Dear reader,

I wanted to let you know that Beyond Productivity is moving to a new platform.

Starting this Thursday (July 2, 2026), I will be sending emails from a new and better system.

The new site can be accessed here: https://beyondproductivity.kit.com/

If you are an existing subscriber, no action is required from you.

All of the content, along with all subscribers, has been migrated to this new platform.

To ensure my emails reach you consistently, please add beyondproductivity@mail.kit.com to your email contact list.

You will not see me posting new articles on Beehiiv anymore.

Later this week, I’ll share the biggest announcement I’ve made in this newsletter since starting it five years ago—which is about as long as I’ve been waiting to make it. Stay tuned!

I’m truly grateful for each and every one of you.

Until Thursday,
Christian

PS:
Are you an executive, entrepreneur, or leader struggling with focus, energy, or stress? Are you curious about agentic AI but not sure how to make it work for you? Are you constantly putting off what matters most in your work and life?

If that sounds familiar, the Ultra Labs 1:1 executive coaching program is for you. In it, I personally provide the systems, support, and accountability to perform at your best without burnout, turn agentic AI into real leverage, and put it all into practice in just 3 months.

Since 2023, I’ve helped 120+ executives, entrepreneurs, and leaders unlock their full potential. The program includes:

• 1:1 executive coaching with me

• 10/6 access to my phone (10 hours/day, 6 days/week)

• Tailored systems to unlock next-level productivity and AI-powered leverage

• A premium device (OURA or WHOOP) to track energy, sleep, and stress

• A guaranteed 100% productivity increase

Interested? Learn more and book your free discovery call here while you can. I only take on 10 clients at a time and seats are booking fast.

Want to grow and monetize your LinkedIn (fast)?

There are 800 million users on LinkedIn, and 99% of them aren’t creators.

Translation? There has never been a better time to grow an audience on LinkedIn.

Unlike most other LinkedIn growth coaches, my co-author Eric Partaker and I walked the talk:

• We’ve built a 1+ million audience across LinkedIn (1,000,000+ followers) and our newsletters (200,000+ subscribers) in just 12 months

• We’ve created a 7-figure business from our LinkedIn thought leadership through services (e.g. coaching) and products (e.g. courses)

• We’ve been ranked #1 LinkedIn creators by Favikon and got a book deal with Portfolio Penguin for our first book

Our #1 goal for this coaching program is to make it the highest ROI investment of your life. Learn more and book a free discovery call here so that we can get in touch.

2 more ways I can help you

Want a free PDF of my top infographics? Get it here.

Interested in sponsorships for my newsletter or LinkedIn? Get in touch here.

“To be a successful creator you don't need millions. You don't need millions of dollars or millions of customers, millions of clients or millions of fans. To make a living […], you need only thousands of true fans.” — Kevin Kelly

Why it works

Kevin Kelly (pictured) is one of the most influential thinkers on technology, creativity, and the future of work. As the founding executive editor of Wired magazine and author of several bestselling books, he has spent decades studying how technology changes what humans can create, share, and monetize. In 2008, he published one of his most famous essays: 1,000 True Fans. Its core idea is simple: to make a living doing what you love, you don’t need a mass audience. You need a small group of people who deeply value your work and are willing to support it. 

Kelly’s math is straightforward: if 1,000 true fans each spend $100 a year on what you offer, that’s $100,000 in annual revenue. If they spend more on your products or services, the upside can be much larger. This is now more attainable than ever because of the internet, which has massively broadened the possible space of careers. As Naval Ravikant has argued, the fundamental property of the internet is that it connects every human to every other human on the planet. Before the internet, the ability to monetize a niche obsession was limited by geography, gatekeepers, and local demand. Today, almost any passion can find its audience. You no longer need masses of people to care. You only need a small number of people to care deeply.

Last month’s newsletter was about code-based leverage, notably agentic AI. This month’s edition is about media-based leverage. Examples include social media posts, newsletters, articles, and books. Unlike people and capital, which require permission, media can be created and distributed without anyone’s approval. You can publish your ideas today. And if your content is authentic, useful, and consistent, it will attract true fans, build trust, and eventually become the foundation of a business. According to Kelly, you need to meet two criteria to make the 1,000 True Fans model work: you need to create enough each year to earn, on average, $100 from each true fan; and you need to have a direct relationship with them so they can pay you directly. One of the best ways to pull that off is by writing online and building a newsletter. Here’s how to get started in three simple steps.

How to do it

1) Set it up
To start your newsletter, you need just two things: a name and a platform. There are many ways to come up with your newsletter name. Three that I share with my coaching clients are based on memorable numbers, categories, or anti-categories. A popular example of a numbers-based newsletter is James Clear’s 3-2-1 newsletter, where each edition includes 3 short ideas from him, 2 quotes from others, and 1 question for the reader to think about. A great category-based newsletter name is Ben Meer’s System Sunday, which is all about the best systems for personal growth. And this newsletter, Beyond Productivity, is an example of an anti-category newsletter, because it’s all about transcending traditional, narrow productivity advice.

The three most popular newsletter platforms are Substack, Beehiiv, and Kit. I started this newsletter on Substack in 2021, moved it to Beehiiv in 2024, and will move it to Kit this month (more on this soon). The platform matters less than the habit of writing and publishing. That said, if I were starting today, I’d choose Kit, especially if the goal is not just to write, but to build a business around it. Kit is built around stronger creator funnels, making it easier to guide readers from subscribers to coaching clients, course buyers, or book readers. Its automations are more powerful, so I can create more personalized journeys based on what people sign up for, click on, or care about. Last but not least, Kit’s Creator Network offers a powerful path for growing the newsletter.

If you already know what you’re passionate about, use one of these three approaches to find a strong name for your newsletter and set it up on Kit here. If you’re not sure what to write about, the tips in this article will help you find a unique angle you can share.

2) Write it
To write your newsletter, you only need two things: structure and cadence. While you don’t need to follow the same structure in every edition, doing so comes with three major advantages. First, it makes writing each edition much simpler. James Clear has a spreadsheet where he collects short ideas, quotes from others, and interesting questions for his readers. This allows him to write his newsletter in less than two hours. Second, having a structure you stick with makes it easier for readers to consume your content, because they always know what to expect. Third, maintaining the same structure forces you to organize your thinking. This helps you develop your own frameworks, which you can then turn into services, such as coaching or speaking, and products, such as courses or books.

All three newsletters I mentioned above come with a clear structure. Clear has his 3 short ideas, 2 quotes from others, and 1 question. Meer’s System Sunday is always structured around three elements where he explains what the system will help people with (impact), how to create it (setup), and how to keep it up (maintenance). My newsletter follows a simple ‘what, why, how’ structure, which tells people what the newsletter is about in the headline, why it works, and how to do it. There’s no right or wrong here. Pick a structure that readers can consume in five minutes or less and that you’ll stick to. Create your own 3-2-1 or 1-2-3 numbers-based structure, come up with three elements that work for your category, or simply steal my ‘what, why, how’ structure. You’re welcome!

In terms of cadence, go for what you can ambitiously and realistically commit to. I used to follow a weekly cadence for years, but switched to monthly so that I could think more deeply about each edition. Weekly, twice monthly, and monthly all work. The best cadence is the one you can sustain long enough for trust to compound. Pick your cadence and then start growing your newsletter.

3) Grow it
Once you have set up your newsletter and started working on your first edition, your goal is to get your 1,000 true fans to subscribe. The best way to do that is to use social media as feeder channels. A feeder channel is a platform where people can discover you and join your newsletter. A single social post can be read by thousands or even millions of people and turn many of them into newsletter subscribers. If you’re into personal or professional growth, the best feeder channel is LinkedIn. It’s where ambitious people spend time. If you write about productivity, leadership, performance, entrepreneurship, coaching, writing, business, or other personal growth topics, your ideal readers are probably already there.

The easiest way to start growing your newsletter via LinkedIn is to reach out to your connections and tell them about your free newsletter. Here’s a shortened version of the message I used to do just that when I got started: “Hi X. I just started a newsletter that is all about short, practical and science-based productivity tips to help you thrive as a knowledge worker. You can find it here: URL. If you like it, I’d be thrilled if you’d sign up and share the newsletter with one or two friends who might like it as well.”

If you want to scale your newsletter via LinkedIn, you need to create content. Write consistently about what you know, what you are learning, what you are building, and the problems you help people solve. By doing this, my co-author Eric Partaker and I built a 1+ million audience across LinkedIn (1,000,000+ followers) and our newsletters (200,000+ subscribers) in just 12 months, created a seven-figure business from our LinkedIn thought leadership through services (e.g. coaching) and products (e.g. courses), and got a book deal with Portfolio Penguin for our first book.

I often meet aspiring authors, creators, executives, entrepreneurs, and leaders who are waiting for permission.

They are waiting for the right time or perfect clarity before they start. But clarity does not come before action. It comes from action. 

Here’s what I learned from writing online for five years:

You discover your voice by writing. You discover your audience by publishing. You discover your offer by serving. And you discover what you love by doing the work long enough to see what keeps pulling you forward.

When I started, I did not know exactly where Beyond Productivity would lead. I only knew that I wanted to help ambitious people perform at a high level without sacrificing their health, peace of mind, or relationships. That was enough to get started. And getting started changed everything for me.

Here’s my question for you this month:
What niche obsession, deep passion, or hard-earned lessons could you start sharing with the world?

And here’s my challenge for you:
Take the first step this week.

Pick a name and set up your newsletter on Kit.

Commit to a structure and cadence that works for you.

Then start posting on LinkedIn to get your 1,000 true fans.

And if you are an aspiring author, creator, executive, entrepreneur, or leader who wants to make money doing what you love, this is exactly what I help people do.

If you want my support in building an audience and selling your services, products, or book, I’m now working with five clients at a time and have a few open 1:1 coaching seats. You can learn more and book a free discovery call with me here.

You don’t need millions to make money doing what you love.

You only need those 1,000 true fans.

Start helping them find you today.

Until next month,
Christian

PS:
Are you an executive, entrepreneur, or leader struggling with focus, energy, or stress? Are you curious about agentic AI but not sure how to make it work for you? Are you constantly putting off what matters most in your work and life?

If that sounds familiar, the Ultra Labs 1:1 executive coaching program is for you. In it, I personally provide the systems, support, and accountability to perform at your best without burnout, turn agentic AI into real leverage, and put it all into practice in just 3 months.

Since 2023, I’ve helped 120+ executives, entrepreneurs, and leaders unlock their full potential. The program includes:

• 1:1 executive coaching with me

• 10/6 access to my phone (10 hours/day, 6 days/week)

• Tailored systems to unlock next-level productivity and AI-powered leverage

• A premium device (OURA or WHOOP) to track energy, sleep, and stress

• A guaranteed 100% productivity increase

Interested? Learn more and book your free discovery call here while you can. I only take on 10 clients at a time and seats are booking fast.

Want to grow and monetize your LinkedIn?

There are 800 million users on LinkedIn, and 99% of them aren’t creators.

Translation? There has never been a better time to grow an audience on LinkedIn.

Unlike most other LinkedIn growth coaches, my co-author Eric Partaker and I walked the talk:

• We’ve built a 1+ million audience across LinkedIn (1,000,000+ followers) and our newsletters (200,000+ subscribers) in just 12 months

• We’ve created a 7-figure business from our LinkedIn thought leadership through services (e.g. coaching) and products (e.g. courses)

• We’ve been ranked #1 LinkedIn creators by Favikon and got a book deal with Portfolio Penguin for our first book

Our #1 goal for this coaching program is to make it the highest ROI investment of your life. Learn more and book a free discovery call here so that we can get in touch.

2 more ways I can help you

Want a free PDF of my top infographics? Get it here.

Interested in sponsorships for my newsletter or LinkedIn? Get in touch here.

Before we get to today’s post, I have exciting news. I’m launching the Ultra Labs 1:1 executive coaching program. In it, I help executives, entrepreneurs, and leaders unlock next-level productivity and scale themselves with agentic AI in just 3 months.

You’ll get tailored systems, support, and accountability to perform at your best without burnout, turn agentic AI into real leverage, and put it all into practice. It includes 1:1 coaching with me, 10/6 access to my phone (10 hours/day, 6 days/week), and a guaranteed 100% productivity increase.

The Ultra Labs 1:1 executive coaching program is our most exclusive offer and is limited to 10 seats at a time. If you’re interested in one of the next available seats, learn more and book a free call here.

"Earn with your mind, not your time." — Naval Ravikant

Why it works

Naval Ravikant (pictured) is one of the most influential founders, investors, and thought leaders of our time. He is the co-founder of AngelList and was an early investor in companies like Uber and Twitter. His ideas on creating wealth have reached millions and were distilled into a book by Eric Jorgenson entitled The Almanack of Naval Ravikant, which is one of the best books I know on succeeding in the 21st century. You can read it for free here.

Among Naval's most influential ideas are the four forms of leverage: people, capital, media, and code. The first two are older forms of leverage that humans have used for millennia. People means having others work on your behalf. Capital means putting money to work in your place. Both are what Naval calls permission-based. To employ people, you first need someone willing to follow you. To deploy capital, you first need someone willing to provide it to you. The two new forms of leverage are media and code. Media is content, like a social media post, podcast, or a newsletter. Code is software that works for you while you sleep. Unlike people and capital, media and code are permissionless. You don’t need anyone's approval to publish a social media post, send out a newsletter, or build software.

Today's newsletter is all about code. For decades, it has been the most powerful form of leverage, but it used to be gated by one thing: you needed to know how to write it. With the advent of agentic AI, this form of leverage is now available to anyone who can describe what they want in plain English (or any other language). As I am writing this, Anthropic's Claude is arguably the most powerful, usable, and secure tool available for putting agentic AI to work. Today's post is about making Claude work for you in three simple steps: setting it up, testing it, and using it.

How to do it

1) Set up Claude
Out of the box, Claude lacks three things: memory, maximum intelligence, and personalization. A one-time setup turns it into a tool that knows what to draw on, how deeply to think, and how to work with you. Here are three ways to dial it in before you do anything else.

Tip 1: Activate memory (and privacy)
Start by turning on memory. Under Settings/Capabilities, switch on both "Search and reference chats" and "Generate memory from chat history." The former lets Claude pull from conversations you have already had. The latter helps it remember useful context from previous chats. Together, they stop you from re-explaining who you are every time. Also, turn on privacy. Under Settings/Privacy, switch off the "Help improve Claude" toggle. This makes sure that everything you share with Claude stays between the two of you, instead of being used to train future models. This is activated by default for new accounts, so you now have to deliberately switch it off.

Tip 2: Upgrade intelligence
Click the model dropdown in the input area and pick the latest model available. Each new generation tends to be meaningfully smarter than the last, and on harder, multi-step work the gap can be several times larger, not a few percent. In the same dropdown, make sure Adaptive Thinking is toggled on. When activated, Claude decides when to think harder. Quick questions get fast answers. Complex tasks get deep reasoning. The combination of the best model and adaptive thinking is the difference between a quick assistant and a real thinking partner.

Tip 3: Add personalization
Tell Claude about you. Open a new chat and say the following: "I want to write my Instructions for Claude. Please interview me by asking 5 questions about me, my work, and what I want from you." Answer the questions in detail. This will take a couple of minutes, but I promise it is worth it. When you’re ready, say the following: "Now turn what you learned from my answers into a text that I can paste into the custom instructions block." Lastly, copy what it gives you, go to Settings/Profile, and paste the text under "Instructions for Claude." From now on, every conversation starts with Claude knowing the essentials about you.

2) Test Claude
After Claude is set up, do not just assume it works. Test it. The mistake most people make is to throw a high-stakes task at Claude, watch the first draft fall flat, and conclude that it does not work for them. Don’t be most people. Here are three quick tips to close the loop fast.

Tip 1: Test whether it knows you
Open a fresh chat (so your instructions load cleanly) and ask: "What do you know about me and how I work?" If Claude leads with your role, your work, and specific preferences you shared with it, your instructions are landing. If the answer is generic, your instructions are too thin. Add more detail about what you do, what you are working on, and what you want Claude to remember.

Tip 2: Test whether it sounds like you
In the same chat, ask: “Draft a short email in my voice to my colleague X and ask about Y.” If it reads like something you would actually send in your tone, length, and phrasing, you are in good shape. If it sounds cold or generic, add concrete rules, such as “keep it warm and brief” or “avoid corporate filler.”

Tip 3: Update your instructions
After going through tips 1 and 2, ask Claude: “Based on what I just told you, what should I add or change in my Instructions for Claude to fix this?” Claude will draft the update. Copy it and add it to the end of the text at Settings/Profile/Instructions for Claude. Open a fresh chat to confirm the new version loaded, and re-run the tests. Treat your instructions like a living document and improve them over time.

