Read time: 4 minutes

Welcome to The Ascend Archives Friday Edition where I share insights from the brightest minds in business and life and how I'm applying them to my life.

This week I listened to a 2-part podcast with two of my favorite authors / thinkers.

Ryan Holiday and Cal Newport.

I read Cal’s book So Good They Can't Ignore You in 2018. It’s in my top 3 favorite books. I touched on how this philosophy is the reason I excelled in the corporate world in number 11 of my 20 lessons from 2023.

My first real intro to Ryan Holiday was in 2022 when my Aunt Deb gave me The Daily Stoic, a book with daily meditations of Stoic Philosophy. I've had that book with me every day for the past 2 years.

Be on the lookout for more detailed newsletters from Ryan and Cal topics.

But today, I'm sharing my favorite takeaways from their conversation around Cal's new book Slow Productivity.

3 Productivity Frameworks from Cal and Ryan

1. Thinking is working

In the corporate world, there was an expectation to always be working.

That involved being in a meeting or sitting at my laptop typing away at the keyboard. But over the last couple of months, I've realized these are not the only ways to work.

Cal provided a great example of this.

He walks the same loop in his neighborhood every day.

One day a neighbor stopped him and asked,

“Why do you walk so much?”

His response?

"It's what I do for a living"

—

I loved that so much.

Part of my ideal day includes 2-3 walks where I have nowhere to be. I just walk to think, to listen to a podcast, or to talk on the phone.

Many of my ideas for newsletters, approaches to my business, and solutions to problems I've faced over the past several months have come when I'm not sitting at my laptop. It’s been in the swimming pool, in the sauna, out on a hike, or sitting outside with my journal.

This mentality would have benefited me in the corporate world.

If only I could walk away from my computer without worrying about the yellow “away message” on my internal team chat showing up and the judgement from my bosses.

I could have thought more clearly about the problems I was solving for my clients and the best way to tackle them.

How can you incorporate some thinking time into your day?

2. Find the balance between quantity and quality

How do you balance getting better at something through lots of repetition but also focusing on the quality?

I'm asking myself this question in many aspects of my life right now from my writing to dating to training for a triathlon.

Cal did not provide a clear cut answer. He said to focus on quality and obsess over it but do it enough that it gives you a chance to get better.

That's pretty vague.

I think it takes some experimenting to figure out what the right balance is depending on the person and the situation.

For my writing, I have found that right now, writing two newsletters per week is my sweet spot.

It's not overwhelming that I’m forced to crank out an unthoughtful email every day but it also pushes me. 8 newsletters per month will give me over 100 opportunities this year to gather feedback, determine what is working, and improve my writing.

But what if I only focused on quality?

I could spend hours writing 1 incredible newsletter per quarter. The problem here is that there would only be 4 opportunities throughout the year to gather feedback and help me get better.

Where in your life could you better balance quantity vs quality?

3. Incorporate seasonality

Ryan talks about how it's important to have a routine but allow the routine to change throughout the year.

Think about college students. For 8 months, they have a set routine going to class, studying, and experiencing college life. Then, 4 months a year, the routine changes drastically when they leave campus for a summer internship.

Same thing for athletes. There's the normal season full of games and practices and the off-season full of workouts and downtime.

Right now, I'm in a season of experimentation in my business and intense training for my fitness.

My business

Q1 was about finding a business I enjoy.

Q2 is about figuring out how to monetize it to cover my living expenses.

Q3 and beyond will be about how to scale it.

My fitness / hobbies

The next 2 months until my race are going to be intense with lots of 2-a-days, 3-hour bike rides and 2-hour runs.

I'm not going to have the time and energy for other hobbies in my life like travel and going out to live music or comedy shows in Austin.

But after May 19th, I’m going to give my body a rest. I’ll swap out my second daily workout for a session at the driving range.

Gotta get that golf handicap down!

What season are you in right now? Reply and let me know, I’d love to hear!

Thank you for reading! As always please reply and let me know what resonated, what didn’t, or what you question. I love chatting about this stuff!

Cheers,

Andrew