Author: niccitalbot

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Rethinking meetings 🌴

Welcome to Issue #86!

Ever heard of a tree meeting?

Tree meetings are when you climb a tree with your team to have a discussion.

A new perspective can bring you unexpected results….

Trees are uncomfortable, so you meet for a shorter time. Shorter meetings are better. 

Better than a shorter meeting is no meeting at all (lately, all mine have been voice notes on WhatsApp, usually when I’m out walking).

Edo Sadiković on how trees can be a metaphor for how to work your meetings differently. Plus more creative places to meet like mushroom and pool meetings.

You create better results when you enjoy something and stimulate all your senses. 

Where was your most memorable meeting?

– Nika

Via Fanny Marcoux – simple marketing for busy freelancers.

Sende is a village home for people who work online, hidden in the Spanish mountains. ‘Senda’ means path in Spanish. Try it out (also in Portugal).

5 Things 🔗 🏄🏻‍♀️

🌟Notes: microblogging on Twitter is now in beta (up to 2,500 words, editable). A bold move, and good to see them investing in writers. Notes have a unique URL so anyone can read them – best for promo and repurposing long-form content. But what will my feed look like?! Follow @TwitterWrite for updates.

🌟Apply to be a TED Fellow. Recognising folks on the ground working on world-changing ideas – the doers, makers, inventors, advocates, filmmakers and photographers, musicians and artists, educators, activists, entrepreneurs, and non-profit leaders. Don’t be shy; apply by 30 June.

🌟Phoebe Lovatt’s Public Library is a physical and digital space dedicated to sharing mind-expanding books and ideas. Books for reference and reading plus zines and mags for sale. Books and big ideas. Currently @consul_studio HQ, E1. That table! A gorgeous space 💙

🌟Anne Helen on The Expanding Job. The great reshuffle continues, with a staggering 44% of workers looking for a new job. Many people like their work “and could do it so well, for so much longer, with so much more creativity and precision, if they were just doing that one job, instead of the three currently required of them.”

🌟TechWomen100 Awards (WeAreTechWomen). Now in its sixth year and looking to recognise and celebrate the achievements of women working in technology (women make up just 17% of the industry). An awards series that showcases emerging tech talent and creates role models. Nominations open on 1 July.

Roe v. Wade. Shattered to hear the news from the US. Women already struggle so much to balance work and childcare. 5 people made a decision that impacts the lives of millions – and will affect the poorest women the most. We shouldn’t overlook the economic impact. Abortion access means financial freedom for individuals – and a healthier economy for everyone.

Written by Nika Talbot, founder of award-winning Firebird Studio. Content designer and strategist, based near Brighton, heart in Italy 🇮🇹

Contact me if you have something to share, a link suggestion, or just want to say hi.

Enjoy reading this? Why not buy me a glass of Prosecco? 🥂

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Your async arsenal 💪

Featured Artist: Anton Vierietin

Welcome to Issue 84!

I joined the async movement this week.

Member 6,128 of a growing community who believe in the power of asynchronous communication to transform how we live and work.

Asynchronous – the new business buzzword, which OED defines as ‘not existing or occurring at the same time’. Meetings are the exception, not the rule.

Companies like GitLab, Doist, Zapier, Trello, Gumroad, and Automattic have worked this way for decades, so we can learn a lot from them.

Research shows that async brainstorming results in more novel ideas than real-time approaches.

Join the async movement here.

Scrolling through the member forum, I see we’re struggling with the same stuff: deep work and flexibility, slower productivity, working seasonally, and being free from the meeting monster.

#WorkAsyncNotASAP and “Life becomes fun again.” 💯

Great initiative and ideas from Doist to help you rethink your relationship with work and educate yourself on new ways of working.

Convince your boss and sell it to your teams

It’s challenging to ask your clients to adapt their routines and work differently, especially in big companies. They expect you to adjust to them, which causes friction.

