Hey friend 👋,
Here are 3 more bricks to help you build your time independence:
1 down-to-earth study breakdown
1 quick tip
1 link
This one is a 4-minute read unless you want to savor it.
Let’s get to it.
1 study: the link between success and working out
On deck today is a study that says physical activity is good for you.
What? Underwhelming?
Don’t rush to dismiss this one and get back to munching your doughnuts just yet. The new research has so much more under the hood, and the key conclusion is:
Working out and hitting your goals are tightly connected.
In other words, if you regularly add distance between your butt and your chair to do some exercise, you’re likely to get better at achieving things.
If we dive into the nitty-gritty, the paper explored the connection between working out and proactive control. Aka your ability to keep and retrieve goal-relevant info before a task and use it to later stay on task. Proactive control is critical to attention, learning, and emotional regulation.
So, in addition to a slew of benefits to physical and mental health and cognitive performance, more sports in your life correlates a lot with an expanded RAM in your brain. That, in turn, makes it easier to engage proactive control and hit your goals as a result.
But it doesn’t stop there. It looks like increased proactive control makes task-switching easier, too (not exactly the same as 🤬 multitasking). Participants in the study who worked out regularly were able to concentrate on new tasks faster and achieve better results.
To me, it only seems logical.
When you go to the gym, you know it’s going to be hard and you know you’ll have to keep going when things get tough in the middle of every set. But you still do it.
What is it if not an incredibly effective way to train your sense of purpose, stubbornness, and ability to stay on task?
It’s all connected: active lifestyle - larger RAM - better focus - higher chance of staying on track and finishing the job. Any job, not just your workout.
So if you needed a special sign or at least another science-based reason to pick up a couple of dumbbells or go for a run, this is it. What are you waiting for?
1 Quick Tip: Breaking down goals is old news. Let them break down themselves.
Breaking projects down into tasks you can actually complete is a huge productivity thing. Without it, you’re likely to remain stuck or paralyzed by large goals. No wonder Brick, my startup, even built an app for that.
But that still turns into a slog all the time:
Ideation
Research
Endless planning.
But what if…
You didn’t have to do any research but still end up with a solid plan in minutes?
You didn’t have to come up with all those subgoals and tasks yourself?
You never had to wonder ‘where do I start’ or ‘what’s next’ again?
What if projects, goals, and ideas could break down themselves?
Now that’s a reality in Brick.
Last week, we introduced a huge update: it adds AI that can break down your projects (both the main goal and any subgoal) for you without ever losing sight of the big picture (read: it knows the context and “sees” your project as a whole).
You don’t have to know much about your project's field anymore. Tap one button and our AI will make sure you get an average of 10 tasks suggestions: a comprehensive, yet specific, view of what’s important and what to do next. And the system always knows the tasks you’ve already added to the project, so it never repeats itself and lets you easily find hidden gems or overlooked aspects of a project. We have a special “↻” button for that.
So, no matter if it’s a personal or a business project or a chore you’ve been putting off forever, Brick AI can handle them all with ease.
This basically turns a goal deconstruction app into your very own project manager that never sleeps or needs sick leave.
If that sounds like fun, sign up for free early access or read the entire announcement.
The app is going to be released to app stores before the end of this month.
Thanks for reading.
Let’s keep building together. One brick at a time.