By Colby Kultgen

A 168-Hour Template, The Fig Tree Dilemma, and a Reddit Post That Made Me Cry

Read online / Read time: 4 minutes

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Hello friends!

Here is your weekly dose of 1% Better.

The newsletter where I share my 5 favorite ideas, lessons, and discoveries of the week.

1. A spreadsheet to find out where your time is really going - The 168 Hours Template​

Last week, I asked what you guys wanted to see more of in this newsletter.

The top response?

Productivity tips (feet pics were a close second).

So this week, we're opening with a resource from the productivity OG himself, Ali Abdaal.

It's called the 168 Hours Template, and the premise is simple: you have 168 hours in a week. Where are they actually going?

In Ali's words:

Took me 20 minutes to fill out, and I found it very eye-opening.

2. A book passage I can't get out of my head

I've been thinking a lot lately about this excerpt from Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar:

A less eloquent way to sum up this feeling:

I want to do everything, so I do nothing.

The more I sit with this, the more I realize it’s one of life’s great dilemmas:

Our desire to be everything is often the very thing that keeps us from becoming anything at all.

We get paralyzed at the starting line.

And on the rare occasion we do pick something, we spend half our energy mourning what we didn't pick.

If you struggle with this, here are a few things I suggest you try:

• Picture your life in seasons. Every 2-3 years is a new season, like a TV show. Each season, you pick a major plotline (get a degree, change careers, move to a new country) and a few minor plotlines (start a new hobby, run a marathon, take a road trip). It keeps you focused on this season's path while trusting there will be other seasons for everything else.
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• Watch Barry Schwartz's TED talk on the paradox of choice. This video opened my eyes to the power of healthy limits. We think more options = more freedom, but it's usually the opposite.
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• Talk to people who already picked the fig. A lot of the paralysis comes from romanticizing paths you've never actually seen up close. Find someone living the life you're considering and ask them what it's really like.

3. My community has a new cohort starting soon! - Register for free masterclass​

I started Archimedes with Ben Meer and Jade Bonacolta to help teach people how to build and monetize a personal brand on social media.

And good news, our next cohort starts May 18th!

Before it kicks off, we're running a free live masterclass on May 5th.

It’s all about building your brand on LinkedIn.

We’ll show you exactly how to:

• Pick a niche that stands out without boxing you in
• Position yourself to turn followers into clients
• Build a content system that attracts the right people

Attend live and get free bonuses:

• Brand Blueprint Workbook
• AI Branding Tool
• 25 LinkedIn Algorithm Hacks for 2026

👉 Register free here (takes 60 seconds)

4. A skill that everyone should develop

Not sure why this tweet from 3 years ago popped up on my feed, but I'm glad it did.

A few ways I've been practicing this lately:

Only using Twitter on weekends. I love Twitter for finding ideas, but it can be one of the most negative places on the internet.

Curating a watch-later list instead of scrolling for something to watch. When I want a break, I pull from a list of things I've saved beforehand rather than letting the algorithm decide for me.

Following a few creators deeply instead of a hundred shallowly. I'd rather spend my attention on three people whose thinking actually moves mine than keep tabs on fifty I only half-pay-attention-to anyway.

5. A Reddit post that made me cry

Reminder:

No matter how bleak things may seem on social media or the news, there are still kind people out there doing kind things.

A few more things I'm into this week:

🎧 Album I'm obsessed with - Blue Rev by Alvvays​

📹 Video I found interesting - Diary Of A CEO Is Making You Less Successful​

🖍️ Hobby I'm trying out - Two-Marker Coloring Challenge​

📰 Quote that's living rent-free in my head:

Have a great week!

— Colby

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