Busy is not productive

You need time to think because everything you do will only be relevant if you make the right choices, at the right time, and are able to execute on those decisions.

There is a famous interview where Jeff Bezos says he gets eight hours of sleep because he needs to be well rested when making decisions. He only needs to make two or three good decisions a day to keep the company moving forward.

Another story he likes sharing is about the overwhelming number of ideas he had during Amazon's early days. Someone told him he had enough good ideas to kill Amazon altogether.

In a fast-paced world where tech changes almost daily and the economy keeps going up until it eventually crashes, it's scary to make decisions.

More than that, it's scary to take a break.

And I keep meeting people who are just so busy.

I reached out to a guy I know for some advice about an event. He gave me 15 minutes. Two months later.

A good friend of mine wants to build his website. For the past 12 months.

It literally takes two hours today to write, another hour to connect everything, and maybe another couple of hours to design.

I asked another friend to review my new platform, but being so busy with work, it won't happen anytime soon.

Why are we always so busy?

It might be time management.

It might be stress.

It might be task overload.

I think we're just bad at making commitments and even worse at failing.

But what if your break is your work, just done differently?

We forget to plan our lives, but we can't stop talking about our marketing strategy.

Take the time to plan your vacation goals, your time off, going to see a football game, or snowboarding with your family.

It's up to you.

Reverse engineer your life and understand how your work can make that happen.

Focus on the things that matter, the things that compound, and build it all according to your abilities, needs, and desires.

For me, I love writing, teaching, and storytelling.

My stage fright came to visit.

Yeah, I know. Sounds strange, right?

Once in a while, I still get it.

I was preparing for a big talk. Nothing major, but for me it was big.

The plan was to launch my Stook platform during that talk.

But with practicing my notes, building the app, learning how to redesign things, and preparing the session, I couldn't do it all.

And the thought of being on stage with a huge slide for my platform and something not working, that was scary.

Scary enough to make me forget my scenes the day before.

So this became an exercise in managing the situation.

Remembering that the audience had no idea what my plans were.

I rebuilt the landing page, added a waiting list, and created a nicely designed video.

Then I went back to focusing on my talking points.

It went extremely well, and a dozen people signed up, so I was happy.

The next phase is helping them onboard, training them, and getting their help improving the QA process and user flow.

This section is about enjoying the moment, a bit of music, some fun things. Enjoy

🎧 Jamiroquai House Mix
This week's Storyletter was written by the beach in Greece while enjoying this set.
👉 Listen

📺 Everyday Objects That Disappeared
Things that used to be everywhere and are now completely gone.
👉 Watch

🎬 Dante's The Divine Comedy
This movie looks incredible in black and white. It has everything I like in movies.
👉 View