The Virtue of the Dad Bod Schedule
An Idea for Consideration
I love, love, love the Olympics. It's the competition, excellence, drama, and, because I’m a nerd, seeing countries' colonial histories and past conflicts played out on the athletic field. For example, the US women’s soccer team played Germany at the start of the Games. Knowing little about the respective teams, my first thought was, “USA v. Germany on French soil? I like our chances.”
It’s the best.
Given the rain and the boats in the opening ceremony, there was a great meme of USA flag bearers LeBron James and Coco Gauff having a “crossing the Delaware” moment. (I wouldn’t be mad if this means either one gets to be the next president.)
In another context a few months ago, James alerted me to one of the all-time great acronyms. On the Mind the Game podcast, James was talking about how the Minnesota Timberwolves were so effective on defense because of how many players they have with long arms. James described the offensive solution: “The best thing you could do is not hold the ball, because when you hold the ball, they spread arms, they lock arms, they just cut down half of the court. So you have to play very quick—quick movements, quick drives, quick kicks [...] not much FAT time, not much f*** around time.”
Once I heard FAT, I couldn’t get it out of my mind. It perfectly matches the underlying concept. But while LeBron suggests minimizing FAT on the basketball court, that’s probably a mistake for leaders.
Kevin Kelly, the co-founder of WIRED, said on the Beyond the Prompt podcast, “I want to do something useless every day.” His argument was that the “useless” time—the FAT—is when the learning and insights come.
In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron advises people who want to curate their creative spirit to have artist dates—“a block of time, perhaps two hours weekly, especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist. In its most primary form, the Artist Date is an excursion, a play date that you preplan and defend against all interlopers.”
Cameron argues that play spurs creativity. She writes, “Enthusiasm is grounded in play, not work. Far from being a brain-numbed soldier, our artist is actually our child within, our inner playmate. As with all playmates, it is joy, not duty, that makes for a lasting bond.”
Of course, creativity is required for all leaders, not just those who claim the artist label.
In the book The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working, Tony Schwartz advises people to take breaks during the workday. One executive scheduled a 30-minute walk at 2:30 pm each afternoon and described the impact this way:
“When I return to my office, I make it a point to purposely focus on something challenging—say, reading a dense document or writing a complicated memo or even having a difficult conversation. I choose the sort of things that I would have previously avoided in the afternoons, because I didn’t have the energy for them. What’s happened is undeniable: I’ve discovered I can concentrate far better in the hour or two following my walks than at any other time of the day besides the first couple of hours in the morning. [...] It’s given me a whole second half to my workday that just wasn’t there before.”
In this case, the FAT provides more productive time, not less.
I often talk to leaders about adding space between their meetings. There’s often reluctance because that strategy would enable them to do fewer meetings per day. However, the extra FAT allows them to reset between meetings and come into each one with the right presence and intention. It’s less efficient but way more effective.
We also need FAT in our schedules because the conversations that need to meander—really, anytime there needs to be an authentic exchange of ideas or relationship building—need to have space. For example, I often hear leaders suggest shortening their 1:1s with team members so that they can fit more things into their day. I think they’ll find, however, that squeezing out the time that could be used to create connection and greater alignment (a time saver) will ultimately cost them in the end.
Comedian Dustin Nickerson has a bit in which he says, “If you’re a dad, and you don’t have a dad bod, you might be a bad dad.” The premise is that if you’re at the gym getting ripped, you’re not spending enough time with your kids.
I’d remix his point: If you’re a leader and your schedule doesn’t have a dad bod, you might not be a good leader. Your schedule should have a healthy layer of FAT around the midsection!
Something Fun
It’s hard to imagine a scenario other than the Olympics in which Flavor Flav would hang out with Dr. Jill Biden.
