🍀 Valuable Lessons I Learned from Jay Z 🐐

Hey there, it's Manav! Welcome to Early Adopters, my personal newsletter.

✨ Every Monday, I'll be sharing my thoughts on productivity, life lessons, and helpful tips, all based on what I've learned throughout the week.

This weekly newsletter is my way of reflecting on life and keeping track of the fascinating things I discover or come to understand. It's also a promise to myself and all of you to stay mindful and curious and engaged with life's many lessons.

Each issue will dive into specific topics, and I'll be sure to add my own spin to them. So, grab a cup of joe and get ready for some weekly wisdom!

5 TIPS TO WORK FROM HOME EFFECTIVELY:

If you’re working from home you might have been experiencing an unbalance from work life and personal life. Over the past five months, I've learned some valuable lessons and strategies to manage this balance effectively. I'm eager to share these insights with you, hoping they might assist you in your own work-from-home journey:

• Create an ideal desk setup with good lighting

If your job requires frequent video conferencing, it's a clear-cut decision to invest in good lighting.

Not only does it enhance your professional appearance during calls, but it also saves you valuable time. With one-touch lighting, the hassle of adjusting windows, moving desks or rearranging your workspace before each call is eliminated. Simply turn on the light and you're prepared to go.

Presenting yourself professionally on camera can elevate your confidence, subsequently improving your performance.

Everyone is unique. Some people work well with a neat desk, while others do well with a bit of mess.

Some need a plain space, others need a lively one. Some need quiet, others need music. You need to find out what suits you best.

The key is to be comfortable. This could mean having a desk that can be adjusted, good posture, and taking breaks to stretch.

Or it could mean sitting on the couch with your laptop (How my gf works) There's no one right way.

• Remove Distractions

In a traditional office setting, the presence of bosses and colleagues often ensures that you stay focused on your work.

However, when you're working from home alone, the lack of immediate accountability, the absence of someone monitoring your activities, and the easy access to distractions like social media can lead to a significant decrease in productivity.

Additional Tips:

• Use a Pomodoro timer

• Keep your phone in the other room

• Use this app “offscreen” to stop yourself from using social apps during work hours

Don’t go overboard with Coffee

When it comes to changing your mental state, coffee can be the ultimate tool for boosting productivity while working from home, but only if used correctly. Many people drink coffee daily, become immune to its effects, and lose the energy boost.

Avoid this! Instead of having coffee just because it's a morning routine, start using it strategically. Don't waste the energy surge on routine tasks like checking emails or administrative work. Instead, use it for important tasks that need extra focus and creativity, like writing important documents, giving presentations, or making client calls.

Also, try to keep your weekends free of caffeine to reset your tolerance. By doing this, you'll notice a significant difference in the effectiveness of the productivity boost from coffee. You can use this useful caffeine calculator to plan your energy boosts.

• Social Accountability

Have you ever observed how your performance at the gym improves - you move quicker, exercise more intensely, and take fewer breaks - when you know others are watching?

This phenomenon isn't limited to physical exercise; it applies to your work productivity as well, especially when working from home.

This could be as straightforward as informing others about your deadlines and requesting them to follow up with you.

For instance, you could ask your partner to keep an eye on your work habits. Alternatively, you could hire a virtual assistant from the Philippines to monitor your work progress.

The mere thought of not wanting to appear unproductive or embarrassed during your interactions with them could motivate you to work more diligently.

In essence, by adding a layer of social accountability, you can create a virtual 'gym-like' environment at home that pushes you to perform better and be more productive.

• Ideas come when you are in motion

Have you ever noticed how ideas often come to you when you're engaged in mundane activities or simply moving around? It could be while you're driving your car, doing laundry, or even watching HBO. When such moments of inspiration strike, it's crucial to seize them immediately. (Keep a notepad with you at all times)

One of the advantages of working from home is the flexibility it offers. If you find yourself struggling with a project at noon, don't push against the tide.

Take a break instead.

I usually hit the gym around 3 pm as I know my mind is exhausted late afternoon. (I find this a luxury to be able to do)

If you aim to complete your work by 5 pm today, simply schedule an physical activity for 5:30 pm.

• Hike

• Go out with friends

• Hot Yoga

• Driving Range

• Watch your fav show

• Go for a drive

• Go for Dinner

• Go for a Swim

💀 CHALLENGES 

Talking to a camera is a skill that requires a lot of repetition and feedback from others. I am currently working with two speech coaches who give me a lot of feedback every week.

The cool thing I can see the progress in real time when I compare my old videos to the new ones.

However, I have a long-long way to go. I remember a few years ago I didn’t even like taking pictures of myself (post acne trauma) and now I’m recording myself almost 3-4 days out of the week.

This transformation has been akin to exercising a mental muscle, one that needs consistent training and stretching to reach its full potential.

Excited to see the videos getting better over the next year.

FAVORITE FINDS

📱 Tech - Air Purifier

What sets this product apart is its 360° VortexAir Technology 3.0 and 3-stage filtration system. It works incredibly fast, improving the air quality in your space in just a matter of minutes. I was genuinely impressed by how quickly it made a noticeable difference in my home's air quality.

Podcast 🖼️  Jay Z Decoded by Founders Podcast

Insights from the episode:

• "I would practice from the time I woke in the morning until I went to sleep."

• "Even back then I thought I was the best."

• "Belief comes before ability."

• "The public praises people for what they practice in private."

• "Lock yourself in a room doing five beats a day for three summers."

• "He was disappointed in the world, so he built one of his own."

• "I believe you can speak things into existence."

• "Picking the right market is essential."

• "All companies that go out of business do so for the same reason – they run out of money." - Don Valentine

• "There are two things in business that matter, and you can learn this in two minutes- you don’t have to go to business school for two years: high gross margins and cash flow. The other financial metrics you can forget." - Don Valentine

• "I went on the road with Big Daddy Kane for a while. I got an invaluable education watching him perform."

• "Everything I do I learned from the guys who came before me." - Kobe

• "The key to staying on top of things is to treat everything like it's your first project."