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Finding the balance

The Friday Takeaway6 min readSam Page

I have to admit I'm surprised how many people have subscribed to this (gulp), thank you. I really hope I can write something interesting in each edition.

I'm on holiday today, the first day of a two-week break with the family. Camping this weekend in Sussex, then the rest of the break in Cornwall. I can't wait to switch off and recharge, and although I have a few calls booked, and I'm there for the team if they need me, I'm looking forward to changing my perspective and most importantly spending time with the family.

This week has been a mixed bag of starting new client facing work, trying to support the team before I go on holiday who are struggling with feeling stretched (more on this below), and getting hands on with tech and the impact, good and bad.

A team feeling stretched

It's difficult to write about this one, but I think it's important to share. It's been weighing heavy on my mind. And I'm in the thick of it with the team as well.

We've had an incredibly busy couple of months, which is a wonderful thing in many ways. Ahead of target, working across some amazing client work, trying to balance new business opportunities, holiday season. It means no stress on the numbers front, and actually, sometimes being pushed creates the best work. But it also means the team is feeling stretched.

As a business leader it's hard. There is nothing more important than the team around you and your customers. And you try to make hay while the sun is shining, in a way that doesn't leave the team burnt out. But it's very hard to get the balance right, especially in a service business.

We've really tried to support the team and listen to what they are saying, and I've been trying to work closely with my Chief of Staff, to support a solution that gives us more breathing room. Especially when it’s hard to find a solution quickly in the thick of things.

The answer lies somewhere in more people to provide capacity, more efficient and effective ways of working, including prioritisation, and in the meantime trying to support everyone through a busy period, as we know post summer things will be more balanced again.

The power of AI to bring ideas to life, and the risk of being isolated

It's probably been ten years since I wrote more than a line of code for something that would see the light of day. That's just because when a business scales, you tend to shift to running the business (work on the business), rather than working in it.

It's an odd transition to make and if I'm honest, I've missed writing code over the years. It's where it all began back in high school.

However, in the past two years, I've been producing millions of lines of code using AI. Taking ideas, quickly prototyping them, and then continuing to develop those that have legs based on early user feedback. AI has allowed me to fit this passion back into my schedule, because of the pace at which I can create things again.

Some of the projects include a personal agent that continues to learn about me, a prospect research tool, intelligent knowledge hubs for 7DOTS, and a day-trade personal investment advisor.

The one thing I have noticed is that when I spend an entire day coding with AI (rather than dipping in and out around other things), my soul feels slightly destroyed by the end of the day. Like I hadn't achieved anything, despite the fact I'd achieved far more than I would have done in 3 months writing the code at length.

The lesson for me is one I've had to learn time and time again. The joy in technology is when it doesn’t isolate you, but rather brings you closer to other people, and you achieve something together…

Helping others use technology

On the flip side, in comparison we've run several workshops for clients recently, focused on enabling innovative, effective and efficient AI usage within their businesses.

What I love more than anything else is that when you bring people together, identify problems to solve, and run a group hackathon where everyone gets hands on with the technology, the magic that happens in the room is incredible.

People feel safe and excited about using the tech and achieve far more than they thought was possible in just a few hours. There is a buzz as they talk, laugh and sometimes have to work through tricky proble,s. The comments that come back really do remind me why I love to use technology to connect people and solve problems.

Some of the comments we've had:

"I can't believe what we've managed to do in a day", “This has been the best day since I joined the company”. "The workshop will directly pay for itself in a matter of weeks", "The whole team are buzzing and excited to do more, feeling confident in what they can and can't do"

Morning routine is my sanity

After an internal workshop with the team, about how we can make our sales process more efficient (and feel more natural to us), referencing The Four Conversations book, someone in the team asked me "How do you find time to read all these books".

The truth of the matter is I have a morning routine which starts at 05:30 and is designed to give me the space to do three things. Read/learn, exercise, and take a moment to reflect. Sometimes the latter is writing in my journal, although more often recently it's a coffee in the garden with Gemma.

The one thing I know for certain is that if I follow this routine, I'm more positive throughout the day. And all the science points to the fact that being positive makes you more effective and efficient, and generally happy.

It is my sanity.

The learning part, followed by exercise, followed by reflection is how I prioritise if I'm short on time.

I've also worked recently on slowing the routine down a bit, rather than rushing through it, and trying to enjoy that part of the day, not just make it something I do to improve the rest of the day.

What's your version of a morning routine?

I'd also love tips and advice from you on how we can continue to be better at avoiding our team feeling stretched. Please comment below with any ideas you have!

First published on LinkedIn.

