Hi friends,

Happy Sunday. Sorry for being a little quiet in recent weeks. To make up for it, you'll be hearing from me a couple extra times in the days ahead as I migrate this book club to Substack. Stay tuned.

For May, we're reading How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell.

— Maneet

Important: Later this week, I'll be making some changes to how I send these weekly emails and switching to Substack. If you're unfamiliar with Substack, it's basically another email platform, but with a stronger emphasis on community and writing.

No action will be required on your part. I'll be migrating this entire email list and will also send some announcement messages when it happens. If all goes well, you'll keep hearing from me like normal. You might just need to check your "Promotions" or "Spam" folders the first time I email you from the new platform. Stay tuned!

Weekly Discussion

This month, we're reading a book that teaches us the importance of doing nothing.

I've been doing the total opposite...

For a couple of weeks now, I've been knee-deep in some work that will totally reshape how I produce YouTube videos (and write these book club posts). It's been a lot of fun coming up with a new strategy, planning ahead, and building new systems to support my vision.

At the same time, it's been a whole lot of behind-the-scenes work. I haven't been doing the "real" work of actually creating content.

This book has got me thinking about the concept of nothing and what it means in different contexts. Obviously, there's the type of nothing that is literal. The type where you show up to a local park and just sit on the bench with no plans for anything more. But there's also another type of nothing that I see as even more relevant to my daily life.

The "keep it boring" type of nothing.

Speaking from recent experience, a lot of the work I've been doing to restart my YouTube channel has felt like a shiny new object. It feels important when I'm using new AI tools to build productivity workflows that were never possible before. It feels exciting when I build my own custom apps to manage my to-do list. But while all of this is happening, what I'm really doing is distracting myself from the work of creating new content.

That work is much more boring by comparison, and it requires showing up each week to do the same work over and over again.

If I had done nothing instead of trying to upgrade my entire workflow, I would have been much better off.

In the world of productivity, doing nothing is hard. It's always tempting to use the newest app or try the latest AI models. However, it's become clear to me that the people who consistently reach their goals are the ones who are able to resist the urge to do something new and just keep their work boring. Having a boring routine that you stick with consistently is way more impactful than doing something new and distracting every week.

Looking into the week ahead, this is exactly what I'm going to attempt to do.

My goal is to focus more on getting consistent deep work hours into my calendar. Instead of trying to optimize the perfect system, I'd like to find a boring routine that I can stick with most days. A routine that may seem like nothing exciting, but provides meaningful results if maintained over a longer period of time.

I'll be further ahead if I just wake up each morning to write or read instead of optimizing my calendar.

Sometimes doing nothing is the better option.

I'd love to hear from you. Are you good at tolerating boring routines and sticking with them?

Weekly YouTube Video

🎬 This new Kindle hack is absolutely game-changing.​

I just posted a new video about a Kindle hack that honestly changed my mind. I’m talking about KOReader and the new SimpleUI plugin, why it makes the Kindle feel so much better to use, and the major downside that still makes this a more niche setup. If you’ve ever been curious about jailbreaking your Kindle, this one lays out the real pros and cons.

Three ways I can help you...

🎬 Check out my latest YouTube video. My channel is all about Book Tech and using technology to live an intentional life.

📖 Need something new to read? Check out all the books I've written and support my work along the way.

📚 Check out the Presently Reading book log. It is a complete list of every book we've read in the book club since I started it.