I’m taking baby steps towards a (mostly) async way of working – show not tell. Documenting everything, sending links to Google Docs or Dropbox, asking for the goal/agenda of a meeting before agreeing to it, and sending Loom videos for visual work.

Clients love a weekly round-up email: “I really like this way of working.” They can see what you’re up to, and if you have too much on your plate, work can be reallocated.

Daily bookends – do the thing in the morning when I have the highest energy. Writers’ Hour (4 pm GMT) to wrap up and reflect in good company.

Slowly chisel away at it…let’s break the 9-5 apart.

Send them the async toolkit 🛠

It feels like a more intentional, focused way of working. But I’m mindful of not letting it overspill into my life – micro-actions and community are important and help me feel connected.

It’s convenient to drive to the supermarket, listen to a podcast and self-serve at the checkout, speaking to no one. Or I can walk there, help someone do their shopping and chat with the cashier. I have a choice and I know which one will make me feel better.

– Nika

PS. Here’s one tiny action you can take to help spread the async movement – steal this email signature.

Designing an async-first workday (The Async Review), Almanac’s excellent magazine.

What happened when we stopped having meetings and sending emails (GDS) – great to see Government is reevaluating ways of working.

Onboarding at GitLab is self-driven, self-learning while remaining as async as possible to help people settle in.

Cal Newport on slow productivity as an antidote to burnout and chronic overload. These ideas boil down to: Do fewer things. Work at a natural pace. Obsess over the quality.

Written by Nika Talbot, founder of award-winning Firebird Studio. Content designer and tech storyteller. Based near Brighton, heart in Italy 🇮🇹

Contact me if you have a project to share, a link suggestion, or just want to say hi.

Enjoy reading this? Why not buy me a glass of Prosecco? 🥂

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Why you get more done when you work less 🤓

Art: Marina113

Thousands of UK workers started a 4-day week on Monday with no loss of pay, in the world’s biggest trial of the new working style.

The pilot is running for 6 months and is being organised by 4 Day Week Global.

It’s based on the 100:80:100 model – 100% pay for 80% of the time, with a commitment to 100% productivity.

I can’t wait to see the results. It’s exciting to see the variety of companies on board – local chippies, software firms, recruitment agencies, tax specialists, Charity Bank.

Researchers will be measuring the impact on business and productivity, stress and burnout, life satisfaction, gender equality, and the environment.

As we emerge from the pandemic, more and more companies are recognising that the new frontier for competition is quality of life.

Joe O’Connor, 4 Day Week Global

As with output-focused working, this will give companies a competitive edge.

Wacky office perks don’t cut it. Life is for living, and we want our time back. As you get older, you don’t want to waste your time on things or people that don’t make you feel good.

👀Juliet Schor | Ted: The Case For a 4-Day Workweek.

📚The Practical Magic of the 5-hour Workday, by Trevor G. Blake. Read the free pdf and pass it on. Trev has built and sold three startups for $600 million in a decade. All while never working more than 5 hours daily from a casita at home.

He shares his personal work schedule for enhanced creativity and revenue generation, and the history and science behind the rationale for never working more than 5 hours a day (via Do Lectures).

The Medieval workday was no more than 6 hours, nature-driven, and in the hamlet. We now have the tools and tech to get back to that with remote working and less commuting, but we’ve gone too far the other way, working even longer hours.

We have a steady stream of information. Drip, drip, drip. It’s hard to switch off when your phone is an extension of your hand.

If you run a company of one and work remotely, you already have a competitive edge. You’re agile, committed to your cause, and you run your own schedule.

Getting more done in less time is down to discipline, deep work, mono-tasking – and delegating what you can!

📚 Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less, by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang. How active rest and deep play – walking, hobbies, sports, good conversation – are the keys to happiness and success. That’s when we come up with those crazy, creative ideas.

Alex points out that a four-day week creates an entire year of extra free time every five years 👀

What would you do with that extra year? Imagine the problems we could fix!

