Cold Boredom, Productive 1on1s, & Making Mistakes

Sunday Reset: #1

☀️ A new beginning

I’ve flirted with different types of content creation over the last 2 years but consistency has always been the struggle. I really enjoyed both podcasting as well as my writing experience this year.

The biggest thing that I learned from sharing online is this:

There are so many amazing people that share content in this world so if I’m going to share my thoughts as well — I must earn the time of my audience

Thus my key takeaway to my new beginning is to create something small, concise, and easily digestible that you can reflect on to end your week or use as inspiration to start a new week.

My current accountability plan is to deliver this to you each Sunday for the next 12 Sundays then reevaluate from there 😊

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This week’s reset:

• Quote: Own your mistakes.

• Idea: Cold boredom.

• Article: Earn your manager’s trust.

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One quote:

To make mistakes is human. To own your mistakes is divine. Nothing elevates a person higher than quickly admitting and taking personal responsibility for the mistakes you make and then fixing them fairly. If you mess up, fess up. It’s astounding how powerful this ownership is.

— Kevin Kelly

In the past, I would feel ashamed or inadequate if I was at fault for anything.

If I made a mistake, I would want to hide it from the world.

If my mistake was revealed, I would do anything to ensure that the blame wasn’t placed upon me.

I’m still afraid of making mistakes at times, but I’ve gotten a lot better from how I used to be when I was younger.

Having the maturity to own up to your mistakes, the ability to understand that a mistake is a learning opportunity, and the capability to share your mistake so that others don’t make the same is so impactful.

One idea

Cold boredom

You wake up each morning and are instantly plugged into the always-on framework of our world.

From dusk to dawn, you plug away at your computer, reply to texts on your phone, and have the TV on so you can see the latest breaking news.

There’s always music on, a Youtube video playing in the background or a Tweet to laugh at.

Even if you are waiting for something — a train, food to be served, in line somewhere — you have the entire world at your fingertips through your phone.

It’s not our fault. To an extent, this is just the way that modern western life is designed.

How does this impact us?

I would think that this contributes to burnout, lowers creativity, and probably lowers productivity.

We, modern humans, are never truly bored.

When the feeling of boredom arises, we immediately seek to fix this by reaching for our phones.

I would think that this contributes to burnout, lowers creativity, and probably lowers productivity.

This constant movement of focus from one context to another cannot be ideal for us.

Embrace cold boredom — what does this mean?

Hot boredom is the irritating type of boredom. Waiting in a two-hour Service Ontario line to get your drivers license renewed. The irritation, the ache, the yearning for something to distract you.

After a phase of hot boredom comes cold boredom.

Cold boredom is accepted and deliberate boredom. When your dopamine receptors have reset and you start to appreciate the little things you never noticed before. When your mind clears and there are no urges or thoughts pushing you one way or another.

On the Tim Ferriss podcast, a guest describes it as “a simple stirring the oatmeal kind of morning”. A true moment of rest.

Consider embracing cold boredom, the next time you take time away, to reach true relaxation and clarity.

One article

Earn your manager’s trust

3 months ago, I made a big career switch from working at one of the Big 4 accounting firms to a tech startup called OpenPhone.

One of my weird difficulties earlier on was figuring out what I wanted out of the 1on1s I had with my manager. In my previous roles, 1on1’s were designed differently. Typically the manager led them and it just generally focused on my performance in that role.

In my current role, the junior is in charge of the direction of the 1on1. But the problem was that I never had this level of autonomy to decide how I wanted to spend this time!

Luckily, a friend shared this great article by Will Lawrence. It was originally made for Product Managers, but I think there’s a ton of value in his 1on1 framework regardless of your role.

If you don’t have the time to read the article — here’s his example template.

Earn Your Manager's Trust

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Thanks for reading 🚀

If you enjoyed the first edition of this — leave a comment 😊