I’m writing this issue at 4:38 a.m., and there’s a very interesting reason why.
My brain has been doing this quite rebellion for the past 3 days - it refuses to sleep.
Technically, I should have been sleeping like a baby. I’m at my most successful career stage right now🧿. I have 3 clients (one of them is like a super big client), I’m consistent with my social media, I just vibe coded and launched my website and digital products, and earned my first internet product money. I’m working more hours every day, so yes, I’m so tired, I should be sleeping like a baby.
So then why am I doing these late-night bhramha muhurata sessions, you ask? Why does my brain feel fidgety? Why does success feel like another cage I’ve built for myself?
Same question. So let’s find out together.
Why my brain punishes me (even when I’ve technically succeeded)
I have a slight inkling of what my brain is doing to me. I think it’s revenge bedtime procrastination. Basically, my brain is being a BIATCH and taking revenge on me because I worked so hard - I didn’t give it any time to process stuff.
Looks harmless on the surface, but the cycle has been looking like:
I work a lot → Brain hates me and doesn’t sleep → I sleep odd hours and feel like I am not well rested → Work gets compromised
It’s ironic, but success is a far more efficient killer of original thought than failure.
When you are starting out, you are fueled by a beautiful, chaotic obsession. You don't have a rigid schedule. But then you succeed, and you actually have to WORK! And then you get so consumed by stuff that you lose your THINKING - the most important asset in today’s day and age, ladies and gentlemen.
So does my brain hate success? No, hon, it doesn’t. In fact, it’s a good thing it’s not giving up so early. If it gave up, you would lose all essence, wouldn’t you?
Working too much without thinking is bad for your brain. According to two different studies, high cognitive load directly impairs fluid intelligence (the ability to solve new problems, think clearly, and make smart decisions) and divergent thinking (Your creativity). You know how a computer just hangs when you run too many programs? Same.
How Efficiency Brainwashes the Smartest Founders
This happened with your favourite creator, by the way (and most service businesses suffer the same fate).
All of us start the same way: you hated corporate, so you wanted to do something of your own. You started with freelance gigs. Everything was fresh, and you had an original worldview and ideas. So people liked your work, eventually you got your own clients.
But then you started thinking of getting in MORE REVENUE, and then your plates got overflowing. You start delivering average work. Your content starts sounding like everyone else.
And the major competitive advantage you had: having actual original ideas/thinking - you lost it.
You see what happened there? In order to be efficient, you try using all of your time judiciously (makes sense because in service businesses, time is money).
I thought this could simply be solved by managing my time better, so I made a proper work schedule. All very satisfying and color-coded. But I failed massively. My brain didn’t follow it even a single time.
In hindsight, I made a major mistake: not having a time slot for just thinking stuff. And even then, with my time all filled up, just forcing myself to “think” isn’t going to work.
Curiosity does not only require time but also cognitive space.
So what’s the solution? Where do I find the time? Do I deboard my clients and earn less so that I have more time?
That’s clearly a wrong tangent to think on because I wasn’t any happier when I had fewer clients. The way I see it, there are 2 logical ways out of here:
1- I have to lower my cognitive load somehow- this might be making SOPs, automating stuff that doesn’t need me thinking. Okay, very doable.
2- I have to process what I consume. And this is the era of consumption, I mean, I don’t need to tell you what garbage we consume all day. And yet we rarely stop for DIGESTION, don’t we?
How to have it all?
We don’t want less money, and we don’t want fewer clients. We just want our brains back.
Let’s start with Phase 1: Automation. The goal here is simple: if a task doesn't require deep creative strategy or human empathy, you shouldn't be doing it.
Create SOPs, templatize everything in admin. I talked about my own systems and how you can set up yours in great detail here.
Hire people or outsource repetitive stuff that still requires human intervention.
It’s gotten relatively easier to automate things for just $20 with a Claude subscription (at least till the prices are subsidized). I’m still working on this and will break it down once I’ve figured it all out. (soon, soon!).
If you do this right, it will clear up A LOT of that overflowing plate and to-do list. Setting up SOPs and the right tools alone has saved me 5+ hours every week. Please also know that you just CANNOT automate all stuff with AI - only boring stuff that’s NOT dependent on quality. Don’t make it your whole system.
Phase 2: Developing a taste and processing what you consume - just reiterating why you have to do this: to get that edge back. This helps with your X factor, making you stand out from the crowd. It’s something very scarce out there and something AI cannot automate. So, work really hard on this.
How to actually do this the right way:
Remove bad influences from your content. Brain rot, junk content, content that affects you badly, rage-bait, low effort AI content: clear it out. Strictly follow the rule: garbage in, garbage out.
Actively process what’s going on in your brain. I make it a point to sit down and solve my problems. After much introspection, I have realized that I NEED to let thoughts out of my brain to actually process them right (or I get brain fog). It could be any medium: sometimes it’s pen and paper, where I write down problems and make mind maps to solve them, or just saying stuff out loud (I do this with chatgpt.
I actively consume content to satisfy my curiosity (Not my social feed, but actually researching/reading books I want to). Then I pause and try to find my take on that topic.
Not creating content for the sake of creating content, but actually to put my real, raw thoughts out there. Real is rare.
Having a life outside work. Sounds contrarian (and dystopian) but works like a charm. I’m more productive when I’m happy (and success feels less like a cage). Somehow, it makes you realise how work is just a small part of life, and it’s gonna be alright.
Quick update: I am writing the end of this newsletter after 2 days of writing the intro - I lived my life a little, and my sleep cycle feels better again.
I hope you find your way and success liberates you!
Until next time,
- Shrishti