Vol. 1, Issue 2: Brain Pain, "We're Dusting When the Building Is Falling Down" and Other Notes From the Week

Years ago when I started in digital advertising and tech (roughly 400 years ago to be slightly more precise), it used to be that there was a pretty predictable ebb and flow to the middle of the year. There was always a strong push to end Q2 and then beginning with July 4th holiday, things would slow down a bit as people took their vacations and rested. August would be even slower and then when Labor Day hit, everything would accelerate through to Q4. That seems to have gone away over the last however many years. For years, I found myself saying “If I could just get to [INSERT NATIONAL HOLIDAY HERE], things will slow down and I’ll be able to catch up.” But nothing ever seems to slow down and there’s no such thing as catching up (frankly, I wouldn’t even know how to define “catching up,” I feel like I’m sitting on emails from 15 years ago). Inbox zero, despite what Debbie in account management says, is a pipe dream at best and an absolutely impossible task at worst - I’ve literally never hated Debbie more than I do writing this*. Now with Cannes being the event that it is, the dust that settles coming out of that conference seems to eat up most of July with follow ups. August is reserved for the meetings that come up as feedback and next steps emerge from the follow ups. And then of course, it’s Labor Day and Q4 and etc. At this point, it’s a year-round, constant flow of stuff.

This is great for business, but I’m tired and my brain hurts.

*Debbie is not a real person. She is an amalgam of every person over the years who has told me “If you have a system, it’s easy to clear out your inbox!” First of all, this is ridiculous. I get hundreds of emails a day. I have no system and I don’t know how or where to develop a system (I realize there’s a whole book called Inbox Zero). I catch as much as I can and I fully operate under the assumption that if it’s important enough, someone will eventually get back to me. That’s my “system.” And no offense, but if your inbox is at zero, you’re probably a dangerous sociopath.

I don’t like it when my brain hurts (I’ve sort of come to terms with being tired all the time - it comes with the territory when you think yourself into constant knots) and I’ve taken a lot onto my plate, so here’s the solution that I’m offering up for wide adoption. I ask for nothing in return, other than that it be named “The Geoff Wolinetz Honorary Solution for Brain Pain” (or maybe something slightly catchier than that if you can think of it).

• Morning Coffee - here’s a story: when I was a spritely young lad of 28 or so, I got invited to go to a breakfast at the Paley Center for Media, where there was a pretty gross meal and a really interesting panel on something that I can’t remember as I’m typing this. I also can’t remember why I got the invite, but I have to imagine several people passed before it hit my desk. The *start* time for this thing was 7:30am and based on my reaction you’d have thought they were asking me to stalk and kill a wild boar or something. But what I realized when I got there is that it was full of really successful, very smart people who had been up for HOURS already. That was eye opening for me, because I realized that I was missing out on a huge part of my day. So now I have my morning routine of working out and other things that get me out of bed ludicrously early.

  Here’s the upshot: every morning, and no need to be drinking coffee though it’s recommended, the idea is that we block off 8:30am to 9:30am on our calendars for “morning coffee.” And what do we do during this time? Watch CNBC and cry real, big kid tears about the state of our retirement accounts, sure, but also ready our brain for the day. There’s always myriad things to do on any given day, but this hour is essential to make sure you’ve got some separation from when you wake up to when you begin your workday. I find that if I don’t do this I’m far less productive on any given day. I do a few different things with my hour - I journal, take a look at the coming day and prep for whatever’s there (personal and professional), hydrate (this is probably the best thing I do for myself). There’s no wrong thing to do, but it’s really easy to get pulled down into work immediately. If it feels too daunting to do every day at the beginning, try just doing it once a week. I know the first thing that I do literally when I open my eyes is check my phone. It’s absolutely horrible and a hard habit to break when being eternally reachable has been inculcated into your brain since the invention of the Blackberry*, but it’s not doing anyone any good.

