Hey friends,
Welcome to the 1st issue of my weekly newsletter - Monday Meta. Every week, I'll be sharing the latest updates in tech and design, personal productivity hacks, behind-the-scenes insights from my projects and the occasional book insights.
The title of this post comes from the book I've been reading called The Big Leap but in all honestly, it would be more accurate to name it Tiny Little Steps. I want this newsletter to feel less like a big leap and more like a tiny little step. A little step towards sharing my honest thoughts, ideas & interests with more people. Because if there has been anything that I've learned over the years is that life is less about a big dramatic leap and more about the tiny little steps you do every day.
I'm aiming to keep these newsletters bite-sized but packed with useful, practical information with a sprinkling of my own musings along the way.
I hope you get some value here and take whatever is relevant and leave the rest.
Here are some things that I've found interesting this week:
1. AI Voice Note Magic
Caught this amazing tutorial by Thomas Frank on transforming voice notes into ChatGPT-summarized transcripts using Notion. This was a game-changer for my to-do list and a perfect guide to navigating Pipedream automation. I'm now using this for daily thoughts on work for the day and also planning the week for the team.
2. Team Call Upgrade
Currently experimenting with more autonomy for team members. Instead of me steering the ship, I'm handing over the responsibility to individuals, letting them manage their own tasks and rotate as call facilitators each week. I'm hoping this will allow people to shine as they get a chance to execute in ways they think best and will also free up my hands from daily management to the business as a whole.
3. WordPress Speed Boost
In preparation for the Metalabs2.0 launch, I'm fine-tuning our website's performance with a handy plugin I got a while back has saved a bunch of time. WP can be bloated and slow - that's why I set up this site on Ghost. It feels faster, cleaner, and more modern alternative, especially for blogs.
Here are a few thoughts on website building in 2023
Quick website building rundown:
- Coding - The sky's the limit with full flexibility, but it's time-consuming and technical, easy to get lost in logistics.
- WP - Flexible, quick setup, plenty of plugins, templates, themes, and builders. All these come at the cost of bloat and subpar performance.
- Ghost CMS - It's clean, simple, intuitive, and functions well but is rigid, limiting design and functional play.
- Squarespace - Great for a simple, functioning site, but limited.
- Webflow - The new kid on the block, will be testing this out for simpler sites.
4. AI Automation
I'm loving Pipedream at the moment - it's proving to be a powerhouse for automation. Currently setting up a workflow for metalabs where client requests/revisions automatically send notifications to our Discord channel. The goal is that we can have faster response times, a smoother workflow, and an overall better experience for everyone.
5. The Big Leap
Reading about overcoming upper limits in "The Big Leap" book. The books core idea is that we all have upper limits that stop us from going further in life - to the point where we often self-sabotage from taking the next step. With creating online content & building metalabs it feels like this book has come at the right time to start thinking about what might be holding me back.
Thanks for reading have a great week ahead and I'll catch you next week,
Matt