Satisfying Problem Solving
Good morning, it's February 2nd.
EARLY FEBRUARY. In your toolkit, you now have two short documents. A quick assessment of the team and a quick assessment of yourself. Go re-read those if you did them, and if you didn’t, here are the instructions for both. It’ll be fast.
DO THIS. RIGHT NOW. On those two lists, there is something urgent. I originally wrote heinous, but that is alarmist, and if it’s really bad, you shouldn’t be waiting for this newsletter to show up to start working on it.
For the highest priority item on either list, figure out a first step. This is not the solution; this is step #1. There could be anything on that, so I can’t suggest what this step is, but the point is to twist observation into action. A first conversation, more research, something. For me, this act is the hardest because the reason these items are on this list is that I’m not naturally just handling them. And how I need to start.
BONUS: There’s a moment you’re looking for with satisfying problem-solving. It’s when you can see the path forward — it might be the solution, but it’s probably just a sense that you’re heading in the right direction. The step above gets your brain working on this.
This Week in Rands
Gosh, I write about productivity a lot.
The most recent piece, obviously, started as a rant. It was someone, once again, trying to helpfully explain to me how I just hadn’t had “good fish”. My brain instantly leaped to the months, nay years, of my life I’ve listened to folks struggle with productivity tools. That’s the tenuous connection for the I Hate Fish piece.
If you want to continue to watch me torture myself on this topic over the years, there is lots of additional material:
- The Taste of the Day (2008) — The original Rands productivity system. Morning scrub, parking lot, evening scrub. No priorities, no dates, no hierarchy. Management is the art of choosing what not to do.
- The Trickle List (2008) — The Trickle List is a daily reminder that your job is not to do things — it's to design random moments of high potential.
- R.I.P. Things (2013) — I threw away Things after years of loyal use because it smelled like stagnation. Twelve years later, I'm back. The irony is not lost on me.
- One Thing (2024) — The gap between what we think work takes and what it actually takes is why being busy is a lie. This piece is about throwing away your productivity system and replacing it with one rule.
Leadership Links:
- 4 Indications of Overcompassionate Leadership: https://leadershipfreak.blog/2026/01/28/the-compassion-paradox/
- Going from no direct reports to 12: https://www.reddit.com/r/Leadership/comments/1qsnjau/going_from_no_direct_reports_to_12/
- Leadership Books for February 2026: https://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2026/02/first_look_leadership_books_fo_203.html
Join the Rands Leadership Slack: https://randsinrepose.com/about/