When I started this challenge, I wanted to spend a month thinking before typing.

I spend a lot of my professional life working with words. Writing, editing, trying to understand what someone means and how best to express it.

And, with all the technology taking over processes lately, I’ve become more interested in everything that happens before we start putting sentences together. The decisions, observations, doubts, assumptions, discoveries, and occasional ridiculous ideas that eventually become something worth saying.

I hope the challenge gave you a few useful questions to return to. Maybe you discovered a new idea, changed your mind about something, or finally shared a thought you’d been sitting on 🤞

Maybe you simply enjoyed having 25 minutes to yourself. I’d count that as a pretty good result, too.

Before I ask the last question, a reminder that I’m running a small-group workshop in November, which some of you might find useful:

Check out the deets

So, here goes:

What’s one thing you’re taking away from these 30 days?

• Spend 25 minutes writing a short note to yourself about what you learned, enjoyed, or want to do differently.

• Take a 25-minute walk and think about one thing you’d like to carry into November. A question, a habit, an unfinished idea, or a decision.

• Share your takeaway, if you’d like. Reply to this email, write a post, tell a friend, or leave a comment. I’d genuinely love to know what these 30 days have been like for you.

Thank you for spending part of your October with me.

Now, please feel free to reclaim your 25 minutes. I hope you’ll keep asking questions and reading my occasional posts here.

We’ve looked at what deserves our attention, where ideas come from, why we write, what we assume, what makes something interesting, how we develop our thoughts, and what stops us from sharing them.

We’ve also tried to make ideas worse on purpose. We’ve imagined having unlimited money. We’ve practised doing absolutely nothing - which was one of the most successful days, judging by your reactions 😃

And we’ve gone on a lot of (hypothetical?) 25-minute walks.

I hope you’ve found some of the exercises useful. I also hope you’ve ignored a few that weren’t relevant to you, changed the instructions when you felt like it, or found your own ways to explore the questions.

I’m really curious about what worked for you (or what didn’t work, for that matter).

So, today’s question is the following - and please share your thoughts with me:

What worked for you from this challenge?

• Spend 25 minutes looking back through your notes. Which questions stayed with you? Which exercises did you enjoy? Which ones would you happily never do again?

• Take a 25-minute walk and think about the past month. Did you notice any changes in how you approach writing, thinking, or communicating? Anything you’d like to continue?

If you’ve participated in previous challenges, I’d be especially curious to know how this one compared.

And if you joined on Day 17, skipped half the emails, or mostly followed along in your head, I’d still love to hear from you.

Send a message, leave a comment, reply to the email - whatever works.

One more day!

There’s a lot of work going on. People are out in the fields cutting branches and feeding them into machines that separate the olives, or using special tools to comb the olives directly from the trees.

It looks exhausting. The family does pretty much everything themselves, including breakfast, which we eat in their kitchen.

One of the people we’ve met is the owner’s mother, a 74-year-old woman who speaks little English. Does that stop her from having long conversations with us? Absolutely not. She uses the English words she knows, adds a few Greek ones, gestures, mimes, repeats herself, and tries again if we don’t understand.

And she has plenty to say. She tells us we’re free to roam around the farm. She also tells us that she feels free to do whatever she wants in life. Her philosophy is simple: she does what she likes and doesn’t do what she doesn’t like. She seems very happy to share this with anyone willing to listen.

Share

I love how little she worries about finding the right words. She has something to say, and she’ll find a way to say it. Meanwhile, some of us (not me!) can spend an hour rewriting a perfectly understandable sentence.

So here’s our final question for SAY week:

What would you want to share, even if you don’t have the right words for it?

• Spend 25 minutes choosing something you’ve been meaning to share. An idea, a story, a recommendation, an opinion, something you learned. Write it down in whatever form makes sense, and send or publish it if you’re comfortable.

• Take a 25-minute walk and think about someone you’d like to tell something. Maybe there’s a conversation you’ve been postponing, or something interesting you’d like to pass along. How could you start?

• Keep the question close throughout the day. When you have something to say, try saying it without rehearsing it ten times first.

