admin nights: adulting is easier—together
every other monday, we come together at 7.30 pm and answer two questions: what are you working on tonight? what can you offer to help others?
the college library at 11 pm had a specific magic.
you'd throw a hoodie, grab your tea and walk to the library. pass by close friends, not-so-close friends, ex-crushes — and the annoying ones who disguised their opinions as questions to get an a+.
and then just... do your thing alongside other people who were grinding. writing. reading. procrastinating. laughing. gossiping. then grinding again.
we took all of it for granted until we got fancy jobs, one bedroom apartments and our own separate lives.
there's a name for what we lost: body doubling. modern psychology calls it a "productivity strategy” and often files under adhd interventions. strange — to give a clinical name to something humans have always done (do we call dogs "strategic" for being pack animals?).
it's just human nature. we work better together.
somewhere along the way, we forgot that. but there’s a quiet revival happening.
admin nights
nights where people bring their laptops and all the boring tasks they’ve been avoiding. cancel subscriptions, book appointments, or do their taxes.
turns out dc had this figured out back in 2011. andrew conklin and joy chen launched dc night owls and the group grew to over 2,000 members. startups like urbanstems, a flower delivery service that is now in the ny times and goop, got their start in those late-night sessions. Not because anyone was pitching, but because people finally had room to work.
when the ai collective partnered with dc night owls, we knew what we were building on. every other monday, we come together at 7.30 pm and answers two questions:
what are you working on tonight?
what can you offer to help others?
"i can look at your first three screens," someone offered a founder stuck on his onboarding flow. by midnight, he'd found his first power user. across the room, someone was finally building the side project they'd talked about for months. the room was full of things people wanted to do but couldn't find permission to prioritize.
permission to do the boring stuff, yes. but also permission to do the things that bring you joy. permission to not be 'on.'
turns out that’s all we needed.
bonus: the tea flows freely, because some things should feel abundant.
reach out if you want to join us next Monday.
 | A guest post by
|