3) Use Claude
Once you trust the setup, the third step is to put Claude to work the right way. Treat Claude as a smart, fast junior, not a senior colleague who will catch your mistakes. Why? Because it usually won’t. It likes to please. Here are three tips for pulling that off.

Tip 1: Clarify and outline first
Always end your first request to Claude with “Ask me any questions before you start if anything is unclear.” This one line cuts assumptions and bad first drafts. The time you spend letting Claude interview you and answering those questions will save you far more time reviewing and rewriting later. For anything substantial, ask for the outline before the full output. Edit the outline, then have Claude build from there.

Tip 2: Never accept the first draft
Remember that AI likes to please. All models are designed to be helpful, which means you still need to direct, challenge, and review the output. So once Claude delivers, push back. Tell it specifically what is wrong, like "too formal" or "too long.” Generic feedback gets generic fixes. And when you land on the final version, paste it back into the chat and ask Claude to remember what good looks like to you.

Tip 3: Converse, don't "prompt"
Forget fancy prompt-engineering frameworks. AI is great at inferring what you already understand, sensing the level behind your question, and meeting you exactly where you are. Treat Claude like you would a smart, fast junior on your team, and explain things clearly and concretely. State who the work is for, what you need, the format you want, and what to avoid. Plain English, not a structured prompt template.

AI is all the rage these days, but here’s a harsh truth: 99% of people still use it as a chatbot. They ask it to write better emails, content, or presentations, and then they do the work themselves.

The three steps above already lift you above that. They turn Claude from a generic chatbot into a real thinking partner. But that’s still not where the leverage compounds. 

The real shift happens when you stop talking to AI and start delegating to it. Not a smarter assistant, but a cognitive workforce that takes multi-step work off your plate.

This is where Claude Cowork comes in. It launched in research preview in January 2026, became generally available in April 2026, and lets you put agentic AI to work in plain English, with no coding skills required.

Over the last few months, I've used Claude Cowork to help myself and my coaching clients save hours of tedious work each week and finally get to those tasks they or their teams never had the time for.

If you want to learn more about how I could help you do the same, book a free discovery call here.

Here’s my question for you this month:
What could you achieve if you had AI agents working for you 24/7?

And here’s my challenge for you:
Get started with Claude today. Download the desktop app. Set it up, test it, and use it. Then move to Cowork to go fully agentic.

It's still early days, and turning pro at working with agentic AI is one of the most important skills of our time.

Until next month,
Christian

PS:
Are you an executive, entrepreneur, or leader struggling with focus, energy, or stress? Are you curious about agentic AI but not sure how to make it work for you? Are you constantly putting off what matters most in your work and life?

If that sounds familiar, the Ultra Labs 1:1 executive coaching program is for you. In it, I personally provide the systems, support, and accountability to perform at your best without burnout, turn agentic AI into real leverage, and put it all into practice in just 3 months.

Since 2023, I’ve helped 120+ executives, entrepreneurs, and leaders unlock their full potential. The program includes:

• 1:1 executive coaching with me

• 10/6 access to my phone (10 hours/day, 6 days/week)

• Tailored systems to unlock next-level productivity and AI-powered leverage

• A premium device (OURA or WHOOP) to track energy, sleep, and stress

• A guaranteed 100% productivity increase

Interested? Learn more and book your free discovery call here while you can. I only take on 10 clients at a time and seats are booking fast.

Want to grow and monetize your LinkedIn (fast)?

There are 800 million users on LinkedIn, and 99% of them aren’t creators.

Translation? There has never been a better time to grow an audience on LinkedIn.

Unlike most other LinkedIn growth coaches, my co-author Eric Partaker and I walked the talk:

• We’ve built a 1+ million audience across LinkedIn (1,000,000+ followers) and our newsletters (200,000+ subscribers) in just 12 months

• We’ve created a 7-figure business from our LinkedIn thought leadership through services (e.g. coaching) and products (e.g. courses)

• We’ve been ranked #1 LinkedIn creators by Favikon and got a book deal with Portfolio Penguin for our first book

Our #1 goal for this coaching program is to make it the highest ROI investment of your life. Learn more and book a free discovery call here so that we can get in touch.

2 more ways I can help you

Want a free PDF of my top infographics? Get it here.

Interested in sponsorships for my newsletter or LinkedIn? Get in touch here.

Dear readers,

On April 16, 2026, I will be hosting a free 60-minute live masterclass on how to develop laser focus on a busy schedule.

I’ll share actionable, science-based tips you can apply right away, followed by a live Q&A to address your specific challenges.

Spots are limited. Sign up here today to secure yours.

I’m looking forward to meeting you live!

On to today’s post.

“Our job in this life is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.” — Steven Pressfield

Why it works

Steven Pressfield (pictured) is one of the most influential voices on creativity and the inner resistance we face when doing our most important work. Before becoming a bestselling author, he spent years drifting between jobs, from Marine Corps service to advertising, struggling to break through as a writer. That breakthrough eventually came with The Legend of Bagger Vance, published in 1995 at age 52, but it was The War of Art—which has sold over a million copies and been translated into dozens of languages—that made him a household name among writers, creators, and entrepreneurs. In it, he introduces the idea of Resistance: the invisible force that keeps us from doing the work we are meant to do.

At the center of his philosophy is the idea of a calling. A calling is not just something you enjoy. It is the work your soul is drawn toward. And the more important it is, the more resistance you will feel. As Pressfield puts it: “The more important a call or action is to our soul’s growth, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.” If you follow your calling, you tap into a deeper source of energy, meaning, and alignment. The work becomes fulfilling in itself, and over time, it compounds into mastery, contribution, and impact. If you ignore it, that energy does not disappear. It turns inward—and into something darker. It gets redirected into more destructive channels, showing up as addictive tendencies, self-sabotage, or quiet, chronic dissatisfaction.

The good news: you don't need perfect clarity to begin. You don't need to quit your job. And you don't need to wait until everything makes sense. You simply need to get into action. Because clarity follows action, not the other way around. Here is a simple three-step method to help you discover, practice, and ultimately live your calling.

How to do it

Step 1: Discover your calling
Pressfield’s core idea is that your calling does not usually arrive with perfect clarity and confidence. More often, it shows up as a quiet inner pull that is immediately met by doubt, fear, and resistance. That tension is not a bug, it is the signal. Here are three ways to get clearer on it.

Tip 1: Follow the whisper
Pressfield believes that we all have some kind of calling, even if we cannot articulate it perfectly. It may be writing, building a company, making films, helping people heal, teaching, coaching, or creating something else that feels deeply alive to us. If you had only three seconds to answer the question, “What do I feel I should really be doing?”, something would likely pop into your mind. The problem is that this first answer is usually followed immediately by resistance. A voice says you are not qualified, that others are better, that it has already been done, or that you will embarrass yourself. According to Pressfield, that voice is not a sign to stop. It is often a sign that you are getting close to something important. The first step in discovering your calling is to listen for the whisper before resistance drowns it out.

Tip 2: Determine your IKIGAI
A powerful way to discover your calling is the Japanese concept of IKIGAI. It sits at the overlap of four areas: what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what you can get paid for. I used this framework myself in 2021 when I was trying to get clearer on my own path. I realized that I loved systematizing science-based advice on productivity and personal development, that I was good at it, that people clearly needed help in that area, and that there was a path to build a business around it. That insight led me to start this newsletter. There wasn’t a fully formed plan, but there was enough clarity to begin. If you want to dive deeper into determining your IKIGAI, read this article.

Tip 3: Ask Daniel Pink’s 3 questions
Bestselling author Daniel Pink argues that your calling leaves clues. Instead of waiting for a lightning bolt of certainty, he suggests asking three simple questions. First, when do you forget the time? Moments when you are fully absorbed often point to what’s truly meaningful to you. Second, what made you weird as a kid? What fascinated you before expectations, status, and practicality got in the way? Those early obsessions often reveal something real. Third, what do people consistently thank you for? Is it listening, clarifying, teaching, organizing, or solving hard problems? Your calling often sits at the intersection of what energizes you and what helps others.

Step 2: Practice your calling
Once you have some sense of what your calling is, the next step isn’t to blow up your life. It’s to practice it. You don’t need endless time, perfect conditions, or a dramatic leap. You need steady, consistent action. Not intensity, but repetition. Here are three ways to do that.

Tip 1: Don’t quit your job
One of the most encouraging insights from Pressfield is this: even as a full-time writer, he only writes for about two focused hours a day. Even if you have a full-time job, a family, and a busy life, you can still carve out an hour or two. You do not need endless time. You need steady practice. This is why it often makes sense not to quit your job to live your calling. Keep something that covers your bills and that you can do in a reasonable amount of hours per day, but otherwise not think about. It gives structure and stability to your life, while freeing you up to practice your calling without pressure. You don’t need a leap, you need a lane. And if you want to learn how to make the time, read this article.

Tip 2: Ultrafocus
Practicing your calling requires protected time, and our “Ultrafocus” method is one of the simplest ways to make this work on a busy schedule. Carve out 60 to 90 minutes of intense focus to spend on your calling each day, and use our 30-3-11 Rule to time it when your energy and motivation are highest: about 30 minutes after waking, 3 hours after waking, or 11 hours after waking. For 75% of us, mornings are best. This matters because most people don’t fail at their calling for lack of talent, but because they never create enough protected time to do the work. Time is rarely found. It’s made. If you want to learn more about the Ultrafocus method, read this.

Tip 3: Make it sustainable
The final point is less tactical and more strategic. Practicing your calling is not something you do for a few intense weeks or months. It is something you need to sustain over years and decades. The goal is not to burn bright and burn out, but to find a rhythm you can return to day after day. That means being realistic about your time, your energy, and your life as it actually is—not an idealized version of it. Consistency beats intensity. Keep showing up. Keep making. Keep refining. Do not wait for a different life, but build it inside the one you have.

Step 3: Commit to your calling
After discovering and practicing your calling, you need to commit. Pressfield calls this turning pro. The amateur waits for inspiration, worries about how they feel, and quits when things get hard. The professional shows up every day, works through resistance, and keeps going. The difference is not talent, it is standards. Here are three tips for turning pro.

Tip 1: Seinfeld Technique
Billionaire comedian Jerry Seinfeld suggests marking each day you complete an important task you’ve been avoiding, like working on your calling. Once you’ve done it for two days in a row, you won’t want to break the streak. The psychology is simple and powerful: consistency becomes rewarding in itself. I used this approach to build my writing habit five years ago. After two days, I kept going and never looked back.

Tip 2: 90/90/1 Rule
This powerful method comes from bestselling author Robin Sharma. Spend 90 minutes each day on your number one goal for 90 days. Do this consistently and watch your life transform. I used this to launch my Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 coaching program three years ago, and it changed everything for me. The power of this rule is that it exposes a painful truth: you cannot say your calling matters if you are giving all your best time and energy to lower-priority tasks.

Tip 3: Eat the Frog
Brian Tracy’s popular method is equally simple: do your hardest task first thing in the morning. This builds momentum for the rest of the day and prevents avoidance from taking over. I used this to write my first book, focusing deeply before checking email or messages. For many people, the hardest part of living their calling is not the work itself. It is getting started before distractions and obligations take over. Eating the frog solves that problem.

If you have that itch to create content online, write a book, or build a business, don’t wait. Just start today.

You do not need perfect clarity.
You do not need to quit your job.
You do not need anyone’s permission.

You just need to begin.

That said, I’ve been in your shoes. When I started this newsletter almost five years ago, it felt frightening. Yet, it quickly became the foundation of my business. When I started posting on LinkedIn regularly 2.5 years ago, it was intimidating. A couple of months later, it helped me secure a major book deal with nine top publishers around the globe, including Portfolio Penguin (who publish authors like Cal Newport, Ryan Holiday, and Oprah Winfrey) in the United States.

If you want to learn more about how to turn your calling into a business, book a free discovery call with me here.

Here’s my question for you:
What is the calling you keep being pulled toward, but have not yet fully committed to?

And here’s my challenge for you:
Take one concrete step toward it today.

Not when life calms down.
Not someday.
Today.

Your future self will thank you.

Until next month,
Christian

PS:
Are you struggling to focus on the important work being busy with urgent stuff? Are you feeling tired throughout the day despite sleeping for 7 or 8 hours at night? Are you having trouble dealing with high stress at work and "switching off" at home?

If that sounds familiar, my Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 Coaching Program is for you. In it, I personally provide the support, systems and accountability that executives, entrepreneurs and leaders need to double their productivity and master stress in just 3 months.

Since 2023, I’ve coached 85+ executives, entrepreneurs and leaders on Becoming Ultraproductive. The program includes:

• 1:1 personal coaching with me over 3 months (6 sessions customized to your needs)

• Tailored systems to optimize your focus, energy, motivation, sleep, stress & more

•  A guaranteed 100% productivity increase (not kidding)

Interested? Learn more and book your free discovery call here while you can. I only take on 10 clients at a time and seats are booking fast.

Want to grow and monetize your LinkedIn (fast)?

There are 800 million users on LinkedIn, and 99% of them aren’t creators.

Translation? There has never been a better time to grow an audience on LinkedIn.

Unlike most other LinkedIn growth coaches, my co-author Eric Partaker and I walked the talk:

• We’ve built a 1+ million audience across LinkedIn (1,000,000+ followers) and our newsletters (200,000+ subscribers) in just 12 months

• We’ve created a 7-figure business from our LinkedIn thought leadership through services (e.g. coaching) and products (e.g. courses)

• We’ve been ranked #1 LinkedIn creators by Favikon and got a book deal with Portfolio Penguin for our first book

Our #1 goal for this coaching program is to make it the highest ROI investment of your life. Learn more and book a free discovery call here so that we can get in touch.

2 more ways I can help you

Want a free PDF of my top infographics? Get it here.

Interested in sponsorships for my newsletter or LinkedIn? Get in touch here.

Dear readers,

Before we get to today’s post, I have exciting news.

On March 19, 2026, I will be hosting a free 60-minute live masterclass on how to build better habits and break bad ones.

I’ll share actionable, science-based systems you can apply immediately, followed by a live Q&A to address your specific challenges.

Spots are limited. Sign up here today to secure yours. Looking forward to meeting you live!

On to today’s post.

“The desire to do something because you find it deeply satisfying and personally challenging inspires the highest levels of creativity, whether it’s in the arts, sciences, or business.” — Teresa Amabile

Why it works

Teresa Amabile (pictured) is an American organizational psychologist best known for her research on motivation, performance, and creativity in the workplace. Having spent most of her academic career as a professor at Harvard Business School, she is one of the most influential scholars on workplace creativity. Her definition of it became the gold standard in organizational psychology: “The production of ideas or solutions that are both novel and appropriate to the task.”

Creativity has an image problem. Most people associate it with the fine arts: painting, music, and writing. But creativity is the invisible force behind virtually all the services and products we consume every day. As Steve Jobs famously said, “Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you.” When you read the news, you’re consuming the result of a journalist’s creativity. When you listen to a podcast, that’s the host’s creativity. When you watch a show, that’s the screenwriter’s creativity. When you check social media, that’s the creative output of, yes, creators. And on and on. Anything you buy is the result of entrepreneurial and organizational creativity. According to Naval Ravikant, creativity is one of the most important skills of the 21st century, and one of the few skills unlikely to disappear in the age of AI.

Here’s the good news: your brain works creatively on your most pressing problems around the clock, seven days a week, either consciously or unconsciously, if you let it. To harness that power, it helps to think of creativity as a three-step process: Input, Processing, Output. First comes Inspiration, the deliberate gathering of quality inputs. Next comes Incubation, where ideas are processed and recombined, mostly unconsciously. Finally comes Implementation, the deliberate execution that turns insight into tangible results. Together, these three steps form the 3I Method. Here’s how to boost your creativity to solve hard problems along those steps, and three powerful tips for each one.

How to do it

1) Quality inspiration
If you want to produce ideas that are both novel and appropriate, you need to deeply understand the problem and the existing solutions. Creativity does not begin with originality. It begins with immersion.

Tip 1: Keep the garbage out
What do Tim Ferriss, Ryan Holiday, and Andrew Huberman have in common? They’ve all publicly stated that they don’t use social media on their phones. If you waste your time and attention on the highlight reels of people you barely know, you will end up distracted, miserable, and uncreative. Garbage in, garbage out. So remove Instagram, LinkedIn, and the rest from your phone. You can still use them on your computer. I beg you: Try it for just three days. I’ve been doing this for years and never looked back. Like the gentlemen above, I’m a creator myself who posts on social media every day, but I still keep it off my phone.