That’s it for SAY week. Tomorrow, we’ll look back at the challenge.

For today, I hope you have a good conversation. Even if you have to mime half of it 😃

Rain was forecast, and everyone was prepared for a pretty miserable day. Instead, the morning was sunny, and most athletes managed to finish the swimming and cycling in good weather.

Then came the running.

First a little rain, then a lot. By the finish line, athletes were soaking wet, and volunteers were freezing. Some of the volunteers started dancing to keep warm while handing out medals.

And everyone was cheerful!

The athletes, the supporters, the volunteers. People were laughing, congratulating each other, taking photos in the rain.

The weather wasn’t going to improve, so they made the best of it.

I was also impressed by the people working in the little shops and restaurants nearby. They were overwhelmed with requests. Everyone wanted something, preferably five minutes ago. People were taking shelter wherever they could, including at the tables of restaurants that weren’t even open.

The staff were clearly exhausted, but remained friendly and accommodating. They explained delays, helped people find places to sit, and didn’t seem particularly bothered by all the wet, muddy visitors.

Of course, they were making money. But I’ve seen similar situations elsewhere, with very different reactions.

I think there’s something to learn from people who manage to remain pleasant when circumstances are far from ideal.

We spend quite a lot of time waiting for better conditions. More time, more energy, a better mood, a better opportunity. And sometimes we get them.

Other times, it rains.

Share

Today’s question:

What can you make the best of?

• Spend 25 minutes thinking about something that hasn’t gone according to plan recently. What did you manage to do anyway? Is there something enjoyable or at least remotely useful you can still get out of the situation? Write down whatever comes to mind.

• Take a 25-minute walk and think about someone who handles difficult situations particularly well. What do they do? Is there anything you’d like to borrow?

• Keep the question close throughout the day. When something goes wrong, see if you can find a way to make the situation a little better.

If it rains, you could always dance. Apparently, it works ☔

I’ve never found a reliable answer.

Sometimes it’s obvious. The argument doesn’t make sense yet. There’s a fact I need to check, an example I haven’t found, or a paragraph that seems to have wandered in from a completely different place. Fair enough. Back to work.

Other times, I reread something and get this vague feeling that it’s not quite ready. What’s missing? What needs changing? Not sure. Would another hour help? Possibly. Let’s spend three hours (months), just to be safe.

Deadlines force readiness - many people who I’ve interviewed on Zest Podcast confirmed this. No one likes deadlines, but at least they get us over the finish line one way or another.

I’ve also seen what happens when there is no deadline at all. A draft can sit around for weeks (years?) occasionally receiving a new word or a rearranged paragraph, without getting any closer to being published.

“I don’t think it’s good enough” could keep you busy until retirement.

Of course, there are perfectly good reasons not to share something. You might need more information, a better understanding of the subject, or simply more time to think. Someone from last year’s writing challenge told me she wasn’t ready because she was afraid the story wasn’t “true enough”.

What makes a story good enough or true enough? What makes an idea worth pursuing - beyond the fact that you’ve already invested some energy in it?

What would make this ready?

• Spend 25 minutes analyzing some unfinished work. Write down exactly what still needs to be done. Separate necessary tasks from optional improvements. Can you finish one of the necessary tasks today?

• Take a 25-minute walk and think about something you’ve been postponing. What would have to happen for you to consider it ready? Is that a realistic condition, or have you set an impossible standard?

And if you discover that your work really is ready, congratulations! Now you have a completely different problem: deciding to shrug & send 🙃

If you’d like to explore how you can show up more using what you already know, join my Visible Expertise workshop in November.

Your were ready yesterday

On the one hand, I genuinely enjoy it. Taking a messy draft and turning it into something clear, coherent, and enjoyable to read is one of my favorite parts of writing.

On the other hand, I could probably edit the same piece forever. Change a word. Move a paragraph. Rewrite the opening. Rewrite the opening. Rewrite the title. Read the whole thing again. Find another sentence that could use some work. Wait, am I making the writing better or just making it different or even worse?

Rewrite the opening.

