Gold for your Inbox

I have a tendency to subscribe to every newletter for every person or website I come across. I think maybe this is the one that will have that nugget of wisdom I need to miraculaously solve all the problems in my life. Most of them I end up unsubscribing from pretty quickly, they just clog up my inbox.

But here are four that have stood the test of time. They've all been arriving in my inbox for at least two years, and they provide me with enough nuggets of wisdom (if not that miraculous, life-changing one) that I always enjoy the read when they hit my inbox. Hopefully they can do some of the same for you.

Barking up the wrong tree

Every week Eric Barker helps you improve your life. He breaks it down into easily digestible and actionable chunks for you, so you don’t have to do any of the heavy lifting here. He’ll read one or two books on a topic and succinctly and neatly recap it for you, giving you a perfect bite-sized list of what to do. The topics he covers aren’t always things that are useful to me, but I’ll still usually skip to his ‘to sum it up’ section anyway, who knows what nuggets of wisdom are in there. On multiple occasions I’ve heard about a book from this newsletter, and even though I’ve been given a summary and key points, I’ve still gone on to read the book itself. So not only is this newsletter great for a quick injection of knowledge but also points you towards deeper learning on topics that interest you. I would also recommend this Instagram, many relatable memes!

https://bakadesuyo.com/newsletter/

3-2-1 Thursday

Despite being called 3-2-1 Thursday, because I live in the Southern Hemisphere, I actually get this newsletter on a Friday. I feel like Friday is a good day to get it though, it often gives me a little boost of motivation to spend my weekend doing productive things.

The format is three ideas from James Clear, two quotes from other people, and one question.

The three ideas are often based around themes from Clear’s book, Atomic Habits. I enjoyed that book and took a few things away from it that I’ve implemented. These three ideas are often a reminder of those and can help get me back on track.

The two quotes are usually interesting and can occasionally lead down a rabbit hole if something catches my eye in particular.

The final question at the end is a nice reminder, a moment to check in and see if your actions are really in line with your goals and what you want to achieve. That’s why I like receiving this email on a Friday. It’s nice to have this fresh reminder right before the weekend, so that I am more deliberate about how I use my time off.

https://jamesclear.com/3-2-1

The Red Hand Files

I’m not a huge fan of Nick Cave’s music to listen to, but I appreciate and respect him as a musician. He's been hugely influential on a lot of musicians and he's a genius. Even though you probably won’t find me listening to his records, I will read his newsletter. It’s based on fan submitted questions, and he often lumps together multiple questions with a similar query, or that are polar opposites. I really enjoy reading his responses. He’s a very religious person, while I am firmly atheist, and I find his particular faith intriguing. A lot of his responses discuss religion and normally this would automatically lose my interest, but there’s something about his unorthodox form of worship and how he weaves it into his musicality and artistry that fascinates me. He’s such an interesting person, and hearing about how he has dealt with the things he has experienced in his lifetime is always enlightening.

https://www.theredhandfiles.com/#subscribe

Range Widely

David Epstein is a journalist who has written two books (he's actually just announced his third), neither of which I have read, yet (they’re on my TBR). He often interviews non-fiction authors about their subject matter. As implied by the title of the newsletter, the area of interest can range widely.

I like this newsletter because it introduces me to topics that I wouldn’t otherwise have known exist, or that perhaps I was aware of, but didn’t know there were such volumes of research on. Reading these interviews will often either lead me to think “that’s interesting, but not something I need to know more about”, or the other end of the spectrum and I put the guests’ books on my TBR list and find a whole new area of knowledge to dive into. I like reading his interviews because they’re much more like a conversation than an interview, he speaks almost as much as the interviewee and brings in relevant anecdotes from his own experience that help the interview go deeper than “tell us what your book is about”.

https://davidepstein.substack.com/

I hope if you sign up for any of these newsletters you also get the same enjoyment out of them as I do. If you have a favourite newsletter/substack/blog that you subscribe to drop a link in the comments. I'm always looking for more interesting and enlightening content!