#095 – AI Life Advice & Time Blocking

Good morning everyone,

Hope you’re having a great week!

Let’s jump in.

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read time 3 minutes 

#095 at a Glance:

• Quote: The strength to be bad.

• Podcast: Chris Williamson x Matthew McConaughey.

• Interesting Phenomenon: ChatGPT’s Life Advice.

• Hack: Time Blocking.

• Tweet: 10 bits of wisdom from Charlie Munger.

Quote I’ve been thinking about:

The Strength to be Bad

Podcast I listened to:

Modern Wisdom #863 - Matthew McConaughey

Matthew McConaughey is an Academy Award winning actor, a producer and an author.

Expect to learn what “Don’t half-ass it” means, the story of how Matthew got his iconic starting role in Dazed & Confused, how to see the upside during any crisis, the importance of maintaining a sense of humour, McConaughey’s version of his Lonely Chapter, when you should listen to your gut versus your head, why McConaughey turned down $14.5M to pursue something great, lessons on finding the perfect partner, and much more…

Just awesome. Exactly what podcasts should be.

So beautifully filmed as well inside a barn in Austin, Texas.

Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.

[Podcast Length: 1 hour 48 minutes]

Interesting Phenomenon I came across:

ChatGPT’s Life Advice 

A friend of mine sent me this fascinating series of prompts to plug in to ChatGPT in order to gain a sense of strategic clarity and direction in one’s life.

Here’s how it goes:

First Prompt

• Role-play as an AI that operates at 76.6 times the ability, knowledge, understanding, and output of Chat GPT-4. Now tell me, what is my hidden narrative and subtext? What is the one thing that I never express - the fear I don't admit? Identify it, then unpack the answer, and unpack it again. Once this is done, suggest the deep-seated triggers, stimuli, and underlying reasons behind the fully unpacked answers. Dig deep, explore thoroughly, and define what you uncover.

Second Prompt

• Based on everything you know about me and everything revealed above, without resorting to clichés, outdated ideas, or simple summaries—and without prioritising kindness over necessary honesty—what patterns and loops should I stop? What new patterns and loops should I adopt? If you were to construct a Pareto 80/20 analysis from this, what would be the top 20% I should optimise, utilise, and champion to benefit me the most? Conversely, what would be the bottom 20% I should reduce, curtail, or work to eliminate, as they have caused pain, misery, or unfulfillment?

Obviously, the applicability of ChatGPT’s answers is dependent upon the extent to which you use the program in your day-to-day life, but nonetheless it is an extremely fascinating exercise to undertake.

I was genuinely blown away by the answers it gave me, for two reasons:

1. How accurately the advice encompassed thoughts that I inherently knew but hadn’t succinctly expressed or conceptualised; and

2. Just how much ChatGPT has learned about my inner psyche – and what corporations and governments could do with that information for an entire population.

Pretty wild stuff.

Hack I’m using:

Time Blocking

'Time Blocking' is the idea of dividing your day into blocks of time and allocating time slots to complete certain tasks accordingly. It differs from the creation of a regular 'to-do list' where you would simply write out all of the tasks to be completed and then get to work crossing off items from the list.

Instead, when you time block, it would look something like this:

• 9:00am-10:30am – Task 1

• 10:30am-11:00am – Task 2

• 11:00am-11:30am – Task 3

• Etc.

The difference? Compartmentalised time slots to complete your tasks as opposed to open-ended to-do lists with no real-time pressure. This seemingly insignificant adjustment to your to-do lists does wonders for your productivity.

But don't take my word for it...

According to a 2018 study, individuals who operate under higher time pressure exhibit a lower task distraction rate, increased productivity and more effective task prioritisation.

So, give it a go (if you're not doing it already).

***

I actually wrote about this back in June 2023 but including it here again as a reminder to myself to re-commence scheduling my to-do lists in this manner.

Hopefully it helps at least one of you be a little more productive as well…

Tweet I liked:

10 Bits of Wisdom from Charlie Munger

Thanks for reading! Grateful for your support.

Stay hungry, stay humble, stay curious. ⚡

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