May 14, 2020 Meeting Notes

Hello Everyone,

This is a rogue non-Monday email to announce that BOSLady now has a website!!! Check it out to vote on next month's book, view past Love Notes, sign up for the newsletter and see upcoming events, among other things. Check it out when you have time and I encourage you to test out the different features and give us feedback. Special and heartfelt thanks to Kseniia for putting in the time and effort to create this platform for BOSLady as we continue and grow. Please also follow and share our Instagram at boslady_love_note

If you want to vote for next month's book via email, the options are below. June's book will be announced Monday so please vote by then

Lift as You Climb: Women and the art of ambition - Viv Groskop

Stillness Is the Key - Ryan Holiday

Cognitive Architecture: Designing for How We Respond to the Built Environment - Ann Sussman and Justin Hollander

Thank you to everyone who joined in for Tuesday's meeting! It felt like a three part meeting with everyone joining and departing at different times which made it extra fun so I appreciate all of you who carved out some time to connect. I particularly needed it that day and hope that everyone else who attended got the same boost from it that I did. 

A couple of things discussed:

• This quote about Nikki Giovanni in Daily Rituals: "Asked if she's ever had writer's block, she laughed. 'Never,' she said. 'If you have writer's block, you're not reading enough. And you're not thinking enough.'" I relate to this when it comes to writing the weekly Love Note and asked everyone if there was an equivalent to this when it comes to design.

• This quote about Alice Walker in Daily Rituals: "Walker wrote fast, but only because she spent so much time thinking about the book before she began writing - indeed, Walker has said that for new books she requires gestation periods of a year or two before she can actually put pen to paper." Do you let things roll around and sort themselves out in your head before you externalize them or is it part of your process to get ideas on paper or screen before they're fully developed? Fun coincidence - yesterday I started re-listening to Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck and at the beginning of the book, he shares that he too cannot "write hot" and has to mull things over for a good while before he can put them down in ink.

• Jenn shared this quote about the design process:
  

• Inspired by the AOM podcast with Celeste Headlee that was shared in this week's Love Note, we discussed tracking hours worked vs. productivity and how realistic it is to measure productivity during design

• Continuing to check in with team members during stay at home and not taking for granted that everyone is actually okay

Let me know if I missed anything and please check out the website and vote on next month's book! Enjoy the rest of your week everyone :)

Amber