Hi Audrey,

Well, I got a little carried away with our new camper and forgot to get this sent out you yesterday, so here's Black Coffee SATURDAY: your weekly email of things I'm reading, listening to, thinking about, buying, or just plain paying attention to. I hope you get something out of this, but if you don't and you decide to unsubscribe, I'll buy you a coffee for wasting your time.

Yep, I'm serious, just unsubscribe and I'll send you a gift card for a free coffee.

Oh yeah, and don't forget to CLICK THE LINKS...there's some cool stuff behind those lovely bold red words!

Video That Moved Me This Week - Is This Patriot Enough?

There are a**holes everywhere and recently much of that a**holeness has been centered lately on the Asian-American community. Whether it's a ridiculously racist response to some people's beliefs that China intentionally unleashed COVID, or remnants of discrimination from prior world wars, there seems to be an uptick in violence against Asian-American's for not being "patriotic enough". Well, Lee Wong of West Chester, Ohio has had enough of this anti-Asian sentiment, and he had something to say about it at a recent Township Board of Trustees meeting.

Here's the video.

Lee Wong is a Maverick...and a bad ass in my book.

Documentary That Was Long Overdue

Bruce Springsteen has been inviting friends to his 140 year old barn in Colt's Neck, New Jersey to eat, drink and play music for many years. Recently he gathered a few friends (including Ralph Lauren, Clive Davis, Jon Stewart, Edward Burns and wife Christy Turlington, Jimmy Lovine, E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt (Who I loved in Lilyhammer), Harvey Keitel, Gayle King, manager Jon Landau, daughter Jessica Springsteen and brother-in-law Michael Scialfa), and a 30 piece orchestra together in the barn to record his new documentary "Western Stars." I just watched it and I thought is was awesome. His Jeep commercial during the Super Bowl was pretty sweet, too.

Western Stars (Prime Video)

The Children's Book That All Middle Aged Men Should Read

Ryan Holiday is known for his writings on Stoicism. The Obstacle is The Way and Ego is The Enemy both made my reading list. I've always found his writing to be deep and meaningful, but still accessible to those who don't have a billion word vocabulary. His new children's book, The Boy Who Would Be King details Marcus Aurelius' journeys including "The Hero's Journey". Although it's written for children, I'm going to recommend that all middle aged men read this one ASAP.

It has lots of pictures, too...so no need to be intimidated :)

The Unplugged Week - Using Personal Retreats To Accelerate Success

For the past 9 years or so, I’ve been taking at least one week every year as an “unplugged” vacation. For me, this means that, while I have my cell phone for emergencies and contact with the caregivers of my special needs son, I don’t use my phone for anything else. No Facebook or other social media, no email, no idle time-waster games, nothing. I started doing this several years ago because I wanted to detox my brain from the seemingly endless, though TOTALLY addictive, stream of data that was coming at me all hours of the day...and that was in 2012!

Recently I found some data that I found super-disturbing while not AT ALL super surprising:

84% of cell phone users claim they could not go a single day without their device.
67% of cell phone owners check their phone for messages, alerts, or calls — even when they don’t notice their phone ringing or vibrating.
Studies indicate some mobile device owners check their devices every 6.5 minutes.
88% of U.S. consumers use mobile devices as a second screen even while watching television.
Some researchers have begun labeling “cell phone checking” as the new yawn because of its contagious nature.

I also found some really positive information about some important reasons to unplug in general, including the findings that powering-down helps remove unhealthy feelings of jealousy, envy, and loneliness, combats the fear of missing out, and also promotes creation over consumption.

Of course, I’m not here to convince you to unplug, you’ve probably already been convinced to do it, or at the very least intrigued to try it. But let’s face it, the idea of chucking your phone out the window, or locking it in a guarded safe for a week, is a little more extreme behavior than most of us are willing to consider. I’m interested in helping you ACTUALLY DO IT in a way that is sustainable and unobtrusive to your day-to-day actions as possible.

Plan it WELL in advance. An unplugged week doesn’t happen by accident, and it can’t happen next week without dire consequences. Take your time. Block out your week in your calendar, arrange your schedule in advance to minimize required work connections and inform your team of your intentions.
Make a list of analog things you’d like to have time for. Chess, cribbage, books, sketching, yoga, deep conversations. We’ve all got interests that have fallen by the wayside thanks to our connections to technology. These are all things that contribute to a relaxed mental state, which is the main goal of most vacations.
Declutter your phone/computer/tablet ahead of time. It takes a lot of time to unsubscribe from emails you don’t care about, unfollow accounts that annoy you, and tailor notification settings. The quickest way to have the same effect? Deleting the entire app. You know your problem apps; just uninstall them, even if it’s only during your trip or for a few days at a time. Turning your phone back into a phone is pretty liberating.
Turn off all notifications. I’ve spoken about this before. Just turn them off. Yes, all of them. When the phone doesn’t buzz or beep, you’ll be less likely to want to grab it and “just see” what’s going on in the world. While you’re at it, download the app called “Moment” on your phone. The Premium version (a one-time $3.99 upgrade) will allow you to set a daily time allowance, and if you go over, Moment can either send you a notification or kick you off entirely until the time period resets.
Set specific check-in times with your team. Your team WANTS you to have some time away, but they also may NEED you for some important decisions. Don’t leave this up to chance. Schedule specific check-in times with your team to ensure that a) they don’t get too anxious without you, and b) you don’t feel too out-of touch while you’re away.

That’s it. Simple, but not easy.

There are plenty of other approaches that are far more stringent than this one, but I’ve found that pre-planning and properly set expectations, coupled with a reasonable balance of time and strong, consistent controls is the secret to getting away effectively with the least amount of stress.

Thanks for reading!

Have feedback to share with me? Which above was your favorite? Want more or less of something? Have other suggestions?

Send a reply to this email and let me know. I'm always open to new ideas if you have something cool or interesting that you think I should know and/or write about in the next, Black Coffee Friday.

That's it for now... talk soon!

Chad