Words. Ideas. Actions.

09 January 2023

Tonight, I want to start with an admission. It’s not going to be revelatory. In fact, I’ve alluded to it here before. But it’s something that’s been bothering me most of the weekend. And then, today’s episode of The Gist compounded matters. During Mike Pesca’s interview with Eric Newcomer, they discussed the difference between people writing for journalistic publications and those writing for their own. And the chasm of resources, in both time and money, which then dictates what each can cover. I think my posts are a great example of this, which leads me back to my admission: These posts are quick and mostly easy for me to do because they’re limited only by my creativity and opinions. Both of which, it seems, I have in abundance. 

When I think I have an idea for each day’s post, I usually jot it down in my notebook. It can be an idea spurred by a podcast episode, like today, or a book I just finished (I’m percolating a post about Michelle Obama’s recent book), or some new turmoil at Twitter. In all of these cases, though, the words which get put down here are nothing more than the thoughts in my head. There’s very little reporting. Or research. Or even fact checking. It’s just the mental machinations from a man of a certain age, usually sitting on his couch watching a soccer match on his DVR, while the rest of his family sleeps. Mainly because this is keeping him from Tweeting. Or reading Tweets. But I think, eventually, I want to use this time for something more.  

That same notebook where I capture ideas for what I want to write about — or, more precisely, practice writing about — also includes a long list of notions which would take more time and effort to tell well. There are ideas for content design talks I want to give. And pitches for 33⅓ books I’d love to write. Even a few short stories I used to tell our daughter at bedtime that I want to preserve, maybe even so other parents can tell their kids (ugh, that’s just a pretentious way of trying to avoid saying, “I think I want to write a children’s book or two”). As it is, I’m instead spending the evening hours sorting through a morass of news headlines and podcast episodes and revelations about music or soccer or politics which have passed though my grey matter during the daylight hours, trying to capture a snapshot of where my head was at today. Besides at work. 

As I sit here tonight, I’m not really sure what that means for these posts going forward. I know that I enjoy writing them. I’m not sure they’re anything more than a vanity project at this point, though. Or, maybe, something my family can look back on to get a sense of where my mind was at during what seems like these very strange, liminal times. So, in that sense, they serve a purpose. But, eventually, I think I’ll want to spend the time and energy I’m using putting these together on something that will work better together as a longer-form collection. I have lots of ideas, but much like Pesca and Newcomer mentioned, they’ll take focused time and attention. And intention, something I’d like to get better at in 2023. For now, I hope these little missives are providing the right amount of distractions — both for me and for you — from whatever else it is that could be a different use of our time. The upside is that if I’m writing these, at least I’m writing, And if practice makes perfect, that can’t be all bad. 

See you tomorrow?

26 December 2022

This is a weird week for a lot of people. Are we working? Are we pretending we’re working? Did we just go ’head and take the week off? I didn’t have to work today (it was our observed Xmas holiday), but before I started typing this tonight, I did take a glance at my calendar for tomorrow to gauge how many meetings I have. Any wagers on whether the two which are scheduled get canceled?

So, what should I do with this quirky, holiday-shortened week? At the risk of creating a BuzzFeed-esque Listicle™, here are a few items I’ll be tackling in the next few days as the lull between years sets in:

1) Cataloging- This is something I’m not great at, but I’ve found it’s a really valuable resource when performance reviews come around. I’ll look back at significant launches, big projects, and notable accomplishments, summarizing what I did, why they were important, and any obstacles we overcame to bring them to life. Bonus points if they happened long enough ago to have some meaningful metrics already attributed to them.

2) Calendaring- We have too many meetings. I can almost guarantee this is true, no matter who you work for. Use this week to take a look at your calendar for every work day in January. Any recurring meeting you see on there, delete it. Or at least ask yourself if it can be deleted. There’s a good chance — if your calendar is anything like mine — that your days are already pre-scheduled with a handful of meetings which could instead be an email. Or at least reduced to once a month. Scrutinize what’s already scheduled for you, and make some changes to how many, and how often, you and your peers are getting together just to share the status of things. Most of these tend to get in the way of actually getting some things done.

3) Clearing- The other impediment to productivity, for me, is email. But every year, one of my favorite habits is to empty my email inbox. Just get rid of ’em. Delete anything from 2022. Now, I know that some of you may have recoiled in horror. There may be a couple of reasons why causing you to question this advice. Here are a few: 

“Stephen, did you know that  practicing ‘Inbox Zero’ would keep the number of incoming emails at a manageable cadence?”  
Absolutely not. I wasn’t hired as an email manager. My skills (and time) are better spent doing the job I was hired for. I set up a system of filters and triaging time, and spend time working instead of replying. I check my mail three times a day, and trust my filters to sort items I’ll only need as reference. One good practice is to remember that your inbox should not work as your to-do list.

“Stephen, my company has policies in place which compel me to keep each and every electronic missive I have ever received, so I can’t just delete everything, right?”
Fair enough. But you can move them out from in front of your face. My favorite trick is to create a folder (you can even call it something super creative like 2022) and move everything in your Inbox to a newly created collection. This way, you won’t lose anything, but you also won’t have to face each and every unresponded-to missive like it’s a Xmas card from that aunt you forgot to mail a gift to.

“Stephen, there’s important stuff in there that can’t just be deleted, can it?” 
Let’s get a little real for a moment, shall we? If there was really something important in that inbox of yours, you would have already taken care of it before the holiday break. And, if there is something truly essential that you need to get to in the first few days of January, odds are you’ve either noted it elsewhere or you’ll be reminded of it soon enough to knock it out before any early-in-the-year deadline.  

I have a few other habits that I like to restart at the beginning of each new year, but they don’t really have cleverly alliterative “c” names, so maybe we can talk about those later. And if you have any yearly habits which help you in your work, please let me know.

See you tomorrow?