During a date in his early twenties, Ben Meer found himself on the receiving end of a thorough critique. His date, a woman from the Netherlands, pointed out various faults. “You dress in baggy clothes,” she said. “You eat too quickly. You walk without grace. You don’t know another language. And you can’t even cook…”
According to Meer, her list of criticisms felt ridiculously long—like a CVS receipt—and stung because he recognized there was truth in her words. He genuinely wasn’t doing well in many aspects of his life.
At the time, he was operating a failing skincare business from a tiny apartment and drowning in $32,000 of credit card debt. To pay the bills, he worked as a waiter on weekends, pulling grueling 14-hour shifts. Eventually, he shut down the business and submitted a sample kit with his application to Cornell’s business school, where he was eventually accepted.
A course in business operations altered his perspective on his issues. Meer realized his startup lacked essential systems for sales and customer service. He began applying the same principles to his life, creating structured ways to manage tasks, leveraging behavioral science rather than just willpower to hit deadlines, exercise, and stick to a budget.
“We hear phrases like ‘trust the process,’ but I spent years doing just that without even having a process,” he explained.
Now, at 34 years old, Meer has built a career around teaching this philosophy. He boasts about 2.25 million followers across social media platforms, and around 252,000 subscribers to his free newsletter, System Sunday, where he shares practical tips for improving decision-making and minimizing distractions.
His strategies may seem straightforward but pack a punch. For instance, he charges his phone in the living room, which helps him sleep better and cuts down on mindless scrolling through his feeds. To limit TV time, he removes batteries from the remote so he must actually get up if he wants to binge-watch another episode.
Becoming a productivity expert wasn’t in Meer’s original plans. After earning his MBA, he joined Ernst & Young in 2019 as a consultant and began crafting an internal newsletter. Amid a breakup, he threw himself into his writing. After some encouragement from his manager, he considered pursuing writing as a career, even though it took him a while to embrace that direction.
“I was a bit frustrated because I had just invested $150,000 in my MBA, and I wanted to be recognized as a top strategist,” he reflected.
His writing resurfaced during the pandemic when he launched a blog in February 2022 about using structured systems to enhance daily living, and it really took off.
Nowadays, his business earns seven figures, with coaching clients who invest tens of thousands for his assistance. While he won’t disclose any names, he mentioned helping a creative director manage his time to be home for his kids’ bedtime. He also described coaching a senior product leader in a major tech firm who started her own advisory practice and eventually quit her job to focus on it full-time.
In partnership with his fiancée, Jade Bonacolta, he runs a 12-week program called Archimedes, aimed at building a following on LinkedIn, listed at $3,299.
Bonacolta, a former marketing leader at Google and an advocate for self-improvement, brings her own audience, with 482,000 LinkedIn followers and 312,000 newsletter subscribers to her platform, The Quiet Rich.
They hold a monthly “Life Dinner,” an idea credited to venture capitalist Brad Feld, where they discuss their relationship and mutual needs, making it sound oddly akin to a performance review with appetizers. In one early dinner, Bonacolta pointed out that he appeared tired and distracted while dining with her friends. He decided a quick nap before future outings could make him a better companion.
In his earlier days, while optimizing clients’ time, Meer spent two hours every morning setting himself up for success, which included unique habits like brushing his teeth on one leg and splashing ice water on his face. “I thought I had to do all these things to earn success,” he shared. “I just got really skilled at ticking off every box, but it didn’t lead to happiness.”
Now, his morning routine is condensed to 20 minutes and kicks off with water—he calls it an “internal shower,” which awkwardly suggests your kidneys might need cleaning. He follows it with espresso and meditation before diving into writing—quite the improvement from those unproductive two-hour rituals.
Meer acknowledges that some of his advice—like using birthday reminders or automatic bill payments—might seem obvious, but that’s part of the message. “Common sense isn’t really common practice,” he remarked.
