I was trying to come up with an idea for this newsletter and nothing was coming.

The harder I tried to force an idea, the worse it got. Creativity is weird that way. You can sit at your desk for an hour and produce nothing, then have the thought you were looking for while driving home.

We understand this intuitively with physical performance. You cannot force yourself to run faster, lift more weight, or recover instantly just because you really want the outcome. You train the capacities that make those outcomes more likely.

I think we should treat our minds the same way.

An athlete spends the vast majority of their time training and a relatively small amount actually performing. A football player might practice, lift, watch film, recover, and study for 30 hours before playing a three-hour game.

Most professionals do almost the exact opposite.

We spend nearly all of our time performing. Seeing clients. Writing reports. Leading meetings. Teaching classes. Making decisions. Then, if we happen to have some extra time, we might read a book, take a course, study the research, or learn something new.

The problem is that extra time rarely appears.

And if you're ambitious, the problem can actually get worse. You want to improve, so you take on more work. Eventually you're so busy practicing your profession that you have no time to deliberately get better at it.

Put training on the schedule

You don't need another elaborate self-improvement routine. You need a small amount of protected time.

• Block 1–2 hours each week for training. Ideally, put it during a time clients or customers are less likely to schedule anyway. Read, study research, watch a lecture, practice a skill, or go deep on one area of your work.
• Stop treating that hour as lost income. You might be giving up what you could charge for one hour today. Becoming unusually good at a valuable subdomain can make that hour worth 10x as much later.
• If an hour genuinely isn't realistic, use 10–15 minutes. Read during lunch, before work, or after your last appointment. Consistency matters more than creating the perfect study block.
• Use dead time. Audiobooks during your commute are super efficient.

You don't have to spread yourself thinner to keep growing.

You probably just need to spend slightly less time performing and deliberately reserve some time to train.

Hack of the week: Turn your commute into a tutor

Use ChatGPT’s voice function during your commute and have a conversation about something you’re trying to learn.

Drill it with questions. Ask for examples, challenge what you don’t understand, have it quiz you, and make yourself explain the idea back in your own words.

I cannot overstate how useful this has been for me. It turns 20 or 30 minutes of dead time into active learning without adding anything else to your schedule.