TA #88: 🌻 Show Me Your Summer Office; a Masterclass in How to Empathy

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Welcome to the 88th issue of Total Annarchy, a fortnightly newsletter by me, Ann Handley, with a focus on writing, marketing, life. THANK YOU for being here! I appreciate you.

Boston, Sunday, June 6, 2021

Summer is here, in the Northern Hemisphere—and, with it, summer offices. Let's talk about why they matter. Then I'll share an opportunity for you to win some $WORD coin of your own to have and to hold.

Hi, Sweet Cheeks.

A few years ago I visited the home of writer E.B. White.

You might know him as the author of the beloved children's classics Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, and a co-author of the writer's BFF, The Elements of Style.

I know him as my Writing Hero.

E.B. didn't live there anymore; he died in 1985. But the house (and surrounding land) is still pretty much as it was when E.B. was alive.

It's located almost exactly halfway up the state of Maine's ragged shoreline—a section of the state known as Mid-Coast.

The house was roomy, with dedicated offices for both E.B. and his wife, New Yorker fiction editor Katharine White. The light-filled barns were redolent of their former residents; I swear I could still catch a whiff of Wilbur's straw-filled pen.

But still, E.B. went out of his way to write nowhere near the house. He wrote in a boathouse—located a short walk down a grassy path toward Maine's aggressively windy Mid-Coast shoreline.

It was nothing special, that writing shed.

Just a simple box outfitted with a desk, hard bench, a tiny wood stove, wastebasket (what E.B. drafts did the basket carry off to the rubbish?), and its original ashtray (so E.B. was a smoker!)

So, yeah, it was nothing special.

But it was extraordinary.

There was a brief moment when I found myself alone in the boathouse—just me and the spirit of E.B.

I slipped behind the wooden desk and onto the hard bench and looked out at the Atlantic Ocean. I'd like to say that I had a profound reckoning at that moment—that I caught a bit of E.B.'s writerly wisdom whispered by the winds coming off the Atlantic.

But no. I sat on that hard bench and all I could think was... "My butt is sitting exactly where E.B. White's butt was." 😜

* * *

Writers are the original work-from-home "knowledge workers," says Cal Newport in a recent piece in the New Yorker. And like E.B., they often went out of their way to escape working in their actual homes.

Here in 2021, we can all relate, can't we?

It's hard to work 100% from home. Because other people live there. Because we might as well throw in a load of laundry. Because maybe we should just go stare into the fridge I wonder if that leftover eggplant parm is still there...?

That's why Cal urges companies wrestling with Work From Home (WFH) policies to consider a third option for the post-pandemic moment: Work From Near Home (WFNH).

"If we look to authors for inspiration then one such alternative emerges: work from near home," he writes.

What if companies support and subsidize WFNH as a way to boost happiness and productivity, and avoid distraction and burnout?

From Cal:

Strictly from the perspective of dollars and cents, W.F.N.H. is likely a superior policy to W.F.H. It's an up-front investment that promises strong returns in the long run.

It's a good idea. And I hope some newly remote teams embrace it at a time when the "Future of Work" is up for debate.

* * *

Summer is a good time to refuel, recharge, and—especially this year—play around with inventing our own WFNH spots.

Even if "near" home is a back deck. A patio. A balcony. An Airstream trailer parked on your lawn (as my friend Jeremiah Owyang has).

Six years ago, I built my Tiny House Studio in my backyard—a pre-pandemic move that turned out to be a gift to my 2020 quarantined-self.

It was already one of the best things I'd done for my own productivity and happiness: Having a separate place to do my best work has allowed me to... well, do my best work.

And in the past 15 Covid months, it's been the flotation device in a Sea of Stress.

My Tiny House Studio is small. It's a simple structure. Four rough wooden walls. A wooden desk. Retro stool. Internet connection. Tiny screened porch.

It's really nothing special.

But it's been extraordinary.

* * *

I don't know if E.B. White wrote from his boathouse in winter. I don't know if he high-stepped through the deep New England snow, tucking his head down against the biting winter wind tearing off the gray ocean.

But I can picture him there in summer—the window propped to let in that wind, now a tamer summer breeze filling the room with all the oxygen he could use.

