WORK LESS WEDNESDAY

WLW #47

September 21, 2022

šŸ“ø 1. Instagram Hates Me Right Now (& Why Iā€™m Not Worried About It)

Itā€™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.

Hereā€™s three reasons why Iā€™m not.

1. I Donā€™t Own Instagram

Hereā€™s the truth: IG doesnā€™t owe me anything.

They can do whatever they want.

Itā€™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:

2. Instagram Is A Sh*tshow Right Now

Youā€™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.

Iā€™m not surprised.

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

What worked last year doesnā€™t work now.

What works today might not work tomorrow.

Thatā€™s why instead of worrying about the latest changes, I focus onā€¦

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

If I had a goal like: ā€œGet 1,000 new followers a week,ā€ Iā€™d be in trouble.

Instead, my goal is simple: ā€œPost 7 times a week.ā€

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.

Thatā€™s the only way.


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

Our constant toggling between applications is a massive problem.

One example from corporate America:

ā€œTo execute a single supply-chain transaction, each person involved switched about 350 times between 22 different applications and unique websites.ā€

ā€œThat meant a single employee would toggle between apps and windows more than 3,600 times.ā€

Hereā€™s the thing: Context switching drains our brain power.

Donā€™t believe me? Check out the data…

Excessive toggling:

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

This problem isnā€™t going away any time soon.

Hereā€™s what Iā€™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.

šŸ˜« 3. What To Do If You Donā€™t Know What To Post About Online –Ā Video From Vanessa Lau

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

Vanessaā€™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. šŸ˜„


šŸŖ„ 4. My New Favorite AI-Based Tool –Ā 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.


āš–ļøĀ 5. The 85% Rule – Tweet From Michelle Qin

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

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

Food for thought.

ā€‹Read more about it here.

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