Bikini on and soak up the summer 🏖 😎 🙏 We had Ziggy Marley on Hastings Pier tonight – doing a live tribute to his papa!

Written by Nika Talbot, founder of award-winning Firebird Studio. Content designer and UX writer. Based near Brighton, heart in Italy 🇮🇹

Something to share, or just want to say hello? Send me a note: nika@nikatalbot.io.

Enjoy reading this? Why not buy me a glass of Prosecco? 🥂

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I got fired over Zoom 🤯

Art: Joshua Coleman on Unsplash

Ever been fired over Zoom? 

This week, it happened to me – halfway through a six-month contract. I got a calendar invite for a ‘catch up and chat’ with my manager.

Big budget cuts and the client wants to focus on paid social media, not organic posts (I’ve been writing playbooks for them).

I’d done what they hired me to do, and none of the other teams had any work left for me, so that was it.

She did it nicely and better via Zoom than email – though it felt hardcore and surprised me.

You’ve done a great job. We couldn’t have done it without you. Love to have you back next year when budgets are back to normal. Let us know if you need a reference… 

Bit more than a ‘catch up and a chat’ !!

Two conversations were happening in tandem. The one on Zoom with my manager and the internal one in my head with Anxious Annie. FUCK. I can’t believe it. How are you going to pay the bills? What about the yoga holiday! Have you been slacking again? 

She’s good at her job 🙄

I find these short-term contracts with agencies exhausting. It’s hard to relax and do your best work when you’re on float with multiple projects. I feel disposable (had a week’s notice on this one), so my LinkedIn profile is always ‘open to work’.

How much energy do you put into precarious work, even if it pays well? It’s hard to get the balance right. 110% usually, all or nothing, which is a route to burnout. 

Here’s what I did to get over it.

1. BREATHE. Wrote down what just happened. Seeing it on the page helped get it into perspective – a tip I picked up from the author of The Kindness Method, Shahroo Izadi, on the Solo Collective podcast.

2. Went for a walk.

3. Finished the job and sent a friendly email to the team and my agent. Set my boundaries for future roles (3-months minimum, it’s hard to do strategy and make a difference in less time). A longer notice period.

4. Booked a Rapid Rewire masterclass with Steph Kwong via Growmotely. “Learn a proven, cutting-edge methodology to confidently create rapid change for yourself, guaranteed.” Gotta feel it to heal it! Powerful stuff.

Have you ever been fired? How did you deal with it? I’m taking a break from Agencyland.

– Nika

Justice for Johnny! 🎉 😁 I’m happy you’re at peace and have your life back. 

Highlight: watching his doorman Alejandro Romero deliver his pre-recorded testimony from his car, vape and then drive off. “I’m tired … I don’t want to deal with this court case … everybody’s got problems, and I don’t want to deal with this no more.” Modern law. Remote justice.

5 Things 🧠 💥

Talent to Money Summit is on 7 & 8 June online. The first global summit run by The Ask, helping you to start (and grow) a business you love. Great speakers who will be sharing their stories and strategies for success. I heard about this via the Newsletter Mastermind group (Ness Labs).

How ‘digital nomad’ visas can boost local economies (HBR.org). A visual overview of the current visas via country and how they might play a key role in fostering entrepreneurship and the creation of technology clusters around the world. Time for the US to get on board or risk being left behind.

Recommended Substack newsletters related to the future of work (Workforce Futurist). It takes a village to grow a newsletter. Thanks to Andy Spence for the shoutout and profiling work you’re enjoying. Some new writers to check out!

Building a swarm of thoughts with the founders of Napkin (Ness Labs). An interesting experiment – gathering a group of 100 authors to help build the next-generation thinking and writing tool (it looks great – watch the video). Get a month for free when you sign up for their newsletter. 

Gitlab: The Remote Playbook 2022 – this is the 3rd edition of Gitlab’s famous playbook. This time focusing on how your team works, not where, evolving design, mastering future of work skills, reducing burnout, and boosting wellness at work. Learn how they’ve scaled as an asynchronous, no office company. 

