Hi, Reader! It was 4:00 PM last Friday afternoon. I was standing in the home office with my two laptops open side-by-side. On the work laptop was my Q3 roadmap. The travel dates, the offsites, the Q4 prep. On the personal laptop was the family calendar. The back-to-school orientations, the supply runs, the new routines. I stared at both screens, trying to reconcile them, and I felt a heavy sinking in my chest. There wasn’t enough margin. I had been telling myself the same lie I tell myself...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hi, Reader! The school year is starting and the schedule is going to break if you don't get ahead of it tonight.Right now, your Q3 roadmap and your family calendar are living in two different places. You can't see the collision until it happens. Here is the rule for the next 5 days:Take 10 minutes tonight and merge them. Put the family calendar and the work calendar in the exact same view. If there is a school orientation on Wednesday, block it on your work calendar right now. Treat it like a...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hi, Reader! I was recently untangling a messy project roadmap. The sponsor was exhausted. He was spending his Tuesday mornings begging a dozen different teams for status updates just to fill out a spreadsheet for the executive steering committee. He thought he was driving alignment. In reality, he was just the glue holding a broken process together. The program wasn’t being managed. He had become a human API. If your best people are spending half their day just to unblock themselves and track...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hi, Reader! It’s 8:45 PM. You’ve been in back-to-back meetings since 8:00 AM. You had a quick check-in over lunch, and then a client dinner after. You pull into the driveway and put the car in park. The house is quiet. You sit there for an extra minute. The engine is off, but your brain is still back at the restaurant table. You’re running through the dinner conversation. You need to touch base on a decision made over steaks. You walk through the front door. You take your shoes off. Your wife...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hi, Reader! I’ve been sporadic lately. When you are trying to build margin in your life, unpredictability is the enemy. You need a rhythm. So, we are building one here. Moving forward, you are going to hear from me three times a week. Each email is designed to do a very specific job for you, depending on where you are in your week. Here is the new cadence: 1. Real Talk Tuesday (The Deep Dive) This is the flagship. You’ll get one story, one breakdown of why the system broke, and three tactical...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hi, Reader! It usually happens in the driveway. Or right before you turn the doorknob after a long day. It’s a sigh. Not a tired sigh. It sounds more like a valve releasing steam. You aren’t angry at your wife. You aren’t angry at your kids. You love them. You wanted this life. But underneath all of it — the bill-paying, the running around, the logistics of keeping a family alive — there is a low-grade hum of frustration. A quiet fury. Every hour is accounted for. Every ounce of your energy...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hi, Reader! Real Talk Tuesday Issue Date: July 7, 2026 I'd eat a slice of pie. Then some candy. Back to the pie. Then some more candy. I ate it because it tasted good. I ate it because I was awake. I ate it because I was once again not treating food as fuel. That’s how it starts. Not a binge. Not some big deliberate moment. Little by little. Then, you start feeling sluggish. The pants get tighter. You want to eat and sleep more. You ever been through this? I'm coming off several weeks...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Hi, Reader! Real Talk Tuesday Issue: The 6-Minute Disappearing Act Date: June 30, 2026 My then-10-year-old daughter walked into my office with a drawing she’d made at school that day. She held it up. “Look at this!” I waved her away. I didn’t even look at it. I was waiting for the next Teams message. The next milestone. The next “making memories” moment. The kind you plan in advance and feel good about later. I missed the one that was standing right in front of me. And here’s the part that...
2 months ago • 2 min read
Hi, Reader! Real Talk Tuesday Issue Date: June 23, 2026 Hey brother, Tuesday night after vacation. I was ready for bed at 7:30 PM. Not winding down. Not getting the kids settled. Done. Cooked. I had slept until 8 AM that morning. Rolled out of bed slow. Did nothing hard all day. And by the time dinner was cleared, I had nothing left. My first instinct? This is laziness. You’re just soft right now. You’ve been on vacation too long. That’s the story I was telling myself. But I sat with it a...
2 months ago • 2 min read