The Intro #54: Happy Thanksgiving

The Intro #54: Happy Thanksgiving

by | Nov 26, 2020 | The Intro

Every week, we share the articles, tools, books, videos, and stories we can’t stop talking about, and at the end, we include this little thing called the attitude of gratitude.

You’ve seen us celebrate everything from sunny days to tiny pies to best friends to naps. And maybe you’ve thought, oh that’s cute. Fun way to end an email.

What you might not know is that the attitude of gratitude far precedes this newsletter (and even this company). It’s our driving ethos—a posture that informs just about everything we do.

Because here’s the not-so-secret secret: Gratitude leads to joy. And in a work context, gratitude makes even the hardest days more manageable.

So this Thanksgiving, we challenge you to actually take a minute to say thank you. Even in a year when so much has gone wrong. Especially in a year when so much has gone wrong. Make a list of your gifts. (Yes, an actual list. Go find a piece of paper. We’ll wait.) When you start looking for the bright spots, you’ll realize they are all around you.

The Intro #53: The flip side of flow

The Intro #53: The flip side of flow

by | Nov 19, 2020 | The Intro

Let’s talk for a minute about the hustle.

You know the feeling: Head down, eyes on the prize, in the zone, getting stuff done.

Designers, developers, writers, and creatives call this experience flow state, and in the best circumstances, it is an absolute gift. Countless experts have written about how to hack your flow state — how to get there and stay there, even when you aren’t “feeling it.” They’re right to want to cultivate this experience. Some of our very best work has come from moments of flow.

But, of course, any good thing has a flip side.

And in our experience, the flip slide of flow is workaholism.

When we get too in the zone and too focused, we lose sight of everything around us — including things that are arguably more important than the work itself (our family, for example, or remembering to eat).

In this very busy, very stressful Q4 season, we’re focused on flipping that switch back and forth.

First, ditch all the distractions and find extended, focused times for creative work. Turn off Slack notifications, close the door, tell your team you’re going dark for a few hours, convince your partner to take the kids on a (very long) walk. Get into your flow state and let the good work come.

Then, just as importantly, ditch the work. Pull your eyes back up. Pay attention to the very real, very tangible life all around you. Shut down your computer, go on your own walk, do something that requires zero thought. Have fun.

This both/and is one of our greatest challenges — but now more than ever, we’re fighting for it. And we invite you to do the same.

The Intro # 52: A sanity-saving skill

by | Nov 12, 2020 | The Intro

If you’re anything like us, you’re constantly juggling a forever-long list of deadlines. Some of them are are for clients or partners or your boss; some are for key projects; some impact what everyone else around you is doing; and some — well, some are deadlines that you’ve set arbitrarily for yourself.

Establishing timelines and goals for your own projects is critical — it’s the only way you’ll ever prioritize them! But being able to determine which deadlines can move when the week gets to be a lot? That is a sanity-saving skill.

Take, for example, this newsletter.

We normally push send between 6am and 7am on Thursdays. Guess what? We weren’t ready. This week got the best of us, and hitting our deadline would have required us to forego other priorities (namely sleep, which is absolutely a priority in case you need reminding). So we had three options:

1. Push through our stress and sleep deprivation to hit our deadline.
2. Skip it altogether.
3. Send it a little bit late.

And then we remembered: We made up the deadline! It’s entirely self-imposed, which means we have the freedom to move it. Option 3 it is.

Give yourself grace, friends. It’s OK to not get it all done in a day. The list will still be waiting for you tomorrow. We promise.

The Intro #51: The most important thing this week

by | Nov 5, 2020 | The Intro

How we doing, team? Everyone hanging in there?

In weeks like this one when the national collective consciousness can only be described as very very anxious, we return to two small words that get a bad wrap, but are really so important: self care.

We don’t know how you’re processing everything going on, but if your team is anything like ours, this week has been a lot. Right now, your top priority as a leader is to make sure your people are doing ok. And your top priority as a human is to do the same for yourself.

That project you’re working on? It can wait. Those emails? They aren’t going anywhere. Your Q4 campaign? You still have time.

So take a minute. A breath. A walk. Turn off the news. Mute notifications. Go outside. Call a friend. Do what you need to do to take care of your brain and your heart and your stress levels.

This week (and every week), it’s the most important thing you can do.

The Intro #50: Make it a priority and see it through

by | Oct 29, 2020 | The Intro

 A year ago, we had an idea. (A pretty good one, if we say so ourselves.)

Like all of you, our clients were inundated with information about how to be better marketers, but had approximately zero time to wade through the onslaught of blogs and articles and new tech platforms. We thought we might be able to help.

That week, we picked five things our team couldn’t shut up about, wrote a few words about why they were cool, and sent a little newsletter to our people.

Fast forward a year, and here we are — sending you our 50th issue of +good!

First of all, thank you! Thank you for sticking with us and sharing us (scroll on down to our gratitude for more on that…). You guys are (and have always been) the real MVPs.

Second, here are two lessons we’ve learned from this little piece of weekly inbox goodness:

1. Make your priorities your priorities. Is this newsletter the core part of our job? No, not really. But is it something we love and value? Absolutely YES. So guess what? We keep doing it. Because we believe in it and think it’s helpful and have made it a priority. Make time to work on things that are important to you. It makes the work week so much more fun.

2. See things through. If you think you’ve got a good idea on your hands, stick with it. Give it the time and attention it deserves, and see if something amazing starts to bloom. Who knows? Maybe one day you’ll open your email platform and realize you’re on issue 50 of your newsletter!
Our plans for +good in the next year are simple: make it a priority and see it through. That means more fun for us and more of the good stuff for you. We can’t wait!