*Palm Pilot? Wizard? Insert your own personal first PDA of choice. This made me remember the first device that I was issued for business - it was a pager-sized Blackberry that had its own email address (as opposed to being integrated with my actual work email), so the sole purpose it served was me sitting in meetings and sending snarky comments to the other people in the meeting who had them. It made me feel pretty cool, until I realized they were all also in contact outside of those meetings and I was not on those chains. I assume they weren’t actively talking about me, but I can’t actually prove that or that I haven’t been thinking about it for 20 years.

• Evening Cocktail - every afternoon, I sit down with my day and I do two things: First, I identify 2 (or more) things that I accomplished that day - it helps me to consider any given day a success. It’s really easy for me to put my headphones down at the end of the day and think that I did absolutely nothing. But everyone does *something* every day, even if it’s just that you made it through a long day of meetings without throwing your computer through the wall. Second, I identify 2 things that I *want* to accomplish tomorrow. Now, I assume the next question (since you’re a bright, enterprising human who took the time to make the smart choice to subscribe to this newsletter) is “how often do the things from the first step overlap with the things in the second half"?” Basically, what’s the hit rate. The answer to that question is “meh, it’s all right,” which is code for “not that often.” But I find that to be OK. There’s very little in my life generally that I’d consider predictable. I’m not sure why this would be much different. But, at a minimum, sitting down at the end of the day and trying to figure it out gives me some direction that I may not have already had.

None of this groundbreaking stuff, but I’ve found it to be pretty essential in helping me get minimally organized and self-directed. Maybe you’ve got your own ways to do this and you don’t need TGWHSFBP*. That’s great! I applaud whatever it is, even if it doesn’t have as catchy an initialism as mine.

*The Geoff Wolinetz Honorary Solution for Brain Pain, of course

Some other “interesting” stuff:

• This article from the “Confessions” series on Digiday hit particularly close to home - and not just because OpenX was called out in one of the responses. I’m not here to make any specific points about climate change, but the “dusting while the building is falling” line really hit home. There is some really great work being done with regard to sustainability and, without getting into the specifics of offsets vs. actual emissions reductions, some companies are doing really great work to reduce their footprint, however they do it. But if I were the CEO of a large company, I’d be pressuring my organization to find some real solutions do the work of meeting the 2050 standards as soon as is humanly possible. There’s revenue vs. cost, but there’s also right vs. wrong. And the right thing is always worth doing, regardless of the cost. Every little bit counts.

• The Senate wants to go after TikTok, which like OK, fine, go for it - and finish up the Google and Facebook stuff while you’re at it. But I have two thoughts here: one, is this a China thing for them or an actual data concern thing? It’s probably both in reality, but it feels a whole lot like it’s more the former to them, which again, OK, but that doesn’t feel like good policy practice. Two, going after these individual social media companies piecemeal isn’t really doing it for me. There has to be a way to comprehensively look at the data usage and management policies and the general “broadcasting” (I guess that’s the word) of their content and then regulate it the way that TV is regulated. I’m not saying that to suggest we undermine the free exchange of information and speech through social media (I read a whole book on Section 230 and you should too), but this whole area needs some oversight and updated legislation (and crafted in such a way that guards against government snooping and surveillance capitalism)

• I found out today that pickleball not only has an entire U.S. association dedicated to it, but it’s also the fastest growing sport in the country. I’ve played pickleball exactly once and the thing I liked best about it was that it felt like I was playing ping-pong, but standing on the table. I’m not sure what else to say here. I just found this fascinating.

• Finally, huge congrats to friend of Wolinetz, mentor and former boss James Rooke, who takes the helm of Comcast Advertising this week. I’ve known James for a decade at this point and he’s a great guy and sharp dude. He also hits a golf ball a like a mile, which is nice for him but embarrassing for the people he plays with when their ball is like a football field shorter. Mazel tov, James

That’s it for this week, folks. We’ll see you next Friday.