Written by Nika Talbot, founder of award-winning Firebird Studio. Content designer and UX writer. Based near Brighton, heart in Italy 🇮🇹

Send me a note: nika@nikatalbot.io.

Enjoy reading this? Why not buy me a glass of Prosecco? 🥂

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Stand with Ukraine 🕊️

I am shocked and angry about the news from Ukraine. Putin’s aggression is a horrific assault on democracy, freedom, human rights, and a sovereign, peaceful nation. It’s also emotional, not rational. He can’t erase history and recreate the USSR.

It’s heartening to see all the protests in Russia this week despite the threat of arrest. Nobody wants this war except Putin, and the young are furious – this is their future at stake. A defiant Zelensky’s not walking away either. Refusing to leave Kyiv with a request for additional ammunition instead. Ukraine’s military said this morning 3,500 Russian soldiers were killed in two days, 102 tanks and 14 planes destroyed – they’re putting up a fight despite much smaller military might 🦁

A Ukrainian woman telling Russian soldiers where to go – put sunflower seeds in your pocket because you will die here. A video showing an elderly man being pulled from his car alive after being deliberately crushed by a Russian tank – a miracle.

Putin shouldn’t underestimate the effect of soft power, either. Depriving Russians of things they need and love – sports, culture, entertainment, social media, and a sense of belonging in the world will lead to more riots and protests. Who wants isolation, insularity and to be cut off from the rest of the world? It’s not possible in the 21st century with technology and the internet, we’re interconnected more than ever. 

Ukraine needs help and support from us – a collective, collaborative and fast response. I hope we see bigger sanctions from Europe and will write to my MP. This is a threat to us all – Putin won’t just stop at Ukraine.

It’s been a complicated conflict for eight years and can’t be fixed overnight, but war isn’t the answer. As Maya Angelou said, “We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.” Most of us want the same things – family, love, peace, meaningful work, a home, travel, freedom.

There’s much talk about the ‘borderless world’ and it raises the importance of border research. Recent work talks about ‘reconceptualising borders’ and borderlands as sites of cultural interaction, exchange and hybridity with individuals from all backgrounds. A far more positive way to look at the world, and it’s where we’re heading with work and travel.

Praying for peace and an end to this asap 🙏

Nicci 🙋🏻‍♀️

How to help people in Ukraine

Here’s a list of resources to stay informed and help Ukraine.

News 

Live Universal Awareness Map (‘liveuamap’) – a global news site founded in 2014 by a team of software developers and journalists who wished to inform the world about the Ukrainian conflict.

The Kyiv Independent – English-language journalism in Ukraine. Become a patron:  Patreon.com/KyivIndependent 

The New Voice of Ukraine – An English-language site covering developments on the ground via local journalists. 

Sign the open petition: War aggression against Ukraine: immediately exclude Russia from SWIFT. 

Write to your MP. Lobby the UK government and encourage maximum sanctions. Here’s a letter you can use. 

Make a donation    

The National Bank of Ukraine has opened a special account to raise funds for Ukraine’s armed forces – open to multiple currencies. 

Sunflower of Peace has started a fundraiser to prepare first aid medical tactical backpacks for paramedics and doctors on the frontline. Also works to empower orphans and displaced people. 

Voices of Children – helping children affected by the war in eastern Ukraine – art therapy, psychology, storytelling and more. 

British Red Cross has launched an emergency appeal for Ukraine – help someone affected with the basics: food, shelter, medicine, & first aid. 

Book an Airbnb – not to stay, but to show solidarity. Airbnb has waived all host and guest fees in Ukraine. So far, bookings have grossed $2m in aid.

Grammarly Premium – an AI-software tool to improve your writing. I use this all the time – an excellent product created by a Ukrainian startup. An update from CEO Brad Hoover – they’re offering free access to Premium for non-profits and NGOs.