@simontheakston.bsky.social
From tech co-founder to 4-hour workdays | Stroke survivor building differently | Sharing what limitations teach us about better systems Newsletter: https://fourhourfreedom.substack.com
There’s a simple rule I follow: if losing it would cause stress, it gets scanned.
I’ve scanned medical letters, contracts, tax docs, warranties to name a few.
Paperless isn’t about minimalism. It’s about certainty and peace of mind.
I’ve written about it here:
open.substack.com/pub/fourhour...
I’ve accidentally got into mechanical keyboards.
I wasn’t chasing productivity or anything clever - just wanted typing to feel nicer.
Ended up changing my keyboard and realised how much the little frictions were messing with my focus.
I wrote about it here:
open.substack.com/pub/fourhour...
The goal isn’t working fewer hours.
It’s designing work that fits the hours you actually have.
I used to plan my days around ambition. Now I plan around energy.
Ambition is loud and persuasive.
Energy is quieter, but more honest.
One ignores my reality. The other works with it.
Three years ago today, my life changed.
Not in a neat, story-friendly way, but in a way I’m still living with.
If you’re building something quietly, or working within limits you didn’t choose, tomorrow’s piece may resonate.
It goes out in the morning.
open.substack.com/pub/fourhour...
Working four hours a day doesn't leave much room for drift.
Miss a week and you feel it.
Miss a month and the business feels it.
That's why reviews matter more to me than goals.
I've written up the system I use every Sunday evening.
open.substack.com/pub/fourhour...
My best ideas don’t come from sitting at a desk.
They arrive while walking, listening to podcasts, or half-thinking about something else.
This is how I capture them in under five seconds - and why that matters more than the tools.
open.substack.com/pub/fourhour...
2025 taught me something uncomfortable: doing good work isn’t the same as building a sustainable business.
I wrote an honest review of the year and how I’m changing things in 2026.
It’s live now.
open.substack.com/pub/fourhour...
Since the stroke, I’m always on the lookout for things that reduce effort or improve output.
This week’s newsletter breaks down the five best sub-$200 purchases I’ve made in 2025.
If you’re building a smoother workday, this might help.
open.substack.com/pub/fourhour...
The café on my rehab walk gives me jelly babies to get me home again. They probably think I work all day too!
People think my 4-hour day is a productivity trick — it isn’t.
It’s recovery, boundaries, and energy management.
My 4-Hour Workday Explained:
fourhourfreedom.substack.com/p/my-4-hour-...
No hustle. No hacks.
Just a system I built from the sofa, with one working hand and zero energy to spare.
It’s what let me grow after everything fell apart.
Live tomorrow on Four Hour Freedom.
fourhourfreedom.substack.com
I found focus through sound.
Not music. Not noise. But adaptive soundscapes that shift as I do.
After my stroke, I couldn’t handle Spotify. I needed something for recovery - not distraction.
I found it. Now I use it daily to write, rest, and sleep.
Info here: open.substack.com/pub/fourhour...
Just hit my all-time high of 242 newsletter subscribers.
Slowly but surely, a little crew is forming.
If you’re reading this and you’re one of them - thank you.
If you’re not, come join us:
fourhourfreedom.substack.com
This isn’t a hustle story.
It’s a rebuild story.
For anyone who’s had life punch them in the gut - and is now trying to build something that fits the new version of themselves.
fourhourfreedom.substack.com/p/stroke-of-...
I don’t work 4 hours a day to be lazy.
I do it so I’ve got energy left for walks, mates, music, and meaning.
Work is part of life. Not the whole damn thing.
- One night of 4-hour sleep = 70% drop in cancer-fighting cells.
- 20 hours awake = legally drunk cognitive function.
- Zero percent of humans can thrive on 5 hours without impairment.
This Saturday: Why your productivity hack is actually sabotaging everything.
fourhourfreedom.substack.com
Meetings without notes = decisions without follow-through.
I use AI + transcripts to turn every call into clear next steps.
It has saved projects - and improved my sales process more than I could imagine!
Full process in today’s newsletter:
fourhourfreedom.substack.com
My iPad weighs less than a hardback book, runs on the same M chip as desktop Macs, and lasts 10hrs on battery.
For writing, editing photos, jumping on video calls, or managing client projects—it’s brilliant.
I thought I’d miss my laptop. I don’t.
fourhourfreedom.substack.com/p/the-day-i-...
One hour a day adds up faster than you think.
I couldn’t work full-time, so I built a system that let me make real progress in short bursts.
12 months later, it’s working.
Stop waiting for the perfect week. Start investing the 60 minutes you do have.
DEVONthink changed how I collect. Obsidian changed how I think.
After my stroke, my brain didn’t work the way it used to.
These two tools became a kind of external hard drive.
This afternoon, I’m sharing the real workflows I use to connect them - and the mindset shift that made it all work.
There’s no perfect app. But there is a perfect combination.
DEVONthink handles capture and search. Obsidian handles thinking and creation. Together, they’ve become my digital memory.
Tomorrow’s issue is all about how I built the bridge between them. It’s free at FourHourFreedom.substack.com
This one is for you if you’re juggling 5 ideas but making progress on none.
I used to be the same - until a health scare forced me to cut the fluff.
One idea. Four hours a day. Real traction.
You don’t need more time. You need fewer distractions.
I don’t want to remember everything.
I just want to remember what matters.
That’s why I built a system in Obsidian that catches insights and sends me the good stuff when I need it.
Tomorrow, I’ll show you how it works - with real-world examples.
📨 Subscribe here: fourhourfreedom.substack.com
You want to be present.
But your job needs 40 hours - and your kids need you.
After I lost my health, I built a 4-hour workday that gives me both time and income.
You don’t have to choose between family and freedom.
There’s another way.
It’s #Lego night.
This is the end of Bag 2. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to what is?
If your digital life feels like a mess of PDFs, receipts, and research notes…
DEVONthink can fix that.
This afternoon I’m sharing:
✅ My exact setup
✅ Screenshots
✅ Why it beats Google Drive
Make sure you’re on the list:
fourhourfreedom.substack.com
DEVONthink isn’t my second brain.
It’s my external brain.
It’s where I store everything other people created:
PDFs, research, invoices, letters, receipts.
Want to see how I’ve set it up to work in 4 hours a day? Tomorrow’s newsletter breaks it down
fourhourfreedom.substack.com
I don’t work 4 hours a day to be lazy.
I do it so I’ve got energy left for walks, rehab, reading and family.
Work is part of life. Not the whole damn thing.
Quick question - how do you get the card view in bases? I can only see Table view. Massively excited about it though!
30.06.2025 08:04 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
I used to treat AI like a search engine.
Type prompt → get answer.
But the real breakthroughs came when I let it ask me questions back.
This week’s Four Hour Freedom is about two-way conversations with AI:
fourhourfreedom.substack.com/p/the-power-...