Hi there,

Happy Saturday! I hope you had an absolutely fantastic week 🥰

Thank you for being part of the Presently Reading community with 2,307 bookworms from around the world.

​For the month of July 2025, we're reading ​Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World​ by Anne-Laure Le Cunff.​

Enjoy!

Warmly,
Maneet (pronounced muh-neet)

Weekly Bookmark

Here’s the ugly truth about productivity.

Most meaningful things take longer than we expect.

But that’s hard to accept when everything around us is built for speed. Metrics, milestones, and subscriber counts surround us. I’ve been running my YouTube channel for five years now, and part of me still wonders if I’m falling behind.

It’s not that I’m unhappy with my progress.

I’ve launched this book club, produced hundreds of videos, and even written several short books. But when I look around and see others hitting big milestones like 100K subscribers, brand deals, and fast growth, it’s easy to feel like they’re accelerating while I’m stuck in first gear. This week’s chapter from Slow Productivity reminded me: just because it’s slow doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

Cal Newport’s second principle is about working at a natural pace.

Not the frantic, always-on speed of modern hustle culture. But the kind of rhythm that real, meaningful work requires. Scientific breakthroughs and artistic legacies didn’t happen in a few months. They took years, sometimes lifetimes.

That’s the part we don’t see on social media.

The daily grind that never goes viral. The long stretches of showing up with no immediate reward. When I started my YouTube channel in 2020, I thought I’d be much further along by now. But instead of chasing fast results, I’m starting to see the value in playing the long game.

What if this isn’t slow progress?

What if it’s just real progress?

This mindset shift has changed how I think about other parts of my life, too.

Take running, for example. Last year I ran my first 5K in June, then a half marathon in October. I was goal-oriented, training hard, and focused on progress. But lately, I’ve been struggling to get myself out the door. So now? I’m just running a little bit every day for the joy of it. I may sign up for another race in the future, but I want my foundation to be rooted in enjoying the process, not the destination.

Running, like some careers, is one of those things that requires a long-term commitment.

Just because you aren’t earning any new medals doesn’t mean you aren’t making progress.

Discussion Highlight

Every week, I'll select a comment from our community discussions and highlight it in the following week's email.

Last week, our discussion question was: What would you drop if you had to cut your workload in half?

Michael shared:

Want to be featured in a future email? Participate in today's discussion over on Patreon (free, just create an account) and I'll select one every week!

My Favorite Things This Week

🎥 YouTube Video: If you're a fan of Apple and are interested in hearing about their latest fiasco with Apple Intelligence, I found this video by Snazzy Labs to be super informative (and entertaining!)

⏱️ App: This week, I began tracking my time again. I've been doing this on and off for years, but I wanted to bring this practice back into my daily life. It helps me see how much time I'm actually spending on my different work projects versus what I tell myself in my head. Numbers don't lie. I use the Timery app, which is built on top of Toggl.

👀 Secret Weekly Poll