Habits Specifically for 2025
My annual take on the hottest disturbances to our productivity.
Dear all,
You already know how much I value predictable and growing passive income through dividend investing. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned along the way, it’s that understanding the big picture is just as important as picking the right stocks.
That’s why today, I want to introduce you to someone whose work I personally find interesting: Johnny, the founder of Venture Out.
What I discovered is that we're all somewhere on the productivity spectrum, each with our own unique productivity style and level. Some days I'm firing on all cylinders, other days I'm happy just showing up. And both are perfectly okay.
This realization led me to develop the concepts behind Venture Out. Use it to help find balance in your life and your investments.
POSITIVE AFFIRMATION
“You need to ask yourself, what are you doing today that’s helping your future self. The obvious actions involve our physical health, like exercising and stretching.
What about your mental health?”
- Johnny T. Nguyen
Last year, I wrote Habits Specifically for 2024, outlining 7 unique challenges and how to overcome them. I successfully tackled four of these challenges, which is not bad.
Scanning the horizon into 2025, consulting the AI versions of experts like Yuval Noah Harari, my favorite author & macrohistorian, and Peter Attia, doctor & longevity expert, I’ve come up with the below 2025 unique challenges and offer my ideas on how to neutralize them.
1 - Return to Work Mandates
There is a lot of noise from the Trump Administration to mandate federal workers back to the office, with corporate CEOs following suit. And yet, the data has shown consistently otherwise.
“RTO mandates lead to brain drain, driving out top talent, and particularly women.” - MIT Sloan Review
3 Habits to neutralize this trend:
Anchor Days and Anchor Weeks - Instead of all 5 days back in the office, how about core hours, days, or even weeks?
Coffee Swiping - In response to RTO mandates, this trend has people coming into the office in the morning, sharing a cup of coffee with coworkers, and then around lunchtime going home to complete their hours.
Body Doubling - “A popular strategy for remote workers, especially in this era of distraction. Body doubling involves working alongside another person to support each other in staying focused and productive, even if your tasks are independent,” says Fast Company.
2 - The End of Social Media Monolopies
TikTok might be banned in the US, Twitter has devolved since Elon Musk’s takeover, and Meta has ended its fact-checking and diversity inclusion programs. Cal Newport calls it the twilight of social media monopolies, with users moving toward more fragmented and specialized platforms.
“Our research revealed that young people are seeking smaller social communities on the web. Nearly 60% of the 1,000 under 30s we surveyed agree that smaller communities make them feel like they are surrounded by people who care about the same things as them.” - The New Rules of Social, ZAK Agency
3 Habits to leverage the demise of big social platforms:
Don’t contribute to the lack of accountability. Be part of the exodus away from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Flock to a community that shares your values, like Substack and Reddit.
Regain your attention span. Be like Stephen King and carry around a book or magazine with you, for when you feel the need to not make eye contact.
If you found Venture Out helpful, hit subscribe and get exclusive strategies every week.
3 - Rising Importance of Future-Proof Skills
Here are the top 10 skills that will be needed in the future. It might be more critical the younger you are, but I’ll argue age doesn’t matter, as we all want to be relevant.
3 Habits to reskill:
Learning app or program, such as Coursera, Khan Academy, and Blinkist.
Online course on AI. MIT offers several.
Patience - Learning a skill takes time, I don’t know a way around that. Yet, finding time in our busy life is hard. All I can say is try your best to incorporate it into your life with hands-on practice.
"Directness is the practice of learning by directly doing the thing you want to learn. Basically, it's improvement through active practice rather than through passive learning. The phrases learning something new and practicing something new may seem similar, but these two methods can produce profoundly different results. Passive learning creates knowledge. Active practice creates skill." - Scott Young, Ultralearning
4 - Apathy and Accountability
The intro to 1999’s Batman Beyond animated series shows a future where apathy, amongst other negative traits, leads to a darker future. That dark future might not be far away, given our apathy toward what is true and who’s accountable for it.
“That if you accumulate a lot of information, you will know a lot of things about the world. But most information is junk. Information isn’t truth.
If the Facebook algorithm is spreading a hate-filled conspiracy theory, Facebook should be liable for it. If Facebook says, “But we didn’t create the conspiracy theory. It’s some user who created it and we don’t want to censor them,” then we tell them, “We don’t ask you to censor them. We just ask you not to spread it.” And this is not a new thing.
Hold them responsible for the actions of their algorithms.” - Yuval Noah Harari, The Grey Area Podcast
3 Habits that’ll help wake us up:
Knowledge is power. Pick up a good book on human history, such as Harari’s latest, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI.
Again, don’t contribute to the lack of accountability. Be part of the exodus away from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Meditate - Scientifically proven to help with focus, awareness, and happiness.
TAKEAWAY
The future is exactly that, the future, and therefore uncertain. All we can do is read the tea leaves and do our best to prepare for what we think is coming. This is my forecast for this year.
