Going analog

Hi {{ first_name | friend}},

This issue was supposed to go out yesterday. It didn't. I'm sending it anyway, one day late, because showing up late still beats not showing up. More on that below.

My whole day happens on screens. I train people online for work. I write newsletters. I test AI tools and automations. I dictate my drafts into my phone. Even my German lessons live in an app.

So it surprised me how good it felt, these past weeks, to go the other direction.

I'm reading Surrounded by Idiots by Thomas Erikson, and for the first time in a long while, I bought the physical book instead of the ebook or the audiobook.

Usually I listen to books while walking or commuting. It's efficient, and I get through more books that way. But something is different with paper. When I sit down with the book, there's nothing else on the page. No notifications, no other tabs, no temptation to switch to something else for a second. Just the book and me. I read slower, and I remember more.

The same week, I bought a journal. A really nice one, structured and dated, covering July 2026 to the end of 2027. I've been journaling digitally for a while, mostly by voice, and I still find that useful. But writing by hand is a different activity. It forces me to slow down to the speed of my own thoughts.

There's actual research behind this feeling. Students who take notes by hand understand and remember material better than those who type, because handwriting is slower and forces you to process ideas instead of transcribing them. The friction is the feature.

I'll share how the journal experiment goes after a few weeks. For now, my early take is simple: there's something about slowing down that speeds up clarity.

I've been going to the gym almost daily lately, even when it's only for half an hour. The effect on my mood and energy is bigger than the effort I put in, which still surprises me every time.

And spending that much time there, I started noticing something. Most people, including me sometimes, only do the exercises they already know. Almost nobody warms up. Machines get used incorrectly.

My favorite example is the scale. Our gym has a proper body composition scale, the kind that costs over a thousand euros. Used correctly, you take off your socks, hold the hand sensors, and it measures your full body composition. You can even sync the results to your phone over Bluetooth. Members already pay for all of this. And yet people step on it with their shoes on, glance at their weight, and walk away. Out of hundreds of members, I might be one of a handful using it properly.

Still, they're on the scale. They're in the building. Form can be fixed later. The habit has to exist first.

I try to remember this with my walking too. I'm averaging over 14,000 steps a day this month, which sounds impressive until I tell you the other part: I break my 10K streak once or twice almost every month. Two days ago I missed it by 500 steps. May was my only perfect month this year.

I used to get frustrated about this. Now I think the honest lesson is that I simply cannot do it every single day, and pretending otherwise only makes the habit fragile. Miss a day, continue the next. Don't miss twice. That rule has carried me further than any streak.

The one streak that has survived is Duolingo: 134 days now, the longest I've ever managed with language learning. The trick is still the same one I shared before. My phone won't open WhatsApp or LinkedIn before I finish my German exercises. My German is improving slowly, but slowly is still a direction. I'm now thinking about which other habit deserves to become a gatekeeper like this.

On Audible, I started Be Your Future Self Now by Benjamin Hardy. It pairs well with everything above, since it's essentially about acting today as the person you want to become.

I also listened to Marina Mogilko's podcast episode with Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy. He's writing a book called Job Shock about how fast AI could disrupt jobs, and the conversation covers which jobs are already disappearing, whether a $380K degree still makes sense, and the durable skills AI can't replicate yet. As someone who changed sectors partly because of forces outside my control, this topic hits close to home. Worth your commute.

Ironically, while going analog in my personal life, I'm going deeper into automation in my work.

Alongside LeadShark, which I've mentioned before, I'm testing a new LinkedIn tool.

It’s called Extrovert, for managing LinkedIn comments at scale. It's been impressive so far, and they launched their AI agent just yesterday. I'll test it properly and write a detailed post about it soon. If you want to try it before that, this link gets you 50% off your first month.

beehiiv's Summer Release event is tomorrow, July 16th. They'll show what they're shipping next for creators, and their release events usually include a few genuinely useful features. If you have a newsletter or you're thinking about starting one, you can register here.

I'm still figuring out this balance between analog and digital, between streaks and forgiveness, like everything else I share here. But writing it down, on paper first this time, helped me see it more clearly.

I'm also making good progress on my writing systems and lead magnets. If you're working on newsletters or LinkedIn content, especially in B2B or SaaS, I'd be glad to connect and chat. Just reply to this email.

And a question for you: what's one thing in your life that might work better the slow, analog way? Hit reply and tell me. I read everything.

See you next Tuesday,

Selim (Let’s connect on LinkedIn!)

🌐 selimuysal.net 💌 leadletters.digital

P.S. If you're curious about digital writing or want to start your own newsletter, whether for your business or just for yourself, I'm happy to help. Just reply to this email and let's talk.

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