Dispatch No. 4 - Wayfinding

01. Signal

Wayfinding: once about not dying in the woods... now about not drowning in browser tabs, Slack channels, and endless task lists.

When I’m spinning my wheels, three steps that actually help: get clear on what I’m building; write that down somewhere I can’t miss, with the big goal and next step visible; and write the first thing I’ll do when I return to my desk.

With that in mind, this week I built the two Notion dashboards I'd been sketching in my head for a while:

• CRM setup: For people and conversations—name, role, last touch, next step, status, notes—with saved views for This Week and Needs Follow-up so I’m not hunting when it’s time to reach out.
• Content calendar: For posts—title, platform, tags, status, publish date, metadata, home-doc link, next step—with views for Drafts, This Week, and Queued. The kind of overview that must exist if you’re toggling between twelve half-finished pieces.

I'm taking care to design processes that honor reality–how my energy actually flows, what I can sustainably output, what moves the business forward. Far from productivity props, they’re tools for seeing what’s working and what needs adjustment. Less spinning wheels.

None of this is groundbreaking. Consistency matters; focused intention more so. Enough structure to keep momentum, enough room to adapt when priorities shift.

- MG

02. Practice

In my first job at an agency, a mentor taught me the Weekly Zoom-out—a 5–10 minute ritual ahead of the week to handle the context-switching across clients, strategy, and deliverables. Wherever you take notes: write down your priorities for the week (anchored to business goals), then map the first three moves.

Forest → trees.

Break big moves into tiny, concrete steps—clarity pays dividends and will spare you wasted time and effort. Don’t chase loose ends. Pick what matters, decide the sequence, and note the next step before you sign off—not a full agenda, just the very next move. Week by week: adjust, repeat.

03. Tools

Wayfinding Toolkit: Three Search Patterns — interactions that keep people oriented in digital products.

• Remember choices (keep panels open, keep filters active) → fewer do-overs.
• Command palette (e.g., ⌘K) → direct routes to frequent actions.
• Multiple entry points (search, categories, filters) → different paths for different thinking styles.

04. Fragments

Backpacking trip before freshman year: confident at a trail fork, I missed the turn and led us to a Christmas tree farm. Storm coming, light fading. Teammates stepped in; we corrected together and found shelter.

Wayfinding is a team sport—notice drift, step in early, reorient kindly, keep moving.