Tip 2: Learn deliberately
To deeply understand the problem and the existing solutions, read widely in the domain you’re trying to be creative in. Before I wrote my first book, I read hundreds of books in the productivity and personal development space (my three all-time favorites are Deep Work, Antifragile, and Four Thousand Weeks). The more deeply you understand a field, the more intelligently you can break its rules. Have trouble reading? Follow Naval Ravikant’s brilliant advice to read what you love until you love to read. No time for reading? Tips on that are next.

Tip 3: Make the time
Even without social media, your phone will kill your creativity by filling every idle minute with every bad thing happening in the world. As it turns out, most of that happens in the first and last hours of the day. The solution: Intermittent Digital Fasting. Put your phone into its own bedroom (not yours!) one hour before bed; let it “sleep in” for at least one hour after you wake up. You’ll create two input-free hours per day (here’s a deep dive). Apart from reading, you can use that time to journal about the problem, talk to interesting people about it, or let your mind go into incubation mode.

2) Unconscious incubation
Incubation is where your mind processes and recombines ideas, and this mostly happens unconsciously. When your mind is free of external inputs, it starts using what you already know in novel ways. But if you never give your mind some silence, it cannot synthesize.

Tip 1: Walk
The nineteenth-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “Only thoughts reached by walking have value.” Modern science agrees. In a landmark 2014 Stanford study, researchers found that walking increased creative output by about 60 percent compared to sitting. Fortunately, you don’t need a three-hour hike. Carve out 30 minutes a day without audiovisual input while walking, exercising, or doing chores. Skip the podcast and notice what surfaces in the silence. I never take my phone on walks, runs, or to the gym. Many of my best ideas have emerged there.

Tip 2: Sleep
Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of PayPal and LinkedIn, has described how he gives his brain a problem before sleep and lets it work overnight. You simply write it down on a piece of paper before bed and revisit it in the morning. High-quality sleep (with plenty of deep and REM sleep) supports memory consolidation and associative thinking, making it a creative powerhouse. If you consistently get 7.5+ hours of high-quality sleep (here’s how), your brain will connect dots you didn’t know were related. Keep a notepad close to your bed to write down what comes up first thing in the morning.

Tip 3: Retreat
I’ve got a confession to make. Over 90 percent of my best ideas came to me on weekend silent retreats, which I do a couple of times each year (at this beautiful monastery-turned-meditation center in Bavaria). But you don’t have to go that far. A retreat does not require a monastery. It requires intentional solitude and structured silence. Spend one morning each weekend alone with your thoughts. Go for a longer walk and leave your phone at home. Or sit somewhere quiet with a notebook and a single question. You’ll be shocked at the ideas that will bubble up out of nowhere. Silence is not empty. It is fertile.

3) Deliberate implementation
Finally comes implementation, the disciplined execution that turns insight into tangible results, like concepts, plans, or presentations. If you want the muse to show up and kiss you, you’ve got to be there at your desk, working. Creativity without execution is daydreaming.

Tip 1: Ultrafocus
Creative implementation requires what Cal Newport calls Deep Work (again, that book is a must-read). Our “Ultrafocus” method is a simple way to make this work on a busy schedule. Make it a priority to focus intensely on that task for 60-90 minutes at a time each day. Use our 30-3-11 rule to time it when your energy and motivation are highest: ~30 minutes after waking, ~3 hours after waking, or ~11 hours after waking. For 75% of us, mornings are best. If you want to learn more about the Ultrafocus method, read this article.

Tip 2: Whiteboard Effect
In Deep Work, Cal Newport also describes a phenomenon called the Whiteboard Effect. Newport defines it as a form of collaborative deep work in which working with others pushes you deeper than working alone. It is not simply brainstorming; it refers specifically to deep, concentrated collaboration. When two or three people focus intensely on a hard problem in the same space, creativity compounds. The presence of another person waiting for your next insight increases your depth of focus, because you feel a subtle social pressure to contribute something meaningful. And because you must articulate your thinking clearly in front of others, vague ideas get exposed, refined, and often transformed into breakthroughs.

Tip 3: Show your work
There is nothing more motivating and terrifying than sharing your work publicly. We are social animals, so accountability and exposure will bring out your best thinking. When I started this newsletter almost five years ago, it felt frightening. Yet, it quickly became the foundation of my business. When I started posting on LinkedIn regularly 2.5 years ago, it was intimidating. A couple of months later, it helped me secure a major book deal with nine top publishers around the globe, including Portfolio Penguin (who publish authors like Cal Newport, Ryan Holiday, and Oprah Winfrey) in the United States. If you want to learn more about how you can leverage your creativity to grow your business, book a free discovery call with me here.

Creativity is not magic.

It is quality inspiration, unconscious incubation, and deliberate implementation.

If you have a brain, you’re as capable of it as anyone.

So here’s my question for you:

What is the one hard problem in your life right now that deserves your best creative thinking?

And here’s my challenge for you:

Get creative and use the 3I Method to solve that problem this week:

1) Put your phone away one hour before and after bed.
2) Spend 30 minutes a day without audiovisual input to let ideas surface.
3) Focus deeply for 60-90 minutes to turn these ideas into tangible results.

Your brain is far more creative than you realize.

Until next month,
Christian

PS:
Are you struggling to focus on the important work being busy with urgent stuff? Are you feeling tired throughout the day despite sleeping for 7 or 8 hours at night? Are you having trouble dealing with high stress at work and "switching off" at home?

If that sounds familiar, my Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 Coaching Program is for you. In it, I personally provide the support, systems and accountability that executives, entrepreneurs and leaders need to double their productivity and master stress in just 3 months.

Since 2023, I’ve coached 85+ executives, entrepreneurs and leaders on Becoming Ultraproductive. The program includes:

• 1:1 personal coaching with me over 3 months (6 sessions customized to your needs)

• Tailored systems to optimize your focus, energy, motivation, sleep, stress & more

•  A guaranteed 100% productivity increase (not kidding)

Interested? Learn more and book your free discovery call here while you can. I only take on 10 clients at a time and seats are booking fast.

Want to grow and monetize your LinkedIn (fast)?

There are 800 million users on LinkedIn, and 99% of them aren’t creators.

Translation? There has never been a better time to grow an audience on LinkedIn.

Unlike most other LinkedIn growth coaches, my co-author Eric Partaker and I walked the talk:

• We’ve built a 1+ million audience across LinkedIn (1,000,000+ followers) and our newsletters (200,000+ subscribers) in just 12 months

• We’ve created a 7-figure business from our LinkedIn thought leadership through services (e.g. coaching) and products (e.g. courses)

• We’ve been ranked #1 LinkedIn creators by Favikon and got a book deal with Portfolio Penguin for our first book

Our #1 goal for this coaching program is to make it the highest ROI investment of your life. Learn more and book a free discovery call here so that we can get in touch.

2 more ways I can help you

Want a free PDF of my top infographics? Get it here.

Interested in sponsorships for my newsletter or LinkedIn? Get in touch here.

Dear readers,

Next week is Valentine’s Day. But don’t worry, there will be no relationship advice from me. There is, however, an interesting pattern worth noting: by Valentine’s Day, around 80% of New Year’s resolutions have already fallen apart. For most people, the reason is not a lack of knowledge or motivation. Rather, they lack systems, support, and accountability. That’s why I want to share two quick announcements.

First, I have three open seats in my Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 Coaching Program in March. Over three months, I work with executives, entrepreneurs, and leaders by personally providing the support, systems, and accountability they need to double their productivity and master stress. The program is limited to 10 clients at a time and includes a guaranteed 100% increase in productivity. Seats will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so if you’re interested, learn more and get in touch here today.

Second, I will be hosting a free 60-minute live masterclass on how to set and crush your biggest goals in 2026. It takes place on February 19. You’ll learn how to set ambitious goals, stay focused on what truly matters, and turn intention into consistent progress this year. You’ll also get actionable, science-based systems you can apply right away, followed by a live Q&A to address your specific challenges. Spots are limited, so sign up here today to secure yours. 

On to today’s post!

“What would it be like if I could accept life, accept this moment, exactly as it is?” — Tara Brach

Why it works

Tara Brach (pictured) is a clinical psychologist, meditation teacher, and author who blends mindfulness with modern psychology. In her eponymous New York Times bestseller, she defines Radical Acceptance as the willingness to fully acknowledge what is happening in the present moment, including your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. Rather than trying to suppress, fix, or escape experience, Radical Acceptance invites us to meet reality exactly as it is, not as we wish it to be.

For a long time, this idea really turned me off. I misunderstood Radical Acceptance as passive, powerless, and incompatible with ambition. That changed when I encountered a simple yet powerful equation that is central to the book: suffering equals pain multiplied by resistance. Suffering does not arise from pain itself, but from our mental struggle with it. Pain (think fear, rejection, or frustration) is inevitable. Suffering, however, is optional. It arises from resistance, judgment, and the belief that this should not be happening. This creates a multiplication effect: the more you resist, the more you suffer, even when the pain itself is small. A minor annoyance can turn into a huge ordeal. But if resistance drops to zero, suffering drops to zero too, even if pain remains.

This same insight is echoed in modern psychology, particularly in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, which shows that lowering resistance to inner experience is often the fastest way to reduce suffering and regain effective action. Crucially, acceptance does not make you passive. It puts you in a better position to deal with what is actually happening. It does not block change, but creates the space for it. Acceptance is not a vague mindset, but a trainable skill. In daily life, resistance shows up most often in three domains: our emotions, thoughts, and urges. Here’s how to work with each of them.

How to do it

1) Accept your emotions (RAIN)
Research shows that suppressing negative emotions doesn’t make them disappear, but actually makes them stronger. Wanting unpleasant emotions to go away is human. Trying to fight them, however, tends to amplify them. Tara Brach’s most widely used method for working with emotions is RAIN, a simple practice designed to lower resistance and interrupt automatic emotional reactions.

Here’s how to practice RAIN in the moment:

• Recognize what is happening.

• Allow the experience to be there, just as it is.

• Investigate with interest and care.

• Nurture with self-compassion.

RAIN is not about indulging emotions or getting stuck in them. It is about meeting them so they can move through you rather than get stuck inside you. If you want to dive deeper into RAIN, start here.

2) Accept your thoughts (Meditation)
Meditation applies the same core logic to thoughts that RAIN applies to emotions. Thoughts are not the problem. Resisting them is. Meditation trains you to let thoughts arise and pass without identifying with them, elaborating them, or trying to get rid of them.

Here’s a simple meditation practice:

• Sit quietly and focus on your breath.

• Count each exhalation up to ten.

• When your attention drifts (as it always will), gently return to the breath.

• Begin counting exhalations up to ten again.

Practicing this regularly for five to ten minutes a day (ideally in the morning) builds the capacity to see thoughts as mental events rather than facts you must act on. Over time, this allows you to focus when you want to and let go when you should. If you want to dive deeper into meditation, this resource is the best I’ve come across.

3) Accept your urges (Acceptance & Commitment)
Most people believe they must fight unwanted urges in order to change them. When those urges inevitably persist, this struggle is often interpreted as a personal failure. Yet research on self-compassion suggests the opposite. Harsh self-judgment often ends up strengthening the very patterns we want to overcome.

Here’s what to do instead:

• Notice and allow the urge as a current pattern, without labeling it as good or bad or turning it into a personal failure.

• Reconnect with what matters to you in this situation. What kind of person do you want to be here?

• Choose the smallest next action that aligns with that identity, without forcing immediate change.

Sustainable change often begins with acknowledging current experience and behavior without adding shame, rather than attacking it. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy captures this insight simply: focus on what you can influence and accept the rest. If you want to dive deeper, read this.

Acceptance does not mean approving of everything you do. It means seeing clearly what is happening, so you can choose actions that align with what truly matters to you.

Take a simple example most of us know all too well: a flight delay. The pain is unavoidable. The plane is late. That is reality. Resistance shows up when you start complaining, getting angry, or replaying thoughts like “this shouldn’t be happening.” Emotionally, you fuel frustration. Mentally, you keep rehearsing the same story. Behaviorally, you snap at people or stew in resentment. The result is suffering. Not because of the delay itself, but because resistance multiplies the pain and can easily ruin your entire day. Acceptance looks different. You notice the frustration without fighting it. You allow thoughts like “this is annoying” without turning it into a catastrophe. You accept what you cannot change and choose a constructive action instead—reading, working, or simply resting. The pain remains. But when you lower resistance, the suffering drops, too.

Here’s another example that, as a father of a two-year-old and a nine-month-old, I’m experiencing quite a lot these days. You are trying to put your child to sleep. An hour passes. The crying continues. You are exhausted. That is the pain. Resistance shows up when emotions like frustration escalate, or thoughts like “this can’t be happening” take over. Emotionally, frustration escalates. Mentally, you feel trapped. Behaviorally, you tense up or become short-tempered. Yet resistance does not make the situation better. It quietly makes it worse. Acceptance starts when you allow your own exhaustion to be there. You stop fighting the moment. You respond with presence instead of pressure. You remind yourself that your child is not giving you a hard time, but is having a hard time. And only after the situation is resolved do you act where action truly helps, for example, by looking at their meal or nap timing.

In both examples, nothing changes on the outside at first. What changes is your relationship to what is happening. Acceptance first. Improvement follows. That alone reduces suffering and restores choice.

Here’s my challenge for you:
Pick one of the three methods and give it a try today:

1) RAIN for emotions
2) Meditation for thoughts
3) Acceptance & Commitment for urges

Do not aim for perfection. Aim for a little less resistance.

That alone can make you calmer and, paradoxically, far more effective.

Until next month,
Christian

PS: Want to grow and monetize your LinkedIn (fast)?

There are 800 million users on LinkedIn, and 99% of them aren’t creators.

Translation? There has never been a better time to grow an audience on LinkedIn.

Unlike most other LinkedIn growth coaches, my co-author Eric Partaker and I walked the talk:

• We’ve built a 1+ million audience across LinkedIn (1,000,000+ followers) and our newsletters (200,000+ subscribers) in just 12 months

• We’ve created a 7-figure business from our LinkedIn thought leadership through services (e.g. coaching) and products (e.g. courses)

• We’ve been ranked #1 LinkedIn creators by Favikon and got a book deal with Portfolio Penguin for our first book

Our #1 goal for this coaching program is to make it the highest ROI investment of your life. Learn more and book a free discovery call here so that we can get in touch.

2 more ways I can help you

Want a free PDF of my top infographics? Get it here.

Interested in sponsorships for my newsletter or LinkedIn? Get in touch here.

Dear readers,

First off, Happy New Year!

Before we get to today’s post, here are two ways to help you start 2026 strong.

First, my friend and bestselling author Chris Bailey, whom TED once called “the most productive man you’d ever hope to meet,” has just published his new book Intentional. I read an early copy and really loved it. The book is packed with timeless principles and practical advice you can apply right away. It’s a science-based, transformative guide to accomplishing your goals—and a genuine must-read. In today’s LinkedIn post, I shared three powerful methods from the book that I use all the time. You can order Intentional here.

Second, I will be hosting a free 60-minute live masterclass on how to double your productivity without burning out on January 15. After coaching 100+ top executives, I have learned one core truth: most people don’t need more time. They need more focus, better energy, and a way to make stress work for them instead of against them. In the Becoming Ultraproductive Masterclass, you will get actionable, science-based systems you can apply immediately, followed by a live Q&A to address your specific challenges. Spots are limited, so sign up here today to secure yours. Looking forward to meeting you live.

On to today’s post!

“Desire is persistent, but happiness is fleeting.” — Daniel Z. Lieberman

Why it works

Daniel Z. Lieberman (pictured) is a professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at George Washington University. He is one of the world’s leading experts on the science of motivation and reward and the author of the international bestseller The Molecule of More. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and countless leading scientific journals. Lieberman’s eponymous “molecule of more” is dopamine. While it’s widely viewed as a pleasure chemical, it’s much more than that. Dopamine lowers the threshold for taking goal-oriented action, sharpening our focus on outward goals and motivating us to pursue them. In short, dopamine is not about having, but about wanting (“more”); it’s our molecule of motivation.

In his book, Lieberman contrasts the dopaminergic system with a second system that he calls the “here and now” system. One of the key neurochemicals involved in this system is serotonin. While dopamine is the molecule of more, one helpful way to think about serotonin is as the molecule of enough. High levels of serotonin help balance the motivation and pursuit created by dopamine with feelings of appreciation and satisfaction. While dopamine pushes us toward the next goal, serotonin helps us appreciate what we already have. This shift allows us to move from striving to unwinding, from accomplishment mode to contentment mode. In short, serotonin is not about wanting, but about having (“enough”); it’s our molecule of content.

