Harnessing NME (New Month Energy) + Getting Hard Things Done
Ever year I think about switching up what’s on here, but for quite a while now I’ve been happy with these!
WELL. The kickoff to Second Half of 2025 is going well so far (I know that’s saying a lot on July 2nd).
Right now, I used a little bit of New Month Energy (NME – though it does kind of sound like “enemy”) to force myself to start doing something I had been avoiding: emailing people to ask for “blurbs” for my book. You know how when you see a book and it has “This is the best book ever!” on the back of it by an author you already like? That’s a blurb, and it’s likely that it didn’t just happen by accident, like “Oh, Taylor Swift just randomly announced that she liked my book so I’l just put her quote on the cover.”
(No, I am not asking Taylor for a blurb, even though we are obviously BFFs since she came to the hospital where I work).
Anyway, it’s kind of scary to ask people (generally people with big audiences — maybe not Taylor big, but bigger than mine!) to give you a blurb. And, I still kind of have to do it. And as uncomfortable as it is, I don’t want to outsource this, because I personally find myself much MUCH more likely to entertain the request of someone who contacts me directly, especially if we already have some sort of relationship (ie: they were already on BLP or BOBW, or we have some other connection).
So far I’ve sent 3. I think 3/day is the maximum I can send (my publisher wants me to ask ~10 people with the hopes that 5/10 might say yes). I’ve already gotten one yes (!) so that’s pretty good. I absolutely would have just procrastinated this task had I not used my NME, but — whatever works, I say. I should pre-schedule hard things at the beginning of every month . . .
Some notable podcast eps recently
Laura Tremaine is ending 10 Things to Tell You, and I really enjoyed her finale ep! I look forward to her next adventure, as she said she’s not done with podcastIng.
Best Songs of the Year So Far gave me a lot of music ideas (really liking HAIM’s I Quit album, and really liked pretty much every song in this mix)
Should We Fear Cognitive Debt? from Deep Questions on AI and writing — I agreed with pretty much everything that was said (and as a general rule, I really don’t want to consume AI-generated content)
The Frugal Girl is on Before Breakfast today! I haven’t actually listened to this yet, but I love Kristen and am excited to listen.
CALL FOR QUESTIONS: I’m having a ‘division of household labor’ expert on BLP soon!! Feel free to leave a comment OR send me an email with any question or challenge related to this topic. (I am sure Planning Privilege will come up!). We can definitely keep you anonymous, but we’d love to feature some real challenges!
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Woo hoo for NME!
I dropped everything when I saw that Kristen was on Laura’s show and listened at lunch. It was terrific of course. My only complaint is that the episode was too short! To be fair, I would still be saying that if the episode had been three hours long.
Are you going to ask Cal Newport for a blurb??? Because you should!
I agree with this!! Cal, Laura (duh), Gretchen Rubin, Oliver Burkeman, Kendra Adachi…I feel like all of these are natural fits for your book and believe you’ve interviewed them all at one point or another?? Go Sarah go!! I’d blurb your book but obviously that will do you no good.
Laura wrote the Foreword!! So she is in a way part of the book already 🙂 Otherwise she would be an obvious one!!! ALL of the others are on my list.
Too bad you weren’t at the office when TS was there- maybe you would have become BFFs and then you could ask her for a blurb (ha ha). Yes, I would hate that job- I hate asking for favors. But it sounds like it’s going well if you’ve already got one “yes”!
I’m using NME to get the house cleaned up- things really slid into chaos during June. Onward!
Could you outsource a) identifying people and b) writing the email? Then you send the request from your own email? This is how all the important people at my job do it. Do you really think the CEO of my hospital drafts his own emails? Ha!
Alternatively, chat gpt is great at this sort of things. Plug in the text you used for a prior email and request different versions. Or just have it streamline your prose.
How to divide tasks when one partner is less reliably available. Husband is a surgeon so never sure when he will be home or if he will have energy to do certain things. Even our nightly check-in is not regular because he often falls asleep on the couch or with a kid. Even when I delegate things to him I feel like I have to check back to ensure they are completed, and his irregular schedule/energy level makes it hard for me to fully give him a task and take it off my list (ex delegate meaning i remind him on Thursday to get babysitter cash, fully give meaning this task is not on my list and he just takes care of it).
I’ve seen advice to give this partner stuff that can be done remotely, but that isn’t ideal because when he’s at work he’s fully engaged and doesn’t have extra time for home tasks.
I will keep this and present it in the episode!!! (AND, I get it!!!!! Though I feel like Josh’s schedule has gotten mildly better over the years.)
I also listened to the Deep Questions episode, but I totally disagreed with Cal about AI. Calculator caveat aside (just like we make kids learn to do arithmetic before they can use a calculator, we would make students learn to do other skills before they start using AI), I thought his analogies were totally wrong. Using AI isn’t like using a forklift to lift weights for you, it’s like a runner putting on a pair of super shoes. AI isn’t going to make anyone something they are not, but it can give someone a little boost, with (hopefully) the effect of breaking down artificial barriers for students getting started. Also, I’m surprised that he didn’t recognize interacting with AI as being similar to working with others at a whiteboard, which is something he always praises. Not everyone lives outside of Washington DC with an unlimited supply of people to have an intellectual conversation with at any time, day or night. Some students live in rural areas, attend college remotely, and may be the only person nearby developing a technical skill. AI might not be the universal best option for a conversation partner, but it can certainly be better than nothing.
My guess is that at Georgetown he doesn’t interact with students (does he still interact with students?) who have struggles that benefit most from AI assistance – for example, attention, executive function and language (English is not the native language) issues that make it really difficult for students to just get started on assignments. It’s not about students “outsourcing their brain” it’s overcoming common hurdles that historically cause students to get stuck in unproductive ways. I was disappointed that he wasn’t able to recognize that diversity in the student experience.
such an interesting take Chelsea!! thank you for sharing it!! I kind of see both sides because if a kid is always using AI then there might be important learning that just doesn’t occur. But you raise an interesting point that perhaps SOME learning that is AI assisted is way better than no learning at all if someone becomes discouraged and gives up.
I do think he still interacts w students, from what I can glean from the pod!