James Hsu

I send out a newsletter every Monday at 9:00 AM Eastern Time. To get my writing in your mailbox each Monday, subscribe to the mailing list. Much obliged.

Shanghai has been a slog as of late: 35 to 40 (!!) degrees Celsius on a regular basis.

Frustrating for a runner whose body refuses to cooperate above 25 degrees, give or take.

Each morning, I wake up at 5:00 am and test the waters…

Nope.

Damn it. Just hard to run. I’m at that advanced age where I REALLY don’t want to get heatstroke or push myself Beyond The Point Of Reasonable Challenge.

In a cruel twist of irony, Shanghai is not locked down anymore (although that CAN change, I’m not an optimist) but I’m staying inside.

What else?

Content creation and work. Work and content creation.

What else is there?

I’ve been exploring the frontiers of my content creation journey. Hitting that balance between consistency and doing too much is a tough line to walk.

Sought coaching. Created a topical feature — and broke my “episode once a week” rule — to stay slightly more relevant.

I track everything in my calendar. It’s clear that I’ve used my off hours and weekends to get most of this done.

I don’t have an “off switch.” Very hard to just take a day off and do nothing. If I have a day ahead of me, I’m thinking about how to improve at my craft.

But that takes mental energy. And next thing I know, I’m scripting something or watching a tutorial video on a Saturday evening.

I suppose it’s…fine?

Same with work / building a business. Hard to sit still.

I need to think about how to optimize processes.

And if I’m being honest, how to optimize people and what they do. How they do it.

How to optimize myself and remain emotionally grounded. Identifying the “leaks” in my management style from playing back events, meetings, and interactions.

In the process of writing this, I think I’ve figured it out.

I haven’t been running and that’s impacted my mental process.

Eureka!

Time to start running again — 32 degrees Celsius be damned — and become myself again.

Take care of yourself, and be well.

James

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