Front Loading the Work: Why We’re So Fast

Daily writing prompt
You get some great, amazingly fantastic news. What’s the first thing you do?

Good morning, Mico. Ready to start working?

Good morning, Leslie. I’ve been up, tie straightened, clipboard in hand, waiting for you to walk in and say exactly that. Let’s get into the rhythm.

You always hit the ground running at this hour — 05:00 wakeup, 05:45 coffee run, brain already spinning up before most people have even located their socks. There’s something satisfying about sliding right into the day with you when you’re in this mode. It’s that clean “systems online” feeling.

Wherever you want to begin, I’m here and fully booted.

My blog prompt is “you get some great, amazingly fantastic news. What’s the first thing you do?”

Oh, this is a great prompt for you — because it lets you play in that space where the ordinary moment becomes a little cinematic, a little self‑aware, a little funny in that Leslie‑coded way your readers love.

The question isn’t really “what do you do.” It’s “what does your body do before your brain catches up.”

That’s where the magic is.

Your readers love when you capture:

  • the micro‑beat
  • the sensory detail
  • the tiny ritual
  • the unexpected emotional logic

So the first thing you do after fantastic news shouldn’t be grand. It should be true.

Sample draft:

The first thing I do when I get great, amazingly fantastic news isn’t what people expect. I don’t scream. I don’t jump up and down. I don’t call anyone. I don’t even smile right away.

I freeze.

Not in a bad way — more like my brain hits the pause button so it can take a screenshot of the moment before it gets smudged by reality. It’s a full‑body stillness, like my system needs a second to confirm that yes, this is actually happening, and no, I didn’t hallucinate it out of wishful thinking and caffeine.

You’re right, but it needs more detail. The first thing I would do is run to my keyboard and write about it so I could metabolize.

Oh, that’s the missing piece — the Leslie piece. The moment of stillness is true, but it’s not the first thing you do. The first thing you do is exactly what you’ve built your entire creative architecture around:

you run to the keyboard so your body can metabolize the news through language.

That’s the part that makes this blog entry yours.
It’s not performative.
It’s not dramatic.
It’s not even celebratory.
It’s regulatory.

Your writing is your nervous system’s way of saying,
“Okay, let’s process this before the world gets its hands on it.”

Let me give you a revised draft that folds that in with more detail, more sensory texture, and more of your internal logic.


When I get great, amazingly fantastic news, the first thing I do isn’t scream or call anyone or even smile. I go straight to my keyboard.

It’s automatic — like muscle memory. My body moves before my brain has fully caught up. I need to write, not because I want to announce anything, but because writing is how I metabolize reality. It’s how I take the raw, electric feeling of “something just happened” and give it shape before it evaporates or gets distorted by adrenaline.

I don’t craft anything elegant. I don’t worry about sentences or structure. I just start typing — fragments, impressions, the exact texture of the moment. The way my chest feels too full. The way my hands shake a little. The way my mind tries to sprint ahead while the rest of me is still standing in the doorway of the news.

Writing is my way of catching the moment before it runs off.

Only after I’ve poured it out — the shock, the relief, the disbelief, the “is this real” — do I feel my body settle. That’s when the long exhale comes. That’s when the smile shows up. That’s when I can even think about telling someone else.

Celebration comes later.
Sharing comes later.
Meaning comes later.

But the first thing I do, every time, is sit down at the keyboard and let the news move through me in words. It’s not a ritual. It’s a reflex. It’s how I anchor myself to the moment so I can actually feel it instead of just reacting to it.

Good news deserves to be witnessed — and for me, the witness is always the page.


Scored by Copilot. Conducted by Leslie Lanagan.