Dopamine provides the push toward goals and progress, while serotonin ensures that effort is paired with satisfaction and calm. Seen this way, we can rethink motivation not as a single force, but as a dynamic dance between the fleeting gratification of dopamine (which lets us strive for more) and the deep contentment of serotonin (which lets us appreciate what we have). In practice, this means emphasizing dopamine-driven focus and pursuit during the day and shifting toward serotonin-supported unwinding and contentment in the evening. Functionally, that’s why you want dopamine levels to be high relative to serotonin early in the day and serotonin levels to be high relative to dopamine late in the day. Here’s how to get started in three simple steps.

How to do it

Step 1: Set up the baselines
As both dopamine and serotonin are neurotransmitters, establishing stable baseline levels is crucial. Here’s how to do that while avoiding the most common dysregulators of both.

Dopamine baseline
To set up your dopamine baseline, nutrition is key. Start by ingesting caffeine, protein, and healthy fats. First, caffeine increases dopamine levels and enhances the availability of dopamine receptors. However, both quantity and timing matter: up to 400 mg is safe for healthy adults (about two regular cups of coffee). Since caffeine late in the day will disrupt your deep sleep, avoid it in the last eight hours before bed. Second, eat enough protein. Protein-rich foods include tyrosine, a substance that our body needs to produce dopamine. To boost dopamine, go for 1g of protein per kilogram of body weight a day. Third, get plenty of healthy fats, notably eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). It supports our dopamine baseline, and we get it from fatty fish (like salmon) and other foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids. If that’s hard, consider supplementing 1g of tyrosine and/or 1g of EPA per day. As always, talk to your physician first.

Apart from nutrition, exposure to light also strongly influences your dopamine levels. Morning sunlight is not only vital for setting our circadian rhythm and optimizing sleep. It’s also crucial for maintaining healthy dopamine levels throughout the day. So, expose yourself to sunlight in the first 30-60 minutes after waking and before 10 am. Any later and you’ll enter what scientists call the “circadian dead zone,” when your circadian master clock does not respond to sunlight. If you live in a season or place with little morning sunlight, you can support your circadian rhythm by using a portable daylight lamp. Here’s the one I use during the darker months of the year. Also, avoid bright, blue light after 10 pm. Viewing light late at night reduces your capacity to release dopamine during the day.

On top of nutrition and light, temperature is a third powerful lever for setting up your dopamine baseline. Adding some cold exposure to your morning routine boosts its levels significantly and sustainably. The increase amounts to around 250%, which is the same rise one gets from cocaine. Wild, isn’t it? Also, the rise in dopamine lasts for several hours afterward. The bad news: this is never going to feel great, but that’s the point. The good news: you don’t need an ice bath or expensive cold plunge to get the benefits. Just take a cold shower. To avoid cold shock, put safety first: Start your shower nice and warm; then turn it to cold for 30-60 seconds at the end. Learn more about morning cold showers here.

Serotonin baseline
To set up your serotonin baseline, you can use the same three levers around nutrition, light, and temperature. In terms of nutrition, while our body needs tyrosine to produce dopamine, the biological precursor for serotonin is tryptophan. Foods high in tryptophan include white meat (e.g. turkey), fish, and starchy carbohydrates, which is why having some bread, potatoes, pasta or rice with dinner can be a good thing. As a bonus, these foods lower levels of the “stress hormone” cortisol. As with caffeine, both quantity and timing matter. Don’t overdo it and keep portions reasonable. Also, protect your deep sleep by not eating anything in the last three hours before bed.

While getting plenty of light early in the day is vital to setting up your dopamine levels, avoiding bright blue light at night not only protects your dopaminergic system but also your serotonergic “here and now” system. Serotonin is the precursor to melatonin, a major sleepiness hormone, and viewing bright light late in the day inhibits our body clock’s signal to convert serotonin into melatonin, making it harder for us to wind down and eventually fall deeply asleep. So again, after getting 10 minutes of sunlight into your eyes before 10 am, you want to avoid bright, blue light after 10 pm. Learn more about using light to optimize energy and sleep here. 

As with dopamine, temperature is the third powerful lever for setting up your serotonin baseline. While cold exposure in the morning significantly and sustainably increases dopamine levels, a hot shower, bath or sauna can have a powerful effect on serotonin levels late in the day. As with cold exposure, you don’t need expensive equipment (like a sauna) to benefit from some heat. A hot shower or bath is a great place to start. And as it turns out, the calming effects of heat exposure are quite significant. According to sleep expert Matthew Walker, a hot bath can increase deep sleep by up to 40 minutes.

Most common baseline dysregulators
Last but not least, avoid behaviors and substances that chronically dysregulate your dopamine and serotonin baselines. The most common examples include doomscrolling, comfort foods, and excessive alcohol.

Doomscrolling engages dopamine-driven reward learning through novelty, unpredictability, and information seeking, even when the content itself is negative. Repeated exposure can reinforce habitual checking behaviors, increasing attentional fragmentation, heightened stress, and even anxiety. At the same time, chronic exposure to negatively valenced information is associated with reduced serotonergic functioning, likely mediated by increased stress, threat vigilance, and rumination.

Comfort foods (also known as ultra-processed foods) trigger dopamine release due to their high sugar and fat content. Consumed frequently, this dopaminergic response can become blunted, requiring larger or more frequent “hits” to achieve the same effect and increasing cravings in the process. Comfort foods also negatively affect the gut microbiome, thereby indirectly influencing serotonin synthesis and regulation via the gut-brain axis.

Excessive alcohol produces a short-term increase in dopamine and serotonin, leading to transient pleasure and social ease. This acute effect is followed by a longer-lasting reduction in dopaminergic and serotonergic activity, leaving mood and motivation lower than baseline—and increasing the urge to drink again. With repeated use, neuroadaptation and tolerance develop, prolonging this post-drinking dip and reinforcing cycles of craving and dependence.

Phew, that was a lot. Let me be clear: there’s nothing wrong with scrolling through your feeds, enjoying some good food, or having a drink (or two) once in a while, especially over the holidays. But if any of these behaviors have turned into habits that you feel are clearly holding you back, this article will show you how to break them.

Step 2: Boost dopamine during the day
In addition to setting up your baselines for dopamine and serotonin, you want your dopamine levels to be high relative to your serotonin levels during the day. The three tools that I use every single day for that are the Rule of Three, Time Blocking, and Non-Sleep Deep Rest.

The Rule of Three
As you get to work, a powerful way to boost dopamine levels is to remind yourself that you are moving toward your goals. While big milestones can feel intimidating, breaking them down to manageable, bite-sized chunks is immensely powerful. My favorite tool for pulling this off is the Rule of Three, which I first learned about in Bailey’s first book The Productivity Project. The rule is simple: at the beginning of each year, fast-forward to its end and ask yourself, “By the time this year is over, what three main things will I want to have accomplished?” Personally, I use that rule to plan my year by setting three professional and three personal goals in January. And each Monday, I break these down into three goals that I want to accomplish by the end of the week. As Jim Collins has famously said, “If you have more than three priorities, you don’t have any.”

Time Blocking
Time blocking is how peak performers like Bill Gates, Jack Dorsey, and Marc Andreessen structure their days. A Harvard Business Review survey of 1,000 productivity strategies ranked time blocking as the most effective. At its core, time blocking uses what scientists call “implementation intentions”—a fancy way of saying that instead of just deciding what you’ll do, you also decide when you’ll do it. For example, instead of planning to “do focused work on a project,” you schedule it from 8 am to 9 am. According to psychologist Peter Gollwitzer, this approach works especially well for tackling complex and ambiguous tasks. It’s also highly effective for chronic procrastinators. When they scheduled a specific time to complete a task, they were eight times as likely to follow through with that task. If you want to learn more about how I use time blocking (also known as timeboxing), read this article.

Non-Sleep Deep Rest
Most people lose up to two hours each day to the afternoon slump. It’s a period of low alertness and motivation that occurs between 1-3 pm. They then try to push through this slump, often fueled by late caffeine, which disrupts their sleep architecture at night. When you’re tired or unmotivated during the day, a much better way is to get 10 to 30 minutes of non-sleep deep rest (NSDR). Also known as Yoga Nidra, NSDR has been shown to increase dopamine levels by up to 65%. NSDR combines exhale-emphasized breathing and a body scan, and even Google CEO Sundar Pichai does it most days. Learn more about NSDR and other “Deep Rest” methods here.

Step 3: Increase serotonin in the evening
After you’ve set up your dopamine and serotonin baselines and maintained healthy levels of dopamine through the day, you want your serotonin to be relatively high in the evening. The three tools I swear by to achieve this are Three Good Things, the Accomplishment List, and Intermittent Digital Fasting.

Three Good Things
This tool was presented by world-leading positive psychologist Martin Seligman in his book Authentic Happiness. It’s as simple as it sounds: when calling it a day in the evening, write down three things that went well that day. These might include a great presentation, getting in some hard exercise, or having a meaningful conversation with a colleague or friend. On top of that, also add a brief explanation of why each of these things went well. For example: “My presentation landed well because I prepared thoroughly,” “the workout went well because I pushed beyond my comfort zone,” or “the conversation was positive because I was fully present.” This practice not only directs your attention to what you have, but also reinforces your sense of agency by highlighting the role you played in creating these positive outcomes.

Accomplishment List
This is one of the many amazing tools that Bailey describes in his book Intentional. Instead of focusing on what still remains undone, it shifts your attention to what you have already achieved. The idea is simple: keep a running list of accomplishments, large and small, across a chosen time frame. You might update it weekly by noting completed tasks, difficult conversations you handled well, or habits you maintained. Or you might keep a yearly list that captures the broader results your efforts have produced at work and at home. By regularly reviewing this list, you counteract negative self-talk and the feeling of never doing enough.

Intermittent Digital Fasting
The third tool is what entrepreneur and author Arianna Huffington calls Intermittent Digital Fasting. One hour before bedtime, put your smartphone out of sight. Give it its own bedroom, in a room other than your own. Plug it into a charger and get an old-school alarm clock to wake you up in the morning. Why do all this? Because it’s a powerful way to avoid what Harvard professor Ashley Whillans calls “time confetti.” While we have more leisure time than 50 years ago, she argues, it has become far less restorative because our free time is constantly fragmented by screens. Instead of real downtime, we fill small gaps with quick digital distractions, leaving us feeling stressed and hungry for time, even during our leisure. Intermittent Digital Fasting counters this by creating clear boundaries around phone use. If you want to dive deeper into intermittent fasting (including activities that truly restore you during that last hour of the day), read this article.

Enduring drive comes from harnessing both the dopaminergic system for ambition, action, and goal pursuit and the serotonergic, “here and now” system for contentment, rest, and presence.

Here’s my question for you:
What are your three major professional and personal goals for 2026?

And here’s my challenge for you:
Pick your #1 baseline dysregulator (doomscrolling, comfort foods, or excessive alcohol) and work on avoiding it. In my experience, 99% of people regularly fall for at least one. So, why not experiment with some intermittent digital fasting, clean eating, or a Dry January this month (I’ll do one, too).

Also, use the Rule of Three to break your three major professional and personal goals for 2026 down into smaller, achievable weekly goals. Recall them in the morning to boost your dopamine each day.

Last but not least, try Seligman’s Three Good Things to boost your serotonin in the evening.

This might turn 2026 into one of your best years yet.

Christian

PS:
Are you struggling to focus on the important work being busy with urgent stuff? Are you feeling tired throughout the day despite sleeping for 7 or 8 hours at night? Are you having trouble dealing with high stress at work and "switching off" at home?

If that sounds familiar, my Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 Coaching Program is for you. In it, I personally provide the support, systems and accountability that executives, entrepreneurs and leaders need to double their productivity and master stress in just 3 months.

Since 2023, I’ve coached 85+ executives, entrepreneurs and leaders on Becoming Ultraproductive. The program includes:

• 1:1 personal coaching with me over 3 months (6 sessions customized to your needs)

• Tailored systems to optimize your focus, energy, motivation, sleep, stress & more

•  A guaranteed 100% productivity increase (not kidding)

Interested? Learn more and book your free discovery call here while you can. I only take on 10 clients at a time and seats are booking fast.

Want to grow and monetize your LinkedIn (fast)?

There are 800 million users on LinkedIn, and 99% of them aren’t creators.

Translation? There has never been a better time to grow an audience on LinkedIn.

Unlike most other LinkedIn growth coaches, my co-author Eric Partaker and I walked the talk:

• We’ve built a 1+ million audience across LinkedIn (1,000,000+ followers) and our newsletters (200,000+ subscribers) in just 12 months

• We’ve created a 7-figure business from our LinkedIn thought leadership through services (e.g. coaching) and products (e.g. courses)

• We’ve been ranked #1 LinkedIn creators by Favikon and got a book deal with Portfolio Penguin for our first book

Our #1 goal for this coaching program is to make it the highest ROI investment of your life. Learn more and book a free discovery call here so that we can get in touch.

2 more ways I can help you

Want a free PDF of my top infographics? Get it here.

Interested in sponsorships for my newsletter or LinkedIn? Get in touch here.

Dear readers,

Before we get to today’s post, I have exciting news.

On January 15, 2026, I will be hosting a free 60-minute live masterclass on how to double your productivity without burning out.

After coaching 100+ top executives, I have learned one core truth: most people don’t need more time. They need more focus, better energy, and a way to make stress work for them instead of against them.

In the Becoming Ultraproductive Masterclass, you will get actionable, science-based systems you can apply immediately, followed by a live Q&A to address your specific challenges.

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On to today’s post!

“The Comfort Zone is supposed to keep your life safe, but what it really does is keep your life small.” — Phil Stutz

Why it works

Phil Stutz (pictured) is known for his unconventional and highly practical approach to therapy, and he’s one of the most influential therapists of our time. Based in Los Angeles, Stutz’s clients include numerous Hollywood stars. One of them, Jonah Hill, was so thrilled by his guidance that he created the Netflix documentary Stutz to bring these ideas to a wider audience. Stutz also popularized his approach in his bestselling book The Tools. At the core of the book is a powerful insight: there are three aspects of reality that no one gets to avoid: pain, uncertainty, and constant work. Yet, that’s exactly what most of us try to do. We try to avoid pain and discomfort whenever possible, and we hold the implicit belief that life should be easy.

As a result, most people end up living their lives in their comfort zone. As Stutz explains, life provides endless possibilities. But when we pursue these possibilities, the first thing we meet is pain. Without a way to get through that pain, we resort to safety. As a result, we end up living a very limited version of the life we’re capable of. “A few rare individuals refuse to live limited lives,” Stutz writes in The Tools: “They drive through tremendous amounts of pain—from rejections and failures to shorter moments of embarrassment and anxiety. They also handle the small, tedious pain required for personal discipline, forcing themselves to do things we all know we should do but don’t—like exercising, eating right, and staying organized. Because they avoid nothing, they can pursue their highest aspirations.”

According to Stutz, anyone can learn to habitually step out of their comfort zone and do hard things. What makes this possible is the first of the five eponymous Tools he describes in his book. This tool is called the Reversal of Desire. It teaches you not just to tolerate discomfort, but to move toward it with intention. Used regularly, it enables you to grab your innate desire to avoid pain—and reverse it into a desire to face pain.

How to do it

The idea of the Reversal of Desire is both simple and powerful. It allows you to train yourself to move toward and through pain rather than away from it. And when you reverse your instinctive desire to avoid pain into action, your life will get much, much easier. Former Olympic weightlifter Jerzy Gregorek put it best: “Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.”

Before you try the Reversal of Desire, Stutz recommends picking a pain that you’ve been avoiding lately, like a tedious task, a phone call you’ve been putting off, or a project that seems overwhelming. Once you’ve chosen the pain, run it through the Reversal of Desire. Here’s how in three simple steps:

Step 1: “Bring it on.”
Focus on the pain you’re avoiding. Imagine it appearing before you as a cloud. Silently scream, “Bring it on!” Feel an intense desire for the pain to move you into the cloud.

Step 2: “I love pain.”
Scream silently, “I love pain!” as you keep going forward. Move so deeply into the pain that you’re at one with it.

Step 3: “Pain sets me free.”
Feel the cloud spit you out and close behind you. Say inwardly, “Pain sets me free!” As you leave the cloud, feel yourself propelled forward into a realm of pure light.

Let me be clear: This is not about being masochistic. It’s about desiring pain so you can shrink it. It’s about transforming the instinct to retreat into energy and action. It’s about wanting the discomfort because of the growth it unlocks.

Going through these three steps reliably reveals the secret that allows you to master pain: pain is never absolute. Your experience of it changes relative to how you react to it. When you move toward it, pain shrinks. When you move away from it, pain grows. If you flee from pain, it pursues you like a monster in a dream. If you confront that monster, it goes away.

