Hi there,

This week Encanto overtook Adele as the chart-topping album. So to celebrate, we wrote a post about the crushing weight of expectations (ya know, the drip, drip drip).

We also completed our Roadmap for an Epic 2022 series which means that our 9th (yikes!) cohort of Supercharge Your Productivity is open for enrollment.

We cannot wait to teach you how to get more done by working smarter using our super-pragmatic $10K Work approach. During the 8 live lectures, you'll learn how to:

• Think bigger (versus making smaller things better)
• Re-architect the life of your dreams, while saving time and growing your career
• Stop procrastinating and take meaningful actions on your important priorities
• Develop a coherent meaning-centric view of all your life's activities

Plus, if you enroll by January 20th (Noon EST) you’ll receive our two most popular courses (a bonus valued at $498): The GTD Power-Pack and The Fulfilling Path to Financial Independence.

But don't just take it from us. Even our student's spouses have great things to say about Supercharge Your Productivity. Here's what Sid's wife said about the course:

We won't talk about Bruno

No. No. No.

But we will talk about his niece, Encanto's Luisa Madrigal.

Encanto is the story of a magical hidden town where (nearly) every family member is blessed with magical powers.

Antonio can talk to animals.

Isabela can grow flowers at will.

And Luisa (pictured below) has superhuman strength.

Luisa lifts bridges and buildings with ease.

She can launch a boulder in the air. Then catch it with one hand.

Luisa can shoulder-press multiple donkeys.

But beneath this indestructible exterior, Luisa is breaking on the inside.

In her song Under the Surface (dang, that song is catchy) she starts with her strong self-confidence:

She describes her feats of strength:

And how this impact's her self-worth:

But there's a hidden tax to this hard-edged exterior. Under the surface, Luisa is like so many of us RadReaders.

She's burnt out and she can't separate her identity from her achievements:

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Here are this week's top reads:

// one

An evidence-based approach to goal setting and behavior change

30 minute | Stronger By Science
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New year, New Year’s resolutions. But the New Year is just an arbitrary date, a “temporal landmark” that creates a distinction between “present self” and “future self.” And willpower alone won’t get us to this desired future self — so what will? This extremely detailed (yet approachable) meta-analysis describes subordinate goals, flexible restraint and a process-focused approach.

→ Read the post​

// two

Finding the right behavioral links for keeping resolutions

5 minutes | The Wall Street Journal
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We feel so ambitious around the new year, and yet it’s actually really hard to keep New Year’s resolutions. What’s the hack for sticking to what we say we’ll do? Think about setbacks productively instead of just giving up. Curiosity, not sheer willpower (as detailed above), is actually the antidote. Genuinely asking the $10K Question, “what led to me not keeping my promise to myself to exercise today?” instead of “I’ll try harder to exercise tomorrow!” can make all the difference.

→ Read the article​

// three

No more Jerk Boss

6 minutes | The New York Times

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How much should we have to put up with a boss? Our collective tolerance with dealing with jerk-bosses has gone way down these past two years. Jerkiness takes a toll on productivity. It leaves us unenthusiastic about our work. Workers are simply realizing, in many cases from the comfort of their own homes, that they no longer want to deal with jerks-bosses. Period. (This is the direct opposite to how we are building the RadReads company.)

→ Read the article​

// four

Mining for Motivation

3 minutes | Maymie's Musings
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With a simple exercise, Maymie reminds us that productivity isn't about mindless optimization, but mindful living. She details two assignments from our last cohort of Supercharge Your Productivity (including The Five Whys) and how she started to "develop a systematic process to examine my choices to take meaningful actions in my life." And Maymie's fifth why, wow goosebumps...

→ Read the post​

// five

Opportunity cost and attention thresholds

5 minutes | Eric Jorgenson
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Finding a new Mental Model is awesome. It’s a new lens to view the world, to judge situations and to make decisions (like the $10K Framework). After this article, you’ll have a new framework for your decision-making tool kit. Even better, it combines two RadReads favorites: Opportunity costs and our limited attention.
​
→ Read the post​

// from our sponsors

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Applications are closing soon for Cohort #6 of the On Deck First 50 Fellowship! OD50 is an 8-week program for job seekers looking to land roles at breakout startups alongside a community of peers. We help you navigate the startup ecosystem and bring intentionality to your job search. Apply by the Jan 24th deadline and mention 4 Day Week for an expedited application review! To apply now, click here.

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Below the fold

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

• ​Becoming a time billionaire (Forcing Function, Podcast) - Productivity coach Chris Sparks and I spoke about the simple goal of "never feeling rushed."
• ​Build your $10K Task Manager in Notion (Notion's YouTube channel) - A step-by-step tutorial for building a value-based task manager.

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LAST WEEK'S MOST READ

• ​Why I’m giving up on solopreneurship (RadReads, 1,489 clicks)
• ​100 ways to slightly improve your life without really trying (The Guardian, 588 clicks)

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And finally, Kool Moe Dee did a rapper report card in the late 90s. How did your favorite MC stack up?

Happy Holidays,

Khe

PS Lock in the GTD Power-Pack and the Fulfilling Path to Financial Independence (valued at $498) for free when you enroll in Supercharge Your Productivity Cohort 9.

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