A Day in the Life

Here’s a snapshot of a Thursday.

Thursdays are becoming a kind of Friday for me, because for a couple weeks now, they’ve been days that I formally stop working on CEO stuff and switch over to working on type and design things, which I’m doing on Fridays and Saturdays. On Sundays, i give myself the luxury of not planning shit, something I’m still learning to lean into.

6:00ish Wake up

7:00a Day Planning: I timeblock every bit of my day, every day, using Google Calendar. it’s an open calendar that some of my team can see and make space accordingly. “Every bit” means breakfast, lunch, dinner, pedicures, skincare, that lil bit of time that I use to reorganise my calendar…everything.

8:00a Breakfast

8:30a CEO Shit: Checking on money, annoying my very competent team members with inept questions, resisting urges to micromanage, checking Asana and clearing what I can.

10:00a Team meetings: We used to do them twice a week, then we got better at them. These meetings cover issues for our mobile app products, studio business, and the new verticals we’re planning. It’s the only “all hands” meeting we do together—everyone else organises their silos and have their own groups of scheduled meetings.

10:30a Meeting with my coach: My executive coach is kind of like my therapist for my journey on the pursuit of capital. Someone to keep me focused on managing the different parts of the Unqueue ecosystem and their itinerant parts, in addition to navigating the interpersonal relationships and building the company culture that I intend to have. Also, I do not feel like a good businessperson. I have a lot of my own issues around my role and its responsibilities, and at least 15% of my bodyweight is just impostor syndrome…so having someone who can be empathetic to that while also helping me set and stay laser-focused on the goals we need to achieve to be a sustainable company is integral to my survival as a leader.

11:30a Lunch, and reading: Currently, I’m reading Native Orchid Species of Trinidad and Tobago. Wbu?

12:30p Interviews: I’m hiring for a few new roles, and my first set of meetings for this have begun. Two hours. Brutal.

2:30p Research: We’re working on some new solutions that basically require me to learn a lot about contemporary fintech and Caribbean banking. If you told me, a person who uses Spotlight to do basic math, that I’d have to learn about inverse perpetual swaps, or compound interest and microfinancing, I’d call you a damn liar. If you told me I’d enjoy it? Fighting words. Research happens with a combination of YouTube videos, ChatGPT, and calling my money-smart friends and asking questions.

3:15p Client time: a 10-minute call with a client about a new mobile platform that we’re building for them and are really excited about.

4:30p Sales call: Someone is trying to sell us something. My job is to hear them out.

5:15p Check-in: Checking in with team members individually to make sure they don’t need anything from me (even though they damn well know I’m lurking in the Slack on Fridays). They almost never do, unless it’s to do something they asked me to do that I didn’t. I’m not perfect.

6:00p Grant application: Hat in hand, asking multilaterals for money to make tech to help the Caribbean. Thankless work, truly.

8:15p Dinner: Late. Food Drop again 🤒

9:00p GPT-4 Type time: Playing with ChatGPT, teaching it about the structure of font files, and am hoping to get better at explaining the way in which UFO files work, so that GPT can, in effect, draw type. So far it’s not going awfully, though GPT-4, much like me, just can’t get a fucking L. Any type friends want to peer-chat our ways through getting some AI-generated shapes drawn? LMK

11:00p Taking care of the chids: Watering and fertilising 107 ungrateful epiphytes.

12:00p Bedtime 😴