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Hello friend,
Why you’re getting this: this is my Friends Newsletter, a brain dump of interesting things that I send to interesting people I've met and friends I want to stay in touch with. Zero pressure to stick around—just click unsubscribe if you don’t want to get it (don’t worry, I won’t be notified).
Here’s what I’m thinking about…
- For years, my inbox has been my prison. A treadmill of pseudo-productivity that eats my every waking minute. Always desperate to get to the elusive “inbox zero,” but never quite succeeding.
I’ve tried every app. Every filtering strategy. I even built custom software so that I’d only get email in batches a few times a day.
Nothing worked. Like an addict, my thoughts would always drift back to that horrible fucking number.
The unread badge. All the opportunities I was missing. People I was letting down. Money being lit on fire if X or Y problem wasn’t solved imminently.
So, six months ago, I did the only thing an addict can do: I quit.
I deleted all the email apps on my phone, then used Screen Time and Freedom to make email completely inaccessible by app or browser and had my girlfriend set the password.
I gave my assistant an extensive list of how to triage the inbox (what to send where). Then I asked her to create a Google Doc for each day’s important emails and copy/paste any messages she felt needed a response into the doc once a day.
It was simple and extremely manual—and oddly enough, it worked.
Today, every 3-5 days, I go into the folder with all the email Google Docs and skim through them. I scratch out some responses, and then I forget about email for another few days.
It has freed up my time more than any other “life hack”.
I no longer suffer under the shackles of my inbox. It’s amazing how much a bit of psychological distance makes.
The problems are the same. The volume is the same. I’m just not aware of it as often.
And what happened? Nothing. No negative feedback from anyone, just more time to work and less stress on my plate hour-to-hour.
A bit like only reading the news once a week(something I have also implemented that has immeasurably improved my life).
By the way, if you want to implement this for yourself, you should hire an assistant from Athena. My assistant, Tina, is incredible. She’s based in the Philippines and we pay ⅓ of what we’d pay in North America for far better attention and service.
- Quick update on PressurePros, the pressure washing business I launched here in Victoria with a random college kid I met.
So far, we’ve completed thousands of dollars of work and have quoted over $10,000 in jobs. Huge thanks to all the readers who reached out with cleaning jobs after my last email—the guys are absolutely pumped! If any more of you have a mossy deck or grimy walkway, get in touch.
My role has mainly been behind the scenes, focusing on finances (like buying all the equipment), marketing (Google Ads, promotions, demand generation), and tech. I’ve been blown away by how good small business software has become.
We’re running almost everything through Jobber—from tracking leads to quoting, invoicing, billing, scheduling, and even dispatching the team. It’s incredible software, and I’m seriously impressed with how seamless it makes operations.
Between AI (which I used to write, build and generate photos for the website and ad copy) and all the great modern software and payments infrastructure, being a small business entrepreneur in 2025 is pretty awesome.
- When people are impressed that I'm the guy who started Metalab, I chuckle. Why? Because behind the scenes it was complete and utter chaos. It was a few acne-scarred 20-year-olds with absolutely no idea how to run a business trying a lot of random stuff (and mostly failing).
Today, Metalab is the world’s top product design firm working with Fortune 500 companies. But back then, almost twenty years ago—man, I feel old—we were clueless nobodies working out of a tiny hovel of an apartment.
My pal (and employee #2 at Metalab), Mark Nichols, just posted a nostalgic tweet thread about what it was like, complete with embarrassing pictures from our first office.
It’s a wild flashback and a good reminder that big things start small. It was also, ironically, when business was the absolute most fun (though, like most youths, we didn’t appreciate that at the moment).
“I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then” —Bob Seger
Speaking of which, if you’re running a dainty little agency like we were back in the day and you need a shoulder to cry on, Mark recently hung up his spurs and started coaching agency owners. You guys should talk.
- If a scientist scraped my children’s teeth, they would probably discover new antibiotics. Let’s be real: kids barely brush their teeth. Mine certainly don’t.
Sure, the toothbrush goes in their mouths, but they’re chatting, dancing, and usually lucky if it grazes a tooth or two.
I recently got my boys Autobrush toothbrushes. They are basically bristled U-shaped electric toothbrushes that clean their entire mouth in 30 seconds. They also flash bright lights and play a little song which the boys are big fans of.
In clinical studies, the Autobrush proved to be 27 times more effective at removing plaque than manual toothbrushes. While traditional brushing only reduced plaque by 1.9%, the Autobrush achieved a 50.6% reduction across the entire mouth.
I’m a big fan, as are the boys. Check them out here.
- I’ve been learning about a man that Charlie Munger called the greatest business operator of all time.
James J. Hill built the Great Northern Railway in the late 1800s without federal land grants (unlike his competitors) and created one of the only transcontinental railroads that never went bankrupt (also unlike his competitors, who almost all went bankrupt). He was obsessively focused on the details—personally testing different grades of coal to cut fuel costs and even redesigning locomotive wheels to handle steep mountain grades more efficiently. Think Elon Musk of the 19th century, but with less drama.
My friend David Senra (host of my all-time favorite podcast, Founders) introduced me to this awesome 4-part documentary about Hill and his impact on the Pacific Northwest. The documentary is great, very Ken Burns-y, but oddly only available on Vimeo.
You can check it out here
- I don’t know why, but I absolutely hate calling restaurants to book reservations. Sure, lots of places are on OpenTable, but many popular restaurants still require phone calls.
Of all the AI tools I've been experimenting with, Lindy has blown me away with its ability to create agents that can handle traditionally human tasks.
For example, I just fixed this problem for myself by making an AI agent that calls restaurants to make reservations for me.
Here’s how it works:
1. I text it the name of the restaurant, desired time and number of guests.
2. It calls the restaurant (in an incredibly real sounding voice) and makes the reservation.
3. If they don't have the time available, it texts me some alternate times (and can call back to make them). If they do, it books it.
4. Once booked, it adds it to my calendar and texts me to let me know the details.
If the restaurant asks, it can even provide allergies and other details, and it's powered by Claude so it can handle pretty much any line of conversation. It's also trained to tell the person it's my AI assistant if they ask or get weirded out by the voice.
Check out a video of me demoing it here. This only took me about 10 minutes to put together.
This is one of the more basic automations I've created—we are currently in the process of implementing some wild stuff using agents within some of our businesses, which I'll share more about soon.
In the meantime, go play with Lindy and experience this insanity yourself.
- Zoe and I have been listening to Rubber Soul by The Beatles on repeat this week.
I think it might be their best album. Fight me.
That’s all for now…
-Andrew
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