My role as a leader relies on communication.

I need to communicate effectively with my team, peers, senior leaders, partners, and customers.

The problem is I often work non-conventional hours; early in the morning or weekends. For me, this is when I have the availability and energy to get work done.

I prefer not to send emails outside of business hours. I don't want to signal to my team that they should be working nights and weekends. I want the emails to hit their inboxes during working hours.

The good news is there is a feature in Outlook that solved this problem.

The 'Schedule Send' Option

• Click the arrow next to the send button

• Click Schedule Send

• Select the date and time. It defauls to the next business day 👍🏼

• Click 'OK'

It's 9:14 AM on Wednesday and you get message from your manager asking you to present data tomorrow.

Here are the 5 small (but easily fixable) mistakes most people make creating data visualizations. Avoiding these will help you create a clear and compelling message:

Mistake #1: Not Having a Focus

Rather than highlighting all the data in a chart, take a point of view and focus the attention on that aspect. Try using color, size, or annotations to direct attention.

Mistake #2: Showing All the Data

While you may have access to Petabytes of data, you don't need to show it all. Consider your main object and start there.

Mistake #3: Not Summarizing the Title

Make it easy for your audience to identify the main point. Bottom Line Up Front!

Mistake #4: Not Considering the Medium

How will you present your visualization? Be sure to design to that experience. If it is in a PowerPoint slide, ensure your chart proportions fit well in that space.

Mistake #5: Not Considering Your Audience

Who are you creating this for, and what do they need? If you can't answer that, it will be difficult to create anything meaninful.

Steal Like an Artist by @austinkleon is one of my favorite business books. If you've read it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. But if you haven't, here are 4 reasons:

It applies to anyone creating ideas.

Don't let the title scare you. Austin Kleon uses the word artist in the broadest sense. Widen your view to anyone creating anything. Even if you say you aren't an artist, I bet you need to come up with new ideas to solve problems.

It has character.

Get a physical copy of the book. It is charming. It screams hand-crafted. Integrating text, drawings, and handwriting makes you want to hold this book. Keep it on your desk within arms reach.

It is inspirational.

It makes you want to make things. There is a clear call to action. Get started before you are ready. Start by copying things. Use your hands. Make things you wish existed in the world.

It is about you.

Art can't happen without the artist. Take care of yourself, stay out of debt, track your habits, create a support network, and be nice.

How can you write content that your team will read?

Be brief and organized.

Why it matters?

• Your team is busy.

• They are skimming your content.

• You need help summarizing the main points.

Make it easy for them by applying the concepts in this book by Jim VanderHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz.

Smart Brevity

It lives up to the title. It gives you actionable advice, and the concepts apply to all types of communication.

• Newsletters

• Presentations

• Emails

• Articles

• This post

At 5:30 AM, I started my daily workout on the stationary bike.

It was a Denis Morton cycling class. Denis told a story about his high school football coach. The context was football game preparation but it was also relevant to this exercise.

"We never finish training, we just run out of time."

The quote resonated with me, and I wrote it down.

That night, working on a presentation after work hours, I thought of the quote again. Could it be relevant in another context? I thought so and then closed my laptop lid. There will always be more work.

You have to call it quits at some point and try again tomorrow.

We never finish our work, we run out of time.

It's not easy working in a large team.

Especially when your goal is to be a productive and supportive coworker.

But if you feel burnt out, use these 4 quotes as a reminder of how to be better:

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people's throats.

Focus on communicating your ideas again, and again.

Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement.

If you want your team to give their best, allow them the freedom to make their own choices.

If you see fraud and don’t say fraud, you are a fraud.

Always do the right thing. Calling out wrongdoing is at the top of that list.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are

Don't wait for the perfect time to start. Think of yourself as a lifeguard that sees someone drowning and get started.

Do you come across inspirational quotes and forget them moments later?

They grab your attention and then are long forgotten. I've tried writing them down in notebooks and in digital notes with limited success. I never remember to return to the source when I need inspiration.

But I found an app that makes this easy.

Yapp Reminders

Here's why Yapp Reminders is amazing:

• You create the inspiration.
  You enter the quotes that are meaningful to you.

• It is a push, not a pull.
  The app sends a notification to your device. You no longer need to look for inspiration, it finds you.

• It is random.
  The reminders pop up at random times throughout the day.

It increases the surface area for serendipity.