“Music doesn’t lie.” — Jimi Hendrix
Ideas aren’t the only thing I curate.
I’m also obsessed with music and excited to announce a new For The Interested Spotify playlist to share with you an eclectic soundtrack to make your life a little more interesting.
The genre/tone shifts every three songs, so if you don’t dig what you hear just skip forward a couple tracks and I bet you will.
It features new songs and old songs from artists you know and ones you don’t.
I hope you dig it (and share it with others if you do!).
I’ll add new songs every week so follow it on Spotify or visit the playlist page on my website for a steady stream of new tunes to listen to.
Now, on to this week’s ideas…
1. HOW TO “PACKAGE” YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS TO GET MORE ATTENTION
“Packaging is a way to format, present, or wrap your content in a story that makes it more interesting and it can have a HUGE impact on the success of your creations.”
The difference between a piece of content getting noticed or not often has as much to do with how the content is presented as it does the content itself.
In this post, I break down how to package your social media posts to get more attention including tips about how you can package them around a ritual, theme, or as a recurring bit to make your content feel bigger than the sum of its parts.
Plus, I show how people like Lin-Manuel Miranda, Gary Gulman, and David Spade have done just that.
RELATED: Eight not-so-obvious concepts that will improve your social media posts.
2. SEVEN WAYS TO BUILD CLOSER RELATIONSHIPS WITH PEOPLE
“The more you can give to other people in any aspect of your life, the closer people will feel to you. Takers who ask ‘What can you do for me?’ have a more difficult time building relationships because they are too self-serving and ungenerous.”
Whether you want to bond with your family, friends, or colleagues, this will help you figure out how to do it.
Kara Cutruzzula shares seven ways to build closer relationships with people based on the TED Talks of experts like Brene Brown, Adam Grant, and Sherry Turkle.
The advice includes to accept imperfection, share something new, and identify whether you’re a giver, taker, or matcher.
Side note: If you feel too overwhelmed to invest the necessary time into your relationships, you might find an idea I’ll share next week with For The Interested All Access members helpful. It’s about how to overcome the pressure you feel to keep up with everything — become an All Access Member here if you’d like to get it next week.
RELATED: The eight friends you need in your life.
3. LESSONS LEARNED FROM 20 YEARS OF BLOGGING
“If your website’s full of assholes, it’s your fault.”
In celebration of the 20th year of his popular blog, Anil Dash shares lessons learned from 20 years of blogging.
The lessons fall into two categories: What he’s come to believe about technology’s role in society and how social media works.
Both are interesting and include observations that tech is not neutral, we’re all celebrities now, and you should always write online with the idea that what you share will live for months and years and decades.
RELATED: 12 things everyone should understand about technology.
4. DON’T CONFUSE HABITS AND ROUTINES
“Unlike a routine, which feels uncomfortable to do, in the case of a habit, not doing a behavior feels bad.”
If you struggle to develop a new habit, it might not be because you lack willpower — it might be because you’re trying to make something a habit that can’t actually become one.
Nir Eyal, whose upcoming book Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life is available for pre-order now, explains why it’s crucial to stop confusing habits with routines.
He points out forming a habit first requires sticking to a routine, learning to cope with discomfort, and understanding not all behaviors can become habits.
RELATED: How to become indistractable.
5. FIVE CHILDREN’S BOOKS EVERY ADULT SHOULD READ
“Those of us who write for children are trying to arm them for the life ahead with everything we can find that is true. And perhaps also, secretly, to arm adults against those necessary compromises and heartbreaks that life involves: to remind them that there are and always will be great, sustaining truths to which we can return.”
You don’t have to have to be a parent to read a children’s book.
Katherine Rundell suggests five children’s books every adult should read and points out the benefits of doing so.
The recommendations include Where The Wild Things Are, the His Dark Materials trilogy, and Peter Pan.
RELATED: How to read more books.
COMING NEXT WEEK TO ALL ACCESS MEMBERS…
Here’s a sneak peek at some ideas All Access members will get in next week’s newsletter:
• 100+ key lessons from 10 must-read books
• A song scientifically proven to instantly reduce anxiety
• A list of the most effective customer feedback questions
• The most important skill to develop for your career
• How to overcome the pressure you feel to keep up with everything
If you’d like me to send you these ideas, sign up here to become an ALL ACCESS member before next Sunday.
This newsletter is 100% reader supporter (no ads!), so it’s your support that keeps the ideas coming.
Thanks!
WHERE I FOUND THIS STUFF
I got some of this week’s ideas from Paul Metcalfe, Tina Roth Eisenberg, Om Malik, Shaunta Grimes, and Kyle Westaway — they’re awesome and worth checking out.
Image via Spencer Imbrock.
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