‘I Quit’

This edition focuses on a big distraction where distraction is normally discouraged: work.

Arguably the biggest attention drain in our lives takes the greatest amount of actual focus – our jobs.

Outside of (maybe) sleeping, we spend more of our time working – about 40 hours a week – than mostly anything else. Add in the more than 27-minute commute to and from the office – for anyone not working at home – and you can tack on another nearly five hours to the workweek.

Many high-stress jobs also require thinking about work or a work-related problem during off hours to the mix.

Let’s just average it out: we spend about 45 to 50 hours a week (or more) on work.

This means that work consumes a massive amount of our attention.

How do millions of us work while not getting overly distracted? Maybe we don’t

It turns out we do distract ourselves–think about workplace love affairs, “work spouses,” water cooler chatter, online shopping, birthday cakes, happy hours and strangely long trips to the bathroom. No wonder people used to take cigarette breaks.

From “ER” to “Gray’s Anatomy,” from “WKRP in Cincinnati" to “News Radio,” from “Ally McBeal” to “Suits,” from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” to "30 Rock,”  from “Severance" to “The Office,” and even “Hard Knocks,” so many of the shows we have consumed (maybe got distracted by) over the years relate to workplace dynamics.

Those shows share some of the drama, focus, and joy that can come from work. They also highlight some of the many distractions that workplaces bring.

Most of the places we work aren’t that dramatic, but they are time consuming.

We spend much of our normal days either doing work or being derailed by work-related distractions.

Success at work

I’ve spent the past 21 years working for NBC10 in Philadelphia. Google my name and you’ll see thousands of articles with my byline attached, stemming from my many years producing and curating digital content.

(I did the math and over the 17 years since the new NBC10.com was launched in 2008, I have likely written or contributed to around 17,000 articles for the news organization. That doesn't even include the thousands of videos I also edited.)

I had the chance to meet incredible people, from the famous—like Taylor Swift (Yes, I did reject her request to take a photo with me), Gene Simmons, Cliff Lee, Danny DeVito, Richard Simmons, Chuck Bednarik, Conan O’Brien, numerous senators, dozens of Olympians, and “Jersey Shore” star “The Situation” to many amazing non-famous people who just wanted their voices heard and/or their stories told. I made friends and forged meaningful relationships.

I started my work at Channel 10 in the summer of 2004 as an intern in the investigative department with amazing journalists like Harry Hairston, Lu Ann Cahn and Ed Dress. Within months I was arguably working on the biggest story of my career–the Bill Cosby sex scandal.

My intuition, intelligence and ability to “Google” (this was still in the early days of social media and digital integration in newsrooms) made an impression on the Philadelphia-based news station’s leadership, and they started creating positions for me. I was a researcher, news planner, spot sports producer, high school football personality, digital-only show host, and, at one point, supported the digital and on-air product with the word-salad title: “Content New Media and Interactive Media Researcher.”

Along the way, I found a focus on gathering information and finding ways to speak up for everyone involved in a story. And, I got to coach our Flying Peacocks softball team.

Dan Stamm on softball field

By 2008 I was part of a small team of talented people behind the launch of the new NBC10.com as website curation was brought in house for the first time. That’s when my contributions as a mostly digital content producer really took off.

Over the years, I witnessed the purchasing of NBC local stations by Comcast and the eventual move from WCAU’s historic Bala Cynwyd offices along the Philly region’s Main Line—to the brand-new Comcast Technology Center in Center City Philadelphia.

The change to the new digs was stark. We had floor to ceiling windows, dedicated elevators, I was finally able to ditch the car and bike to work and I, even, ran into Steven Spielberg once during the early days of being in the brand-new skyscraper.

Work-life balance out of whack

During my time at NBC10, I prided myself on separating my work and personal lives—opting not for that TV-level drama. But, even when I was off the clock, I was still on, fretting over the next big story or weather event.

Outside of work, I met the love of my life, Shelby Zitelman, and married her. Along the way, we were lucky enough to welcome not one, not two, but three amazing sons.

As my personal life became more fulfilled, I found myself in a common working-parent dilemma: the effort to focus on my work was more difficult—it took more out of me.

Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and my work life bled right into my home life. 

I was working from home, part of “the Sandwich Generation,” caring not only for my own young children, but my aging parents at the same time. This time was probably the hardest I ever had to work, keeping critical news and information flowing while managing my own home life with kids out of school.

Then I lost my dad to a stroke amid the pandemic-marred year of 2020. My mom was diagnosed a year or so later with the fallopian tube cancer that would eventually lead to her death in the summer of 2024—just days before my birthday.

During the first half of the 2020s, I spent time working from home—not just because of COVID restrictions, but because I had a sick kid or a family emergency. I worked from the road, from planes, trains and automobiles. I worked from hospital rooms and waiting rooms.

Along the way other family members battled cancer, one of our sons broke both his legs in a freak accident and my mother fell victim to various elder fraud scams.

The work-life balance was profoundly out of balance, making it hard to focus on either area with my full attention.

Others kept praising me for the quality of my work and my leadership in the NBC10 newsroom, but I kept finding myself more and more exhausted maintaining that level of success.

I kept working, but the energy required to stay focused became exponentially greater. I noticed small slips in my work: a splelnig mistake here, a misplaced photo there. At home, I found myself disengaged, doomscrolling on my phone (more to come on that.)

Finally, in the summer of 2025, I came to the brave decision to take a leave of absence to focus on my mental and emotional health, prioritize my family, and finally give Shelby some morning support after heading out to work before the sun rose for the entire decade we had been parents. (That’s the thing—I worked early in the morning, heading into work in the pitch dark.)

I wanted to do what almost any parent (and seemingly every retiring athlete) who puts work distractions aside claims: to spend more time with my family. I needed to get myself right to make that happen.

I put my focus on therapy—both physical and mental. I focused on friendships and family. I focused on what I ate and how I worked out. I jumped into the pool to swim and I laced up my shoes to bike and run.

I hoped that the time off would give me the clarity—rekindle the drive to return to work reinvigorated like that 20- and 30-something who thrilled in beating other news organizations to a big story and took pride in SEO-stacking content to ensure more eyeballs saw it.

Saying goodbye to the NBC10 season of my life

That brings me to the tough conversation I’m having on a blustery fall night—the night I told my boss (someone who started as my intern at NBC10 before rising to become my boss) that I no longer wanted to get onto the journalism hamster wheel.

That I find working as a journalist a distraction to my true self and the life I want to build.

Simply put: “I quit.”

Dan Stamm saying goodbye to CTC

I was anxious as I prepared to say those words. To jump from working in a major media market amid some of the most consequential times in modern history seemed silly.

That initial “I’m not coming back” declaration was followed up with HR discussions, an official letter of resignation and, finally, a social media announcement of my intentions to focus on “No Distractions” rather than the news of the moment.

Now that I’m taking the focus away from the main distraction (work), what will come next?

I’m jumping without a net to catch me. Let’s see where I land.

Loving what you’ve been reading? Be sure to forward this newsletter to friends, family and colleagues who could use some focused distraction.