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Here’s How I’m Spending That Last Weeks Of Summer

We’ve officially entered “dog days of summer” territory in Southern Ontario. If I were to sum up the season in a single photo, it would be this 👇

I’m dancing to “Simply The Best” performed by a 10-piece cover band called Dwayne Gretzky, who are touring Canada right now. A late-evening summer breeze is rippling through my short skirt. The man I just started dating is sitting with one hand on my waist, watching me in my joy. I am so into him. He is braving a minor phobia of crowds to be here with me.

In a second the man will get up to refill water bottles for me and my friend Elly, who’s belting out “better then aaaall the rest” alongside me and about five thousand others.

This summer is treating me so good.

It’s been unsettling to notice - as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie put it in her latest novel Dream Count - “the return of fugitive emotions: love, trust, the willingness to be happy.” I have to remind myself that our nervous systems weren’t designed to hold the entire world’s pain, and that joy is also a contribution to the world.

Here’s what’s occupying my time right now, in no particular order:

→ Moving to a new project management tool called Click-Up

We left Slack and Asana as well as a few other tools that are all integrated into Click-Up. I live and die by my project management tool, so this is kind of like my brain moving into a new house—I keep discovering weird little nooks and crannies and switches that do God knows what. It’s a big undertaking and a lot of learning for my 4-person team, but everyone’s excited and refining our systems.

→ Filling my mastermind Power

I wouldn’t say it was entirely stress-free - I am a normal human who holds fear in one hand and faith in the other - but this was my easiest Power promotion to date. Applicants quoted the sales page back to me many times, and said it spoke to their exact longings, fears and desires. I didn’t cut deals or convince anyone; Those who knew just knew.

(Please hit “reply’ and tell me if you want a breakdown on how many sales calls I did, emails I sent, etc. Maybe I’ll write an email about that?)

→ Writing a proposal for the book I’m working on

A book proposal is a whole book that you have to write before you write your actual book. It's a giant pain in the ass let me tell you. I’ve been kicking it down the road for months! Suzy Vadori coached me on how to write it, plus gave me a template, but the thing that really got it going was a dose of my friend’s ADHD meds.* Honestly, a microdose of LSD works much better but when I do that I can’t sleep, even if I take a microdose at 6am.

→ Taking a facilitation certification with XCHANGE

This program is unbelievably good! The delivery is better than anything I’ve experienced in ten years of being in the digital course industry. I’m already talking with them about a partner promotion because I believe their work has the power to fix a lot of what’s broken in the digital course industry, and I want to be the one who gets to tell you about it.

The certification program is also a 💩-load of work—a minimum six hours of my week. But I’m here for it, and I can already see how it will improve everything we offer.

All in all, a surprisingly productive August.

I’d love to know what you’re working on, or see your summer in one photo.

Part of me wonders, “Who on earth is working right now and what on earth are they getting done in the last two weeks of summer when it’s a thousand degrees and even the bugs are flying around slower?” But I’m doing a lot, and maybe you are too.

Feel free to share.

I hope it involves paddling somewhere.

♥️,

Tarzan

Tarzan Kay Kalryzian [she/her] Did someone forward you this email? ​Subscribe here​. Follow me on ​LinkedIn​.

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*There’s a whole conversation we could be having about ADHD, who gets access to medication, and whether or not it’s okay for undiagnosed or unaffected people using it for productivity without addressing the systemic reasons none of us can focus. I’ll explore that in a future email when I’m more clear on what I want to say.

If you have thoughts on this, I’m all ears.

Right now my position on this is the same as my position on the use of recreational drugs—I want people who use them to talk openly about it so that others can too, especially those who are insulated from prosecution by privilege i.e. people like me. Between not talking about it and talking about it imperfectly, the former causes greater harm IMO.

I also recommend Stolen Focus by Johann Hari if focus is something you struggle with too, and you want to explore some of the systemic issues that can’t just be solved by better habits.

TODAY’S CONVERSATION IN “Do you have a system for tracking the emails you’ve written and sent, so that you can reuse them?”​ ​ Join us at 2pm for a 30-minute session of co-writing and conversation, plus time for burning questions about email and newsletters. ​ ​Join here →​

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