Most people ask the wrong question first.
Not "how much am I drinking?"
But — what job am I asking alcohol to do?
The Job Assignment Series is a 21-day audio program for people who are curious about their drinking. You don’t need to be in crisis or ready to quit. Twenty-one short private lessons, a note from me every day, and no decisions asked of you.
10 audio lessons · Start today · $57 · No group, no live calls
What Job Is Alcohol Doing For You?
10 private audio lessons. 21 days. On your own time.
The Tuesday night drink after a hard day and the Friday night drink with friends aren't doing the same job. Most people have more on the list than they'd guess — usually closer to ten, sometimes dozens over a year. Some show up once. Some are chronic.
This program walks through four ideas, each one a little further from the drink itself than the last:
CLOSEST TO THE DRINK
Job Assignment
What job am I asking this drink to do? Once you can really name it, you know what you’re replacing, instead of white-knuckling past the drink.
THE MOMENT OF THE DRINK
The 10 & 10
Before the drink, take 10 minutes and do 10% of the job yourself. Then check in. If you still want it, you can. Small, almost underwhelming, and that’s the part that sticks.
EARLIER IN THE DAY
Confluence
Drinking decisions are built up to, not made in the moment. By 4pm before happy hour, feeling, pattern, and place are already flowing together.
THE EVERYDAY PRACTICE
Signals
The small everyday signs that something needs attention, like two coffee cups on your desk or snapping over nothing. Notice them earlier and you have room to respond before anything reaches the rapids.
About Austin
I started asking questions about my drinking in my twenties. At 24, I walked away from the support I'd found — not because it didn't help, but because the idea of "forever" felt too big to hold onto.
It took another decade before I tried something different: 100 days. Not forever, just 100 days, to see what I'd actually learn about what alcohol had been doing for me.
That question — what job is this doing — changed everything, long before I had language for it. I've spent the years since teaching addiction at the graduate level and helping shape how other professionals support people earlier, before things become a crisis.
Now I work with people who recognize themselves in some version of that. The drink after work. The second one that wasn't planned. The rule that keeps bending. Nobody here is going to hand you one path and tell you it's the only way. This is about curiosity, self-trust, and taking one honest step — not shame, and not perfection.