There’s rarely one perfect way to say something. You can write the same sentence in ten different ways, and several of them might be perfectly good. You can rearrange an article, shorten it, expand it, make it funnier, more serious, more personal.

And after a while, it’s easy to lose perspective. You become so familiar with the text that you stop reading it like a reader and start examining it like a mechanic who’s determined to find one more loose screw.

Taking a break helps. Going out for a walk creates distance, which provides perspective. Asking a friend for feedback can be reassuring. Reminding myself to shrug & send.

How about you?

Are you improving it or just changing it at nauseam?

• Spend 25 minutes thinking about or rereading something you’re working on. What still needs to improve? Clarity? Accuracy? Structure? Tone? Could it be left alone and be good enough?

• Take a 25-minute walk and think about something you’ve been endlessly refining & postponing cause “it’s not good enough“. It doesn’t have to be writing. What would make it good enough to finish? What are you still trying to fix?

I’m not advocating for sloppy work or publishing the first thing that comes to mind. Editing matters. A lot. But so does knowing when to stop.

The first few episodes were torture. Why do I sound like THAT? Why do I keep repeating the same words? Why do I say aaaaa every three seconds? Why do I not finish sentences??? Every little quirk became painfully obvious.

Most people dislike hearing recordings of their own voice. It sounds unfamiliar, strange, and somehow worse than the version we hear in our heads.

And something similar happens when we read our own writing. Who writes like that?

We notice every awkward phrase, repetition, sentence that doesn’t quite work. We compare ourselves to writers we admire, or to some imaginary version of ourselves who always knows exactly what to say. We’re often much harsher with ourselves than we’d ever be with a friend or colleague.

After about 15–20 podcast episodes, I got used to hearing myself. I still wouldn’t describe listening to my own voice as pleasurable, but it stopped bothering me.

And it wasn’t just exposure. I was paying attention and correcting. I started noticing which habits made me harder to follow, which repetitions I could avoid, and where I needed to slow down.

I dropped some of the annoying quirks, and I kept the ones that worked. Eventually, I could listen to an episode without cringing the whole time.

Writing works much the same way.

You write, read, notice, make adjustments, try again. You borrow techniques, experiment with different styles, discover what feels natural and what doesn’t. Somewhere along the way, you might even become friends with your writing alter ego.

There’s something else that helps, I think: not putting all the pressure on how you sound.

When you have something interesting to say, backed by research, experience, facts, or insights, you have more to work with than clever phrasing.

That’s something we’ll explore in my Visible Expertise workshop in November: how to develop and communicate ideas worth sharing, rather than relying on writing techniques to make them sound interesting.

So, today’s question is:

What do I like and dislike about my voice?

• Spend 25 minutes reading something you’ve written. Read it aloud. What makes you cringe? What do you actually like? Pick one thing you’d like to improve and one thing you’d like to keep.

• Take a 25-minute walk and think about how your writing has changed over time. What have you become better at? What still bothers you? Is there something you’ve been trying to change that might not need changing after all?

• Keep the question close throughout the day. Notice how you react to your own words, whether in messages, emails, posts, or conversations. Are you being critical? Why? Would you judge someone else as harshly for saying the same thing?

Aaaah, what a great day to become better friends with ourselves ☀️

Share Shrug & Send

We want people to pay attention, keep reading, listen to what we have to say. Ideally, remember something afterward.

So we look for ways to make our communication more interesting. I see this a lot online these days. Maybe tooooo much.

Everyone’s looking for a catchy opening, a funny anecdote, a clever metaphor, a surprising statistic. Maybe a controversial opinion. Something, SOMETHING to get people to stop the scroll.

And there’s nothing wrong with any of these. But I think we’re trading being genuinely interesting for finding apparently interesting gimmicks that we hope will keep people hooked.

I’ve seen this happen when working with subject matter experts. Someone will explain their work in broad, rather unremarkable terms. They’ll talk about innovation, efficiency, AI-driven, blah, blah - everything they think will sound good to others.

Then I’ll ask about a specific project. What went wrong? What did you try? Why did you make that decision? And nooooow we’re getting somewhere. Suddenly we’re talking about an expensive mistake, an unexpected discovery, or a disagreement that changed the project's direction. They’re providing facts, numbers, and details.

