I'm taking a break from YouTube (thanks to Gemini)

This is not clickbait.

Google Gemini recommended I take a break from YouTube…and, well, I’m going to take its advice.

And you’re actually the first to know since I haven’t told anyone else yet!

A little bit of context

For the past 4 years, I’ve been working full-time at Google while doing YouTube part-time.

A year or so into the journey I started posting regularly on LinkedIn, writing weekly newsletters (thanks for being a subscriber by the way 😉), while also experimenting with short-form content (I’m still figuring that out. Man I wish I could dance 😏).

And a few months ago, I decided to undertake an entirely new project - To distill everything I learned about Google Workspace into a practical, no bullshit, and easy-to-follow course for working professionals!

This email is not about the course (although you can find out more about that here), but rather about how generative AI turned what would have been a difficult decision - should I take a break from YouTube while I work on the course - into an easy one.

The poor man’s career coach

When I decided to create an entire course on Google Workspace, I knew something else in my life had to give; it simply wouldn’t be physically possible for me to work on so many things at once.

And so I turned to Google Gemini and input this prompt:

As you can see in the output, Gemini offered up 9 considerations to help with my decision (many of which I wouldn't have thought of myself) , and I took action on quite a few.

For example, the first bullet point around “time needed to create the course” lead me to sit down for ~45 minutes to forecast the time needed to script, film, edit, and market the course. I also ended up time blocking my calendar to get a sense of how long it would take.

This exercise alone made me realize that I would need to spend at least 2-3 months of my spare time on the course.

Another consideration that made me feel better about making the decision to take a break from YouTube was the question “Would pausing uploads temporarily hinder your progress significantly?”

The answer to that is a resounding “No” since (1) You all wouldn’t forget me about after just 2 months (…right?) and (2) A lot of my content is evergreen so traffic to my YouTube videos is relatively stable.

Cool Jeff, what does this have to do with me?

Why am I sharing this with you when my situation isn’t all that relevant for 99% of you? Well that’s precisely the point.

Compared to the dozens if not hundreds of colleagues I can turn to for advice on work-related matters, there are very few people I can talk to about this specific dilemma I face.

Given the right context, Gemini is able to act like a super hands-on and emotionally invested mentor who can surface relevant factors to help guide me in my decision-making.

Now it’s your turn: What is a hard decision in your life that Gemini can help with? If you feel comfortable sharing please let me know in the comments below!

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