Tag: do the work

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Should Work Be Fun?

I have a fun job. I really do. I get to make fun things on the internet that people like to share and play with and laugh about.

When I talk to people who want to work at my company, this comes up a lot: It seems like it’d be fun to work there! Everyone I talk to wants to work at a fun office.

But I’m not sure that’s where we should put the emphasis. Yes, it’s great to work at a fun office. But I’d rather work at a place that challenges me, and that gives me the chance to work with great people who I can learn from.

I’m not at BuzzFeed because it’s fun — I’m there because of the challenge, and because of the opportunity to learn.

Is it fun? is a nice question to ask, but it should not be THE question.

I know I’m lucky to work at a place that offers me that AND is a lot of fun. But if I had to choose just one, I’d choose the place that pushes me. In the long run, that’s going to open up the most doors for me.

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Losing Sense Of Time

A week ago today, I sat in a room and listened to Jerry Seinfeld speak. It was seven days ago.

It feels like months ago.

One of the things about working on the internet is that time moves in incredibly bizarre ways. News that blows up in the morning is forgotten by the afternoon. Things move fast.

And it messes with your sense of time. It makes the weeks difficult to track — there’s just so much you’ll come into contact with in the course of five days.

That’s why I’ve found it’s so important to set goals at the start of the week, and to spend some time on Fridays looking back at what’s actually been accomplished. I’ve discovered that on internet time, I’m capable of wasting lots of time. And if I’m not diligent about tracking my goals/accomplishments, I’ll get to Friday and discover that I’ve spent a week feeling busy, but really going nowhere.

That photo of time literally flying comes via Flickr’s @aussiegall.

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It Doesn’t Get Easier.

I was listening to this interview with Chris Rock earlier this week. I recommend the whole thing, but one part stuck out to me:

It comes about 3 minutes into this interview with Alec Baldwin. Now here are two men who’ve done everything you can do in the world of acting. Rock’s one of the most successful stand-up comedians ever. He’s been an “SNL” cast member. He’s been in more movies and TV shows than you can count.

And Alec Baldwin’s resume is just as impressive — movies, TV, theater, radio. The works.

Anyway, Baldwin interviewed Rock in 2011, when Rock was doing a Broadway play. It was the first play Rock had ever done.

Baldwin asked what Rock was struggling with, and here’s what came next:

Rock: “Rehearsal’s the hardest thing I’ve gone through in my life.”

Baldwin: “I always tell people, it’s like having the Empire State Building shoved up your ass one brick at a time to learn the play.”

Rock: “Yeah. And you can’t believe there’s ever going to be a day when you’ll know these lines.”

A fairly graphic Alec Baldwin line aside, I love that. I love the idea that these two veteran actors still struggle with the day-to-day work of putting on a play. I love that it’s still a challenge for them — even though they’re hugely successful (and experienced) actors.

It comes back to a question I’ve asked before: How long are you willing to suck? You have to be willing to struggle — it’s the only way to keep going.

The work just keeps coming. Even if you’re Chris Rock. Even if you’re Alec Baldwin.

Even for them.

So put in the work, and just keep going.

That photo of Chris Rock comes via Flickr’s David Shankbone.

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Two Big Things.

Earlier this month, I started looking ahead to all the things I want to accomplish at BuzzFeed in 2014. And it’s a lot. This will be a year filled with launches and A/B tests and speaking engagements. It’s going to be a busy year.

And looking at it from a distance, it was kind of overwhelming. I started asking myself: How the hell am I going to get all of this done in 2014 — especially when I’ve got so much on my plate each day already?

So here’s the idea I’ve come up with: I created a Google Doc, and labeled it 100 Big Things. That’s my goal for 2014: Knock 100 big picture things off my to-list in 2014.

And then I started labeling each week of the year, and under that, I added a 1) and a 2).

To get to 100, I’ll just need to do two big things every week. (And I’m subtracting the two weeks of vacation I get a year, which takes me down to 50 weeks and 100 things.)

That seems manageable, right? I don’t need to do it all this week, or next week. Just two things a week, and that’ll add up to something really big by the end of the year.

I still have my day-to-day stuff. But my Two Big Things are the things that are going to take me and my team to the next level by year’s end.

Big goals, little steps. Let’s do the work.

That photo comes via Flickr’s marc falardeau.

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Wanting To Believe vs. Wanting To Do.

I will confess that I once believed that I was madly in love because of something I saw on TV.

There are a lot of shows out there featuring tall men — some of whom were even Jewish! — falling in love with attractive blondes and attractive brunettes. If you watch enough of them (and I did), and if you’re in a vulnerable enough place (and I was), you can start to believe that the romance you see on TV is the romance you deserve in your life.

You can fall for the story, and fall for the belief that what you saw on screen is what will soon happen to you.

I will confess that I have fallen for this.

And I will confess that it’s not just TV romances that I’ve fallen for. I’ve fallen for tech stories about the next great company. I’ve fallen for TED talks about the life I could lead. I’ve fallen for ads and myths and resolutions, and every story imaginable.

But I’ve also lived through enough to know what can really be mine — and what’s on screen isn’t it.

When you’re doing the work, you have to believe in yourself — and your skills, and your team. You have to believe in the story you’re trying to tell.

When you’re doing the work, other people’s stories become distractions. They’re there to inspire you, and to get you excited about what could be. But the minute you start believing that their story is your story, too, you’re screwed.

Nothing is gifted to you. Nothing is scripted.

This is your story and your journey, and it starts as soon as you commit to the work.

That lovely photo at top comes via.

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Giving Myself Permission To Go Off Schedule.