That’s the interesting material that was there all along. It took a few (intentional) questions to find it, though.

So, today’s question is:

What’s making this boring?

• Spend 25 minutes with something you’ve written or are planning to share (with colleagues, clients, or online). Forget about the opening. Look at the substance. Are you spending too much time on general explanations? Is there a specific example, detail, question, or different angle that would make it more interesting?

• Take a 25-minute walk and think about something that you enjoyed recently - article, video, book, newsletter, podcast - what made you interested enough to keep listening or reading?

• Keep the question close. While scrolling, reading emails, attending meetings, notice what captures your attention and what keeps it. Also, notice when you get bored and try to see why.

Day 23 is gone with the autumn wind, and less than a week remains in the October month-long challenge.

How are we feeling? Bored, enlightened, same as always, ready to write more? Tell me more, tell me more 🍂

Leave a comment

See? Plenty of reasons to cancel.

To not write that post, not share that idea, not put yourself out there.

And I can come up with a few more if you give me five minutes and a frappe.

I’ve been writing publicly for over 20 years. I’ve been running writing challenges for six. I’ve published hundreds of articles, newsletters, and social media posts. I’ve interviewed people, spoken in public, and shared opinions.

You’d think I’d be used to it by now. Noooot really.

I still hesitate before hitting publish. I still wonder whether something I’ve written is worth anyone’s attention. I still check the numbers waaaay too often. And when something I’ve put a lot of effort into gets almost no reaction, it stings.

Experience hasn’t made the discomfort disappear. I’ve just learned to live with it and not let it make all my decisions.

Because every now and then, someone writes back to tell me that something I shared helped them. Or made them write more. Or encouraged them to finish a project.

Writing publicly has also brought me clients for my freelance business, invitations to interviews and events, interesting conversations, and interesting people I wouldn’t have met otherwise.

I can’t predict what will happen when I hit publish, it’s not rocket science. But I can make some informed guesses.

So, no, I’m not canceling the challenge. Sorry for the clickbait 😃. We’re just entering the final week, SAY. And today’s question is:

What happens if you say it?

• Spend 25 minutes thinking about something you’ve been meaning to share, but have been holding back - personally or professionally. Make 2 lists: 1/ what fears & doubts are holding you back & 2/ what good things might happen if you do say it.

• Take a 25-minute walk and imagine you’re on a stage giving a speech. What’s it about? What stories, examples, arguments would you include? Who’s in the audience? What reactions are you getting after?

• Keep the question close throughout the day. Notice when you stop yourself from expressing an opinion, asking a question, or sharing an idea. Is it a real concern or an imagined reaction?

Seven days to go. I’m not backing out now. Are you? 🙃

You’re also somehow free of all obligations. No deadlines, no meetings, no laundry, no school WhatsApp groups. Your health is excellent, your loved ones are happy, and nobody needs anything from you.

Suspiciously convenient, I know, but go with it for a minute.

Now what?

And before you say you’d buy a house by the sea, travel the world, and sleep for three months, let me add a condition: you have to make, build, or develop something.

It doesn’t have to make money or be useful. Nobody has to want it, approve of it, or understand why you’re doing it.

You could fund an expedition to find live dinosaurs. Open a bookshop that only sells books you’ve personally read. Build a theatre in your garden. Spend five years researching why people behave so strangely in supermarket queues. Whatever.

We spend so much time asking whether our ideas are realistic, it’s exhausting.

So, we’re ending Develop week with a little fantasy.

What would you develop if time, money, and other constraints weren’t an issue?

• Spend 25 minutes describing your wildly impractical project. It could be practical, too. Your call.

• Take a 25-minute walk and imagine your first year working on this project. Where would you go? What would you learn? What would an ordinary Wednesday look like?

• Keep the question close. Whenever you think, “I’d love to do that, but…”, temporarily delete everything after but. See where the thought takes you.

And if you do end up opening that bookshop or theatre, I’d love to visit.

How can I write this better? Make this project more successful? Solve this problem? Get people to pay attention? A few things come to mind immediately.

