Last week humbled me.
The short version: moving chaos + tech chaos + “of course that would happen” travel drama.
I kept trying to hit my usual outputs anyway. Show up. Ship. Be in the room.
And then I clocked it: when life gets noisy, outputs are the worst thing to use as my scoreboard.
In today’s essay I’m sharing how my mindset around inputs, outputs and indicators is changing — and why it matters (especially when life is doing the most).
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THE BUSINESS OF COMMUNITY
What Matters More than Outputs
Last week I was chasing outputs like they were proof I had my life together.
The outputs were the obvious stuff. Be in Joburg. Attend the events. Show up in person. Be the competent founder who has it handled.
Except… my inputs were a mess.
I’d just moved house, I had no internet and was hotspotting from my phone the entire week. Every task took longer. Every call had that “please don’t drop” tension.
And then the car.
My “brand new” car (made in 1971, which is a sentence that should tell you everything) started overheating. Driving into town in traffic pushed it too hard. Today it overheated again, and I almost missed my flight to Joburg.
So here’s what I realised: outputs are a lagging signal.
When life is stable, you can treat “shipping” as the scoreboard. When life is chaotic, chasing outputs becomes a kind of self-punishment.
The thing I should have been tracking wasn’t “did I get it done?” It was: is the system that produces the work still healthy?
My New Point of View
Now I’m starting to separate my business into three buckets:
Inputs are the conditions I control.
time
energy
internet :p
boundaries
focus blocks
Outputs are what people can see.
newsletters
events
deliverables
posts
calls
Indicators are the early warning lights.
how quickly I snap
whether I’m making decisions from panic
whether I’m sleeping properly
whether “small tasks” suddenly feel impossible
Last week my outputs looked like they were failing.
But the truth is: my indicators had been flashing amber for days, and I was acting like I could bully my way into green by sheer willpower.
What I’m Doing Differently this Week
I’m not lowering my goals. I’m changing the order of operations.
Goals are direction.
Indicators are the dashboard.
Outputs are the receipt.
So this week, my only job is to get my indicators back into the safe zone:
stable internet (or at least a plan that doesn’t involve prayer)
a minimum viable workday
fewer panic decisions
more margin
Because when the indicators come right, the outputs always follow.
And if your week has been chaos too: you’re not “behind”. You’re under-resourced.
(Also, if you opened this on Monday morning because I’m late… thank you. Truly.)
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