Welcome to the Friday Wrap-Up for May 22, 2026. This is a short newsletter where I talk about 3 things: What’s on my mind this week, Recommended Reading, and Recommended Media. Here's what's on my mind...
On My Mind
I spent most of this week in Baltimore with some friends discussing our businesses, mastermind-retreat style. As is often the case, I came away excited and energized. However, unlike a conference, I have a very specific set of actions I need to take. It was much needed.
But that isn't what's actually on my mind. I drove to Baltimore, with is around 2 hours each way, meaning I spent 4 hours in the car by myself. This is a real treat for me because I like driving with the windows down and my music blasting — something I don't get to do when the kiddos are in the car (at least, not on the highway where it gets too windy and we can't hear anything).
Part of me wanted to spend that time thinking about the business; what I'd discuss on the way there, and my action plan on the way back. But really, just a small part of me. I usually view traveling as forced downtime; an oasis where few people can get a hold of me and I can't do much of anything anyway. I mean, it's not like you can check email while driving (seriously — don't check email while you're driving that's stupid don't at me).
So I decided to turn off for those 4 hours. I didn't even listen to any podcasts; I turned up my music, sung as loud as I could, and just enjoyed the drive. It's an important reminder that we don't need to act like we're being productive all the time. It's important to take breaks, after all.
How do you spend your time driving? Reply and let me know.
Recommended Reading
I had a choice today my friends. Between a really cool, wholesome story, and some hot nonsense. I'm choosing the cool wholesome story. It's from The Athletic, and it's called A teen umpire tossed a baseball coach in a now-viral video. Here’s his side of the story. The gist is that a coach got upset about the music the other dugout was playing and he has a huge hissy fit (my words not theirs). We also know that sports parents/adults can take the game way, way too seriously.
This kid, a senior in HS, handled this coach which such poise, grace, and patience, it was impressive. The coach, who eventually got ejected, told his whole team to just leave the field. Classy.
Seeing stories like this give me hope that younger generations are actually learning the people skills that many adults have lost in the age of social media, the pandemic, and "keyboard courage."
Recommended Media:
Over on YouTube, SNL has been doing a series called The Rundown, where they're getting cast members and guests to build a show over several weeks. It's been fascinating seeing them pick sketches from across 50 years to build what they think is the best show. SNL is such a force; any insight into their systems and processes is so, so interesting to me.
It's a cool mix of history, BTS, and just a walk down memory lane. I strongly recommend it — and I really hope the put out a supercut of all the chosen sketches.
Automation of the Week
Create Text File from Clipboard: Creating a text file on the make is harder than I'd like it to be. I really wish you could natively do it by right-clicking in a Finder folder and choosing "Add New File." And I know 3rd party apps offer this functionality, but it seems like overkill to add an app just for that.
So this week's automation is an Apple Shortcut that does this exact thing: take what's on my clipboard, save it to a text file, and ask me where to save it.
This bad boy saves me a TON of time each week.
If you need help building these sort of simple, massively time-saving systems, book a free discovery call and let's chat!
That's it for this week. Have a great weekend!
Joe