But what if we did the opposite?

I once came across an exercise that asks you to write down 10 ways to make something worse. Not better. Worse.

I tried it, and it was surprisingly difficult. The first couple of answers came quickly. Then I had to think. Really think. Because deliberately making something worse is not something we’re used to doing - well, not consciously anyway.

Say you’re struggling to get people to read your newsletter. How could you make the situation worse?

• Send five emails a day.

• Make every subject line misleading.

• Write exclusively about things your readers have no interest in.

• Bury the useful information under 800 words of introduction.

• Ignore every reply.

• Send emails so seldom people forget you exist.

Some answers will be ridiculous. Others might sound too familiar for comfort.

That’s what I like about this exercise. It interrupts usual problem-solving habits and forces us to approach a familiar situation from a different direction. Plus, there’s something rather satisfying about being encouraged to come up with terrible ideas for a change.

So, today’s question is:

How could you make it worse?

• Spend 25 minutes with something that isn’t working as well as you’d like. Write down 10 ways you could make it worse. Be specific. Don’t stop at three or four, even though you’ll want to. Look at your list. Are you already doing a version of any of them? (and don’t shoot the messenger, okay?)

• Take a 25-minute walk and think about a problem you’re trying to solve. Imagine how you could make the situation worse - but please pay attention when crossing the road, okay?

That’s day 20 of the 30-day “think before you type” challenge. Hope it hasn’t been too painful so far 🤞

But before you publish (or say anything at all publicly), you still wonder: will anyone believe me? trust me? like me?

People who know you or have worked with you have reasons to trust your expertise. They’ve seen it in action. Strangers haven’t.

And asking strangers to take your word for it - at least initially - is a pretty big ask. Especially when everyone seems to be an expert these days.

So how do you make your expertise credible to people who haven’t experienced it firsthand? Not by telling them how experienced, passionate, innovative, or knowledgeable you are. And definitely not randomly talking about whatever comes to mind just to be “active“.

You make yourself credible by giving people something practical they can judge for themselves.

That’s why I created Visible Expertise, the small-group workshop I mentioned a few days ago. It’s for professionals with substantial knowledge and experience who struggle to decide what to share and how to make it meaningful to others.

We’ve spent quite a bit of time this month (it’s day 19 already) noticing, defining, and developing ideas. The workshop puts that into practice, with a focus on each participant.

Registrations are now open, with two dates & time slots to choose from.

Discount code for subscribers

If that sounds useful, as a thank you for sticking with this challenge, you can use the code THINK19 for a 19% discount, valid only until midnight today, October 19.

Check out the details

Back to today’s question:

What can you show instead of claim?

• Spend 25 minutes thinking about your experience. What specific experience, example, decision, or result could demonstrate it? Write down one or several.

• Take a 25-minute walk and think about someone whose expertise you trust. What convinced you? Was it something they said, something they did, or the way they explained their thinking?

• Keep the question close throughout the day. Notice the practical things you’re doing, the processes you own, the results you maybe take for granted. Make a list of things you could use as evidence - even if you don’t use it right away.

If the workshop I mentioned isn't something you need right now, but you know someone who’d find it useful (we all have that friend or colleague who we know knows a lot and deserves more attention), I’d appreciate a share. Thank you! ☺️

The idea has absolutely nothing to do with the book. There’s no clever metaphor, no profound lesson about friendship that applies to business. My brain was simply doing something in the background.

I think of creativity as the ability to make unexpected connections between ideas, concepts, experiences, or bits of information that don’t obviously belong together. And those connections don’t always happen when we’re actively looking for them.

I’m working on a problem, get stuck, move on to something else, and suddenly the solution pops while I’m doing the dishes or walking. It’s not magic. My mind continues processing information even when I’m not consciously concentrating.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the solution is to just sit around waiting for inspiration to strike.

I believe we can train ourselves to make more (surprising, useful, interesting) connections by feeding our curiosity, exposing ourselves to different subjects, and giving our minds & feet room to wander. We can also practice looking at familiar problems from unfamiliar angles.

