Hey all,

Sorry for the late post this week. I've been busy moving into my dorm for college! In lieu of all the random stuff I've bought for my dorm, I was thinking about a quick productivity/quality of life tip that applies to many people. It goes like this:

If something comes up that takes 5 minutes or $5 to fix, do it immediately.

Now, obviously, you should exclude certain activities from this rule. For example, If you've sectioned off time to answer emails, don't read and answer every email you get immediately unless it's urgent. And if your definition of a problem is not beating a level in Candy Crush, please don't spend $5 trying to buy your way through the level.

Still, I think this rule is helpful when you're feeling stuck with work or have a nagging problem you keep forgetting to address. Like, if you're lazing around your room while big pieces of work have to be done, maybe calling your doctor about that upcoming appointment will get you in the mood to be productive. Or, if you've been needing an extra charging cable for work because your phone keeps dying later in the day, making that one decision to buy it could compound your productivity immensely.

Because sometimes, when you're feeling lost or lazy, doing the little things does matter. Working for five minutes on a small task or even taking a little chunk out of a large one can snowball into huge gains in productivity. And the same is true for those small, $5 quality-of-life changes.

Thanks for reading, and have a great week!

(And, thanks for helping me do my small 5-minute reflection for the week.)

Ethan

Things I'm Enjoying:

📚 Books - Both Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon and The Psychology of Morgan Housel were big influences on me during the last month, and I especially gained a lot from their ideas around risk-taking and trying new things. If that sounds interesting to you, check them out!

👨‍💻 Tech - I've had a Kindle Paperwhite for around 3 months now and I would say it's been one of the best recent investments I've made. For one, it's lightweight, has discounts for books, and streamlines the book-buying process which helps reduce the bar of effort for me to read. Funnily enough, I also think I focus better reading on my Kindle because it kind of looks like my iPhone, just without all the other distractions it comes with. So, if you have the chance, I would pick one up (especially if it ever goes on sale for like $120 when I got mine).

💻 Website - Realtime Colors. Color theory is hard so I've made a lot of use from Realtime Colors in creating potential colors for this website's color scheme. Unfortunately, I don't have Ghost's "Creator" plan yet so I've had to settle for this blue and off-white scheme, but I will probably use Realtime Colors again when I upgrade to add more flair and cohesion.