Hello friends! I’m starting a new project today and am excited to share it with you. I’ve long been a fan of Tim Ferriss, first from his podcast, then books, and over the last few years, his weekly newsletter “5-Bullet Friday”. Tim provides a short curated list of everything from book and music recommendations, to gadget suggestions, poems and quotes to ponder, and more. I love the format of short bite-sized points of interest that are easily digestible and don’t take a lot of time to read.
For my version, I wanted to deliver some value on Sunday evenings as the weekend is winding down and we are preparing for a new week. Especially after having my first kid, weekends can be a blur of activities, errands, and trying to fit in relaxation. We’ve all felt the “Sunday Scaries” when it gets to be late in the day and we wonder where the weekend went. This newsletter will be my way of ending your Sundays with a small dose of valuable curated content: personal and career growth tips, interesting things to ponder, and more. The topics will change from week to week, but in general, I will stick with some core areas that I am focused on in my life, so if you’re anything like me, I think you’ll find it useful. I look forward to taking this journey with you!
- How I’ve been utilizing ChatGTP this weekend
I found out that the mobile app has a conversation mode with real-time two-way voice chat. I’ve started using this to practice speaking, answering questions, roleplaying networking, or other times I want to improve my communication. It even transcribes your speech afterward so you can see how many umms and ahs you said! I don’t think you need to learn how to be a “prompt engineer” or take courses to learn how to utilize ChatGTP and other AI tools, it’s more important to think of use cases that benefit you and then improve how you interact with the AI so you get better results. - What I focused on this weekend to improve my work
Planning agendas for syncs and 1:1s! If your calendar is anything like mine, you have a bunch of recurring 1:1s scheduled throughout your week. I’ve committed myself to sharing an agenda with a list of topics to cover before the meeting. This allows me to organize my thoughts and gives the other person a chance to prepare for our meeting. Something basic that I have done on and off, but I believe being consistent about it will really help my meetings be more productive! - What I listened to this weekend
This January Recap Episode of The Time Ferriss Show had a ton of great clips and sparked the idea for this newsletter. The highlight for me was Chris Beresford-Hill‘s discussion on how to come up with great ideas. I found this quote particularly valuable “Time kills all deals, for sure, and it kills momentum and it kills energy.” when discussing making decisions quickly. - What I read this weekend
beehiiv shared the average open rates for all emails sent on their platform in 2023 in this blog post. It was an astonishing 38.7%! I honestly haven’t heard of them before, but with that kind of success, I’m definitely going to pay more attention to what they do and how they help marketers. - My most gratifying moment of the weekend
A friend from the gym where I train jiujitsu, muay thai, strength training, etc. who is earlier in her career, happened to receive a new job offer right before our training session started. She immediately asked for my opinion on the role and company. It was an honor to be able to offer her my view and see that she valued my opinion. Most of us should reflect more on how far we’ve come and realize our experience is valuable and worth sharing with people younger than us. - The most interesting post I saw on LinkedIn this weekend
Wes Kao shared this post on Grammarly’s 2024 State of Business Communication Report and how much miscommunication happens for marketers during their work. Highlights: “Marketers spend 26 hours/week on written communication, which is the most of any team surveyed.” and “Marketers spend 49% more time than the average knowledge worker responding to written communication from others, which is more than any other function.”
That’s all for this week, I hope you had a great weekend and will have an even better week ahead!
-Nicholas Braman
Note: My goal is to eventually move this newsletter to email format which will land in your inbox every Sunday evening (Singapore time). Subscribe here if you want to receive this by email after I make the change.