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Welcome to this week's useletter
focussing on your future not my past, a newsletter without news.
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I might be a little too late for a Happy New Year, but not for Happy mid-January! 🎉
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I trust you had a restful break over the holidays.
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Are you now feeling fired up, ready to sink your teeth into the year?
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Perhaps, you're more the nibble and savour type.
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Or maybe you're the type to eat your least favourite parts first. Saving the tastiest bits to last. That was my habit at family dinner - at the peril of dad sneaking them from me!
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This week, I'm suggesting you eat the frog first.
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Yes, it's a bit Yeah! Nah! I don't wanna!
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And I'm not good at it, contrary to my dining habits.
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I'm really writing this for me.
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You might have noticed most useletters are often a note to myself.
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In reviewing 2022, I decided I didn't eat enough frogs. I'm working on the practice. Hopefully it's something that will be useful to you too.
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PS: I also made something to help me eat the frog first this year. To hold me accountable to my work, sharing it and as a journal of what I'm up to. I'm calling it Michael Lewarne is working in public. I post what I'm up to every work day. You can follow along, learn about what I'm up to, how I do it, what I'm thinking and comment if you feel so inclined. What and how I post is work in progress and I'll refine as I go.
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eating the frog
Eating the frog is a framework to help you do the hard or important part first, to stop procrastination and to assist build a more productive workflow.
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“If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first.” - Mark Twain
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We'll seldom procrastinate eating chocolate, but eating a frog, that's a whole other story (unless it's a chocolate frog).
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Identify your frog. What's the thing you're dreading doing today, that feels hard or uncomfortable? Alternately if there's nothing that feels hard today, what's the most important thing to do? Pick one. Only one.
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Don't dwell on it, just eat it.
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Do it first thing. Don't make a space to do it later.
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Make this a daily practice.
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Not only does it start to get easier. The small wins will add up.
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Unless you had one too many frogs the night before (so to speak), it's likely that first thing in the day is the time you're most productive, mentally alert and effective. It's the time you'll do the best work on your most important task. If you don't eat the frog first, you'll have the angst of it at the back, or front, of mind. It impacts the quality of the work you're instead trying to do. By having a win at the start of the day, doing it first sets you up for success for the day.
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- It must be important - not necessarily urgent. Something that you need a nudge to get done. Important and/or hard.
- Don't make it too big. Aim for 1-4 hours work tops. If possible break it down into smaller manageable chunks. It must be achievable in half a day.
- Do it first thing. If you're not a morning person and ineffective before lunch, that might mean 1pm in the afternoon. It doesn't necessarily mean 9am.
- If it's a really unsavoury frog, you might want someone to help you with accountability. Let them know you'll send them a note when you're done. Tell them when you'll be done by and to contact you if you don't hear from them.
- Do it first. Do it first. Do it first. Don't get distracted or seek a displacement activity.
It's not easy, but like all things, with practice it gets easier. Remember the wins will help build momentum and confidence. Just eat the damn frog!
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I need your advice
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This year I want to make my useletter even better.
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What advice do you have that might be useful to me please? (reply via email)
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- Tell me about what you did or didn't like?
- Do you have questions? What else might you need from me?
- Is there anything I need to rethink in the useletter?
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Let's chat
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At unmeasured I take the argh out of architectural practice.
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Helping architects rethink and find joy in their practice.
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I'd love to hear your story. Book a free 30 minute chat now.
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What else is going on at unmeasured?
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I send news and updates out separately in my occasional Updates & Events email. Click the button below to go to the sign up page and have your details added to that email list too.
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recent useful blog posts...
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It might be time for the architecture profession’s leaders to starting learning form the ground up.
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There’s two main ways to stand out. Be different. or Be better. Copying is the route to unexceptional.
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Or…
do architects do too many of the wrong things?
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“Hard work is about risk. It begins when you deal with the things that you’d rather not deal with: fear of failure, fear of standing out, fear of rejection. Hard work is about training yourself to leap over this barrier, drive through the other barrier. And after you’ve done that, to do it again the next day.”
- Seth Godin
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