Summer’s Not Over Yet and I'm Gettin' Feral

Parenting, paddling FOMO, accidental purchases, and the illusion that adding people will fix your broken process.

Special late Friday edition... Man these weeks have been BUSY. Which is good, but also taxing. It's one of those good problems to have, after working so hard to get things moving, the flywheel for my business has gained momentum. But now I'm in that next stage of challenge: figuring out how to scale while also being a parent, a partner, and (possibly) a decent human being.

Race season is over, which is bittersweet (more bitter than sweet). I get a little time back, but I’m ITCHING to be on the water. I still paddle a couple times a week, but I’m catching FOMO from all the folks in the club doing the big races - races I’m not quite ready for, but still. C’mon, Trevor… you can survive a few months with LESS paddling, right?

editor's note (which is also Trevor): I just signed up for another race…

Also… how is summer break already almost over? Is it just our district, or does anyone else feel like we’re back to school earlier each year? I swear we used to start after Labor Day, now it’s early August. There's some relief in getting the kids back in school (especially when working from home), but damn, seeing kids be kids without all the societal pressures of school and timelines is pretty neat.

Ok let's goooooooooooo...

Don't just put on rose colored glasses...

You’ve got to see through someone else’s lens. Whether it's your coworkers, your kids, or your partner, try seeing the world through their eyes. Challenge your assumptions and look for your biases. It won’t magically fix everything, but it will make you a better communicator and a more empathetic human.

"Many hands make light work” vs. “9 women can’t make a baby in a month.”

Both are true. But too many companies hear the first and forget the second. They try to throw more people and more money at a project that’s stuck, when the real problem is the foundation of the project and/or team and/or business. If your process is broken, adding more humans means they are still using that same broken process. Start with clarity, structure, and (good) leadership, then add help.

The dangers of long-winded meetings.

So… I might’ve bought a new phone this week by accident. I was in a meeting listening to someone drone on and on while browsing some phone deals because mine is gettin' pretty tired. Next thing I know, I'm seeing an "ORDER CONFIRMED" message... Whoops! Pay attention in meetings folks, and tell those people to STFU. At least it was a good deal.

Self-organization is not a given.

Ever told a group of people, “just get into small groups” and then watched them stand around awkwardly doing absolutely nothing? Maybe there's someone who steps up and starts organizing everyone, but so often it's met with a large group of people staring at each other and a smaller group who actually organized. Whether it’s kids or coworkers, don’t assume people will naturally organize. You have to set expectations, define roles, and sometimes even appoint a facilitator to keep things moving.

Timing is everything.

It’s wild how often someone can say something to you, whether it's your spouse, your boss, a friend, and it doesn’t land until you hear it from someone else, in a different tone, on a different day. This is why communication and change takes repetition, variety, and patience. People hear things when they’re ready. Not just when you’re ready to say them. Sometimes you have to be the annoying messenger saying the same message in the same weekly meeting again.

Quitting your job won’t solve everything, but staying in a soul-sucking one might break you.

I feel like some sort of anti-corporate prophet, encouraging people to branch out on their own and move away from the typical full-time grind. Maybe don't throw the babay out with the bath whatta (my best attempt to type out a cockney accent) and start out on your own if you don't want to or feel not ready to, but if you are unhappy with where you are at, GTFO. Don't stay with a job that's burning you out because you are afraid of what happens if you leave. This is super cliche, but life is short and you aren't going to look back on your job with fondness on your deathbed... Besides, what's the worst that can happen? You have to get another job?

Start small. Really small.

I see this all the time; a project or idea starts with a small(ish) scope, and then as people dive in they start turning the "wouldn't it be cool if..." into must-haves, and then they have the project equivalent of a junk-drawer full of old cables that don't go to any of your devices.

Shrink it back down. Build the tiny version. Ship it. Done is better than perfect, and starting small is the only way anything ever gets finished. The other stuff can be added later.

Tool I swear by: Reclaim.ai

Alright, let's try to do what we always do and end this one with a recommendation. This one’s for the folks juggling 47 calendars and wondering why they’re always double-booked. It sounds like a pretty trivial thing, but I swear none of the big tech-dawgs have implemented a good way to sync between calendars well. That's what drew me to this as I have quite a few accounts with their own calendars and schedules. This allows me to put blocked times from Calendar A over on Calendars B, and C, and vice versa so I can avoid that awkward "actually I'm not available at that time" conversation when someone inevitably schedules on top of another meeting I had.

Reclaim syncs availability across all your accounts, has some handy scheduling links, and some other nifty features that come along with it.

The free version is pretty solid if you want to give it a shot.

...No, this isn’t a paid ad. I just genuinely use it and it’s made my life better.

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Well, we are past the solstice, so summer’s winding down. Not sure I'm quite ready for fall yet; I need to get some more ☀️ on these 💪, and this 😎. Hey, I hope y'all find some quiet moments this week, get some sunshine, and may your meetings be engaging (or you get a new phone out of it).

See you next week.

– Trevor