When I really started writing this version of the blog, in the winter of 2012, I had one rule: I had to write a certain number of times per week. At the time, I wrote three posts per week, and I stuck to it — 3 posts every week, for an entire year. I wrote Monday/Wednesday/Friday. If I missed a day, I made it up as soon as I could — but I rarely missed a day.

And back then, I really needed the schedule. The schedule held me accountable at a time when I wasn’t strong enough to hold myself accountable. Without the schedule, I would’ve quit within days. Instead, I blogged that entire year. And then into 2013. And now into 2014.

On Thursday, I missed a day for the first time in a while. I was busy — seeing people, doing work. I wanted to blog, but I ran out of time.

I thought about writing an extra post this week to make up for it. I thought about how I would deal with missing a post so early into the year.

But I’ve decided to do something instead: Give myself permission to move off of the schedule.

I still want to write a few things per week. I want to write a lot here, and share the things I’ve learned.

But I don’t need the schedule anymore — I can hold myself accountable. That’s something I’ve learned over the 2+ years of blogging here.

And it’s okay to miss a day, at least if it’s for the right reasons. I’ve always said: You put people you love and the things you love first. And if they get in the way of a post, that’s alright. Sometimes, the work just has to take a backseat.

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Hurry Up And Wait.

I heard the voice of my mother today while waiting in line at JFK to get through security. I’d hurried through work, and then hurried my way over to the train, and then hurried through check-in, and then… I waited. I waited for 20 minutes at airport security, because that’s how it works.

My mother has a saying for that: It’s the hurry up and wait.

When we were kids, she’d always point out how strange it was to watch people rush to be first in line for something. We’d be on a ferry, and people would rush to their cars. We’d wait on the top deck, holding onto the view as long as we could. What are those people rushing for? she’d always point out. It’s not like they can drive off until the boat docks anyway.

As I get to work with bigger teams on more ambitious projects, I find that the hurry up and wait rule applies there, too. Sometimes, you push and push on a project, only to find that the rest of your team isn’t ready to take the next step. Or that a key piece of technology or code isn’t ready. In the end, you’ve rushed through your work for nothing.

It’s certainly great when you can get your work done efficiently. But the people around you matter — especially the pace at which they do their work. If you’re not all moving together, you’re just hurrying up to wait.

And what good is that?

That photo of airport security comes via Flickr’s Karl Baron.

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How One Little Device Changed A Lot About The Way I Work.

pocket-phone

I’ll admit that I didn’t always understand the smartphone. I had a flip phone, and it did pretty much everything I wanted a phone to do. I was happy with it.

And in the first few months of owning a smartphone, I didn’t really change my opinion. It helped me keep track of my calendar, and it helped me find a building or two, but it wasn’t essential.

But then I moved to New York, and I started spending a lot of time on the train. Suddenly, I had these 10- and 15-minute chunks of time to kill.

That’s when it clicked.

I had downloaded this app called Pocket, which lets me save stories to read later — or offline. And it really changed things for me.

I needed something to do on those subway rides, so I started saving stories to read on Pocket when I was on the train. And then I had a little epiphany: I should just stop reading things at work entirely, and save them for the train rides — when I’ll have the time to focus on reading.

Now I’m reading as much as ever — it’s just a matter of changing when I read. And as a result, I’m more focused at work. Before, a new profile or an essay would come across Twitter and distract me, and it’d take an hour just to get back on track. Now I save those for later and keep on going with my tasks.

A little change, but it’s been a big help in keeping me productive at work. And I’ve got my smartphone to thank for that.

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Data + Story.

kiyomi and taro shibas, on the couch

Two weeks ago, while I was writing out my annual “What I Believe” post, I had a small epiphany, and jotted this down:

If you can show it in a spreadsheet, you can sell it. And if you can pair that data with a great story, you’ve really got something.

In my job at BuzzFeed, I report to two people: Dao, our director of traffic; and Erica, our managing editor. With Dao, it’s all about numbers. Show her that the numbers are trending upward, and she’ll listen.

With Erica — and any of the other editors at BuzzFeed — it’s all about the story. If you can tell a great story, they’ll listen.

When you pair those together, that’s when the magic really happens. I wrote that when you put them together, “you’ve really got something.” Which is true.

But what I really meant to say is: When you pair them together, you’ve really earned respect. In your work, you’ll have to sell your ideas to others. One of the secrets to sales is being able to pair data and a great story. Get those two elements together, and they’ll not only listen — they’ll follow you where you want to go.

That’s a photo of two shibas, because, you know, BuzzFeed. It comes via Taro the Shiba Inu on Flickr.

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The Opposite.

One of my favorite stories of the college football season came from the University of Southern California. The Trojans had an awful start to the year. They fired their head coach a month into the season. They replaced him with Ed Orgeron — an assistant coach who had previous served as head coach at Ole Miss.

And had lost — often — at Ole Miss.

When he got the new job at USC, he was asked about his time at Ole Miss:

“I was given a good shot, and I was really discouraged that I didn’t make it,” Orgeron said. “I had to look at myself.”

So what happened this time around? He looked at what he’d done at Ole Miss, and he did the opposite. Literally:

Every decision from team meals to whether music played at practice, Orgeron reversed. Fifteen times a day, he says, Orgeron thinks about how he would have done something at Ole Miss and then stops and goes the opposite direction.

Suddenly, a Southern Cal program that was languishing in tension and self-pity has started winning again, having fun again

Under Orgeron, USC finished the year 6-2. And the lesson here is so great: We don’t always do the work the right way the first time. We make mistake in the way we treat people, and the way we try to get things done.

Sometimes, it requires you to make little fixes. Sometimes, you have to make huge changes.

But you can’t be stubborn. If it’s not working — and if the results aren’t there — you have to be willing to be flexible. Change can be a powerful thing.

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