So, my question for you on Day 18 of the “think before you type” challenge is:

How could you connect more dots?

• Spend 25 minutes thinking of something you’re stuck on. Bring in some outside perspective. Choose someone who knows little about it - an uncle, a child, a stranger on the street. Have an imaginary conversation with them. Or let them describe the problem to you, in their own words. Don’t worry if this feels weird or ridiculous. Accept being a bit uncomfortable.

• Take a 25-minute walk. Let your thoughts and eyes wander. Notice the details around you, pick up pieces of conversation in passing, listen to the sounds of the street or the park.

• Keep the question close throughout the day. Notice when you’re going over the same ideas again and again. Could a different perspective help? Or would it be better to leave the problem alone for a while?

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do for a problem is to stop staring at it. Go read a novel. Preferably one that has absolutely nothing to do with your website. 😃

But what does it actually mean to think critically?

It’s not automatically taking the opposite position or finding flaws in other people’s arguments. And it’s certainly not about having a strong opinion on everything just to prove you’re “critical”.

Critical thinking is rather taking a step back and giving stuff a chance to settle in our minds before jumping to conclusions. It might involve asking questions, considering alternatives, recognizing assumptions, distinguishing facts from interpretations, and being willing to revise our initial reaction.

That last part is difficult.

Changing our minds comes at a cost. We may have to admit we were wrong, abandon an idea we’ve invested time and effort in, contradict something we’ve said publicly, or reconsider a decision we’ve already made.

And once we like an idea, we tend to become rather attached to it. We start building arguments around it, finding examples that support it, and ignoring the little things that don’t quite fit. It’s confirmation bias, and algorithms use it to build information bubbles.

So, excuse my bluntness, but:

Have you thought this through?

• Spend 25 minutes with an idea you have and may be actively pursuing. What are you assuming? What supports this idea? What might be missing? How would you play the devil’s advocate and try to convince yourself of the opposite stance?

• Take a 25-minute walk and argue with yourself about something you believe. Try looking at it from another perspective, without worrying about winning.

• Keep the question close throughout the day. When you encounter an opinion that sounds convincing (especially one you agree with), consider the reasoning behind it. Does it actually make sense?

You don’t have to change your mind. But you might discover that your idea needs a little work.

Day 17 over and out. Is that smoke I see from all these burning questions? 🔥

Share

I start with what seems like a perfectly reasonable explanation, only to be interrupted (usually mid-sentence) by a surprising question. Perfectly understandable with a kid, but it happens with adults, too.

You have to clarify something so basic you hadn’t even considered it needed explaining. You’re struggling to explain something you’ve been doing (and taking for granted) for years.

The more familiar we become with a subject, the harder it can be to remember what it was like not knowing anything about it.

And I’ve become more aware of another interesting problem as a parent. Sometimes we’re so used to an idea that we stop questioning where it came from.

I see many experienced professionals reluctant to share their knowledge with others for fear that they’re stating the obvious, when, in fact, not many people know what they know.

So, today’s question is:

What are you assuming people know, but probably don’t?

• Spend 16 minutes (cause it’s day 16) writing down one or more themes. They can be related to your work or something completely different. Think of times when you thought you were stating the obvious, only to be met with puzzled faces.

• Keep the question close throughout the day. Whenever you hear someone (including yourself) say “everyone knows”, “obviously”, or “it’s a fact”, ask: is that true, or are we just assuming stuff?

I’m assuming you know you can join the chat and meet other participants, but maybe I’m wrong.

And then what?

Sometimes we get excited and immediately start acting on them. Could this be an article? A business? A project? A LinkedIn post? Should I tell someone? Should I ask AI to make a plan?

Other times, we dismiss them just as quickly. Too vague. Too complicated. Already done. Probably stupid.

I do both. I have notes scattered across notebooks, apps, documents, and probably a few places I’ve forgotten about. Some of those ideas have turned into actual things. Most haven’t.

An idea is rarely (never?) a finished product. It’s a starting point. An observation, a connection, something that nags you. I especially pay attention to ideas that keep coming back, no matter how much I try to ignore them.

So, this week, as we’re moving from Define to Develop, let’s explore what happens when we give our ideas a little more room.

