How I Handle Content Creation When my Whole Week Gets Thrown Off
Something I think a lot about with public performers — theater actors, athletes, musicians — is how noticeable it can be when they’re off their game. Patrick Mahomes isn’t throwing like he usually does. Celine Dion isn’t hitting the notes like she typically does. Johnathan Groff slightly misses a cue.
Maybe they have something else on their mind, or they’re not feeling 100%. Their pre-performance ritual might have gotten interrupted, and now they feel “off.”
I’ve been to concerts where the singer is sick but still performs. The show must go on, as they say.
If you don’t do many live performances — live streams for most of you reading this, I reckon — you can hide it a bit more. Your podcast listeners might not know that because your kids had a snow day immediately follow a holiday, you had to scramble to write, record, and edit the latest episode of your podcast.
A Quick Family Explainer
If you don’t know, I have 3 small children — they are 6, 3, and 2, and they’re pretty swell:
My wife (Erin) is a nurse, and I’m self-employed, so we have a more flexible work schedule than most. If we know school vacations, travel days, or off days are coming, we can easily plan for them.
Erin can usually schedule herself around weekdays when the kids don’t have school, and when she can’t, as long as I know it’s coming, I can block off my day and plan my work ahead.
It’s when we can’t plan ahead that things get sticky. If a kiddo gets sick and Erin is at work, I’m picking them up and praying they sleep the rest of the day, so I can still have my meetings and accomplish my most crucial tasks.
The opposite is true for when she’s at home. But thanks to her schedule’s flexibility, the kids are typically home when she is. We can get away with paying for part-time school/daycare until Kindergarten, when proper 5-full day school starts.
If we know the day before that a kid will be home sick, or school is closing, Erin can take PTO if she needs to. So we try to be equitable with which parent takes off work for unforeseen circumstances1.
But at this point you’re probably wondering…what does this have to do with anything?
It was a Wild Week
As I write this, we’re at the end of a pretty busy 10 days that was definitely not ordinary.
Last week, the Northeast United States (where I live), was slammed with terrible rain and windstorms. We had no power for the better part of 24 hours, and the kids didn’t have school. I took off that day.
Then they were off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which we knew was coming — since Erin usually works on Mondays, I took off that day and spent it with the kids.
The rest of the week saw a foot of snow fall. So there was a snow day on Tuesday (Erin was home), a 2-hour delay on Wednesday (Erin worked).
Thursday was the only full school day — and I got a root canal that day. Wee!
Friday was also a snow day, but we figured on Thursday that school would be closed and Erin called out.
We had a very excellent snowball fight. Everyone ganged up on me and I lost.
How Do I Handle Weeks Like That?
It’s easy to say, “Batch your work, get ahead, and give yourself some margin.”
And if we lived life in a vacuum, I’d say that. But surrounding this very disjointed 10 days was:
- Christmas break, which I took off completely
- Multiple (wellness) doctor and dentist visits
- Travel to Orlando for a conference
I’m all margined out. So what do I do?
The simplest answer is this: prioritize my work, do what I can, and communicate with anyone I work with.
But there’s a slightly more complicated answer. Because when prioritizing, I need to consider:
- Client work
- Sponsored work / creator work
- My own business development work
- Things that come up
- Family obligations
I’m including family obligations because even though it’s not work, there are important commitments to me. The whole reason I run my own business is to be present for my family.
If I forget that, I might as well pack it up and work for whoever will pay me the most money.
Client Work: Prioritize and Communicate
So first, I look at client work that has a strict deadline and do that. Then I do client work that’s an easy win.
For any client work that would take longer, I reach out and let them know what’s happening. As you can imagine, the types of clients I choose to work with know my situation and values. They are entirely understanding.
Creator Work: Lean into Reuse
For creator work, I usually have several pieces of content I want to produce:
- 2-3 long-form articles (1500+ words, both public and members-only)
- At least 2 podcast episodes (one for How I Built It, one for Podcast Workflows)
- 1-2 short form articles (400–600 words)
And I usually have a wealth of ideas. This week, I leaned into reuse. The long-form articles I wrote this week and last served as scripts for episodes.
Next week, while I’m away, I’ll likely lean into reuse again and republish an older episode of How I Built It.
It’s OK — even crucial — for creators to reuse work.
But there’s one more thing I do during times like this: give myself a little grace and tell myself, “done is better than perfect.”
Maybe the article I was going to write would take too long, so I did something shorter that I could put out faster.
Perhaps I’m writing about a (very) recent experience instead of some deeper think piece.
The great thing about creating content is that if you strike out this time, there’s always another at bat coming up.
Business Development: Priority #1
Time-sensitive client work aside, this was the highest priority for me when I could work. I spent a lot of time following up on conversations from last year and meeting with potential clients and sponsors.
A big goal for me in 2024 is actually having a good pipeline. So this got a lot of my attention.
In an ideal world, I’d have an assistant do a lot of this for me. But I made at decision at the end of last year that I need to understand the process and tap my personal relationships a little more before I outsource this particular task.
Things That Come Up: Case-by-case
Luckily, nothing came up this week. But when it does, I either:
- Drop what I’m doing
- Communicate my next availability
This depends on how critical / important it is to the client, and if it is time-sensitive.
Again, thanks to the type of work I choose to do, there aren’t many things that are mission-critical for me these days.
What About All My Processes?
I’m the systems guy, right? My podcast is usually a well-oiled machine. So what gives?
There are points in life and business where there will be a little chaos. You get a new job. You have a kid. Maybe move into a new house.
The way you did things won’t work anymore. Evaluating this is essential. I spoke on this exact topic a few weeks ago.
I want to do more timely solo episodes while I deeply consider my next set of guests and talk to listeners.
Furthermore, I also wanted to experiment with doing more scripted content, and publish in more places.
Couple that with the fact that I upended my podcast planner by moving it from Airtable to Substack, and well, things are in flux.
Luckily, I have a new SOP for my VA, and I’m getting a better handle on the new direction of both shows.
People talk about Dry January. I guess I can call this Dry Run January.
What Should You Do?
So what’s your takeaway from all this? What should you do?
I think that’s entirely up to you. I’ve made commitments to my audience and my sponsors, and I want to deliver. I’m taking a very, “the show must go on ,” approach.
But like I said, I give myself some grace. I lean into reuse. “Done is better than perfect” was my mantra this past week. Especially because I know I’ll get another at bat next week.
I think as you consider what works best for you, something I know is true for me, that’s probably true for you too: you fill the time you have.
When my kids had a 2-hour delay, I still did everything I needed to do. I was more focused, and less distracted.
Prioritizing my tasks helped.
- It’s my assumption that most family with 2 working parents do this. But I’m often surprised by less…altruistic…family dynamics. ↩