17% of the year: how to focus!

JC's Newsletter #212

Dear friends,

Every week, I’m sharing an essay that relates to what we are building and learning at Alan. Those essays are fed by the article I’m lucky enough to read and capitalise on.

I’m going to try to be provocative in those essays to trigger a discussion with the community. Please answer, comment, and ping me!

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We've already used a bit more than 17% of 2024.

In a sense, this figure could be seen as somewhat alarming. 

We can also take a moment to celebrate and reflect on everything we've already managed to accomplish in the first 17% of the year. 

We have laid the right foundations and can see that building layer by layer, we're picking up speed: massive progress on civil servants, the release of our new navigation, and so many little and big things that should make us proud every week. We are creating tons of equity value. 

On the other hand, there are always problems to solve! Thanks to our product work, our innovations, and relying on the team to solve it, we have all the power in our hands.

There's still a lot to be done to achieve our ambitious plans. 

This means having the right mix between pushing our big rocks, which are the key topics for this year and should take up 80% of our time with a lot of focus, and dedicating 20% of our time to smaller tasks, learning, the system, and planting seeds for the future.

For each person, this takes a different form, and that's how we execute brilliantly: being focused while also giving ourselves a little bit of breathing room and preparing for the future as best as we can.

That's why I push a lot for being really structured in order to have some non-structured time. What does that mean?

• It means being very structured about the tools you use, the tasks you want to accomplish, controlling your schedule, and the time you spend on tasks to be very efficient and not waste time on unnecessary tasks

• All while reserving unstructured time for yourself, which is also framed in terms of time where you invest, where you can wander, think, and relax, ideally sometimes while walking, or reading.

This combination of both will surely give you the chance and the opportunity to be the best version of yourself and to achieve much more than you imagine.

Because it's quite astonishing how much we can continue to increase our efficiency and impact over time, one little action at a time. And more than anything, let’s enjoy the ride, building, distributing, and serving the products that will create a Healthier Humanity.

Some good articles I have read this week

👉 Klarna AI assistant handles two-thirds of customer service chats in its first month (Klarna)

• AI doing the work of 700 full-time agents, on par on customer satisfaction

• 2 min vs. 11 min previously to close a topic

👉 Tactic 1: Nutritional Biochemistry (Peter Attia)

• Interesting approach towards nutrition! 

• ‘Which diet works best?’ (or similar) is simply the wrong question to ask.

• Three questions with respect to nutrition.

  • 1. Are they over-nourished or under-nourished? 

  • 2. Are they under-muscled or adequately muscled?

  • 3. Are they metabolically healthy or not?

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