Solo Diary

Too busy to struggle

Solo Diary

Too busy to struggle

More meetings than usual today, which for me constitutes as an insane work day. I’m pretty used to 99% of my desk time being deep work at this point.

→ Productivity: 5/10 (meetings, man)
→ Creativity: 6/10
→ Mood: 7/10

What did I work on today?

  • Pagetear:

    • Made revisions on a client’s home page hero section. Focusing on nailing the messaging right now for this new client and started off with a whopper of a project. It’s in a highly technical space, so it’s all new to me — love a good challenge.

    • Discovery calls and outreach.

  • Ghostwriting:

    • Got a new client. Wasn’t sure if I 100% wanted to accept but ghostwriting is a really cool way to network and get paid to do it. So I accepted this one.

    • We were up against a deadline from the jump, so I had to gather context, ideate, and write 12 long-ish posts for the client today. Brain fried.

  • Content:

    • My first newsletter issue for Viral Examples went out! I had an existing email list of 4,000 subs — and I expect that number will go down before it goes back up. I’ve got to revive my goodwill with that audience and prove my content is actually good/consistent again.

      • Open rate on this was only 32%, click rate was only 8%, and unsubs mounted to 89.

      • Got some positive response from some loyal fans though, which was a boost.

    • Hopped on a podcast with Chris Walker (the LinkedIn demand gen guy) and learned some cool stuff — will air through MarketerHire’s podcast network in a week or so.

What did I struggle with today?

Besides the meetings I had today, I had to write a LOT. Maybe 5 hours today of pure writing. Not super replicable, but feels good to exercise my brain like that from time to time.

Apart from that, today was too busy to be a struggle. You know those days. You jump from one thing to another, and you don’t stop twice to think about how fried your mind’s become over the last few hours.

What did Iearn today?

  • I’ve been in a habit of using Marco Polo to chat with my family (they live in Utah, I live in Nashville). Every day on my walks now, I view all the videos my fam sent — usually 1 or 2 long ones. Then I reply right then and there. It’s been fulfilling to A) not feel as much like a failure of a family member and B) add some deep connection back into my day to day.

What questions am I asking today?

  • What’s 1 high-impact thing I can do each day that takes less than 5 minutes?

  • Does any productivity system beat pen-to-paper task tracking and heads down work?

More meetings than usual today, which for me constitutes as an insane work day. I’m pretty used to 99% of my desk time being deep work at this point.

→ Productivity: 5/10 (meetings, man)
→ Creativity: 6/10
→ Mood: 7/10

What did I work on today?

  • Pagetear:

    • Made revisions on a client’s home page hero section. Focusing on nailing the messaging right now for this new client and started off with a whopper of a project. It’s in a highly technical space, so it’s all new to me — love a good challenge.

    • Discovery calls and outreach.

  • Ghostwriting:

    • Got a new client. Wasn’t sure if I 100% wanted to accept but ghostwriting is a really cool way to network and get paid to do it. So I accepted this one.

    • We were up against a deadline from the jump, so I had to gather context, ideate, and write 12 long-ish posts for the client today. Brain fried.

  • Content:

    • My first newsletter issue for Viral Examples went out! I had an existing email list of 4,000 subs — and I expect that number will go down before it goes back up. I’ve got to revive my goodwill with that audience and prove my content is actually good/consistent again.

      • Open rate on this was only 32%, click rate was only 8%, and unsubs mounted to 89.

      • Got some positive response from some loyal fans though, which was a boost.

    • Hopped on a podcast with Chris Walker (the LinkedIn demand gen guy) and learned some cool stuff — will air through MarketerHire’s podcast network in a week or so.

What did I struggle with today?

Besides the meetings I had today, I had to write a LOT. Maybe 5 hours today of pure writing. Not super replicable, but feels good to exercise my brain like that from time to time.

Apart from that, today was too busy to be a struggle. You know those days. You jump from one thing to another, and you don’t stop twice to think about how fried your mind’s become over the last few hours.

What did Iearn today?

  • I’ve been in a habit of using Marco Polo to chat with my family (they live in Utah, I live in Nashville). Every day on my walks now, I view all the videos my fam sent — usually 1 or 2 long ones. Then I reply right then and there. It’s been fulfilling to A) not feel as much like a failure of a family member and B) add some deep connection back into my day to day.

What questions am I asking today?

  • What’s 1 high-impact thing I can do each day that takes less than 5 minutes?

  • Does any productivity system beat pen-to-paper task tracking and heads down work?

© 2023 Blake Emal

Solo Diary

© 2023 Blake Emal

Solo Diary