🦫 The mistake of many a struggling team

It's never the right time

Photo by Ahmad Ossayli on Unsplash

I’m experimenting with a new format — a few shorter things, instead of an essay.¹ Reply or click on ‘Comment’ below to let me know what you think!

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It’s never the right time

I’ve worked with many teams that feel like they’re battling one stressful drama after another.

This isn’t the time to be changing how we work, they’ll say. Let’s wait until this difficult period is over.

It comes from overwhelm. And if you’re genuinely experiencing a brief period of exceptional challenge, it may not be the right time to make big changes.

But “This isn’t the time” is usually wrong. It’s always going to be a difficult time. This is the reality of working life for many people and teams doing work that matters. It’s not a crisis: it’s the job. Wait for this difficult period to be over and you’ll never get there.

And not having made smart changes to how you work may explain some of those stressful dramas.

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Doing what you want to do

A few weeks ago I wrote about doing what you want to be doing, and not what you don’t want to be doing.

There’s a professor of bioethics called

Bryn Williams-Jones

who writes a newsletter about navigating academic life (which I’d recommend to academics). In a recent post he makes the point that good colleagues “accept leadership roles when asked, such as running committees or programs, because these are in the collective interest and part of the job.” Who’s right?

I would rather not be one of my hospital’s medical directors, but someone’s got to do it. Last week one of my colleagues took on a task no one wanted, and our whole team’s grateful. Sometimes someone does need to step up. I think this is an important footnote to my advice about doing what you want to do, and not what you don’t want to do: shoulder your share of the stuff that no-one wants to do but that keeps the job fulfilling for everyone.

And on the same topic, I enjoyed this illustration (reproduced with permission) of the hedonic treadmill, the observation that after we get something we want, typically more status, money, or toys, it doesn’t take long for our happiness to revert to its baseline. It’s by

Lewis O’Brien

, who produces wonderfully clear illustrations of ideas that matter. (I’d recommend his newsletter, too.)

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Internet addiction

My last regular email was about internet addiction. Some great responses. Here’s an extract from one, shared with the writer’s permission:

This is my worst confession for which I can never forgive myself: about fifteen years ago I missed my kids’ reaction to unwrapping a Christmas present because I glanced at my work email (it was about nothing much really). The kids were unwrapping presents, I glanced at my email and an email got in my head. I didn't act on it. I didn't reply to it. But it took me to another place. And by the time I was back in the room I had missed a moment. It has haunted me for a long time and will forever do so.

But he’s making changes! Removing social media apps from his phone, charging his phone in another part of the house, seeing how long he can go at the weekend without looking at his phone, going for walks without his phone.

It’s like how I explain eczema to my patients. You’re not going to cure it. You’re going to build habits that keep it under control. It’s a continuing project.

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Book recommendation

Oliver Burkeman’s new book Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts. Twenty-eight short essays, just right for reading before bed, about living life when we’re never going to be quite the person we want to be, have just the life we want, or be truly in control. Burkeman calls his appealing philosophy ‘imperfectionism’.

Oliver Burkeman

’s thoughtful and largely bullshit-free. For years he wrote a column in The Guardian called This Column Will Change Your Life, a mix of wise advice about living life well and poking fun at self-help ridiculousness. I seem to be recommending a lot of newsletters today: the third and final one’s his, The Imperfectionist.

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Landing page

Would you help me out with something? Here are two signup pages for these emails: Substack’s website; my website. Imagine you hadn’t subscribed, and had landed on one of these. Which would make you more likely to sign up?

Thank you!

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2025

The year 2025 is a square number: 2025 is 45². It’s the only square-numbered year in the Gregorian calendar that most of us are likely to experience. 44² was 1936, 89 years ago. 46² is 2116, 91 years ahead.

But, mathematics nerds, it gets better. 2025 is also 1³ + 2³ + 3³ + 4³ + 5³ + 6³ + 7³ + 8³ + 9³. And the next one of those (add 10³) is in a thousand years.

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Thank you, as always, for reading. Do comment or reply if you have any thoughts about anything here.

1. Also, there’s now an industrious but serene beaver in the subject-line.