An Excellent Wknd [25.02]
Some thoughts on picking up your phone less.
Hello, hi, 👋
A highly-caffeinated welcome to the 26 new folks who have jumped in since our last edition. We didn’t realize what we were missing until you showed up.
Let’s get into it.
🗓️ THIS WEEK
We release new episodes on Tuesdays & Fridays. You can find them here: Spotify | Apple Pods | YouTube
Reminders from James Clear, Robert Waldinger, Nate Zinsser, Ryan Holiday, Steven Kotler, & Greg McKeown
In both episodes this week, we revisited some favorite interviews from the show's archives, gaining insights into control, relationships, mindset, effort, priorities, & more.
21-Day Trigger Challenge: From Awareness to Action
A new challenge to help us raise our awareness around what knocks us off center & to put a plan in place to have them ripple our metaphorical ponds less in the new year. Read it here.
January Journal Prompts
8 new journal prompts that we built off episodes of the show to help you think more clearly, live with more intention, & chase what truly matters. Get them all here.
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🤔 SOME THOUGHTS
Here's a simple number to pay attention to if you want to spend less time scrolling & more time living: Phone Pick-Ups.
Americans have a full-time job staring at screens & there's lots to be said about that time spent. But focusing on the minutes we lose to endless scrolling doesn't do the job. Instead, we need to go upstream, to the real source of the problem.
We pick up our phones too damned much.
Friend-of-the-show EC Synkowski is a master of simplified & effective nutrition, & she has some advice that might help.
She points out that a healthy diet has room for some less-than-ideal items, within reason. The occasional glass of wine or handful of chips might actually help, as they keep your diet from being an endless & unsustainable slog.
One of her recommendations: Keep added sugar to less than 50g per day.
Likewise, when it comes to your phone: Keep the number of times you pick it up to less than 40 per day. Do this & you're basically a superhero.
Going into each day with that number in mind will create the difficult but doable constraint we want as we prioritize our health. It'll give you useful feedback every night, & when you start hitting your target, you'll get a little boost of confidence that will remind you of how much agency you have.
Since we're health-conscious & love a little elegance, let's call this the 40/40 Framework:
Aim for less than 40g of added sugar every day & fewer than 40 pick-ups.
You'd be hard-pressed to find two metrics that are as easy to track & as valuable to improve.
🙋🏽♀️ QUESTIONS
Do you have a question you’d like us to address in a future episode? We’d love to hear it!
Monday will see the official start of season 5 of the show. We’ll be giving the brand a bit of a refresh that you’ll see in your inbox, on the website, & in your ears.
Also, Tuesday’s episode is the best articulation of what we mean when we say “chase excellence” that we’ve ever put together.
I’m really excited to get that to ya.
Until then,
🤙🏼 Patrick
I guess I should shut off my notifications because I picked up my phone to read your post. lol I am really enjoying the triggered challenge. It’s quite interesting to notice how many things aggravate me that are pretty easy to let go.