Dear friends,

Every week, I’m sharing an essay that relates to what we are building and learning at Alan. Those essays are fed by the article I’m lucky enough to read and capitalise on.

I’m going to try to be provocative in those essays to trigger a discussion with the community. Please answer, comment, and ping me!

If you are not subscribed yet, it's right here! 

If you like it, please share it on social networks!

Share 💡JC's Newsletter

Instant communication is slowing you down and creates unhappiness 

Today, I would like to share tips that have changed my life and my relationship with stress and others. They've allowed me to be much more in the present moment when needed, much more intense in work when needed.

I also want to reiterate our expectations as a company regarding the use of communication tools (for example some people think you should answer instantly on Slack) and also provide keys for Alaners to better organize themselves and feel less overwhelmed.

I think one of the big problems is having Slack and/or WhatsApp always open on the computer, as it does not allow for continuous work time. 

It is continuous work time that makes you ten times more efficient, gives you the sensation of being in control and thus helps you achieve more significant things faster.

Here are the keys for everyone of us to better organize ourselves and feel less overwhelmed or like the days are too intense: 

• Rule number one is Slack must be closed most of the time.

  • If you have things to do in Slack, do them in batches.

  • Prepare all your responses in a Google Doc and post them all at once, then close Slack again

  • If you have things to read, copy them into a Google Doc and make all the answers in a batch

  • Connect to Slack only three or four times a day, that's more than enough.

  • It is OK in most cases if you answer at the end of the day or the next day

  • Answer right away on the most urgent stuff. 

• Trust ”oncall” teammates to answer immediate requests. That’s why we created the oncall roles as a company. If someone urgently needs to contact you, Slack isn’t the right channel: they will call you or look for you in person in an office.

I also want to reaffirm our expectations and those of Alan as a company: we prioritize asynchronous communication. For example, when sometimes I post something on Slack, or I comment on a document, I see some people reacting immediately, and I think it is not healthy for them, and the organization. 

The same principles can be used for personal communication through WhatsApp. Having it constantly open on your computer will completely break your flow of thought, give you the feeling of never being in control, and create continuous interruptions. While it's fun and gives you the feeling of being connected, there are many research papers that show it's one of the best ways to create exhaustion and harm mental health.

My advice for WhatsApp, is to remove notifications and only open it on your phone or desktop once every 1.5-2 hours, and then, spend 5 or 10 minutes intensely replying to everyone, doing it well and qualitatively, but not doing it poorly all the time.

If I'm sharing these tips, it's because they've changed my life and my relationship with stress and others. They've allowed me to be much more in the present moment when needed, much more intense in work when needed.

These tips are offered as guidance to help you thrive. Though nothing will ever be imposed on you, embracing these proven strategies proactively can significantly contribute to your growth and help reduce stress.

Please do think about your set-up proactively.

Some good articles I have read this week

👉 The Rebalancing of Design Management (Cap Watkins)

• A good argument about management not being only about being supportive. 

• Very interesting on design leadership. 

• The problem with “an over-focus on UX skills over strong visual and interaction design”, and I agree!

• How to push to not to worry for the design system for a moment, and to push for greatness!

• Meaningfully differentiates your product from a competitor's should be an objective 🙂

• I loved: “get in the details, push our teams to take one more pass at things, try something totally weird that probably won't work, challenge and inspire their peers in engineering and product.”

• Trusting your team doesn't have to mean not guiding your team.

👉 Brex: Building Brex 3.0

• 4 releases a year with nothing else than 3 big themes

• How to have a cohesive experience without reviewing everything? 

👉 "AI is about to completely change how you use computers" (old entry in Bill Gates' blog)

• Very aligned with our vision of AI and future clinician agents, and the importance of AI in therapy as well. 

It’s already over! Please share JC’s Newsletter with your friends, and subscribe 👇

Let’s talk about this together on LinkedIn or on Twitter. Have a good week!