My partner isn't that great with detergents. Every time we have one on the grocery list, it becomes a huge back-and-forth — "Is the floor cleaning fluid in a green bottle?" and other riveting phone conversations (I swear I'm bringing this to a marketing takeaway).

A few days ago, there was a new batch of things we needed. I first got anticipatory anger at having the same conversations. Then I figured a solution — I simply put in the photos of each brand in our shared to-do list.

It's a simple thing that saves a ton of time and energy. And it's what you should aim for in your work.

Find repeatable things. The ones that leech precious minutes and even more precious emotions out of your day. Optimize it once and you'll reap the benefits for much longer.

Systems thinking is not a new concept. But we're so bogged down in the process that we don't see the full picture anymore.

So try to get some time out of the hamster wheel and see where you can lubricate it and make it run smoother. 

Be systematic,

From the blog

Content Marketing Blueprint: a Building Block for Content Excellence
The Content Marketing Blueprint is a one-page document that shows concisely what you’re doing with content — and why. It's the shortest expression of your strategy and execution plan. In this post, I'm giving you a handy template you can use, along with step-by-step guidance on how to fill it in.

Hand-selected pieces for you

Watch me at the ProductLed Summit [Tone of voice presentation]
I'm super excited to invite you to my talk at ProductLed Summit! We'll be discussing brand voice — what it is and how to really put it to use, not just in your marketing but in your product, website, customer support, and more. I'll share my favorite exercises and some helpful tips along the way. Register and watch the talk for free!

10 Unique Ways to Use Instagram Guides for Marketing
Instagram guides are a new way of engaging your audience — and you should know how to use them for maximum results. Here are a few creative ideas for your inspiration.

Engagement beats scale: Inside Morning Brew’s approach to subscriber growth
This is a very detailed piece outlining the lessons learned along the way to 2.5 million subscribers of the Morning Brew newsletter. It gives us some great insights into the changing KPIs we need to use to assess newsletter performance.

The Evolution of Advertising Over the Past Four Decades [Infographic]
What to expect in 2021? To answer that, let's look back. This graph is one of the very few I've seen that track global rather than US-only ad spend and social engagement trends.

How to Grow a Facebook Group Quickly and Effortlessly
Social Media Examiner shares some tips on community building and scaling Facebook groups. My favorite ones include regularly asking questions that drive engagement and tagging active members and resharing old posts to bring the magic back.

Things I'm enjoying right now

• This playlist with recordings from the Wynter Games — the event is now a staple in my virtual calendar and the best thing is that its recordings are available and completely free to watch on YouTube.
• This virtual event on innovation — I've been a long-time fan and partner of Innovation Explorer, an event that's been held in Sofia for the last few years. This time the organizers opted in for a fully virtual event, but they are keeping the same quality of speakers like the CIO of The Coca-Cola Company for EMEA Sabine Everaet and the business philosopher Rik Vera. Looking forward to it!
• This Twitter account that shows you how much of the year has passed — I've included it in my Twitter shortlist, it's a great reminder of the passage of time and it gives me the motivation to try and make every day count.

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