Embracing the Summer Slows [Weekend WRAP 91]

Hey Reader, happy Memorial Day weekend here in the States, the unofficial start of summer!

For my family, it's the closing weekend in our busiest month of the year. Seriously. Busier than the traditional holidays! We start in late April and then in the follow 4 weeks run through...

• Youngest son birthday
• Morgan's (wife) birthday
• Mother's Day
• Wedding Anniversary
• Oldest son's birthday
• Memorial Day

It's a busy season but full of celebration, family, friends, and (mostly) great weather. The fullness of this month has also helped me learn an important lesson about the rhythm of a year, which I will tell you about after this...

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💡 One Big Idea: Summer Slow Down

For the first 7 years of my career, summer was BIG. I worked in sports, tourism, and summer camps. Summer was time for 400 boys to descend on 500 acres for 10 weeks. Summer was time for driving up and down the east coast for lacrosse tournaments. There was no break in summer.

Then I started working at startups. More normal work environments than tourism and hospitality. Summers were slower. Sales slowed down, people are taking vacations, breaks from their own work.

Then I had kids. Summers became full again, but I started experiencing my own work slow down. Kids are out of school, day care is closed, and they need a-tendin' to (as my grandma says).

I fought the summer slows for years. I would get frustrated. Annoyed that life felt fast but work felt slow. That I couldn't get everything done I wanted and other people weren't on the same timeline as me. Sometimes I still do.

Because people need breaks. I need breaks. A natural rhythm of refreshment that allows energy to build for the next push when life opens up and I can go 110% on a project. I talked about this a few months ago with the productivity benefits that come from a season of rest.

This summer, I hope you'll join me in embracing the natural rhythm of the summer slows. Take a break, refresh your energy, and spend time with the people you care most about. With work, try and take a week or span of time and try a new hobby or project, or pick up an old one again.

Enjoy the summer 😎

📹 Video to Watch: Early Bird vs Night Owl

Matt D'Avella and Sara Dietschy (rhymes with peachy) are the classic early bird vs. the night owl. In this video they switch schedules with Matt staying up late and Sara rising early.

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I really like Matt and Sara and found their reviews of each other's schedules to be very thoughtful. In the end, they both adopted little habits, e.g. 1-2 late nights or early mornings each week, but stuck with their natural preferences.

Also, shout-out to this incredible and true comment 🦉☀️😳 I went to bed at midnight to finish up a project then was promptly woken up by my 4 year old at 6:00am. This is the way.

📰 One Thread I Read: The Intersection of Good Idea <> Bad Idea

I've worked with Billy through Ryan Holiday the past couple of years. I really appreciate his ability to find interesting stories and research of people in the creative field. This story about Lin-Manuel Miranda is one of my favorites. LMM introduces the theme to Alexander Hamilton at the White House in 2009, six years before it debuted on Broadway and became a sensation.

It's a great pitch, incredibly compelling, and hits the sweet spot between people saying "good idea!" and "interesting, but a bad idea." Oppenheimer notes the ability to keep working through what you know is good, but other people think is bad (for now) is a superpower.

I'd add that it's a very mercurial superpower, because there's a chance it really is a bad idea that will never work.

But if you really believe in it. Well, that could change the world.

Your Path to Living Healthier

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I am not a doctor and this is not health or medical advice. You should talk to a doctor before trying a service like Inside Tracker. Read all disclaimers and privacy policies here and here.

Have a great weekend,

Matt Ragland

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