Last month, I had an absurd idea, and my family excitedly co-signed it. I led with, "Want to do something awesome?" (parenting is just marketing sometimes) and got three eager head nods. Before they could change their minds, I launched into the plan: turn our car into a makeshift, free neighborhood ice cream truck.
I kicked things off with a handmade poster board menu, proving bubble letters remain one of my most useful middle school skills. The kids leaned enthusiastically into it, decorating more signs and blowing up balloons to morph into ice cream cones. After a spirited academic discussion on which ice cream truck classics were best, we settled on a seven-way tie and bought them all. We loaded up a cooler with our agreed-upon favorites, taped the poster board to the windows, blasted the sweet sounds of ice cream truck music on repeat, and drove around handing out frozen treats to friends and surprised neighbors.
At one point, a neighbor we’d never met skeptically watched us approach from her front yard, looking genuinely baffled by the whole setup. To be fair, we had an industrial-sized sandwich board tied to the roof rack. She squinted at the car, paused, and asked with total earnestness: "But… why are you doing this?"
"Just for the joy of it," I said. And with that, her side-eye retreated, a huge smile emerged, and she ordered a Chipwich. (Note: Chipwiches were the runaway favorite. We’ll buy accordingly next time.)
Out of everything we did that entire week, that one-hour loop around the neighborhood was the thing my brain saved as the most vivid, high-definition memory. Even as summer fades and new memories stack up, I suspect that random Sunday will be one that continues to echo long after.
Looking back, it stuck because our brains are hardwired to bookmark the unexpected. The sheer novelty broke our weekend autopilot. But what made it even stickier was where that novelty landed us: squarely in the intersection between connection and creativity.
When I think about why we don't land in moments like that more often, I come back to a simple grid I often share with coaching clients. It maps how we choose to spend our time along two simple axes: Consuming vs. Creating and Alone vs. Together:
Every quadrant serves a purpose. Each is valid, each has its place, and we need all four to live a balanced life.
The catch is that when life gets busy (the near-permanent setting for adulthood), passive consumption becomes our default. While we wait for that mythical "slower season," solitary consumption quietly eats up a disproportionate chunk of our free time. And because we naturally lean toward efficiency and comfort, it's easy to forget three other options exist.
Shifting quadrants doesn't require a master plan, it only requires a conscious pivot. Our Subaru ice cream truck went from random idea to on the road in a few hours. I didn't start the day asking my kids for their deepest reflections on how we should optimize our free time (though I'd be curious to hear their input). We made a deliberate choice to stop letting the afternoon happen to us and go make a memory instead. The intention was simply choosing to build something together over defaulting to the path of least resistance. Realizing we’d stepped right into Quadrant 4 was just a bonus hindsight win.
Most of our time slips by on autopilot, but a single conscious choice can completely change how your week feels. There’s no "right" quadrant to pick. The goal is just to intentionally choose where you spend your time based on what you actually need right now.
As you head into the rest of the week, take a quick scan of your calendar and pick one deliberate micro-action to bake in:
- Need a reset? Block out 20 minutes for a true solo break. Pick what you want to read, watch, or listen to before someone else claims that time.
- Need low-effort connection? Watch or experience something (perhaps the new Ted Lasso!) with a friend.
- Have a pocket of energy? Protect 30 minutes to dive into a project you actually care about. Create something that feels fun or energizing to you.
- Want to build momentum? Team up with someone to tackle a problem, or collaborate on a fun plan for the weekend.
Thankfully, you don't need perfect conditions or a wide-open day to make this work. Just pick whichever quadrant you need today, claim a short window on your schedule, and enjoy it.
