Dispatch

Dispatch No. 3 - Cycles

Work runs in rhythms. The trick is noticing when to press and when to pause.

Happy US Open finals to those who observe! 🎾

01. Signal

Launching Mosaic has made me notice the rhythms beneath business—cycles that run deeper than quarterly targets, shaping patterns of knowledge, care, and connection. These are relational rhythms: knowledge passed on, practices built together, each layer of work reinforcing the next.

I’m reminded of Naomi Osaka in 2019, pulling a tearful Coco Gauff into her post-match interview and telling the world to watch this young player—a moment of stewardship that felt, and was, bigger than tennis. Osaka said:

“I remember I used to see you guys training in the same place as us, and for me, […] the fact that both of us made it, and we’re both still working as hard as we can, it’s incredible. I think you guys are amazing. Coco, you’re amazing.”

It wasn’t just about the win—it was a connection across time and effort. Who we choose to lift up determines what patterns endure. That moment wasn’t about talent alone, but the systems around it.

The practice of design teaches the same lesson: what endures isn’t made in a single sprint, but in cycles of iteration, mentorship, and care. What we reinforce—in our code, our copy, our culture—becomes the scaffolding for the next generation.

Cycles aren’t loops to be repeated, but practices to be stewarded. Built to endure, and humble enough to belong to a story larger than us.

Even so, not every cycle begins in the same place. The patterns we inherit—advantages, obstacles, opportunities—shape what we can pass forward. As Morgan Housel writes in The Psychology of Money, outcomes compound over time: the good and the bad accumulate. Some players start with advantages, others face headwinds from the beginning. But what we do within those cycles—how we manage risk, how we create space for others—often matters more than our starting position.

The question I come back to: how often are we just keeping pace with cycles handed to us, versus designing ones worth passing on?

- MG

02. Practice

In product design, progress moves in sprint cycles. Every two weeks: plan, build, test, reflect. Then repeat. The value isn’t only in shipping features but in the rhythm itself—a container that balances push with pause.

Life has a similar cadence if we pay attention. Some weeks call for heads-down effort, others for feedback and recalibration. And despite the pressure, not every cycle is about moving faster. Sometimes the wiser move is to rest, reset, or even pass the ball to someone else.

Every cycle asks something different. In yours—a habit, a project, a season—is it time to push forward, step back, or pause?

03. Tools

🧭 This article on circadian productivity explains why our peak focus hours often don’t align with a standard 9-to-5, and how to structure work around your natural energy cycles instead. TLDR; align your hardest tasks with the times you’re most equipped to tackle them. Your natural rhythm is true north.

⏳ For anyone who needs structure—and especially for those of you working in agile sprints—timeboxing offers a way to carve control inside the chaos. By setting fixed windows for specific tasks, you create a mini-cycle of focus that resists drift and distraction. Otherwise, and by Parkinson's law, the task will needlessly expand to fill the time you have available.