🚨Your not burned out; you’re always on

✏️You’re not overwhelmed. You’re fatigued. Not from too much work, but from always being on alert. Even on “easy” weeks, part of your brain is listening for pings, tone shifts, and “just checking in” emails, so rest never really lands.

This week’s focus: Turning off the internal watchtower: one inbox watcher and one simple rule to stop constant readiness and give the all-clear sign. Fewer checks, cleaner focus, more usable energy. (3-minute read)

🔦 Week’s highlights:

• Tool Spotlight: SaneBox and FollowUpThen act as quiet watchers—one filters what matters, the other remembers for you.

• Sherpa’s Shortcuts: A daily stand-down window and a blunt “date it or delete it” rule to end constant readiness.

• Sherpa’s Pack (freebie): Boomerang for Gmail helps shut down constant message checking.

• The Ridgeline (news): The Potato Prompt breaks AI’s yes-man habit, and cheaper ChatGPT tier arrives.

• Tools Gone Wild: Slack’s green dot monitor keeps everyone on edge.

AI tool spotlight:

Tool Sherpa explores the flood of new AI apps and carefully selects only proven tools.

🔍 SaneBox: The inbox watcher

Why it matters:
You’re fatigued because you keep hovering over your inbox. SaneBox learns which emails actually need you and moves the rest out of sight. No rules to babysit. No folders to fuss over. If something important goes unanswered, it taps you. Otherwise, you’re allowed to stop checking.

Who’s it for

• Freelance writers with clients who “just want to stay in the loop”
• Anyone CC’d for emotional support
• People who open email, close it, then open it again

Best use case:
Going a few hours without checking your inbox—and not imagining a small fire breaking out.

Pros:
Dramatically reduces background vigilance. Filters noise automatically, resurfaces what matters, and cuts the urge to check “just in case.” Many users claw back ~5 hours a week of actual focus.

Cons:
Takes a few days to learn your habits. If you enjoy micromanaging folders, this may feel suspiciously calm.

Pricing:
Free trial available. Paid plans start at $4/month.

👉 Try SaneBox today

🔍 FollowUpThen: The external brain

Why it matters:
A good chunk of fatigue comes from remembering to remember. Follow up next week. Check back Friday. See if they replied. FollowUpThen lets you forward an email to a future date—like [email protected]—and immediately stop thinking about it. Emails that require action come back. If not, they vanish quietly, like a problem that solves itself.

Who’s it for

• Freelancers waiting on client replies or approvals
• Anyone juggling “I’ll follow up later” emails
• People whose brains act like unpaid reminder software

Best use case:
The second you think, “I should remember to check this,” you forward an email to a future date and move on. No flags, lists, or mental hovering. The email returns only when it matters.

Pros:
Closes open loops instantly. Reduces background stress, cuts inbox re-checking, and frees mental energy (often several hours cognitive load hours per week).

Cons:
It’s deliberately simple. If you want dashboards or elaborate systems, this will feel almost too calm.

Pricing:
Free plan available. Paid starts at about $5/month.

👉 Try FollowUpThen for free

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Sherpa’s shortcuts 🪓

Sherpa-approved hacks to streamline your workflow in today’s most popular AI apps.
 

⚡ Hack #1: The daily stand-down window

Problem:
You’re not overwhelmed by messages. You’re bracing for them. Even on quiet days, part of your brain is posted at the watchtower.

Solution:
Create one window where you don’t check messages, on purpose, daily. Same time. No negotiations. This gives your brain an official all-clear, so vigilance drops and focus comes back without changing clients or boundaries.

How to set it up (5 minutes, once):

• Pick a 60–90 minute block you can actually keep
• Put it on your calendar as “Stand-down window”
• Silence email, Slack, and notifications during that block
• Do not “just peek” (peeking re-arms the guards)

💡 Sherpa Tip: Don’t announce this to clients. This isn’t a boundary conversation—it’s you stepping away from the watchtower.

⚡ Hack #2: Date it or delete it

Problem:
“I’ll follow up next week.”
“I’m waiting on them.”
Those thoughts sit in your head all day, rent-free.

Solution:
If something needs future action, send it to a date using FollowUpThen. If it doesn’t deserve a date, let it go. Nothing stays in your head.

How it works (10 seconds):

• Waiting on a client? → Forward the email to [email protected]
• Sending something you’ll revisit? → BCC [email protected]
• Not sure it matters? → Don’t date it.

If it still needs action, it comes back. If not, it disappears.

💡 Sherpa Tip: “Don’t forget” is not a strategy. Dates are.

🏔 Sherpa’s Pack

Free stuff to help freelancers get an edge.

Give your inbox permission to forget. Boomerang for Gmail watches sent emails, not incoming noise. If no one replies, it comes back to you. If they do, it stays gone. Different job, same relief: you stop mentally tracking follow-ups.

👉 Try Boomerang’s free plan

The Ridgeline news🏔️

The latest on how AI is rewriting the rules for solopreneurs and small teams.

🥔 Potato prompt, decoded: This oddly effective one-word ChatGPT trick forces better outputs, fewer rewrites, less prompt frustration. 🔗 Steal the prompt

💸 The middle plan emerges: OpenAI rolled out a cheaper in-between ChatGPT plan—more power than Free, cheaper than Plus. 🔗 See the plan breakdown

📊 PowerPoint, dethroned: One writer ditched PowerPoint for Google’s new free visual doc tool. Cleaner stories, faster builds, fewer crimes against typography. 🔗 See the swap

📧 Gemini moves into Gmail: New Gemini features now live inside Gmail and Workspace—summaries, replies, and context baked directly into your inbox. 🔗 Watch what’s new

😬 Altman admits slip: Sam Altman said recent ChatGPT updates made things worse. Honest? Yes. Comforting? Not especially. 🔗 Read the confession

☕ Final Sip:
AI pricing is getting… human. Not everyone needs the top shelf. Sometimes “just enough power” is the real upgrade.

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Tools gone wild! 😜

Let’s end with a laugh — when AI tools take a detour off the happy path.

🟢 The green dot problem

Slack’s presence dot was meant to be helpful. Instead, it became a tiny supervisor. People stayed “active” to avoid looking unresponsive: wiggling mice, reopening apps, checking messages that weren’t there. No emergencies occurred. Everyone was still tired.

📌 Lesson learned: Presence is not productivity. If a green dot keeps you on edge, turn it off, or stop obeying it. The work was fine. The dot was the drama.

🧭 What’s Next?

Coming up next: More quiet AI wins that give you back hours—without more systems to babysit.

Know a freelancer who’s tired of overthinking, hovering, or second-guessing? Forward this newsletter and help them drop the watchtower.
—Your Sherpa team 🏔️