WEBVTT

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Hey,

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everybody,

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and welcome to the Friday wrap-up on Streamline Solopreneur, a short episode where I talk about three things.

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What's on My Mind,

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Recommended Reading,

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and Recommended Media.

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This is the show that helps you automate your business so you can take time off worry-free,

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and hopefully this curation will help you think more about your systems.

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I'm your host,

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Joe Casabona,

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and here's what's on my mind for May 29,

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2026.

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Okay,

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so first of all, the thing that's on my mind this week is working on Saturday mornings and the summer.

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Two of three,

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two-thirds, I guess, of my kids are finished with school this week.

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Our school winds down in what I feel is a super weird way.

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But I also had a pre-ker and a kindergartner, and I know that's like different from one through eight.

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but it just feels like there's a lot of last days of school.

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But ultimately what that means is summer break is coming,

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and my schedule is going to monumentally shift for a couple of months.

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But I've also noticed something over the last month or so, right,

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where school was still kind of winding down but pretty much in full swing.

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I have been insanely productive on Saturday mornings.

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Usually I wake up around 5 a.m. I make some coffee.

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I let the dog out.

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And then I go down to my office to work for a couple of hours before the rest of the house is awake and functioning.

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And yes, I know that I kind of slipped into a New York accent there.

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I usually try to keep it on a low burn,

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but coffee and dog are like two of my words I can't shake.

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So anyway,

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I get a couple of hours of work done on Saturday mornings before the rest of the house is awake and functioning.

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I don't know if it's just that Saturday mornings are quieter or I have this limited amount of time and so I lock in faster,

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right?

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the idea that the work fills the container,

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right?

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The amount of work or the amount of time it takes you to do the work will fill the amount

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of time you have to do it.

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So if you have an hour to do a task, it'll take an hour.

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If you have four hours to do a task, it'll take four hours.

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But I don't think that's it because I never go down to my office with a super specific task in

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mind.

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It's usually more thinking time.

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I find myself thinking incredibly clearly on Saturday mornings, and I don't really know why.

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But I'd like to think it's because that there's not the hustle and bustle of everybody getting ready for work and getting the kids off to school,

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with which a nine-year-old, a five-year-old, and a four-year-old takes a significant amount of effort,

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right?

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And while my kids go to a school where they have to wear uniforms,

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the four-year-olds doesn't yet, but the nine and five-year-olds do have to wear uniforms,

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it's a little easier assuming,

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you know, we have prepared and we have a clean uniform. And sometimes that sneaks up on us.

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Lately,

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there's been a lot of dress down days or like gym uniform days.

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And so that has been the fact that I don't have to do that on Saturday mornings

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relieves a lot of the mental gymnastics I have to do.

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And I think that it's helped for me to do that work on Saturday mornings.

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And part of the reason I hope this is the case.

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is because summer might actually be very productive for me.

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We're not doing summer camp.

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I think there's like a couple of weeks throughout the year.

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We're doing some traveling,

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but generally a more relaxed schedule and a slower start

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to the morning might bode well for me even on weekdays because they're not really going

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to feel like a normal weekday,

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especially because my wife is a nurse.

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And she works three 12-hour shifts.

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So like our weeks are not the typical kids go to school,

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eight to three,

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mom and dad

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go to work nine to five.

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And it's never been that way.

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But, you know, the school year routine has taken up more time in the last couple of years.

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So this could bode really well for me.

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I've known for a long time that my mornings are when I work best.

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And I've always tried to box my work week into the regular work week.

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And part of that is a function of the school year,

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especially next year when all of my kids will be in school full time.

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But maybe this summer is a time for some intentional experimentation with a different sort of work week.

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I guess for some other context,

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the last couple of years have felt very chaotic because we don't do summer camp.

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And so we've tried to plan our weeks accordingly,

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but things come up and we didn't have the childcare we thought we had.

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And this year,

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we have been more aware and more intentional of what our child care situation can look like.

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We believe we have a pretty steady babysitter for a couple of days this summer each week in this summer.

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And we have backups.

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And so this summer should feel less chaotic than the last couple of summers.

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But maybe this summer is the time to experiment with a different sort of work week,

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where Saturday mornings are part of it and some other week day is not.

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So that's what I'm thinking about. That's what's on my mind this week.

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And I'd love to know what does your work week look like.

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I saw a video from CGP Gray a couple years ago. It was like, I think it was like shortly after the pandemic where he talked about weekend Wednesdays where he felt a better way for him to run his week was to work like Sunday,

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Monday,

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Tuesday,

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have off Wednesday,

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have off Thursday.

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Friday,

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or work Thursday, Friday, have off Saturday.

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When you're self-employed,

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you may have the flexibility to do something like that.

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So what does your work week look like?

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What are your best hours?

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Let me know, either in the comments, wherever you're reviewing this,

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or over at streamlined

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feedback.com.

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Okay,

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on to recommended reading.

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I know the Pope wrote an encyclical this week about AI.