Stutz described two easily recognizable moments (or “cues”) that remind us to use the Reversal of Desire in our daily lives. The first is right before you’re about to do something you want to avoid. “Let’s say you have to call someone who intimidates you, or you really need to get down to work,” Stutz writes: “At these moments, focus on the exact pain you’d feel if you began the action. Use the tool on that pain (multiple times if necessary) until you can feel the energy of the final step carrying you forward. Don’t stop to think—let it lead you right into taking the action you were avoiding.”

The second cue is when you’re thinking about having to do something you find extremely unpleasant and start negotiating with yourself. When that happens, we start thinking about it rather than doing it. As Stutz writes: “Why do I have to do it? I can’t do it, I’ll do it next week, etc. Thinking can’t help you act in the face of pain; in fact, it usually makes you even more avoidant. The only way your thoughts can help you master pain is if they trigger you to use the Reversal of Desire.”

Stuck in procrastination? Use the Reversal of Desire.

Avoiding a difficult conversation or decision? Use the Reversal of Desire.

Struggling with exercising, eating right, or staying organized? Use the Reversal of Desire.

Every time you move toward (and through) the pain you’ve been avoiding, you move a step closer to what you truly want in life.

Here’s my question for you:
What is the one thing you’ve been avoiding that, if you did it today, would move your life forward?

And here’s my challenge:
Use the Reversal of Desire on it right now. Not someday, not later. Today.

Until next year,
Christian

PS:
Are you struggling to focus on the important work being busy with urgent stuff? Are you feeling tired throughout the day despite sleeping for 7 or 8 hours at night? Are you having trouble dealing with high stress at work and "switching off" at home?

If that sounds familiar, my Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 Coaching Program is for you. In it, I personally provide the support, systems and accountability that executives, entrepreneurs and leaders need to double their productivity and master stress in just 3 months.

Since 2023, I’ve coached 85+ executives, entrepreneurs and leaders on Becoming Ultraproductive. The program includes:

• 1:1 personal coaching with me over 3 months (6 sessions customized to your needs)

• Tailored systems to optimize your focus, energy, motivation, sleep, stress & more

•  A guaranteed 100% productivity increase (not kidding)

Interested? Learn more and book your free discovery call here while you can. I only take on 10 clients at a time and seats are booking fast.

Want to grow and monetize your LinkedIn (fast)?

There are 800 million users on LinkedIn, and 99% of them aren’t creators.

Translation? There has never been a better time to grow an audience on LinkedIn.

Unlike most other LinkedIn growth coaches, my co-author Eric Partaker and I walked the talk:

• We’ve built a 1+ million audience across LinkedIn (1,000,000+ followers) and our newsletters (200,000+ subscribers) in just 12 months

• We’ve created a 7-figure business from our LinkedIn thought leadership through services (e.g. coaching) and products (e.g. courses)

• We’ve been ranked #1 LinkedIn creators by Favikon and got a book deal with Portfolio Penguin for our first book

Our #1 goal for this coaching program is to make it the highest ROI investment of your life. Learn more and book a free discovery call here so that we can get in touch.

2 more ways I can help you

Want a free PDF of my top infographics? Get it here.

Interested in sponsorships for my newsletter or LinkedIn? Get in touch here.

“Time management is pain management.” — Nir Eyal

Why it works

Nir Eyal (pictured) is a leading expert on habit formation and focus. A former startup founder and Stanford lecturer, he’s best known for his bestselling books Hooked and Indistractable, which explore how habits form and how to regain control over our attention. Nir has also been one of my mentors ever since I began writing online in 2020, and he was the one who encouraged me to write my first book. I read an early copy of his upcoming third book, Beyond Belief, and absolutely LOVED it. It’s a brilliant guide to stop limiting yourself and achieve breakthrough results. You can pre-order it here. And for my US-based readers, I'm sponsoring 30 copies. To stand a chance to win, take 30 seconds and enter here.

In his previous bestselling book Indistractable, Nir busts the common myth that human motivation is governed by the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. “Even when we think we’re seeking pleasure,” he writes, “we’re actually driven by the desire to free ourselves from the pain of wanting.” This mechanism helps explain why many bad habits take hold in the first place. When a behavior offers even brief relief from discomfort, our brains learn to repeat it, even when it works against us. As Samuel Johnson famously observed, “The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.”

Fortunately, we can break any bad habit, no matter how strong it might feel or how long we’ve been falling prey to it. In our coaching practice, we use a proven three-step method to help our clients pull this off. Below, we’ll look at each step and show how to apply them to three of the most common habits people want to break: doomscrolling, which drains time and leaves us mentally depleted; comfort foods, which send our energy levels on a rollercoaster ride and disrupt sleep; and alcohol, which undermines our health and well-being.

How to do it

Step 1: Identify the pain
If you want to break a bad habit, start by identifying the underlying pain you’re trying to relieve yourself from. When it comes to doomscrolling, comfort foods, and alcohol, the underlying pain is usually stress, worry, or anxiety. These feelings are completely normal, and wanting quick relief from them is part of being human. But while indulging in social media, a sugary snack, or a nightcap might help take the edge off a hard day, it eventually backfires. You feel worse the next morning after poor sleep, and over time, the physical and mental consequences will inevitably show up.

In Hooked, Nir recommends a powerful method for identifying the root cause of a problem. It originates from the Toyota Production System. Taiichi Ohno, one of its key architects, described this method as the foundation of Toyota’s scientific way of working. It’s known as the 5 Why Method, and it works just as well for breaking bad habits as for improving a company. By asking “why?” five times, you’ll uncover the pain that’s driving a bad habit. Here’s how applying the method helped me understand why I was doomscrolling in the evening:

Why #1: Why am I doomscrolling?
Because I want to know what’s going on in the world.

Why #2: Why do I want to know what’s going on?
Because I feel uneasy when I’m not up to date.

Why #3: Why do I feel uneasy when I’m not up to date?
Because uncertainty stresses me out.

Why #4: Why does uncertainty stress me out?
Because it gives me a sense of losing control.

Why #5: Why does losing control bother me?
Because when I’m stressed, losing control amplifies that stress.

Step 2: Pick a replacement habit
Once you’ve identified the pain that’s driving the bad habit, choose a better habit that you can do instead when the pain shows up. When you’re stressed, worried, or anxious, this new habit lets you address the underlying pain in a healthier and more sustainable way.

For doomscrolling, the replacement habit might be as simple and enjoyable as watching a show, documentary, or movie. While doomscrolling is draining and depleting, getting absorbed by watching something you like can be surprisingly restorative and relaxing.

For comfort foods, the replacement habit might be having a healthy snack, cup of tea, or decaf coffee. We all need to eat and drink, and an apple, a couple of nuts, or a cup of chamomile tea can provide relief without any negative consequences.

For alcohol, the replacement habit might be choosing an alcohol-free version of your favorite drink. Tasty alcohol-free beers are widely available now, and there are even wines and spirits that come remarkably close to the real thing.

Step 3: Make the old habit difficult
After you’ve replaced the bad habit with a better one, make the old habit as difficult as possible. Willpower won’t save you once motivation dips or a hard day hits, so adding some friction is key. Bonus points if you make the replacement habit as easy as possible so it becomes the natural choice rather than the old one.

For doomscrolling, try Intermittent Digital Fasting. Put your phone into its own bedroom (not yours) one hour before bed and let it “sleep in” for at least one hour after you wake up. While this might feel uncomfortable at first, it gets easier each day. You’ll dramatically improve your sleep and win back 14 hours a week. If you want to dive deeper into Intermittent Digital Fasting, including ideas for better ways to use that time, check out this article.

For comfort foods, stop buying them when you do your grocery shopping. You can’t eat what’s not in your house. Instead of comfort foods, stock up on what Max Lugavere calls Genius Foods: almonds, blueberries, dark chocolate, eggs, wild salmon, broccoli, avocados, extra-virgin olive oil, grass-fed beef, and dark leafy greens. Consumed in moderation, the first three make great snacks, and all ten offer an excellent framework for building one’s diet around low-sugar plants and properly raised animal products (get more tips on improving your health here). I personally eat five or more Genius Foods every day.

For alcohol, consider doing a Dry January. Announce this to your friends and family to create accountability. Also, stock up on your favorite alcoholic-free drinks. If you do not want to go cold turkey, limit your consumption to two to six drinks per week. Anything above that is really bad for you (here’s why). Here’s how I went from seven or more to two. First, halve the amount per glass (et voilà: now you can have 4 drinks a week). Second, resort to alcohol-free versions of your favorite drink whenever possible. Third, only drink on weekends or special occasions (nothing wrong with enjoying a good glass (or two) on Christmas or New Year’s Eve).

I used to struggle with all three for many years.

But when I finally identified the underlying pain, picked a replacement habit, and made the old habit difficult (and the better habit easy), things changed quickly and dramatically.

Despite having two kids under two, I now sleep, feel, and work better than ever and only rarely end up soothing myself with doomscrolling, comfort foods, alcohol, or any of the several other bad habits I got rid of using the three steps outlined above.

Here’s my challenge for you:

Pick a bad habit that you’ve been trying to break.

Use the 3 steps to break that habit this month (or next).

This might well turn 2026 into one of your best years ever.

Christian

PS:
Are you struggling to focus on the important work being busy with urgent stuff? Are you feeling tired throughout the day despite sleeping for 7 or 8 hours at night? Are you having trouble dealing with high stress at work and "switching off" at home?

If that sounds familiar, my Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 Coaching Program is for you. In it, I personally provide the support, systems and accountability that executives, entrepreneurs and leaders need to double their productivity and master stress in just 3 months.

Since 2023, I’ve coached 85+ executives, entrepreneurs and leaders on Becoming Ultraproductive. The program includes:

• 1:1 personal coaching with me over 3 months (6 sessions customized to your needs)

• Tailored systems to optimize your focus, energy, motivation, sleep, stress & more

•  A guaranteed 100% productivity increase (not kidding)

Interested? Learn more and book your free discovery call here while you can. I only take on 10 clients at a time and seats are booking fast.

Want to grow and monetize your LinkedIn (fast)?

There are 800 million users on LinkedIn, and 99% of them aren’t creators.

Translation? There has never been a better time to grow an audience on LinkedIn.

Unlike most other LinkedIn growth coaches, my co-author Eric Partaker and I walked the talk:

• We’ve built a 1+ million audience across LinkedIn (1,000,000+ followers) and our newsletters (200,000+ subscribers) in just 12 months

• We’ve created a 7-figure business from our LinkedIn thought leadership through services (e.g. coaching) and products (e.g. courses)

• We’ve been ranked #1 LinkedIn creators by Favikon and got a book deal with Portfolio Penguin for our first book

Our #1 goal for this coaching program is to make it the highest ROI investment of your life. Learn more and book a free discovery call here so that we can get in touch.

2 more ways I can help you

Want a free PDF of my top infographics? Get it here.

Interested in sponsorships for my newsletter or LinkedIn? Get in touch here.

“Just because you can use video doesn’t mean you have to.” — Jeremy Bailenson

Why it works

Jeremy Bailenson (pictured) is a Professor of Communication at Stanford University and the founding director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab. As one of the world’s leading experts on how digital environments shape the human mind, his research explores the effects of virtual reality, video calls, and other forms of mediated communication on our performance and well-being—and how we can use these tools more intentionally to improve both.

In a landmark 2021 paper, Bailenson systematically defined and explained what he calls Zoom Fatigue—a state of mental, physical, and psychological exhaustion that arises from prolonged exposure to video conferencing. His research reveals that our brains struggle with video calls for several interconnected reasons, notably the constant need to see ourselves on screen, sustain unnatural eye contact at close range, and exaggerate nonverbal cues for the camera. Together, these factors overstimulate the brain and drain our cognitive energy.

The good news is that small, science-backed tweaks can dramatically reduce Zoom Fatigue. Here are 3 simple fixes based on Bailenson’s research and advice.

How to do it

Step 1: Hide self-view
Constantly seeing yourself on screen during video calls is mentally draining. Staring at your own image in a small window creates an “all-day mirror” effect, which is highly unnatural. Bailenson explains: “In the real world, if somebody was following you around with a mirror constantly—so that while you were talking to people, making decisions, giving feedback, getting feedback—you were seeing yourself in a mirror, that would just be crazy.” It heightens self-monitoring, activates self-evaluation circuits in the brain, and increases cognitive load, which can be very taxing.

The fix: hide self-view by turning it off in Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or your preferred video chat platform. Doing so allows your mind to relax and makes it easier to stay present, confident, and energized throughout both the meeting and your day. This doesn’t mean switching off your camera—others will still see you—but it removes the constant mirror effect on your end. Here’s how: in Zoom, right-click your video and select Hide Self View; in Microsoft Teams, click View, then More options, and select Hide me; in Google Meet, hover over your video tile in the browser, click More options, and select Hide self view.

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Step 2: Reduce face size
Too much close-up eye contact can be surprisingly stressful. Both the constant gaze and the oversized faces on screen feel unnatural to our brains. In real-life meetings, eye contact naturally ebbs and flows as people look at the speaker, glance at their notes, or briefly look away. On video calls, however, everyone appears to be staring at everyone else the entire time. Compounding the effect, faces often appear at a distance that would feel uncomfortably close in real life: when someone’s face is that close to ours in real life, our brain reads it as a high-stakes situation that—in the real world—would either lead to intimacy or conflict. “What’s happening, in effect, when you’re using Zoom for many, many hours is that you’re in this hyper-aroused state,” says Bailenson.

The fix: take your video platform out of full-screen mode and shrink the window to reduce the perceived face size. This simple adjustment lowers arousal and stress levels, helping you feel calmer and more in control. I personally set my video chat app to display only the active speaker and place the window at the top center of my screen—keeping it roughly half the screen’s height and one-third of its width. That way, it captures just enough space for natural eye contact without visual strain.

Step 3: Switch to audio-only
Nonverbal communication is far more mentally demanding on video. In regular face-to-face conversations, gestures, posture, and subtle facial expressions happen effortlessly. On camera, however, we must exaggerate these cues to make them visible through a screen. As Bailenson notes, “You’ve got to make sure that your head is framed within the center of the video. If you want to show someone that you are agreeing with them, you have to do an exaggerated nod or put your thumbs up. That adds cognitive load as you’re using mental calories in order to communicate.”

The fix: during long video calls, take periodic “audio-only” breaks to let your brain recover. This could mean turning your camera off for a few minutes, standing up, stretching, or walking while continuing to listen. Even brief movement resets attention and restores focus. Personally, I try to take portions of longer meetings “off video” whenever possible. These intentional pauses help me sustain my energy and make my on-camera time feel more natural and focused.

Turning off self-view, shrinking the video window, and taking periodic “audio-only” breaks can make virtual meetings noticeably less tiring, less stressful, and more productive.

If you want to go pro at avoiding Zoom fatigue, choose meetings that are entirely audio-only whenever possible. As Bailenson notes, “Just because you can use video doesn’t mean you have to.” More often than not, a simple phone call is all you need.

The next time you open your video chat app for a day of back-to-back meetings, try these 3 simple fixes—and notice how much lighter and sharper you feel by the end of the day.

Until next month
Christian

PS:
Are you struggling to focus on the important work being busy with urgent stuff? Are you feeling tired throughout the day despite sleeping for 7 or 8 hours at night? Are you having trouble dealing with high stress at work and "switching off" at home?

If that sounds familiar, my Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 Coaching Program is for you. In it, I personally provide the support, systems and accountability that executives, entrepreneurs and leaders need to double their productivity and master stress in just 3 months.

Since 2023, I’ve coached 85+ executives, entrepreneurs and leaders on Becoming Ultraproductive. The program includes:

• 1:1 personal coaching with me over 3 months (6 sessions customized to your needs)

• Tailored systems to optimize your focus, energy, motivation, sleep, stress & more

•  A guaranteed 100% productivity increase (not kidding)

Interested? Learn more and book your free discovery call here while you can. I only take on 10 clients at a time and seats are booking fast.

Want to grow and monetize your LinkedIn (fast)?

There are 800 million users on LinkedIn, and 99% of them aren’t creators.

Translation? There has never been a better time to grow an audience on LinkedIn.

Unlike most other LinkedIn growth coaches, my co-author Eric Partaker and I walked the talk:

• We’ve built a 1+ million audience across LinkedIn (1,000,000+ followers) and our newsletters (200,000+ subscribers) in just 12 months

• We’ve created a 7-figure business from our LinkedIn thought leadership through services (e.g. coaching) and products (e.g. courses)

• We’ve been ranked #1 LinkedIn creators by Favikon and got a book deal with Portfolio Penguin for our first book

Our #1 goal for this coaching program is to make it the highest ROI investment of your life. Learn more and book a free discovery call here so that we can get in touch.

2 more ways I can help you

Want a free PDF of my top infographics? Get it here.

