Skip the snooze

It's tempting to. After all, what's another five, ten, fifteen minutes of sleep? And you're  already so comfortable.... Of course if you're me, one hit of the snooze button turns into five, and all of a sudden I'm an hour

Production vs Consumption

Craig Mod was talking about production and consumption systems in his newsletter recently, the idea that social media has evolved to be  become both in one. You can't post on Instagram without being tempted by the photos in your feed. You can't get to your business&

Bag hooks

If you're a brewery, a coffee shop or cafe, then mounting bag hooks on the underside of your tables is just smart customer service. It's a simple invitation to those who want to stay and read a book or get some work done to relax and

What's your June 20th Resolution?

Isn't it funny how we make such a huge deal out of new year's resolutions, while knowing full well how unlikely we  are to keep them, even a few weeks into the year? I think a big reason we fail on January 1 plans is the

A case for doing the dishes

I've always enjoyed washing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen. There's a certain satisfaction with putting things away in just the right locations. It occurred to me that the kitchen is the most organized room in my house. It may be for you as well. Lately,

Some thoughts on writing

I've had this site for years, but up until recently, I only occasionally wrote new posts. I'd build them up into these huge projects in my head. So much that it was hard to ever start, let alone complete any of my ideas. And yet those

Please allow 7 business days to process your request

If your emails still list this in their unsubscribe message, it's time to find a new email provider. Though if I'm being honest, I suspect most companies list this sort of message  to cover their asses more as a technical limitation anymore. But there is no

Taco Trucks and Ugly Blogs

It's a bit of a rule of thumb that some of the best tacos come from food trucks, often  those with the most humble appearance and the least flash. The trucks making the best tacos do so because that's all they're focused on. The

We don't like change

I recently switched to an Android phone, as a longtime iPhone user. My new phone, the Google Pixel, is a top of the line device, with one of the best smartphone cameras available. It looks and behaves like most any other flagship smartphone device. It's fast, functional, and

Meaningful reporting

Being the guy with the analytical background for most of my career, I've often been the person to ask about building a report or two.  The challenge, besides figuring out big hairy data problems, is to manage these reporting requests in a way that creates value from data,

The end of digital declutter

About a month ago I decided to start a digital declutter experiment, inspired by reading Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism. For at least the past two years I've been increasingly wary of the role digital tools, entertainment, and particularly social media have encroached on my life and

You are receiving this message because...

I've probably written about this very topic before, but one of my greatest pet peeves as a marketer being marketed to is inattention to detail when it comes to email subscriber preferences. The latest one to set me off is the "you are receiving this message because.