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Hey friends,
Happy New Year! Hope you managed to have some fun celebrating it - I had a cheeky pizza + Disney-movie night :)
I'm feeling quite optimistic about 2021. One of my goals is to get 6-pack abs (although in fairness, I've been trying this for the past several years and it's never happened).
But another's quite fun - I'm writing a book! It's themed around Meaningful Productivity. I've started working on it already, but it turns out this whole writing-a-book-thing is not the easiest. It's safe to say, so far, it's mainly been a struggle. So this is where you come in.
I'd love for you to join my journey of trying to overcome procrastination for long enough to write this thing. I've setup a special email list called Ali's Book Journey. If you join, I'll send you a short email every 1-2 weeks with some thoughts + what I'm working on + probably asking for your advice about the stuff I'm working through.
If you join the party, you'll (hopefully) get some productivity tips and ideas from the future book. It might also be useful as a little progress-accountability system for working on one of your own goals in parallel. And maybe we'll get to chat about your thoughts and challenges around productivity. Or, at the very least, you might get some laughs from my own struggles.
If this sounds like something you'd be into, [Click Here] to sign up to the new newsletter.
As a quick update - my editor and I are working on a proposal to send to international publishers (I'll say more about that when things are more finalised). And, at the same time, I'm aiming to get the messy first draft written by mid-February.
The goal therefore, is to write 2,000 words a day for the next 6 weeks. If I manage that, I'll have written around 80,000 words (and a standard non-fiction book is around 60-70k words). The first draft of anything is supposed to just be a brain-dump, so my challenge right now is to silence my inner critic and just get stuff onto the proverbial paper.
Anyway, best of luck with all your goals and here's to hoping 2021 is a banger.
Have a great week!
Ali
My Favourite things
1 - Book - This week I'm reading 24 Assets by Daniel Priestly, an interesting book about building a businesses based on high-quality assets. Not quite as game-changing as Oversubscribed, also by Daniel Priestly that I talked about last week, but still solid.
2 - Book - I'm also re-reading Who Not How by Benjamin Hardy, a book all about the power of working with people. This book became my mantra for working in late-2020 and will continue to be my mantra in 2021.
3 - Audiobook - I started listening to How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett. I'll keep you updated :)
Quote of the Week
"What did you want to do when you were a child, before anybody told you what you were supposed to do? What was it you wanted to become? What did you want to do more than anything else?"
From Tools of Titans, Tim Ferriss. Resurfaced using Readwise.
Tweet of the Week
I just wanna get married and fast-forward to F3 & F4 so I can travel the world with my husband
— t 🌞 (@tahiraymalik) December 29, 2020