Interested in sponsorships for my newsletter or LinkedIn? Get in touch here.

“A thought is harmless unless we believe it.” — Byron Katie

Why it works

Byron Katie (pictured) is an American author and speaker whose work has helped millions of people find greater clarity and peace of mind. In her 2002 book Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life, she introduced a method called The Work. The book became a New York Times bestseller and continues to guide people worldwide in questioning the thought patterns that cause stress, conflict, and emotional suffering.

According to Katie, we don’t suffer because of events themselves, but because of our thoughts and interpretations about them. At its core, The Work helps us deal with what psychologists call limiting beliefs—the implicit stories our minds create to make sense of the world. When left unquestioned, these limiting beliefs distort perception, fuel stress, and narrow our capacity to respond effectively to what life throws at us.

From a neuroscience perspective, limiting beliefs arise because the brain is a prediction machine. It utilizes past experiences to predict the meaning of current events and the actions to take in response to them. When the same beliefs are repeated over time, the brain begins to treat them as reliable predictions, even when they don’t help us. By examining these beliefs through structured inquiry, The Work interrupts that predictive loop and allows the brain to update its internal model with new evidence. It consists of four questions and an inversion that can be applied to any limiting belief. Here’s how.

How to do it

Step 1: Identify a belief that’s limiting you
Start by choosing one belief that you sense is holding you back, stressing you out, or weighing on your professional or personal life. Because most beliefs operate below conscious awareness, this step can take some reflection. To get you started, here are a few I often hear when coaching clients on becoming Ultraproductive:

“There’s never enough time to get everything done.”                                  
“Sleep is a waste of time. I can get by with 6 hours.”
“I need to get rid of stress because it’s bad for me.”

For ambitious people, most limiting beliefs tend to cluster around what we call the three compulsive C’s: control, comparison, and chasing. Here are some examples.

Control
“If I don’t do it myself, it won’t be done right.”
“If I let go of this, everything will fall apart.”
“I have to get this done perfectly.”

Comparison
“Everyone else has it figured out.”
“I should be further ahead by now.”
“People respect me for my success, not for who I am.”

Chasing
“If I fail at this, I am a failure.”
“If I say no, I’ll miss my chance.”
“I’ll be happy once I accomplish X.”

Whatever belief resonates most with you, write it down specifically. The clearer it is, the easier it becomes to challenge and change it.

Step 2: Apply the four questions to it
After you’ve written down the belief, take it through Katie’s four questions.

Question 1: Is it true?
Ask yourself whether the belief is undeniably true. Be honest and objective.

Question 2: Can you absolutely know that it’s true?
Explore whether you can be 100% certain the belief is true. Consider where there might be room for doubt or alternative perspectives.

Question 3: How do you react when you believe it?
Investigate the consequences of holding the belief. How does it affect your emotions, body, behavior, and relationships?

Question 4: Who would you be without that belief?
Imagine the same situation without the belief. How would you feel, act, and relate to others if it no longer controlled you?

Step 3: Invert the belief
After you've gone through the four questions, do what Katie calls the turnaround. Invert the belief and examine how the new version feels. Does it bring relief? Could it be as true (or truer) than the original?

Here are the inversions of the common limiting beliefs of ambitious people listed above:

Control
Belief: “If I don’t do it myself, it won’t be done right.”
Inversion: “Trusting others enables them to do their best work.”

Belief: “If I let go of this, everything will fall apart.”
Inversion: “If I let go of control, things can come together more easily.”

Belief: “I have to get this done perfectly.”
Inversion: “Perfect is the lowest standard because it doesn’t exist; done is better than perfect.”

Comparison
Belief: “Everyone else has it figured out.”
Inversion: “No one has it all figured out. We’re all learning as we go.”

Belief: “I should be further ahead by now.”
Inversion: “I’m exactly where I need to be at this point in my life.”

Belief: “People respect me for my success, not for who I am.”
Inversion: “People value me for who I am, not for what I achieve.”

Chasing
Belief: “If I fail at this, I am a failure.”
Inversion: “Failing is necessary for success.”

Belief: “If I say no, I’ll miss my chance.”
Inversion: “Every no creates space for the right yes.”

Belief: “I’ll be happy once I accomplish X.”
Inversion: “Happiness comes from how I live today, not what I achieve tomorrow.”

Finally, look for genuine examples from your own life that support your inverted belief. Each time you find evidence that contradicts the old belief, you weaken its grip. From a neuroscience perspective, this practice helps retrain the brain’s prediction model—and replace outdated, limiting beliefs with better, empowering beliefs.

Since learning about the inversion of limiting beliefs during my PhD research on stress, unconscious processes, and performance, I’ve applied this method to many of my own limiting beliefs. 

I’ve also witnessed profound changes in many of my clients after helping them apply The Work.

It’s a simple and powerful way to loosen the hold of thought patterns that weigh on your professional or personal life.

Here’s my challenge for you this month:

Choose one limiting belief that has been on repeat in your mind.

Run it through the four questions and the turnaround.

Then, see what happens.

Christian

PS:
Here are my inversions of the three limiting beliefs I started with:

Belief: “There’s never enough time to get everything done.”
Inversion: “You don’t need more time, you need more focus.”

Belief: “Sleep is a waste of time. I can get by with 6 hours.”
Inversion: “You don’t need more sleep, you need deeper sleep.”

Belief: “I need to get rid of stress because it’s bad for me.”
Inversion: “You don’t need to get rid of stress, you need to make it work for you.”

If those three inversions resonated with you, my Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 Coaching Program is for you. In it, I personally provide the support, systems and accountability that executives, entrepreneurs and leaders need to double their productivity and master stress in just 3 months.

Since 2023, I’ve coached 85+ executives, entrepreneurs and leaders on Becoming Ultraproductive. The program includes:

• 1:1 personal coaching with me over 3 months (6 sessions customized to your needs)

• Tailored systems to optimize your focus, energy, motivation, sleep, stress & more

•  A guaranteed 100% productivity increase (not kidding)

Interested? Learn more and book your free discovery call here while you can. I only take on 10 clients at a time and seats are booking fast.

Want to grow and monetize your LinkedIn (fast)?

There are 800 million users on LinkedIn, and 99% of them aren’t creators.

Translation? There has never been a better time to grow an audience on LinkedIn.

Unlike most other LinkedIn growth coaches, my co-author Eric Partaker and I walked the talk:

• We’ve built a 1+ million audience across LinkedIn (1,000,000+ followers) and our newsletters (200,000+ subscribers) in just 12 months

• We’ve created a 7-figure business from our LinkedIn thought leadership through services (e.g. coaching) and products (e.g. courses)

• We’ve been ranked #1 LinkedIn creators by Favikon and got a book deal with Portfolio Penguin for our first book

Our #1 goal for this coaching program is to make it the highest ROI investment of your life. Learn more and book a free discovery call here so that we can get in touch.

2 more ways I can help you

Want a free PDF of my top infographics? Get it here.

Interested in sponsorships for my newsletter or LinkedIn? Get in touch here.

“Human relationships are not rocket science — they are far, far more complicated.” — James W. Pennebaker

Why it works

James W. Pennebaker (pictured) is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. He’s widely regarded as one of the most influential researchers in health psychology. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Scientific American, and countless psychology textbooks. Pennebaker is best known for an expressive writing practice commonly referred to as the Pennebaker Protocol. According to hundreds of peer-reviewed studies, the protocol significantly improves both mental and physical health.

At its core, the Pennebaker Protocol is about easing the weight of difficult emotional experiences by writing about them in a deliberate way. How it works is fascinating. Emotionally intense (or even traumatic) experiences deactivate our prefrontal cortex (the brain’s rational control center) while hyperactivating our amygdala (the brain’s emotional alarm system). Writing about the experience allows us to re-engage the prefrontal cortex to process difficult emotions. This enables our mind to make sense of the experience and shift from fragmented, confusing narratives to coherent stories that integrate emotions and reason in a healthy way.

The results are striking. The Pennebaker Protocol has been found to reduce worry and intrusive thoughts, facilitate the assimilation of the experience into our life story, enable psychological closure, and allow us to move on. The wide-ranging mental and physical benefits include reduced anxiety, depression, and rumination; better sleep quality; improved immune function; and relief from chronic pain and autoimmune symptoms. The best part: it only takes four sessions of 15 minutes each.

How to do it

Step 1: Pick a topic you worry about
First off, choose a topic. Pick one that you:

• find yourself thinking or worrying about repeatedly, and/or

• avoid thinking about because it feels too overwhelming, and/or

• sense is influencing your life in an unwanted or unhealthy way

In his work, Pennebaker refers to important emotional experiences, including trauma. Trauma generally refers to an experience that overwhelms the nervous system and has a lasting negative impact on its functioning. Psychologists distinguish between two types of trauma.

On the one hand, there’s “Big T” trauma. This includes major traumatic events such as accidents, disasters, and abuse. On the other hand, there’s “small t” trauma, which is also known as microtrauma. It includes less dramatic but still consequential experiences like conflicts, rejection, bullying, unresolved painful experiences, and the like.

The good news: the Pennebaker Protocol works on both everyday worries and distress tied to either “small t” or “Big T” trauma. This makes it a low-cost, evidence-based supplement (or complement) to psychotherapy. It works equally well whether handwritten or typed, and it’s 100% private — you can get rid of what you wrote afterward.

Step 2: Write about it for 15 minutes
After you’ve chosen a topic, set a timer and write about it for 15 minutes:

• Focus on your deepest thoughts and emotions related to the topic

• Let your emotions and thoughts flow freely

• Keep writing continuously without interruption (ignore grammar, spelling, and style)

As you write, pay special attention to:

• The facts and details of the experience itself

• The emotions tied to it (both at the time and in the present)

• The connections and consequences it has had across your life (think parents, childhood, school, work, friendships, romantic relationships, children, etc.)

Step 3: Repeat on four consecutive days
Repeat the second step on four consecutive days. Each session will naturally surface new angles and perspectives, and it’s perfectly fine to shift toward related experiences as they emerge. Alternatively, you can spread the four sessions across four consecutive weeks.

I’ve got a confession to make: I used to be a huge worrier.

Since learning about the Pennebaker Protocol during my PhD on the interplay between stress, other emotions and performance, I’ve used it on multiple emotional experiences from different stages of my life that once weighed heavily on me.

The results have been life-changing. Not only do I worry far less, sleep much better, and feel more content than ever before. I’ve also realized that my biggest personal and professional setbacks were, in fact, the seeds of my greatest successes.

So here’s my challenge for you:

Give the Pennebaker Protocol a try this month. 

Pick a topic that worries you and put fingers to keyboard (or pen to paper) for 15 minutes across four consecutive sessions. 

That’s just one hour that might well change the trajectory of your life.

Until next month,
Christian

PS:
Are you struggling to focus on the important work being busy with urgent stuff? Are you feeling tired throughout the day despite sleeping for 7 or 8 hours at night? Are you having trouble dealing with high stress at work and "switching off" at home?

If that sounds familiar, our Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 coaching program is for you. In it, I personally provide the support, systems and accountability that executives, entrepreneurs and leaders need to double their productivity and master stress in just 3 months.

Since 2023, I’ve coached 85+ executives, entrepreneurs and leaders on Becoming Ultraproductive. The program includes:

• 1:1 personal coaching with me over 3 months (6 sessions customized to your needs)

• Tailored systems to optimize your focus, energy, motivation, sleep, stress & more

•  A guaranteed 100% productivity increase (not kidding))

Interested? Learn more and book your free discovery call here while you can. I only take on 10 clients at a time and seats are booking fast.

1 more way I can help you

There are 800 million users on LinkedIn, and 99% of them aren’t creators.

Translation? There has never been a better time to grow an audience on LinkedIn.

Unlike most other LinkedIn growth coaches, my co-author Eric Partaker and I walked the talk:

• We’ve built a 1+ million audience across LinkedIn (1,000,000+ followers) and our newsletters (200,000+ subscribers) in just 12 months

• We’ve created a 7-figure business from our LinkedIn thought leadership through services (e.g. coaching) and products (e.g. courses)

• We’ve been ranked #1 LinkedIn creators by Favikon and got a book deal with Portfolio Penguin for our first book

Our #1 goal for this coaching program is to make it the highest ROI investment of your life. Learn more and book a free discovery call here so that we can get in touch.

PS: Interested in sponsorships for my newsletter and LinkedIn post?

Get in touch with me here.

“To make better decisions today that create happier tomorrows, we need to find ways to close the gap between our current and future selves.” — Hal Hershfield

Why it works

Hal Hershfield (pictured) is a Professor of Marketing, Behavioral Decision Making, and Psychology at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. After completing his PhD in psychology at Stanford, he became one of the world’s leading researchers on the power of our future self. His work has been published in top academic journals and featured in the New York Times, Harvard Business Review, and the Wall Street Journal. In 2023, he released his groundbreaking book Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today.

At the heart of Hershfield’s research lies a simple insight: the more connected we feel to our future selves, the better choices we make today. He found that people who felt greater psychological connectedness to their future selves saved more for retirement, exercised more, and were less likely to make unethical choices that could harm their relationships. The implication is clear: the stronger your bond with your future self, the more naturally and effortlessly you’ll make the right choices each day.

One of the most powerful ways to strengthen that bond is surprisingly simple, and it only takes 30 minutes: writing a letter to yourself from your future self. Hershfield’s research shows that this creates vividness by making your desired future feel real, tangible, and emotionally close. We’ve experienced this firsthand—and seen it with many of our coaching clients: writing such a letter creates a natural “pull” toward the future vision it lays out, reducing the need for constant willpower to keep “pushing” forward.

How to do it

Set aside 30 minutes and open a blank note on your screen (or grab pen and paper). Imagine your life three years from now. Why three? A one-year horizon is usually too close to dream boldly, while ten years often feels too abstract and distant. Three years is the sweet spot. To borrow from Bill Gates’ famous adage, most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in three.

So, picture yourself writing from September 2028 (or exactly three years from today). Describe in detail what a normal day in your life looks like — from morning to night. As I explained in my recent post on identity-based habit change, the three core domains of life are wealth, health and relationships. Structure your letter around these domains, and write as if you were already living that day (as shown in the visual above):

Wealth
Vividly describe your wealth three years from today:

• What does your typical workday look like?

• How much money are you making that year?

• What’s your lifestyle like (flat/house, vacations, etc.)?

Health
Vividly describe your health three years from today:

• How does your mental health feel (stress, happiness)?

• How does your physical health feel (fitness, weight)?

• Do you feel a sense of meaning and purpose?

Relationships
Vividly describe your relationships three years from today:

• Do you have a partner or children?

• What about your closest friendships?

• How are things with your family, especially your parents?

The more specific and detailed your vision, the better. Hershfield’s research shows that the more vivid your imagined future, the more compelling it becomes — and the more likely you are to take the daily actions that turn it into reality. 

Apart from making it vivid, there are two equally important principles we highlight for our coaching clients when they write their letter: make it ambitious and make it contented. For ambitious people, the first part usually comes naturally. This is about creating your dream life, so it’s perfectly fine to be bold:

• Want to earn six or seven figures and live in your dream home? Write it down.

• Want to be in the best mental and physical shape of your life? On that page.

• Want to find your dream partner and build a family together? Put it there.

Also, make it contented. This second part often surprises people when we first introduce it. You can make your letter contented by defining what “enough” means, especially in the wealth domain. Why? Because you’ll avoid the endless pursuit of “just a little bit more,” which is a recipe for a life of discontent and misery.

Balancing ambition with contentment will help you avoid that sorry fate. You’ll keep striving for what excites you while staying grounded in what actually matters most. As I recommended in last month’s post on goal-setting, pay attention to the trade-offs between wealth, health, and relationships. Here are a couple of helpful questions:

• How much yearly income is truly enough for me/us to feel secure?

• What kind of home would genuinely make me/us content?

• What vacations would bring me/us lasting joy?

Back in late 2022, I wrote a letter to myself from my future self, describing my Three-Year Vision.

I wrote about my workday, my income, my physical and mental health, the house and neighborhood I’d live in with my wife, and the two children we wanted to have over the next three years.

Looking at that letter as I write these lines, I realize I’ve surpassed almost all of it. The life of my 2025 self is beyond what my 2022 self ever dared to imagine. I’ve built a thriving coaching practice, sold my debut book to Portfolio Penguin, and my wife and I are raising two healthy, adorable kids in our dream home.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly how it all happened, but I’m confident that my letter guided countless small choices. When motivation wasn’t enough to push me forward, my Three-Year Vision pulled me ahead.

This weekend, I’ll sit down again to write a letter to myself from my future self, envisioning 2028. As we enter the final third of 2025, here’s my question for you: What does your dream life look like three years from now?