Today’s question is:

What’s an idea that just won’t let you be?

• Spend 25 minutes with an idea you keep coming back to (but never have time for). Write it down, then see what comes up next. What questions does it raise? What is it connected to? Why is it important (or not)? Don’t worry about reaching a conclusion or making a plan.

• Take a 25-minute walk with one thought in mind. Let yourself wander. If you end up thinking about something completely different, that’s fine.

• Revisit ideas you’ve scribbled down somewhere. Read them and see if anything stands out. Make a short list of things that you’d still like to develop.

There are plenty of ideas out there. Stealing them is not the problem. Actually doing something with them is, cause most people don’t get to that point.

And that point is Day 14 of the October “think before you type” challenge ✌️

Share Shrug & Send

Exhaaaaaaausting!

I don’t know about you, but I feel there’s a lot of pressure to have answers. To know what you want, what you think, what to say (and when and where), where you’re going, what your five-year plan is, what your six-year-old wants for dinner.

And if you don’t know, there’s a book, a podcast, a framework, an app, a Reel, or a LinkedIn post ready to help you figure it out. Just comment “answer“ to get a free guide. 😭

But not everything needs an answer right now. Some ideas need time to develop. Some decisions can wait. Some questions are interesting precisely because we don’t know the answers.

And some things might never need defining at all.

So, today’s question is:

What are you okay with not knowing?

• Spend 25 minutes now making a list of things you don’t know. Big things, small things, important things, ridiculous things. Don’t look anything up and definitely don’t try to solve anything.

• Take a 25-minute walk and think about a question you’ve been trying to answer. What would actually happen if you stopped trying to figure it out for a while?

• Keep the question close. Whenever you catch yourself looking for an answer, take a breath. Do you actually need to know? Do you need to know now?

I don’t know is a perfectly good place to be. And with that, we’re done defining things. More or less. 😃

Care to share your list or part of it? Or one item from the list?

I’ll start.

I don’t know how to bake. Never have and don’t want to learn (cause I’ll eat it all in one sitting!).

You?

I’m working on a workshop idea. But figuring out what it should be about has been a long exercise in defining things.

I started with content marketing. After all, that’s what I’ve been doing since, yet another, forever (forever = 10+ years). But that’s too broad. Too much to say. There’s enough material there for a whole course, and I don’t want to teach a whole course right now. Also, there already are a lot of general courses on this topic.

Then I thought about teaching writing techniques for professionals. Too narrow. Writing is only one part of what I do, and often not the part people struggle with most.

Round and round I went, and I won’t bore you with every angle I found & lost.

Recently, I settled somewhere in the middle. And I did that by changing the focus from what I think I could talk about to what I think people actually need (hypothesis yet to be tested).

Here’s my observation (from client work, research, social media stalking): many experienced professionals know a great deal about their fields, would like to make their expertise known for better opportunities, but struggle to decide what’s worth putting out there.

Meanwhile, we’re going through a bit of a credibility crisis. AI makes it easy to sound like an expert, and people with actual expertise aren’t necessarily the ones getting heard.

That’s what led me to: Visible Expertise, a workshop about figuring out what you want to be known for and how to communicate it without turning into a content machine.

It’s still taking shape. So, before we move on to today’s question, can you do me a small favor and help me validate/invalidate this hypothesis?

I’m curious whether this is a real problem, or whether I’m just entertaining myself with another workshop idea. 😃

Thank you for voting! If you have additional thoughts you’d like to share around this idea, please don’t hesitate to message me.

On to today’s question:

What should you focus on?

• Spend 25 minutes with a notebook. Think about something you’re working on or want to start. Write down the different directions you could take. Which one interests you most? Which one solves a real problem? What could you leave out? How could you test the best direction without wasting months or years?

• Take a 25-minute walk and think about something that is too big or vague to tackle. If you had to make it smaller, where would you start?

Day 13 of the “think before you type” challenge is done. If you’re still around, you deserve a good pat on the back. I sometimes pat myself on the back when I’m proud of myself - like, literally (did I share too much? 🥹). Anyway, try it, it’s fun. 1, 2, 3… pat pat pat.