* * *

🎉 🎉 🎉 My challenge to you: Share a photo of your own summer workspace on social media. (Inside. Outside. Whatever works for you.) Be sure to tag me! I'll randomly choose 10 to win some $WORD coin, my creator coin. (Back story on $WORD here.)

* * *

Here are a few things worth sharing this week.

Everybody Writes Tip of the Week: Should you only have sex with your spouse?

Pay attention to where words appear relative to others around them. Weird word order can wreak havoc in a sentence.

I see this problem ALL. THE. TIME with the world's trickiest word: Only.

Let's look at a confusing sentence that recently landed in my inbox. And then let's live-edit it together...

The confusing sentence:

A new study found that people who have only had sex with their spouse tend to be happier in their marriages.

Why confusing? The use of "only" as a modifier is weirdly off.

"Only" should be in front of "with their spouse."

Otherwise, it reads like the only thing they did together was have sex... when they probably watched Netflix together occasionally, too. (LOL)

Let's live-edit the paragraph together (bold added by me):

A new study found that people who have had sex only with their spouse tend to be happier in their marriages.

There we go. 😉

QUICKIES

Your friend doesn't want the vaccine. What do you say? This chatbot-quiz from the NYT is a masterclass in How to Empathy.

Go deeper ▶️ Look beyond the vaccine topic. The real modeling here is something every marketer struggles with: How can empathy improve our customer communication? How do we acknowledge their reality vs. our own?

6 Signs That It's Time for You to Write That Book Already [A Checklist] But seriously: How do you know?

Marketers & Freelance Creators Air Their Biggest Gripes with One Another This research by Skyword reads like a group therapy session. In a good way.

The High Cost of NOT Training Your Marketing Team 53.8% of marketers do not have a marketing-related degree. (Honestly expected this to be higher.) Of those who *do* have a marketing degree, only 32.2% consider it useful. I like this Call-To-Arms by Jen Smith at Team MarketingProfs.

CONTENT TOOLS

A content tool I discovered this week.

Just Good Copy is like a vault of email copy from great companies to inspire your next send.

DEPARTMENT OF SHENANIGANS

The earliest recorded customer complaint letter is from 1750 B.C., in ancient Sumeria (in modern-day Iraq). Here, Nanni absolutely roasts Ea-nasir with a one-star Yelp review of his business, calling special attention to his shoddy business policies.

LOVE LETTERS

💌 To Jon Steiert at Netline for including me in his piece of the 3 things your B2B content needs to succeed in a post-Covid world.

💌 To Alek Irvin writing at the wonderful Erika Heald's place and including this humble newsletter in his roundup of Newsletter Rock Stars.

💌 To Suzanna Fitzgerald for the love in her piece which asks: Is LinkedIn just a giant waste of time?

💌 To Liz Willits for including my thoughts in 9 ways to get more email survey responses.

💌 To Joel Hansen for including me in his piece on personal branding.

* * *

Thanks for reading this far. Thanks for your kindness and generosity.

Stay safe. Stay sane. Stay hopeful.

I'll be back on June 20.

P.S. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, you can:

1) buy a book.
2) Get yourself some $WORD coin. (Read more about creator coins here.)
3) Simply forward this newsletter to a friend with an invitation to subscribe right here: www.annhandley.com/newsletter.

SPECIAL THANKS to AWeber for being the provider of choice for Total Annarchy. If you are looking to up your email game, give them a shout.

Ann Handley is the author of Everybody Writes and other books.
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Ann Handley

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TA #88: 🌻 Show Me Your Summer Office; a Masterclass in How to Empathy

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TA #87: 🎉 The Fun Parts of Writing; Ranking Content the Michael Scott Way

TA #86: 🍕 Taking Risks in Marketing without Losing Your Job; 15 Writing Lessons from Famous Authors

TA #85: 🔑 Should you ungate your content in 2021? And: A copywriting tip for the lazy.

TA #84: ⚓ The World's First B2B Sea Shanty; One Simple Way to Revive an Apathetic Audience

TA #83: 📬 When You Should Write Your Book; How to Ask Better Questions; WTOTF

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