OFFICIAL GAME BOARD WITH CORRECT GUESSES: 1. Shiny object syndrome, too many systems, books, productivity apps, etc. [@Howard Shaw] 2. Lack of consistency with any system [@Ivan Srsen] 3. Procrastination, inner resistance [@Rene Kerkdyk] 4. Not getting enough sleep, not getting to work when you're actually productive [@Ralph George] 5. Kids, life constraints, legit not enough time, particularly for focused work [ @Aneisha Velazquez] A few days ago, I ran a poll asking how you feel about productivity. The largest number of folks voted to say productivity is a priority for them right now. I then followed up with a lot of those people by DM to ask what they had tried already to be productive... and what was really the end goal with being more productive? I compiled all those answers and looked at common patterns — what sucks now, what would be a great outcome, what's stopping people from getting there. (Incidentally, if you need a marketing and business lesson then ↑↑↑↑↑↑ is a great business practice to engage in. In the words of marketer Travis Sago, "Get your market to write your marketing.") I was thinking of sharing my findings in this post. But you know what's 1000x better than sharing data? Playing a game. So let's play FAMILY FEUD. The question is, "What are the most common causes keeping people from being productive?" As in the TV version of Family Feud, you are trying to guess the 5 MOST POPULAR responses from among those I collected. You can guess as many times as you like. But each wrong response gets you a strike. Three strikes and you're out of the game. Whoever gets the most correct answers WINS A CAR. You ready? Then guess away below:

I just checked the Amazon reviews of my new 10 Commandments book. I have a new 2-star review. My instinctive reaction was to write a new email all about it. It's going out tonight. The idea being, take any energy, including negative energy, and redirect it into something useful, like an email, or like this post here. At the same time, I've also silently unsubscribed a few people from my list over the past few days for replying to my emails with messages that I found frustrating or stupid. Here's an example, in reply to an email in which I said I have friends of 20+ years and ex-girlfriends reading my newsletter: "Just FYI, you cannot have 'girl' friends for 20 +years. They may have started out girls but by the time they reach 18, they have become women. Thanks," So I thought we could maybe start a little discussion? How do you deal with bad reviews, unfair refunds, and replies to emails that bother you or waste your time? Maybe we can collect the ideas that bubble up and create a valuable community resource.

I'm back. If you haven't read my emails over the past few days, Merry Christmas. I've been at home, visiting family, and eating, often too much. But now it's time to get back to work? At least it feels that way for me, because I'm a bit of a workaholic. That's ironic, because the whole reason I quit my 9-5 job 12+ years ago and started doing stuff for myself was that I'm lazy by nature, and I wanted to work less, and have more free time. In the words of Ernest Hemingway, about the topic of work: "It’s a hell of a habit to get into and it’s just about as hard to get out." But I've set my mind to getting out of it. In other words... I'm trying to get as much (or more) important stuff done... while having more free time. In still other words, I'm trying to improve my productivity, while reducing my business. What about you? Where do you stand with respect to the concept and promise of "productivity"? Productivity yea? Productivity nay? A New Year's resolution for 2026? Or just the opposite? Lemme know below by making your choice below, or comment away if none of the choices suits you:

Welcome WELCOME The pool party is ON. You can find the margaritas and soft drinks over in the corner... ... the DJ has set up and is playing already... ... and after you've had a chance to dip yourself in the pool, and as the party heats up... ... perhaps you'd like to also take a look at this little offer I am making? The offer in a peanut shell: I am offering to take the winning bidder — let's imagine it's you — and... 1. To give you a NAME and credibility on the Internet, along with MY FULL ENDORSEMENT, and... 2. To DRIVE MY RESPONSIVE READERS to the optin for your list, and... 3. To work with you and co-create a SEXY ACQUISITION FUNNEL (free giveaway + paid thank-you page offer), which you can use to build up your email list AND make money on day zero by turning new subscribers into buyers right away, plus... 4. I'm guaranteeing, with my two hands, that if you win this auction you will MAKE BACK 100% OF YOUR MONEY before I'm done endorsing and promoting you. Again, I will send out a dedicated email to endorse you and your offer, and to drive my audience to you. If you don't recoup all your investment with that first email I send, I will keep sending more dedicated emails, for as long as it takes, to promote and endorse you until you do recoup your winning bid. (If needed, we will also keep working together to tweak your funnel to make sure the right people sign up AND turn into buyers.) That's the little auction offer I'm making, for you to consider while you baste in my pool. I'm also offering a few POOL PARTY FAVORS if you happen to win the auction: 1. Wine and tapas on me whenever you get to Barcelona. (I know a good place around the corner from my new apartment, in the Gothic quarter. Once you finish with the pool and dry off, we can head over there.) 2. A list of newsletters you can run ads in, so they drive their own readers to you, and so you can keep growing your list at breakeven or at a profit, regularly, month after month. (And yes, you can approach these newsletter owners and tell them, "John Bejakovic already endorsed this offer... and his audience loved it.")

I've been promoting @Gasper Crepinsek's ChatGPT Mastery program the past few days. Earlier today, somebody bought it and I got a notification from Gumroad to tell me so. I have an "LTV" spreadsheet, in which I write down every bit of money that comes in via my newsletter, so I can keep track of which of my readers are responsible for my income. The email of the person who bought today was familiar to me... but I didn't know their name. I searched in Gmail. It turned out this person signed up to my list back in 2019. (That's why I remembered the email address. I probably had 5 people on my list total at that time, and I was obsessively checking who opened my email each day.) Since then, this person (whose name I still don't know) never replied to any of my emails, and never bought anything that I promoted. Until now, almost 6 years later. I previously had a case study — a previous personal best — of 775 days from the time somebody signed up to my list to the first time they bought something I was promoting. 2,030 days definitely beats it, and makes for a new personal best. I'm telling you this to give you a bit of a kick in case you need it to keep emailing daily... and to give you a bit of a salve if you are now, like I was then, checking your email opens, and finding that, yeah, maybe people read, but they never reply, and they certainly don't buy. They will, in time, if you're still around.