But today (yesterday, the day before), I got stuck. I had a theme in mind, but it didn’t work. I changed the angle a couple of times, still, nothing flowed.

Finally, I’m admitting to being stuck. Maybe it’s because we’re getting close to the middle of the challenge and there’s some fatigue. Maybe it’s because I had a full week, juggling multiple clients, calls, parent-teacher meetings, casual coffees, and the rest. Maybe I haven’t defined the theme enough to trigger a coherent story. Or maybe I need another coffee (nope, definitely not that).

I’m not against writing when inspiration hits. I’ve done this numerous times: simply let the words flow. And many times it’s worked. I’m not afraid of the blank page. I can fill it with words if I have to and edit (or not) later. But filling a page isn’t the same as writing something worth reading. Especially when people are expecting to read it. Every. Day.

So, instead of waiting for inspiration, I tried to figure out what I actually knew about the situation.

Fact 1: This week’s about defining stuff.

Fact 2: Being stuck is part of the process.

Fact 3: Stuck means not knowing how to go forward, moving in circles, standing in one place, repeating the same pattern.

Fact 4: Getting unstuck means finding a way to move forward. Not necessarily the way you originally intended.

Fact 5: Writing about being stuck got me unstuck.

Here it is, the post. It’s not the original theme. But so what?

We tend to get so attached to what we originally set out to do that we forget we’re allowed to change direction. We keep trying to solve the problem as we’ve defined it, even when that definition might be the problem.

So, today’s question is:

What’s keeping you stuck, exactly?

• Spend 25 minutes thinking about something you’re stuck on. It can be a piece of writing, a project, or a decision. What’s stopping you from moving forward? What have you tried so far? Is there something you could change or let go of? Write down whatever comes to mind. You don’t need to find a solution today.

• Take a 25-minute walk and think about what you’ve been struggling to move forward on. Moving forward physically can untangle the mind.

• Keep the question close throughout the day. Whenever you catch yourself procrastinating, going in circles, or revisiting the same problem, ask: What’s going on, exactly? Distinguish the actual obstacle from the frustration of being stuck.

Sometimes getting unstuck requires more effort, better information, or help. And sometimes it requires admitting that the thing you’ve been trying so hard to make work doesn’t have to work at all.

Anyway, Day 12 is done. Subscribe for 18 more opportunities to get stuck. 😃

Subscribe now

The reactions I got quickly changed my perspective. What had seemed like a great piece of writing a day earlier was now obviously bad. I was seeing flaws left and right.

I knew what I meant. I knew what I was trying to do. But my readers didn’t know any of that. They only had the text in front of them. No matter how much I argued in the comments (which I did), the fact remained: I’d missed the mark.

Just a beginner’s mistake, right? Not quite.

People do this all the time, even those (or especially those) with experience: assume others know the context, understand references, correctly interpret the intended tone, or arrive at the same conclusions. You can see it in work emails, website copy, press releases, or whatsapp messages.

And don’t be fooled by the fact that others don’t say they don’t know what you mean. Very few care enough or have the guts to mention it. But you might notice a lack of reactions or follow-up, requests for clarification, or the feeling that you’re not getting through.

So, today’s question is:

What are you assuming?

• Spend 25 minutes looking at something you’ve written recently. An email, a post, a presentation, a document, whatever. Read it as if you knew nothing about the person who wrote it or the circumstances behind it. What knowledge, context, or jargon are you assuming the reader brings to it? Are those assumptions reasonable?

• Take a 25-minute walk and think about a recent misunderstanding. It may or may not involve writing. What did you assume the other person knew, meant, or understood? What might they have been assuming about you?

We can’t possibly explain everything from scratch every time. Some assumptions are necessary, and many are perfectly reasonable. But it’s worth knowing which ones we’re making, especially when we’re convinced that what we’re saying makes perfect sense.

I hope I made sense on this 11th day of the October “think before you type” challenge.

Feel free to send me your feedback on these exercises and how they’re working (or not) for you. You can simply hit reply if you’re getting this in your inbox.