Key takeaway: Q1 2026 saw a newsletter launch, YouTube growth to 450 subscribers, video editing time halved, and content batching become repeatable. Everything broke at least once. Imperfect systems still outperform intentions because a broken system shows you the failure points. An intention just says “I’ll do better next week.”
About the author: Cliff is an IT project management consultant with 15+ years in cloud migration and digital transformation. He runs AiSD (AI | Sports | Dad), helping exhausted parents apply enterprise-grade systems thinking to family life. LinkedIn | X
Last updated: March 2026
The Goal for Q1
At the start of 2026, the goal was straightforward: stop operating like a person with good intentions and start operating like a system.
I’ve spent the best part 20 years managing IT migrations for a living. The ones that succeed run on documented processes, not motivation & vibes. I wanted to apply that same principle to running AiSD: newsletter, YouTube, social content, all of it automated or systematised as far as I could push it, while still holding down a full-time jo, raising three kids and find time for date night with my wife.
Here’s what happened.
What the Numbers Say
Newsletter: Launched from zero. Now at 60+ subscribers after a slow start and a format rethink after issue two. Not viral. But it exists, it’s consistent, and people are reading and replying.
Video editing: Down from over three hours per video to under 1.5 hours. That was the biggest win of the quarter. The approach: identify the specific bottleneck (content format, and graphics), find the right tool, rebuild the workflow around it. Took two attempts.
YouTube: From roughly 200 to 365 subscribers. Steady growth for a channel less than a year old and still finding its format.
Content Planning: Regimented schedule, Monday film, Tuesday edit, Wednesday package, Thursday launch. That’s a structural change, not a discipline change. The calendar books the session. The template dictates the format. The process runs whether I feel motivated or not.
What Broke
The email automation broke twice. Once because of a Google API permission change (a connection between Google apps that stopped talking to each other). Once because of a misconfigured filter. Each time, 20–30 minutes of school emails went to the wrong folder. Found out because a teacher mentioned something I should have known about.
The editing shortcut needed a full rebuild after a software update changed the keyboard layout. An hour of wasted time.
The newsletter template needed a complete rethink after issue two because the format was trying to do too much. Simplified it. Took a week. Moved to a new platform.
None of these broke the system permanently. All of them revealed something worth documenting.
The biggest thing coming into this year was the pivot away from being mainly sports prediction content. That was never my intention from the start of this journey, I went off piste and I’m so glad I’ve re corrected course now.
Why Broken Systems Are Still Better Than Good Intentions
A system that breaks tells you where the failure points are. You document the fix. The next failure takes less time to resolve. The system gets stronger because it broke, not in spite of it.
An intention doesn’t do that. “I’ll do better next week” gives you nothing to iterate on. It’s the same thought on repeat with no new information.
Project management works the same way. You don’t build a migration plan and expect it to run perfectly. You build it, run it, find out where it failed, and update the documentation. The project improves through the failures.
That logic applies just as well to running a family, a side project, or a content channel with three kids in the background. The system doesn’t need to be perfect. It needs to be running, documented, and fixable.
The 15-Minute Version You Can Start Today
If you’re sitting on a side project, a content idea, or a household system that lives entirely in your head, here’s what moved the needle for me this quarter:
Pick one repeating task. Write down the steps you actually follow (not the ideal version, the real version). Put it somewhere you can find it. Next time the task comes round, follow the document and note what’s wrong with it. Update it.
That’s a system. It’s ugly, it’s imperfect, and it works better than remembering.
Fifteen minutes to document one process. That’s the starting point.
What Q2 Looks Like
Three priorities: refining the newsletter format so it stops needing a rethink every other issue, continuing to grow the YouTube channel, and building the Q2 content calendar around the topics that actually performed in Q1, and matter to you.
The AI tools didn’t make Q1 effortless. They made it possible within the 5–6 hours per week I have outside my day job and family. There’s a difference worth noting.
The kids quite enjoy seeing what I’m working. The twins think it’s hilarious that I’m a “YouTuber”, but in a good way!
For weekly breakdowns of practical AI systems for parents and people building things: Join The Squad.