By Colby Kultgen
The 100-Day Reading Challenge, A Hidden Phone Feature, and When Did We Stop Having Fun on Weekdays?
Read online / Read time: 4 minutes
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.
Let's get right into it.
1. The 100-Day Reading Challenge - grab it here!
Well, we've officially crossed the halfway point of the year.
Horrifying, I know.
Coincidentally, the items in today's newsletter are all about making the second half of the year count.
Starting with this 100-Day Reading Challenge.
I originally put this together as part of a post about rebuilding your attention span.
The idea was simple: For the next 100 days, commit to reading one short piece of impactful writing (just 10-15 minutes).
Think of it as strength training for your focus.
To make it easy, I curated a 100-day list of essential poems, short stories, and essays, plus links to find them online.
Enjoy!
2. A list you should be making every month
Ok, a few days late on this one, but I absolutely love this idea.
It's almost like a monthly bucket list.
A couple reasons I think this works so well:
- A month is the right size. A yearly bucket list is easy to ignore until December, and a life list almost always turns into a 'someday' list. Thirty days is a short enough window that you'll actually plan around it.
- The zero-consequences framing takes the pressure off. It doesn't feel 'all or nothing' so you get the intention without the guilt if you only check off six of the ten.
Here are a few of mine for July:
- jump into a body of water
- try a food I've never had before
- go a full day (24 hr) without electronics
- run a 10K
- finish a book in a day
My challenge to you:
Put together your bucket list for July, then send it to me!
Seriously, I want to know.
3. A question worth asking about your weeknights
The next thing I want to share is a question I saw on Instagram:
When did we stop having fun on weeknights?
This idea in particular stood out to me:
View the hours before and after work as your Golden Hours. You might think of your "golden years" as the time during retirement when you get to do whatever you want, like spend more time with family, take up watercolor, or become a pickleball champion. But our golden hours are the daily version of that NOW, and a lot of us find ourselves spending them on autopilot.
The post goes on to give specific tips about adding fun back to your weeknights:
- Pick one 30-minute intention for your evening. Choose one small thing you'll actually look forward to and put it on your to-do list like a real task. It could be a chapter of a book, a walk, or sitting outside doing nothing on purpose. The point is deciding on it before autopilot decides for you.
- Invite a friend to your errands. I love this one because it removes the biggest barrier to seeing people, which is finding a free evening you both agree on. You already have to buy groceries. Your friend probably does too. Do it together and an errand becomes a hangout.
- Do a weekend thing on a weeknight. Pick something you'd normally reserve for the weekend and do it midweek instead. Your brain notices the break in routine and files the evening as more satisfying than a default night at home.
I felt so inspired by this post that I made a deal with my friend:
That we would create a standing block every Tuesday evening where we do something we would normally "save" for the weekend.
This week we're going to play tennis for the first time!
4. A hidden feature that turns your iPhone into a dumb phone - watch the video
Ok, this tip isn't as fun as the others, but I think it will be extremely useful for a lot of you.
This video from Wired is technically about setting up a safer phone for a child, but it works just as well for adults who want to take back some of their time and attention.
It covers a buried iPhone feature called Assistive Access that basically turns your phone into a dumb phone.
The setup takes two minutes:
- Settings, then Accessibility
- Tap Assistive Access under the General section
- Pick your allowed apps (you can fully block Safari and Chrome)
- Set a passcode for switching the mode on and off
Tip: If you're setting this up for yourself, have someone else set the passcode so you can't easily bypass it.
5. Tweet of the week
😂
A few more things I'm into this week:
🦙 Productivity tool I'm enjoying: Llama Life
📰 Article I found useful: How to Manage Multiple Interests
💭 Quote I loved:
I was about to write 'get well soon' to someone who is sick.
Then I stopped myself and instead wrote 'rest well, don't rush back'.
We need to challenge the pressure to return to productivity when the body is clearly asking for a deep pause.
— Vicki Connop
P.S. I'm traveling to Vancouver and Seattle this week. If you have any recommendations, send them my way!
— Colby
