Good morning, John.

It may have come to your attention that I do too many things. And I've been asked, "How do you do it?" And I gotta say: I'm not sure I do.

I haven't had good answers to that question because I haven't really ever spent a lot of time thinking about it and also like I don't know that I'm super healthy about it.  I wouldn't necessarily give people my secrets 'cause I think a lot of them aren't good for me. Let's just say that there is an unpleasantly long list there, right th- it's looking at me and I, ugh. I love all the things and I want to do them all and I will, it's just, it's a long list.

Like right now, we're already working on Project for Awesome 2017 which is gonna happen right after Podcon, which is a thing we just finished a crowdfunding campaign for and now have put normal tickets on sale for, if you're interested in Podcasts, if you like those. I'm working on my creator track keynote for Vidcon. I'm trying to relearn how to play my own music, cause I'm doing a solo set this year for the first time in a long time.

And I'm also prepping for Vidcon Australia, which is coming up very fast. I'm trying to help build a guild of internet creators, so we can support each other and like, have a voice together. That's intense!

And I just got a cheap'o microscope and I've been pointing it at everything. This morning I brought in some leaves from my cherry tree, which is currently infested with aphids, to look at with the microscope. And if you don't like bug-things, like tiny- lots of tiny bugs you want to skip to THIS time code because we're going to look at those right now. All at the same time on this tree right now we got every stage of ladybugs. We've got the eggs. We've got the eggs hatching with the tiny, tiny little larvae coming out.  We've got the much bigger larvae because they get bigger and bigger as they eat more aphids and I saw one adult seven-spotted ladybug and put it on the microscope and it friggin' ate aphids while I was staring at it and... it was SO COOL and I'm very glad that I get to share it with you.

Also other things are happening! Like Nathan Zed just launched his merch on DFTBA.com which is partially based on a video he made here on Vlogbrothers. And it sold out, in like five minutes.  It's very good! We should have printed more shirts, and I feel bad! Anyway, I've been thinking all of this stuff, about productivity and doing too many things a lot lately.

And so here are two unhealthy secrets to my productivity and three healthy ones. First, the unhealthy ones. Uh, number one.  I have convinced myself that if I am not using all of the tools I have at my disposal to do the maximum amount of good and like, give people good jobs, then I am less of a good person than I otherwise could be. And that's maybe a little bit too much pressure. Maybe not.  But maybe.

And the second one: I intentionally put myself in situations where people who I care about and who I respect rely on me to do things, which is very motivating! But also very stressful.

Now for the healthy ones!

One: I don't get caught up in doing anything perfectly. I'm not here for the idea of the idea. I just want to try stuff! And if it explodes... it exploded! And like, I learned!

Two: I love giving other people responsibility. I love putting them in difficult situations and saying, "Figure this out; help me do this." And if they do it wrong or they do it differently from how I would have done it, I don't get mad as long as they're learning. Because there is no way to get good at stuff, except to do it and fail and learn.

And finally number three, and this is, I think, for everybody, and this is way bigger and broader than just productivity: I follow and cultivate my own curiosity. I think curiosity is one of the top two or three human characteristics. It's something that I really like about myself and something that I don't mind liking about myself. I wanna understand stuff! I wanna understand people! Following my curiosity so frequently leads me to better life decisions and better business decisions, but also just feeling better. You're never gonna feel bad about your whole life if you, like, loved people and you were curious. I mean, that's kind of all I want. I'm gonna get like 70-90 years, fingers crossed. That's all I want. I want to do that. For 70-90 years.

John, I'll see you on Tuesday.

You can check out Nathan Zed's new merch at DFTBA.com. It is currently sold out, but you can pre-order it. And if you are into Podcasts! And recognize any of these Podcasts that we're gonna have represented at Podcon?  Check it out at Podcon.com