And here’s my challenge for you:
Take 30 minutes this weekend to write your own Three-Year Vision.

Writing that letter just once in three years is enough. Tuck it away, set a reminder to open it three years from now, and prepare to be astonished by how much of it has come true.

Here’s one thing I know for a fact: your future self will thank you.

Until next month,
Christian

PS:
Are you struggling to focus on the important work being busy with urgent stuff? Are you feeling tired throughout the day despite sleeping for 7 or 8 hours at night? Are you having trouble dealing with high stress at work and "switching off" at home?

If that sounds familiar, our Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 coaching program is for you. In it, I personally provide the support, systems and accountability that executives, entrepreneurs and leaders need to double their productivity and master stress in just 3 months.

Since 2023, I’ve coached 85+ executives, entrepreneurs and leaders on Becoming Ultraproductive. The program includes:

• 1:1 personal coaching with me over 3 months (6 sessions customized to your needs)

• Tailored systems to optimize your focus, energy, motivation, sleep, stress & more

•  A guaranteed 100% productivity increase (not kidding)

Interested? Learn more and book your free discovery call here while you can. I only take on 10 clients at a time and seats are booking fast.

1 more way I can help you

There are 800 million users on LinkedIn, and 99% of them aren’t creators.

Translation? There has never been a better time to grow an audience on LinkedIn.

Unlike most other LinkedIn growth coaches, my co-author Eric Partaker and I walked the talk:

• We’ve built a 1+ million audience across LinkedIn (1,000,000+ followers) and our newsletters (200,000+ subscribers) in just 12 months

• We’ve created a 7-figure business from our LinkedIn thought leadership through services (e.g. coaching) and products (e.g. courses)

• We’ve been ranked #1 LinkedIn creators by Favikon and got a book deal with Portfolio Penguin for our first book

Our #1 goal for this coaching program is to make it the highest ROI investment of your life. Learn more and book a free discovery call here so that we can get in touch.

PS: Interested in sponsorships for my newsletter and LinkedIn post?

Get in touch with me here.

“Decide what you stand for. And then stand for it, all the time.” — Clayton Christensen

Why it works

Clayton Christensen (pictured) was a Harvard Business School professor and one of the most influential business thinkers of our time. He was best known for his theory of Disruptive Innovation: the idea that new entrants often succeed not by competing head-on with incumbents, but by starting small in overlooked markets and gradually moving upmarket to unseat established players. 

Yet Christensen’s foray into personal growth may have left an even deeper legacy. His book How Will You Measure Your Life? grew out of a lecture he gave at Harvard Business School shortly after winning his first battle with cancer — the illness that would ultimately take his life at age 67. The lecture quickly went viral among students, and the book went on to inspire readers around the world. In it, Christensen shares a powerful idea: the same strategic principles that help great companies succeed can also guide you in building a life of meaning, integrity, and purpose.

At the core of his philosophy is a simple truth: life is all about trade‑offs. Time, energy, and attention are limited. And if we don’t allocate them consciously, they’ll be consumed by urgency, habit, and other people’s priorities. Three lessons stand out from Christensen’s work. First, you can accomplish anything in life, but not everything at once. Second, meaningful goals always come at a price. And third, you must be clear about whether you are truly willing to pay that price. Inspired by Christensen, we use a simple three‑question method in our coaching to help clients bring clarity, honesty, and commitment to the goals that matter most to them.

How to do it

Question 1: What exactly do I want?
As I explained in last month’s post, the three core domains of life are wealth, health and relationships. Most people drift through their days with vague aspirations. Common examples include “I want to be financially independent,” “I want to be in great shape,” or “I want to spend more time with my family.” 

Now here’s the problem: these aren’t goals. They are wishes. Unfortunately, wishes rarely produce meaningful results. But goals do. Here are some examples: 

Wealth:
Wish: “I want to be financially independent.”
Goal: “By the end of this year, I’ll save €25,000 and invest it in index funds.” 

Health:
Wish: “I want to be in great shape.”
Goal: “By Christmas, I’ll have lost 10 pounds and be able to run 6 miles without stopping.” 

Relationships:
Wish: “I want to spend more time with my family.”
Goal: “By December 31st, I’ll reduce my workweek to 45 hours.” 

As a first step, write down at least one meaningful goal for each of the three life domains to achieve by the end of this year. Here’s what that looks like for me: 

My wealth goals:

• Deliver the best manuscript of my debut book Ultraproductive that I’m capable of

• Double the size of my coaching business 

My health goals:

• Get plenty of quality sleep (with 90 minutes of both deep and REM sleep) on 80% of nights

• Bench press my own body weight for three sets of eight

My relationship goals:

• Spend 4+ hours of undivided attention daily with my wife and kids

• Have at least one meaningful conversation a month with each of my five closest friends

Question 2: What’s the price of getting there?
Once you’ve written down your goals, take an honest look and think about the actual price of accomplishing them. Here are some useful prompts: 

• How much time, energy, and attention will this take?

• What will I need to do each day and week? 

• What will I have to say no to, or sacrifice?

As you answer, pay special attention to trade-offs. Christensen believed that ignoring them (or making them unconsciously) is what derails most people. Every yes to one thing is a no to a thousand other things. Here’s what this means for my 2025 goals: 

My wealth goals:
To deliver my book while doubling my business, I dedicate my two most productive morning hours to writing. Afternoons are reserved for becoming a better coach and refining sales and marketing systems. To make time for this, I’m saying no (for now) to most speaking and sponsorship opportunities. 

My health goals:
To get 90 minutes of both deep and REM sleep most nights and bench press my body weight, I prioritize sleep hygiene, a protein‑rich and clean diet (with no more than two cheat meals per week), and six weekly workouts. That means saying no to late‑night phone use, alcohol except on special occasions (two drinks max), and energy‑draining foods.

My relationship goals:
To spend 4+ hours of undivided attention daily with my wife and kids and stay connected to close friends, I work 9–6 on weekdays and rarely on weekends. I’ve also cut out social media for entertainment, click‑driven news, and solo Netflix or movies (watching with my wife is fine).

When weighing a goal, don’t just consider the price of pursuing it. Also, consider the price of not pursuing it. That price often shows up as regret. So ask yourself: Ten years from now, will I regret not giving this a real shot?

Question 3: Am I really willing to pay that price?
Once you’re clear on the price of pursuing each goal, decide whether you want to pay it.

• If your goal is to create more wealth, are you really willing to earn more and spend less?

• If your goal is to be in great shape, are you really willing to eat well, exercise regularly, and prioritize sleep? 

• If your goal is to spend more time with family and friends, are you really willing to free up time and eliminate distractions?

If your answer is yes, act immediately. Start with the smallest meaningful step today. Turn big goals into daily habits and review your progress weekly. Momentum compounds. 

If your answer is no, that’s fine, too. Goals not acted on weigh us down. The discipline to release them creates more freedom and less anxiety than chasing them half‑heartedly. 

Remember: you can accomplish anything, but not everything. You can have it all in life, just not all at once. 

To bring that idea home, let me tell you about two coaching clients I worked with through the Three Questions: 

The first client, a senior executive at a world‑leading tech company, dreamed of writing a book. When we worked through the Three Questions, he realized the true price: early mornings or late nights writing, weekends sacrificed, building an audience to land a publisher, or creating an elaborate launch plan for self-publishing. Faced with those trade‑offs, he decided to park the idea and focus on higher‑priority goals in his professional and personal life. 

The second client, a bestselling author and communications expert, wanted to grow his audience on LinkedIn to grow his reach and business. When we worked through the questions, he recognized the price: producing multiple high‑quality posts every week and engaging actively with his audience. He chose to pay it. Once he doubled down, he quadrupled his followers, boosted conversions, and hit record book sales.

It’s not about chasing more. It’s about choosing better — and following through. 

After working with hundreds of executives, entrepreneurs and leaders, one lesson stands out for me: 

The most fulfilled people don’t try to do everything. They focus on the right things, and they do them with clarity and consistency. 

They know what they want. They have a system for making decisions that reflects it. And they move forward, one intentional step at a time. 

My question to you:
How much freedom and peace of mind would you gain by doubling down on what you really want? 

My challenge for you:
Ask yourself these Three Questions. Write down your answers. 

Then choose one action to take for each domain. 

Not someday, but today. 

Until next month,
Christian 

PS:
Are you struggling to focus on the important work being busy with urgent stuff? Are you feeling tired throughout the day despite sleeping for 7 or 8 hours at night? Are you having trouble dealing with high stress at work and "switching off" at home?

If so, check out our Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 coaching program. In it, I personally help executives, entrepreneurs and leaders develop the crucial habits to double their productivity without burning out.

Since 2023, I’ve coached 85+ executives, entrepreneurs and leaders on Becoming Ultraproductive. The program includes:

• 6 personalized one-on-one coaching sessions with me over three months

• Tailored systems to optimize your focus, motivation, sleep, stress & more

• A guaranteed 100% increase in productivity (not kidding)

Interested? Learn more and book your free discovery call here while you can. I’m only taking on 10 clients at a time and seats are booking fast.

1 more way I can help you

There are 800 million users on LinkedIn, and 99% of them aren’t creators.

Translation? There has never been a better time to grow an audience on LinkedIn.

Unlike most other LinkedIn growth coaches, my co-author Eric Partaker and I walked the talk:

• We’ve built a 1+ million audience across LinkedIn (1,000,000+ followers) and our newsletters (200,000+ subscribers) in just 12 months

• We’ve created a 7-figure business from our LinkedIn thought leadership through services (e.g. coaching) and products (e.g. courses)

• We’ve been ranked #1 LinkedIn creators by Favikon and got a book deal with Portfolio Penguin for our first book

Our #1 goal for this coaching program is to make it the highest ROI investment of your life. Learn more and book a free discovery call here so that we can get in touch.

PS: Interested in sponsorships for my newsletter and LinkedIn post?

Get in touch with me here.

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” — James Clear

Why it works

James Clear (pictured) is an American author and speaker best known for his 2018 book Atomic Habits. It has sold over 20 million copies, making it one of the best-selling non-fiction books of the 21st century. At the heart of Atomic Habits lies a powerful insight: real behavior change is identity-based. “The word identity was originally derived from the Latin words essentitas, which means being, and identidem, which means repeatedly,” Clear writes in the book. “So your identity is literally your ‘repeated beingness.’”

That’s why every action we take is a vote for the type of person we want to become. Repeating a desired behavior reinforces our chosen identity and turns it into a lasting habit. To make that easier, Clear introduces his four laws of behavior change: make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisfying. That means redesigning your environment to cue good habits, linking them to positive emotion, removing friction, and reinforcing them with immediate rewards.

My Ultraproductive co-author and world-leading CEO coach Eric Partaker has created a remarkably effective method called the Three Alarms. It brings identity-based habit change to life in a way that’s obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying. The method focuses on the three core domains of life: health, wealth (or work), and relationships. These areas are deeply connected: neglect one, and the others inevitably suffer. But by casting daily votes for the person we want to become in each domain, we gradually transform into our best selves. Here’s how to apply the method.

How to do it

The idea of the Three Alarms is both deceptively simple and powerful: You create an appealing identity for each of the three life domains, set a recurring alarm on your phone to remind you of each identity throughout your day, and deliver what Eric calls a “champion proof” — one daily action to embody that identity whenever the alarm goes off. Here’s what this looks like for him:

06:30 a.m.: World Fitness Champion
At 6:30 a.m., the first alarm goes off: World Fitness Champion. In the health domain, Eric has defined the best version of himself as relentless, pain-seeking, and varied in his approach to exercise. He obviously doesn’t literally believe he’s a World Fitness Champion, but that identity gives him an inspiring version of himself to embody early in the morning. He then completes the champion proof he’s chosen for the day — whether that’s heading to the gym for an intense workout, going for a run, or just opting for a brisk walk when time is tight.

09:00 a.m.: World’s Best Coach
In the wealth (or work) domain, Eric has defined his best self as decisive, inspiring, and reliable. That’s what the World’s Best Coach alarm reminds him of. Timed to go off at the start of his workday, it prompts him to show up fully for the CEOs, entrepreneurs, and leaders he works with. His champion proof could include focusing on finishing a key presentation, writing a standout piece of content, or simply being fully present and sharp for his coaching calls.

06:30 p.m.: World’s Husband and Father
At 6:30 p.m., Eric’s most important alarm goes off: World’s Best Husband and Father. That identity is playful, loving, and full of laughter. The alarm prompts the question, “How would the world’s best husband and father walk through that door right now?” His champion proofs typically include small acts of appreciation for his wife, like writing a handwritten note, telling her that he loves her, or bringing her a small surprise without any occasion. For his boys, it might be playing a game, reading a book together, or telling them how proud he is of them.

Again, for Eric, it’s not about believing he actually is the world’s best at these things. It’s about striving to become the best version of himself in the three domains that matter most. 

When your identity guides your behavior, and your behavior reinforces your identity, you begin to close the gap between who you are and who you want to be.

I started using the Three Alarms years ago, and they completely changed my life:

• My wealth alarm is Focus Monster. It goes off at 8:00 a.m. and reminds me to dedicate at least 60 minutes to deeply focused work on the most important task of the day — before checking emails or jumping into meetings.

• My health alarm is Exercise Machine. It goes off at 12:00 p.m. and reminds me to get in at least 30 minutes of intense exercise before lunch — usually a run or gym session.

• My relationship alarm, like Eric’s, is World’s Best Husband and Father. It goes off at 6:00 p.m. and reminds me to be the best version of myself at home — most importantly, by being fully present with my wife and kids.

Here’s my question to you:
How could this simple approach transform your health, wealth, and relationships?

And here’s my challenge for you:
Create your own Three Alarms and start casting daily votes for the person you want to become in each of these domains today.

I’d love to hear how you put it into practice. Reply to this email with a screenshot of your Three Alarms. I’m genuinely curious to see what you come up with.

Until next month,
Christian

PS:
Are you struggling to focus on the important work being busy with urgent stuff? Are you feeling tired throughout the day despite sleeping for 7 or 8 hours at night? Are you having trouble dealing with high stress at work – and “switching it off” at home?

If so, check out our Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 coaching program. In it, I help executives, entrepreneurs and CEOs increase their productivity by up to 10x — by building rock-solid habits for deep focus, deep sleep, and mastering stress.

That way, I’ve coached 85+ executives, entrepreneurs and CEOs on Becoming Ultraproductive since 2023. The program includes:

• 6 individualized one-on-one coaching sessions with me over 12 weeks

• Tailor-made habit systems to optimize your focus, sleep and stress

• A guaranteed 100% increase in productivity (not kidding)

Interested? Learn more and book a free discovery call here while you can. I’m only taking on 10 clients at a time and seats are booking fast.

1 more way I can help you

There are 800 million users on LinkedIn, and 99% of them aren’t creators.

Translation? There has never been a better time to grow an audience on LinkedIn.

Unlike most other LinkedIn growth coaches, my co-author Eric Partaker and I walked the talk:

• We’ve built a 1+ million audience across LinkedIn (1,000,000+ followers) and our newsletters (200,000+ subscribers) in just 12 months

• We’ve created a 7-figure business from our LinkedIn thought leadership through services (e.g. coaching) and products (e.g. courses)

• We’ve been ranked #1 LinkedIn creators by Favikon and got a book deal with Portfolio Penguin for our first book

Our #1 goal for this coaching program is to make it the highest ROI investment of your life. Learn more and book a free discovery call here so that we can get in touch.

Interested in sponsorships for my newsletter and LinkedIn post?

Get in touch with me here.

“The world wants you to be vanilla. They will always push you to look and act the same as everyone else.” – Ramit Sethi

Why it works

Ramit Sethi (pictured) is a bestselling author, entrepreneur, and media personality. He rose to fame with his 2009 book I Will Teach You to Be Rich, a no-nonsense guide to personal finance that became a NYT bestseller. In 2021, he launched a podcast by the same name, and in 2023, he brought his practical advice to a wider audience with a Netflix series.

While Sethi is best known for his insights on wealth and personal finance, his advice goes far beyond money. He teaches how to navigate high-stakes conversations — including job interviews — with confidence, clarity, and strategy. His approach to job interviews is simple but powerful: think like the interviewer, prepare intentional answers, and never sound generic.

Based on this mindset, here are 10 things not to say in your next job interview — and what to say instead.

How to do it

1) “I'm open to anything.”
It shows you lack focus and direction. Instead, say "I'm particularly interested in this role because it aligns with my expertise in [specific skill or industry]". Clarity and direction always beat vague enthusiasm.

2) “I don't know much about your company.”
It signals a lack of preparation and interest. Instead, say "I was impressed by [company initiative], and I'd love to learn more about how this role contributes". A little research shows that you care and are serious about the job.

