Mic Check by Rhetoric: Volume 11

A case for scheduling time to be bored.

They say that he who masters his calendar masters his life. I'm not sure that I have anything mastered, but my calendar is certainly a sight these days: I've been scheduling my days so diligently that I've found myself with no "discovery" time.

One of my favorite things about building a business—and why I love sharing this newsletter—is when I stumble upon a piece of content that totally transforms the way I think about something. I rarely remember how I found these, but they stick with me and I end up sharing them again and again. 

Usually this learning happens in the "in between" calendar time; bits of time here and there that give me a chance to be curious and discover. Without this time, I've certainly pressed forward on a lot of mission-critical work, but I've missed the balance of learning during my day. 

I'm sure I'm not alone in the chaos that is my calendar. How do you all think about finding time to prioritize consuming content and learning? Where do you tend to look for this kind of material (other than this newsletter, of course)?

- Raman
 

📚 Open tabs

What team Rhetoric is reading during those awkwardly-timed few minutes between Zooms. 

Here's a fascinating example of how effective storytelling can change cultural norms and habits of entire populations of people: How Bird Collecting Evolved Into Bird-Watching. 

When we think about effective visual communication, we often think of road signs: a simple symbol, shape, and color can quickly communicate an idea or instructions. When you think about it, the people behind effective signage are the communication experts we should be consulting. Here's who they are. 

We're all on board with crafting a company purpose that effectively tells the story of what we do and why to our customers and employees. But how do we measure if we're living up to it, and should we?

✨ New ways to present better

Here's what's going on at Rhetoric this week:

Drag and drop editing is live: effortlessly reorder your slides in-app!

Have a feature idea you want to see in Rhetoric? Add it to our public roadmap! 

❤️ Your friends can be great presenters, too

Found this useful and know someone who wants to up their speaking game? Want to help us banish the grip that flat, written text has over our lives once and for all? Or perhaps you just like cool hats?

Share Mic Check with your network and we'll hook you up with some swag.