Saturday Mornings, The Creative Act, and Pop Punk [Friday Wrap-Up]

Hey,

everybody,

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

What's on My Mind,

Recommended Reading,

and Recommended Media.

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

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

I'm your host,

Joe Casabona,

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

2026.

Okay,

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

Two of three,

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

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

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

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

But ultimately what that means is summer break is coming,

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

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

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

I have been insanely productive on Saturday mornings.

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

I let the dog out.

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.

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

I usually try to keep it on a low burn,

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

So anyway,

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

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,

right?

the idea that the work fills the container,

right?

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

of time you have to do it.

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

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

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

mind.

It's usually more thinking time.

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

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,

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

right?

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

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

it's a little easier assuming,

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

Lately,

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

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

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

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

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

is because summer might actually be very productive for me.

We're not doing summer camp.

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

We're doing some traveling,

but generally a more relaxed schedule and a slower start

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

to feel like a normal weekday,

especially because my wife is a nurse.

And she works three 12-hour shifts.

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

eight to three,

mom and dad

go to work nine to five.

And it's never been that way.

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

So this could bode really well for me.

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

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

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

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

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

I guess for some other context,

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

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

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

And this year,

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

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

And we have backups.

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

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

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

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

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

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,

Monday,

Tuesday,

have off Wednesday,

have off Thursday.

Friday,

or work Thursday, Friday, have off Saturday.

When you're self-employed,

you may have the flexibility to do something like that.

So what does your work week look like?

What are your best hours?

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

or over at streamlined

feedback.com.

Okay,

on to recommended reading.

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

and I definitely plan on reading that this weekend.

But for my recommended reading pick,

I am choosing the creative act by Rick Rubin.

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

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

and I hate it.

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

You know, I picked up a few business books

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

I do not like them.

I feel like they are very generic,

but sometimes also weirdly specific.

Like, do this one thing,

and it will work.

And I also tried reading Walden by Henry David Thoreau.

And that was a slog.

I think I got through like 30 pages.

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

But almost randomly,

I say almost randomly because I saw,

post by Rick Rubin on Substack,

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

in December and give it a read.

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

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

one of which is the

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

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

And part of it is that it's a really

easy read,

right?

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

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

Like,

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

not my speed.

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

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

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

But I think what works for me

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

Right?

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

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

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

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

Or whether you prefer the more practical advice.

I really like it.

I obviously love and respect Rick Rubin's work.

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

Beastie Boys,

licensed to ill,

public enemy,

Slayer,

Danzig,

L.L.

Cooljay in the 90s,

red hot chili peppers,

blood sugar,

sex,

magic.

Sir Mix a lot.

More Danzig,

Mick Jagger,

the cults,

Tom Petty, and the Heartbreaks.

I mean,

his

discography

alone is incredible

includes some of my favorite artists,

System of a Down.

He also helped

I want to say resuscitate

Metallica.

You know, he produced

Death Magnetic after St. Anger,

which was widely considered

their worst ever thing.

So a lot of

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

It's just wild,

right?

Going back to the 80s.

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

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

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

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

So I like the book.

I strongly recommend it.

Like I said,

really easy read and a lot of really good nuggets.

Now,

for my recommended media,

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

There's no set YouTube video this week.

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

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

him,

which I wouldn't necessarily call punk pop.

or pop punk rather

Newfound glory and

fallout boy

and because I am a

playlist kind of guy

I have lots of folders

for playlists about

decades,

seasons,

holidays,

stages of my life

I have like a high school mix

and a college mix

and a sad early 20s mix

and of course I have discographies

and I've been really feeling

the music of my youth

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

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

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

So,

and I think it ties really nicely

into the Rick Rubin of it all,

right?

Thinking about Rick Rubin, who has, again,

produced a lot of my favorite artists.

Anyway,

music has been on my mind this week.

And so I am just recommending general playlists.

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

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

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

Either way, I'm here for it,

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

Apple podcast,

my Apple music profile,

which I will link in the description for this episode.

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

consider joining my mailing list

at streamlined.fm slash wrap.

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

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take time off worry-free.

Thanks so much for listening.

And until next time,

I hope you find some space in your weekend.