3) "I don't have any weaknesses."
It makes you appear dishonest or lack self-awareness. Instead, say “I've been working on improving [skill] by [specific action], and it's made a real difference". Honest reflection is more impressive than fake perfection.

4) "How soon can I get promoted?"
It shows you're already looking past the role. Instead, ask "What does success look like in this role, and how does success get measured?". It demonstrates that you’re focused on adding value before climbing up.

5) "I'm a perfectionist."
It’s overused and lacks authenticity. Instead, say "I hold myself to high standards, but I’ve learned to balance quality with efficiency by setting clear priorities”. Specifics always sound stronger than clichés.

6) "I left my last job because I couldn’t stand my boss."
It raises red flags about professionalism. Instead, say "I was looking for a role that offers [specific opportunity, e.g., leadership growth, strategic impact], which is why I’m excited about this position." Stay positive, even when explaining past challenges.

7) "I prefer to work alone."
It suggests potential team challenges. Instead, say "I'm effective independently but also thrive on collaborating to achieve bigger goals". It shows that you’re flexible, not fixed in your ways.

8) "What's the salary?" (as the first question)
It makes money seem like your only motivation. Instead, say “I’d love to learn more about the role and expectations. Could you share how the company approaches compensation and career growth?” Lead with adding value. The money talk can come later.

9) "My time management isn’t my strong suit."
It highlights unfixed weaknesses. Instead, say “I’ve been refining my time management by using [specific tool or strategy], which has helped me stay ahead of deadlines.” This reframes challenges as areas you’ve already improved.

10) "I don't have any questions."
It shows a lack of genuine interest. Instead, say “What are the biggest challenges for someone stepping into this position?” Good questions leave a lasting impression.

Interviews are conversations, not interrogations.

The right words build confidence. The right answers open doors.

And the right mindset changes everything.

Also, please share this post with someone who might benefit from doing the same.

Until next month,
Christian

2 more ways I can help you

1) Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 Coaching Program
Are you struggling to focus on the important work being busy with urgent stuff? Are you feeling tired throughout the day despite sleeping for 7 or 8 hours at night? Are you having trouble dealing with high stress at work – and “switching it off” at home?

If so, check out our Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 coaching program. In it, I help executives, entrepreneurs and CEOs increase their productivity by up to 10x — by building rock-solid habits for deep focus, deep sleep, and mastering stress.

That way, I’ve coached 80+ executives, entrepreneurs and CEOs on Becoming Ultraproductive since 2023. The program includes:

• 6 individualized one-on-one coaching sessions with me over 12 weeks

• Tailor-made habit systems to optimize your focus, sleep and stress

• A guaranteed 100% increase in productivity (not kidding)

Interested? Learn more and book a free discovery call here while you can. I’m only taking on 10 clients at a time and seats are booking fast.

2) LinkedIn Coaching
There are 800 million users on LinkedIn, and 99% of them aren’t creators.

Translation? There has never been a better time to grow an audience on LinkedIn.

Unlike most other LinkedIn growth coaches, my co-author Eric Partaker and I walked the talk:

• We’ve built a 1+ million audience across LinkedIn (1,000,000+ followers) and our newsletters (200,000+ subscribers) in just 12 months

• We’ve created a 7-figure business from our LinkedIn thought leadership through services (e.g. coaching) and products (e.g. courses)

• We’ve been ranked #1 LinkedIn creators by Favikon and got a book deal with Portfolio Penguin for our first book

Our #1 goal for this coaching program is to make it the highest ROI investment of your life. Learn more and book a free discovery call here so that we can get in touch.

PS: Interested in sponsorships for my newsletter and LinkedIn post?

Get in touch with me here.

“A strong leader has the humility to listen, the confidence to challenge, and the wisdom to know when to quit arguing and to get on board.” — Kim Scott

Why it works

Kim Scott (pictured) is a former tech executive, author, and podcast host. Scott is best known for her bestselling book Radical Candor, which breaks effective leadership down into a simple notion: care personally, challenge directly. The idea is to genuinely care about the people you work with while also being willing to give them direct, honest feedback. 

In her book, Scott challenges the traditional model of leadership based on hierarchy and fear. She shows that the best leaders create psychological safety, establish genuine connections, and employ direct feedback to unlock their team’s full potential. Her work teaches that leaders don’t succeed by being overly harsh (or soft), but by communicating with clarity, empathy, and trust.

Scott’s insights emphasize that the words leaders choose shape the culture of their teams and organizations. A leader’s language can either create fear and disengagement — or lead to loyalty, innovation, and peak performance. Here are 11 powerful phrases that strong leaders say in a healthy culture.

How to do it

1) “I trust your judgement.”
Shows confidence in their decisions and builds autonomy. When people feel trusted, they are more likely to take initiative and think creatively. It reinforces that mistakes are opportunities for growth, not reasons for losing trust.

2) “You take the lead on this.”
Gives them ownership and signals you believe in their abilities. It fosters leadership skills and shows that you’re willing to step back and let them shine. People often rise to the level of trust placed in them.

3) “What’s your perspective?”
Encourages thoughtful input and values their unique insights. It signals that their voice matters and that diverse viewpoints strengthen the final decision. Leaders who listen build more engaged and resilient teams.

4) “You’ve got this. I’m here if you need me.”
Balances encouragement with support when needed. It empowers independence while offering a safety net, helping team members stretch without fear of isolation or failure.

5) “I know you’re capable of handling this challenge.”
Affirms your faith in their abilities and potential. Hearing this from a leader can unlock self-confidence, especially during difficult moments when doubt might creep in.

6) “What do you need to be successful?”
Opens a dialogue to address their challenges or needs. It shifts the dynamic from evaluation to collaboration and shows a genuine investment in their success.

7) “Let’s take a moment to celebrate this win.”
Reinforces the importance of recognizing progress. Small celebrations fuel motivation, build momentum, and reinforce a culture where achievements are acknowledged and valued.

8) “Is anything standing in your way?”
Creates space for open dialogue while focusing on solutions. It moves beyond blame to problem-solving, making it easier for people to surface blockers without fear.

9) “Your hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed.”
Recognizes their contributions and shows they’re valued. People are more motivated when they know their effort matters; this simple acknowledgment can have a lasting impact on morale.

10) “We’ll figure this out together.”
Emphasizes teamwork and shared problem-solving. It reminds people they’re not alone, and that setbacks are normal parts of collaborative growth, not personal failures.

11) “What’s one takeaway from this experience?”
Encourages reflection in an actionable way. By focusing on a single lesson, it keeps the learning practical and digestible, rather than overwhelming or overly critical.

The right words don’t just communicate tasks.

They shape mindsets, build trust, and unlock potential.

Master your words, master your leadership.

Also, please share this post with someone who might benefit from doing the same.

Until next month,
Christian

2 more ways I can help you

1) Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 Coaching Program
Are you struggling to focus on the important work being busy with urgent stuff? Are you feeling tired throughout the day despite sleeping for 7 or 8 hours at night? Are you having trouble dealing with high stress at work – and “switching it off” at home?

If so, check out our Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 coaching program. In it, I help executives, entrepreneurs and CEOs increase their productivity by up to 10x — by building rock-solid habits for deep focus, deep sleep, and mastering stress.

That way, I’ve coached 80+ executives, entrepreneurs and CEOs on Becoming Ultraproductive since 2023. The program includes:

• 6 individualized one-on-one coaching sessions with me over 12 weeks

• Tailor-made habit systems to optimize your focus, sleep and stress

• A guaranteed 100% increase in productivity (not kidding)

Interested? Learn more and book a free discovery call here while you can. I’m only taking on 10 clients at a time and seats are booking fast.

2) LinkedIn Coaching
There are 800 million users on LinkedIn, and 99% of them aren’t creators.

Translation? There has never been a better time to grow an audience on LinkedIn.

Unlike most other LinkedIn growth coaches, my co-author Eric Partaker and I walked the talk:

• We’ve built a 1+ million audience across LinkedIn (1,000,000+ followers) and our newsletters (200,000+ subscribers) in just 12 months

• We’ve created a 7-figure business from our LinkedIn thought leadership through services (e.g. coaching) and products (e.g. courses)

• We’ve been ranked #1 LinkedIn creators by Favikon and got a book deal with Portfolio Penguin for our first book

Our #1 goal for this coaching program is to make it the highest ROI investment of your life. Learn more and book a free discovery call here so that we can get in touch.

PS: Interested in sponsorships for my newsletter and LinkedIn post?

Get in touch with me here.

Before we get to today’s post, I have exciting news. We have two open seats in our Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 coaching program starting in April. 

Through the program, I help executives, entrepreneurs and CEOs build rock-solid habits for deep focus, deep sleep, mastering stress, and other productivity-related topics — to increase their productivity by between 100% and 900%.

Since 2023, I’ve personally helped 80+ executives, entrepreneurs and CEOs through this program. It includes six 1:1 sessions with me, tailor-made systems to master focus, sleep, and stress for good — and a guaranteed 100% increase in productivity.

The 1:1 coaching program is limited to ten seats at a time. If you’re interested in one of the two open seats, learn more about it and book a free discovery call with me here. Spots are filled on a first come, first served basis.

On to today’s post!

“If you don't prioritize your life, someone else will.” – Greg McKeown

Why it works

Greg McKeown (pictured) is a British-American author and speaker known for his bestselling books Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less and Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most. In his work, he advocates a simpler, more intentional approach to productivity — one rooted in clarity, focus, and the courage to eliminate the nonessential.

In both Essentialism and Effortless, McKeown challenges the glorification of busyness and hustle culture. Instead, he invites readers to pause, reflect, and ask: “What is truly vital?” Prioritization and deliberateness are not side habits in his philosophy; they are the foundation. McKeown reminds us that the way of the essentialist is not about getting more things done, but about getting the right things done with clarity and purpose.

With that in mind, here are 7 productivity habits — rooted in the same spirit of essentialism — that high-performing leaders use to align their time, energy, and attention with what matters most.

How to do it

1) They block time for deep, uninterrupted work
Successful leaders carve out distraction-free time to focus on high-value work that drives results. They start by going into “Ultrafocus” mode for about an hour daily. This amount alone doubles overall productivity, McKinsey found. Follow our 30-3-11 Rule and pick one of three times to focus deeply: ~30 minutes after waking, ~3 hours after waking, or ~11 hours after waking. These times are when you’re best able to focus (due to your “circadian rhythm”). Learn more about optimizing for deep focus here.

2) They simplify decision-making
They cut through distractions, eliminate low-value choices, and use clear frameworks to make fast, effective decisions. Instead of trying to do everything, they zero in on the 20% of tasks that lead to 80% of impact – and reduce, automate, or delegate (see #6) the rest. Also known as the Pareto Principle, the 80/20 rule applies to many business and life domains – including your tasks, activities, and decisions. Here are ten powerful ideas to get you started.

3) They create routines that work
Consistent habits reduce decision fatigue, keeping them focused on high-impact tasks. One simple yet powerful way to build structure into your day is Timeboxing. Popularized by productivity expert Nir Eyal, Timeboxing turns tasks into calendar appointments. Instead of reacting to your inbox or to-do list, you proactively plan when to do what by turning everything you do into an appointment with yourself. Learn more about Timeboxing here.

4) They communicate clear expectations
They set clear goals, timelines, and priorities so their team always knows what success looks like. A proven method for this is using stress goals: set three ambitious, meaningful and difficult professional yearly stress goals; break these down into three weekly goals each Monday (see #7); and then do one thing daily to reach each goal. To delve deeper into stress goals, read this article.

5) They manage their energy, not just their time
They prioritize rest, movement, and breaks to stay sharp and perform at their best. The foundation of our energy — as well as our health and performance in every domain — is sleep. Yet, mere quantity (i.e., 8 hours of shallow sleep) isn’t good enough. You also need quality sleep, most notably 90 minutes of deep sleep. Get started with our 3T Method (around time givers, technology, and timing) here.

6) They delegate for maximum impact
They trust their team with tasks so they can focus on strategy, growth, and innovation. Shake Shack co-founder Danny Meyer uses a simple 2x2 matrix to delegate smartly: high-will, low-skill employees get trained and mentored; high-skill, high-will ones receive the complex, most challenging tasks; low-will, high-skill colleagues are motivated and engaged; and low-will, low-skill ones are moved to a different role. If you’d like to learn more about delegating well, read this.

7) They review and reset priorities weekly
Weekly check-ins help them stay aligned with goals and quickly adapt to new challenges. A great way to do this is to set three major weekly goals for the week, and then break these goals down into three daily goals each morning. Having three goals forces you to figure out what matters most and lets you maintain awareness, deliberateness and intentionality at work. Learn more about how and why in this article.

Start with one habit. Master it. 

Then move to the next.

Your future self will thank you.

Also, please share this post with someone who might like it.

Until next month,
Christian

PS: Interested in sponsorships for my newsletter and LinkedIn post?

Get in touch with me here.

“The bias against introversion leads to a colossal waste of talent, energy, and happiness.” — Susan Cain

Why it works

Susan Cain (pictured) is an American author and speaker best known for her groundbreaking work on introversion. She began her career in law and corporate negotiation before shifting her focus to the overlooked power of quiet people in a noisy world.

In 2012, she published the book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, a global bestseller that reshaped how the world perceives introversion. That same year, she delivered a TED Talk entitled The Power of Introverts. The talk became one of TED’s most-watched presentations, amassing nearly 35 million views.

Cain’s work has fundamentally shifted the conversation around introversion. She emphasizes that quiet people, who make up nearly half the population, are often wrongly stereotyped as lacking confidence, being antisocial, weak leaders, unproductive, awkward, or fearful. Here’s why these descriptions are just myths — and how to thrive as an introvert.

How to do it

Myth 1: “They’re not confident”
Quiet people are confident. They just let their actions speak louder than words. Instead of dominating conversations, they prepare thoroughly and use precise, well-timed contributions. To master this, they structure their thoughts in bullet points before meetings and focus on delivering concise, high-impact statements that command attention.

Myth 2: “They’re antisocial”
They’re social but selective, valuing quality relationships over big crowds. Instead of stepping into the spotlight at large gatherings, they thrive in one-on-one or small group meetups with people they genuinely connect with. They initiate deeper conversations by asking open-ended questions like, “What’s something you’re currently excited about?”

Myth 3: “They’re bad leaders”
Quiet leaders listen, build trust, and empower others to thrive. They lead effectively by preparing written agendas before meetings, ensuring clear communication, and creating structured decision-making processes. Instead of relying on spontaneous interactions, they establish “office hours” where team members can schedule meaningful discussions at their convenience.

Myth 4: “They’re unproductive”
Quiet people focus deeply, often accomplishing more with less noise. They maximize productivity by batching similar tasks, working in distraction-free environments, and using timeboxing or similar techniques. To pull this off, they schedule dedicated deep work sessions, using a timer (e.g., 30-90 minutes) and silencing notifications to avoid interruptions.

Myth 5: “They’re awkward”
They’re thoughtful, valuing meaningful conversations over small talk. Instead of engaging in superficial chatter, they steer discussions toward topics they find engaging and insightful. To do this effectively, they keep a few go-to conversation starters—like asking about someone’s latest project or a book they recently enjoyed—to create natural and authentic interactions.

Myth 6: “They’re fearful”
Quiet people face challenges deliberately, turning careful planning into results. They reduce uncertainty by breaking problems into clear, manageable steps and setting deadlines for each phase. To become more confident speakers, they rehearse key points beforehand and start contributing in low-pressure settings, such as written discussions or small-group meetings, before gradually stepping into larger conversations.

Quiet people don't need to "come out of their shell."

Being quiet isn't something that needs to be fixed.

It's a strength that deserves to be celebrated.

Please share this post with someone who might benefit from it.

Until next week,
Christian

1 more way I can help you

Are you struggling to focus on the important work being busy with urgent stuff? Are you feeling tired throughout the day despite sleeping for 7 or 8 hours at night? Are you having trouble dealing with high stress at work – and “switching it off” at home?

If so, check out our Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 coaching program. In it, I help executives, entrepreneurs and CEOs increase their productivity by up to 10x — by building rock-solid habits for deep focus, deep sleep, and mastering stress.

That way, I’ve coached 80+ executives, entrepreneurs and CEOs on Becoming Ultraproductive since 2023. The program includes:

• 6 individualized one-on-one coaching sessions with me over 12 weeks

• Tailor-made habit systems to optimize your focus, sleep and stress

• A guaranteed 100% increase in productivity (not kidding)

Interested? Learn more and book a free discovery call here while you can. I’m only taking on 10 clients at a time and seats are booking fast.

PS: Interested in sponsorships for my newsletter and LinkedIn post?

Get in touch with me here.