Regaining productivity, a 1.3M a year Solopreneur & More

What’s on the menu

• Regaining my productivity by sacrificing work time

• A valuable lesson in building a personal brand

• A 1.3M p/y Solopreneur (video)

Regaining productivity by sacrificing work time

Productivity doesn’t come easily to me. I’m easily distracted and often feel like I don’t naturally have enough energy.

This is where my interest in productivity comes from. I’m always looking for the next hack to increase my usual levels of productivity.

Trying to maximize every hour of the day to its fullest.

Morning routines were another staple of mine to start the day in the best shape and mindset possible.

I would wake up at 6 am, meditate, go for a run, and perhaps do some journaling. All in peace, before starting my day.

Having a kid changes your morning routine, to put it mildly.

Doing some Wim Hoff breathing exercises turns into catching your breath after dancing to ‘It’s Peppa Pig’ by Peppa Pig for the third time.

Eating my cinnamon-sprinkled overnight oats on the balcony turns into quickly shoveling some scrambled eggs into my face so my daughter (who loves scrambled eggs) doesn’t claim half of my plate.

Don’t get me wrong though.

I’m much happier with my current morning routine than before. I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Still, I felt like not having a routine where I prep my mind and body for the day hurt productivity.

Yesterday I wanted to get things done but I just couldn't. I had brain fog, felt tired, and just overall unmotivated.

So I decided to make a change.

After having a nice morning with my kid alone (my partner is traveling at the moment), I decided to sacrifice one hour of work time for:

• A quick, cardio-heavy workout

• Some stretches

• Meditate for 10 minutes

• A cold shower from start to finish

After this routine, I was on fuego 🔥 

I was able to dive head-first into deep focused work that I was unable to do in the days before.

I would have never thought it made sense to give up an hour of work to exercise and meditate, but it feels like the payback is instant.

I’ll continue this experiment and I’ll let you know how it’s going in a few weeks time.

A valuable lesson in building a personal brand

People relate to imperfection and struggle.

Last week Friday, I wrote candidly about my solopreneur journey. I included my story, my struggles, and what I am planning to do moving forward.

I decided to use the piece as last week’s newsletter. I also thought, why not repurpose this and throw it on Twitter as a thread?

And I’m glad I did.

The reaction was the best I had ever had to any social media post.

Many folks reached out, saying they could relate to my story and were interested to see where I take my journey next. I was stunned.

It was the first post I didn’t agonize about making perfect. But rather to highlight the struggle and imperfection, it exploded.

TBH, it felt like a great relief.

I’ve never been much of an Instagrammer because the picture-perfect life everyone poses just depresses the hell out of me.

It felt liberating to know that actually sharing something real, is something that people would connect with even more.

A 1.3M a year Solopreneur

It might be time to learn design after all.

My friend Linus sent me this video as inspiration for one of my 30-day business experiments.

It’s about Brett, a guy that decided to create a one-person design agency and get paid ludicrous amounts of money for it. While working 5 hours a day.

Check it out.

If you enjoyed this email, feel free to share it with a friend. It really helps :)

Cheers,

Arjen