more about my story, I shared a video back in June on my YouTube channel.​

5,000 days ago my life was very different.

I’m grateful to everyone who has supported me in my journey – you know who you are.

Here’s to the next 5,000.

📬 2. I Am Off The Waitlist For… – Notion Mail​

I got a golden ticket. 🎟️

Early access for Notion Mail.

I’ve been experimenting with it for the past week.

What can I say so far?

It’s buggy, but very good.

And definitely not for everyone.

Much like Notion, you have to know what you want, so you can build it.

And if you don’t know what you want, you’re gonna have a bad time.

I was able to build a minimalist mailbox that sorts my messages into useful categories like “Needs Reply” “Waiting” and “To-Do”, and also has separate inboxes exclusively for newsletters and marketing messages. It looks like this (the emails are hidden):

I’ve been using Hey.com as my primary mailbox for the last year or so, but I think Notion Mail will replace it as soon as the mobile app drops.

If you’re a Notion user, it’s definitely worth signing up for the waitlist.

I think the real magic will come in the integrations between Notion, Notion Calendar, and Notion Mail.

More to come.

🤖 3. Half-Newsletter, Half-Netflix Of AI Tools – Every.to

Last week I re-subscribed to Every.

I initially signed up 2-3 years ago, when they were a tech blog with columnists covering business and productivity.

But eventually, I stopped reading.

But Every has changed.

They’ve pivoted to half-Newsletter, half-Netflix of AI tools.

For $20/month, you get:

  • Their newsletter content (which is actually good)
  • Access to EVERY AI product they ship

And they’re building prolifically:

  • 📬 Cora: An AI inbox app
  • ✨ Sparkle: A tool that organizes computer folders with AI
  • 🌀 Spiral: A content repurposing tool I’m excited to try
  • 📝 Lex: A word processor for long-form content

Each of these would cost $10-20/month individually, making the subscription a sweet deal.

What I find fascinating about “Every” is their approach – they ship consistently, test rapidly, and aren’t afraid to abandon things that don’t work.

​As I shared in this YouTube video, I’m diving deeper into AI after being “strategically ignorant” to it for the last fear years, so this subscription makes sense.

​Check it out here.

🐙 4. Some Actually Good Advice On Building An Audience – Blog by Ole Lehmann

​After gaining over 300,000 followers on Instagram, I can tell you one thing:

Most “X tips to grow an audience” lists suck.

They’re usually written by people who are TRYING to grow an audience, not people who HAVE built one.

​This list from Ole Lehmann doesn’t suck.​

These insights are all hard won, and you only learn them from experience.

Here are 5 tips from the article to get you started:

  1. ☝️ Master just ONE platform at a time. Focus on mastering one platform’s algorithm, culture and audience before even thinking about expanding.
  2. 🤖 Avoid the generic viral content trap. It’s a massive mistake to chase virality by copying generic viral formats everyone else is doing. Sure, it might bring you followers, but they’re often not interested in what you really do.
  3. 🛑 Don’t stop during a dry streak. Dry streaks of lower traffic are part of the game. Embrace them while everyone else quits.
  4. 😤 Embrace hate comments as proof you’re succeeding. With every level of success, you unlock a new level of hate. There is absolutely no way to avoid this. The moment I started getting hate comments was exactly when my business started taking off.
  5. 🤫 There’s always a silent majority who just appreciates what you do. 99% of people reading your content NEVER interact with it. These lurkers often become your most loyal customers.

​Read the full post here.

🖐 5. More Things I’m Into This Week

🇯🇵 Cool Design Book I Bought This Week – Fracture: Japanese Graphic Design 1875–1975​

💊 I Replaced LMNT For These Zero Sugar Electrolytes – Lytes

🎨 Watch An “Old School” Designer And An AI Designer Duke It Out In A Landing Page Build Challenge – Build Wars​

🗞️ Chapter 2 Of Tim Ferriss’ “No Book” Is Live – Read It Here​

💬 Quote On Success I’m Pondering – From Meditations For Mortals by Oliver Burkeman​​

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