There is good news and not good news in my several years ago choice of Clarity’s office space. The “not good” news is that the building and my office, specifically, back up to a commuter rail line. Twenty four times a day, as trains pull into and out of the West Concord train station, almost everything in the office shakes a little. If I’m participating in a phone call or video conference, I can’t hear anything for about five seconds as the locomotives rumble by. The good news (which MORE than compensates for locomotive moments) is that the office space includes as standard equipment a small kitchen with a microwave oven and FULL-SIZED refrigerator.

Between locomotives, I manage myself through the day with food. [You’re shocked, I know.] Flavors, actually. Little pops of flavor. Chilled red grapes, apple chunks, Stacey’s pita chips, bananas with honey and peanut butter, fresh blueberries, a little Cholula Original hot sauce, and so on. The idea is to sustain steady energy through the day and to give myself little rewards, little jolts of satisfaction for the work completed. Kinda like psychologist B.F. Skinner rewarding his lab mice with pellets for pressing levers in their little mouse cages. Nothing like a little smackerel of honey or a chunk of a brilliant cheddar to clear the mind and facilitate transition from one creative task to the next.

These Covid days, it’s the same idea when think about staying in touch with clients, prospects, and network members. Many of them are stressed, managing task-to-task with uncertain outcomes, so It’s good to stay in touch. It’s good to stay in touch more frequently than we might have, pre-Covid. And it’s best if we bag the business blather, instead offering  a drip feed of touches that offer clients and prospects little fresh-squeezed “flavor pops” that, for a moment clear their minds or encourage them.

Nick Miller trains bankers to sell to small businesses. He is President of Clarity Advantage based in Concord, MA. Additional articles on Clarity’s web site.