Why Slowing Down During Summer Makes Me Stronger for Fall

Hey friend,

If you lived in my pocket for a day, here's the movie you'd watch.

• 7:00 am – alarm rises, so do I.
• 7:00‑8:00 – breakfast with the family, get all of us prepared, the first americano of the day for Dad.
• 8:15 – Greta hops out of the car (or bike) at school
• 8:30 – laptop opens, mind clicks in.
• 9‑10 – deep‑focus writing: posts, frameworks, playbooks.
• 10‑12 client calls, manage my sales teams across the world.
• 12‑1.30 – gym, run, workout.
• 1.30-2 – shower and quick lunch
• 2‑6 – back to my office, more client work, more teams to manage.
• 6:30‑7 – dinner upstairs, family time.
• 10:30 – lights out; good night.

That's my rhythm about 200 days a year, and honestly, I adore it. Routine, when chosen, is freedom.

But then summer kicks in, July....August, the whole world whispers, "Slow down." I used to fight that voice.

New prospects want to start "but in September". Current clients want to pause for this month....

Two years in a row, I pushed even harder in August, trying to hit every number on my spreadsheet.

The result? Stress up, revenue flat.

Lesson learned: you can't push what can't be pushed.

Now I treat summer like a wide‑open notebook.

• August 2023 – my first summer as a founder. Revenue sank to zero after steady spring growth. I panicked, tried to send an email, and call people.
• August 2024 – déjà vu: revenue almost to 0 again, but I responded differently. Two whole weeks offline. No calls, no metrics, just sea and family. I carried only a pen and a small agenda. Ideas started to form in my mind after some time off: higher pricing, tighter packages, a new brand name. (Goodbye matteopapaluca.com, hello inscaler.com.) On the final holiday week, I sketched the whole relaunch. By October, revenue was up 20 % and - more importantly - I felt incredibly relaxed and ready to tackle whatever was coming.

The pattern was clear: step back to leap forward.

It has become my summer mantra.

This year I'm honouring it again.

While Slack notification snooze and clients push for September, I'm choosing to:

1. Recharge the engine. Sleep an extra hour, read books that aren't "business," and get bored doing nothing business-related.
2. Review the map. Which offers delights to clients? Which feels heavy? I'll trim, tune, and polish until every program at Inscaler.
3. Re‑imagine the road. New experiments need white space. During August, I'll test one fresh idea - only one - so it gets proper attention.

I'm lucky: my company is lean, just me and a founder associate.

That agility is a gift, but it's also a trap. When you're tiny, it's easy to believe you must be "on" 365 days to keep the lights bright.

Businesses, like bodies, grow in cycles: push, rest, adapt, repeat.

So if you're reading this while your calendar empties and you feel guilty about the silence, consider granting yourself the same permission. Don't push what can't be pushed.

Use low months to breathe, think, and build small innovations that the busy months won't allow.

Come September, the world speeds up again.

Here's to slower summer mornings, cooler brainwaves, and bigger leaps ahead.

Thanks for reading this far.

See you next week!