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By Colby Kultgen

4,000 Tuesdays, An AI Tool I Use Every Day, and Why You Should Go First In Life

Read online / Read time: 4 minutes

A philosophy for life I'm adopting

Starting this issue on a somber but hopeful note.

I spent most of last week in the ICU with one of my close family members.

It all happened so suddenly.

I got a call from the hospital. Hopped on a plane. And endured the most agonizingly long four-hour flight of my life.

The prognosis wasn't good, and there was a very scary window of time when we thought we might actually lose them.

Thankfully, they made it through—but the experience shook me.

I know it's normal to feel waves of guilt and regret in moments like that, but I didn’t realize how visceral it would be.

All the things I hadn’t said.
Times I didn’t reach out.
Moments I thought we’d still have together, but now might never come.

It was one of the worst things I’ve ever felt.

And I never want to forget it.

It reminded me that you don’t get to choose when your last conversation with someone will be.

But you can choose to show up fully, often, and first while you still have the chance.

There's a quote I love from Olympian Gabby Reece:

This has taken on an entirely new meaning for me now.

It’s not just about saying “hi” at the grocery store.
It's about taking initiative in all areas of your life.

So you never find yourself in a position where you regret not doing it sooner.

Two quotes about how to make your life count

Founder of Wired magazine Kevin Kelly on making life count:

I think this quote hits even harder when paired with a perspective from the opposite end of the spectrum.

Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, on the value of time:

Put them together, and you've got a powerful recipe for a successful life:
​
5-year goals broken into 10-minute actions.

An AI tool that saves me hours every week
​Sponsored

Besides ChatGPT, there's only one AI tool I use every day.

It's called Flow.​

An AI-powered dictation tool that transcribes and formats your speech in real time.

No typos.
No weird formatting.
Just clean, natural text.

It's incredibly useful when I don't feel like typing out a long email or message.

Here's how it works:

1. Hold a keyboard shortcut
2. Speak
3. Let Flow take care of the rest

​You can try it for free here.​

A quote about living in the present

One of my favorite quotes from philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer:

I'm noticing a theme with all the items in this week's newsletter.

Might just be a coincidence, but I'm gonna lean into it.

An overlooked way to improve your life

Loved this idea from Shaan Puri's newsletter.

I wrote about something similar not too long ago:

The Average Tuesday Rule: The quality of your ordinary Tuesday is the most accurate measure of your life satisfaction.

Think about it.

We spend 80% of our lives on these “nothing special” days, yet we obsess over optimizing the other 20% (weekends, vacations, milestones).

We tolerate miserable Tuesdays while dreaming about spectacular Saturdays.

But when your average Tuesday is an 8/10, everything changes:

- Bad surprises don't feel as bad.
- Good surprises feel even better.
- You start enjoying the entire ride, not just the peaks.

Most self-improvement advice focuses on reaching the ceiling.

The Average Tuesday Rule flips this approach: focus on raising your floor.

A gift idea for the spreadsheet nut in your life

😂

If you enjoyed this issue, I have a small request:

1. Reply telling me why
2. Share it with someone else

Have a great week!

—Colby

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