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and I definitely plan on reading that this weekend.

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But for my recommended reading pick,

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I am choosing the creative act by Rick Rubin.

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I have been in a little bit of a reading slump.

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I haven't read any books start to finish since March,

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and I hate it.

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But I've also felt really like meh about every book I picked up.

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You know, I picked up a few business books

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and longtime listeners will know how I feel about business books.

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I do not like them.

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I feel like they are very generic,

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but sometimes also weirdly specific.

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Like, do this one thing,

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and it will work.

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And I also tried reading Walden by Henry David Thoreau.

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And that was a slog.

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I think I got through like 30 pages.

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And I was just like, this is too much for me.

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But almost randomly,

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I say almost randomly because I saw,

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post by Rick Rubin on Substack,

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I decided to grab the creative act off of my bookshelf. I bought it

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in December and give it a read.

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I finished it in a few days and I am officially out of my

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reading slump. I am excited to read the next couple of books I have,

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one of which is the

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Odyssey. I want to read that before the movie comes out. And so I'm recommending this because

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it's a 400-page book that got me out of my reading slump.

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And part of it is that it's a really

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easy read,

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right?

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Unlike the Iliad, which I read earlier this year and some other literature,

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and definitely unlike Walden, this is a really easy read. It is, it's a little too woo-woo for me.

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Like,

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we are all beautiful balls of light floating through the universe of woo-woo, and that's usually

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not my speed.

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But there are also a lot of really good nuggets in there. I've got a lot of dog-eared

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pages and highlights that I'm going to go through later today and put together my overall

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thoughts on the book and what solopreneurs can learn from it.

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But I think what works for me

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here is that the effort to read versus the woo-woo versus the nuggets is worth it.

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Right?

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Like it's a really easy read. You can skim a lot of it. You can

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straight up skip chapters that don't really resonate for you.

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And you can still get really good information out of it.

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And so I think there's a little something for everybody, whether you need that woo-woo.

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Or whether you prefer the more practical advice.

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I really like it.

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I obviously love and respect Rick Rubin's work.

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I mean, just going through the list of artists he's produced the beast.

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Beastie Boys,

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licensed to ill,

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public enemy,

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Slayer,

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Danzig,

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L.L.

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Cooljay in the 90s,

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red hot chili peppers,

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blood sugar,

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sex,

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magic.

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Sir Mix a lot.

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More Danzig,

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Mick Jagger,

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the cults,

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Tom Petty, and the Heartbreaks.

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I mean,

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his

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discography

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alone is incredible

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includes some of my favorite artists,

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System of a Down.

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He also helped

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I want to say resuscitate

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Metallica.

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You know, he produced

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Death Magnetic after St. Anger,

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which was widely considered

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their worst ever thing.

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So a lot of

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Lady Gaga, like I'm looking at this list,

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It's just wild,

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right?

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Going back to the 80s.

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And so all of that is to say that Rick Rubin has gained my respect.

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And that is the, I think if it was somebody else,

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I would have said, oh, this is too woo-woo for me.

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But Rick Rubin has the pedigree to be a little woo-woo, because he's done a lot of really good things.

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So I like the book.

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I strongly recommend it.

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Like I said,

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really easy read and a lot of really good nuggets.

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Now,

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for my recommended media,

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maybe it's because I'm reading the creative act in the same vein.

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There's no set YouTube video this week.

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I am recommending early to mid-2000s pop punk.

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I realized throughout the week I actually made three different discography playlists,

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him,

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which I wouldn't necessarily call punk pop.

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or pop punk rather

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Newfound glory and

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fallout boy

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and because I am a

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playlist kind of guy

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I have lots of folders

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for playlists about

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decades,

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seasons,

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holidays,

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stages of my life

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I have like a high school mix

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and a college mix

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and a sad early 20s mix

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and of course I have discographies

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and I've been really feeling

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the music of my youth

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this week. And maybe it's because the school year is ending. And that has me thinking about my own

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summer vacations. Maybe it's because pop punk is my favorite music to blast with the windows down.

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And I love driving with the windows down in the summer.

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So,

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and I think it ties really nicely

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into the Rick Rubin of it all,

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right?

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Thinking about Rick Rubin, who has, again,

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produced a lot of my favorite artists.

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Anyway,

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music has been on my mind this week.

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And so I am just recommending general playlists.

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So either way, I'm here for it, right?

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Maybe it's summer, maybe it's driving with the windows down.

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Maybe it's just nostalgia as I'm in my 40s now.

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Either way, I'm here for it,

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you can find some of the playlists I mentioned over on my

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Apple podcast,

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my Apple music profile,

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which I will link in the description for this episode.

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But that's it for the Friday wrap-up. If you enjoyed this episode,

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consider joining my mailing list

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at streamlined.fm slash wrap.

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You'll get an additional automation of the week, as well as regular

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emails on how to approach building systems to help you take.

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take time off worry-free.

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Thanks so much for listening.

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And until next time,

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I hope you find some space in your weekend.