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title: "Finding the balance"
url: https://sam-page.com/thinking/finding-the-balance
date: 2026-08-14
author: Sam Page
type: The Friday Takeaway edition
categories: [The Friday Takeaway]
reading_time: 6 min
summary: "I have to admit I'm surprised how many people have subscribed to this (gulp), thank you. I really hope I can write something interesting in each edition."
first_published: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/finding-balance-sam-page-w6ube
---

# Finding the balance

I have to admit I'm surprised how many people have subscribed to this (gulp), thank you. I really hope I can write something interesting in each edition.

I'm on holiday today, the first day of a two-week break with the family. Camping this weekend in Sussex, then the rest of the break in Cornwall. I can't wait to switch off and recharge, and although I have a few calls booked, and I'm there for the team if they need me, I'm looking forward to changing my perspective and most importantly spending time with the family.

This week has been a mixed bag of starting new client facing work, trying to support the team before I go on holiday who are struggling with feeling stretched (more on this below), and getting hands on with tech and the impact, good and bad.

### A team feeling stretched

It's difficult to write about this one, but I think it's important to share. It's been weighing heavy on my mind. And I'm in the thick of it with the team as well.

We've had an incredibly busy couple of months, which is a wonderful thing in many ways. Ahead of target, working across some amazing client work, trying to balance new business opportunities, holiday season. It means no stress on the numbers front, and actually, sometimes being pushed creates the best work. But it also means the team is feeling stretched.

As a business leader it's hard. There is nothing more important than the team around you and your customers. And you try to make hay while the sun is shining, in a way that doesn't leave the team burnt out. But it's very hard to get the balance right, especially in a service business.

We've really tried to support the team and listen to what they are saying, and I've been trying to work closely with my Chief of Staff, to support a solution that gives us more breathing room. Especially when it’s hard to find a solution quickly in the thick of things.

The answer lies somewhere in more people to provide capacity, more efficient and effective ways of working, including prioritisation, and in the meantime trying to support everyone through a busy period, as we know post summer things will be more balanced again.

### The power of AI to bring ideas to life, and the risk of being isolated

It's probably been ten years since I wrote more than a line of code for something that would see the light of day. That's just because when a business scales, you tend to shift to running the business (work on the business), rather than working in it.

It's an odd transition to make and if I'm honest, I've missed writing code over the years. It's where it all began back in high school.

However, in the past two years, I've been producing millions of lines of code using AI. Taking ideas, quickly prototyping them, and then continuing to develop those that have legs based on early user feedback. AI has allowed me to fit this passion back into my schedule, because of the pace at which I can create things again.

Some of the projects include a personal agent that continues to learn about me, a prospect research tool, intelligent knowledge hubs for 7DOTS, and a day-trade personal investment advisor.

The one thing I have noticed is that when I spend an entire day coding with AI (rather than dipping in and out around other things), my soul feels slightly destroyed by the end of the day. Like I hadn't achieved anything, despite the fact I'd achieved far more than I would have done in 3 months writing the code at length.

The lesson for me is one I've had to learn time and time again. The joy in technology is when it doesn’t isolate you, but rather brings you closer to other people, and you achieve something together…

### Helping others use technology

On the flip side, in comparison we've run several workshops for clients recently, focused on enabling innovative, effective and efficient AI usage within their businesses.

What I love more than anything else is that when you bring people together, identify problems to solve, and run a group hackathon where everyone gets hands on with the technology, the magic that happens in the room is incredible.

People feel safe and excited about using the tech and achieve far more than they thought was possible in just a few hours. There is a buzz as they talk, laugh and sometimes have to work through tricky proble,s. The comments that come back really do remind me why I love to use technology to connect people and solve problems.

Some of the comments we've had:

> "I can't believe what we've managed to do in a day", “This has been the best day since I joined the company”. "The workshop will directly pay for itself in a matter of weeks", "The whole team are buzzing and excited to do more, feeling confident in what they can and can't do"

### Morning routine is my sanity

After an internal workshop with the team, about how we can make our sales process more efficient (and feel more natural to us), referencing The Four Conversations book, someone in the team asked me "How do you find time to read all these books".

The truth of the matter is I have a morning routine which starts at 05:30 and is designed to give me the space to do three things. Read/learn, exercise, and take a moment to reflect. Sometimes the latter is writing in my journal, although more often recently it's a coffee in the garden with Gemma.

The one thing I know for certain is that if I follow this routine, I'm more positive throughout the day. And all the science points to the fact that being positive makes you more effective and efficient, and generally happy.

It is my sanity.

The learning part, followed by exercise, followed by reflection is how I prioritise if I'm short on time.

I've also worked recently on slowing the routine down a bit, rather than rushing through it, and trying to enjoy that part of the day, not just make it something I do to improve the rest of the day.

What's your version of a morning routine?

I'd also love tips and advice from you on how we can continue to be better at avoiding our team feeling stretched. Please comment below with any ideas you have!