Stuff #126 - I can do that Dave...

Hey from Dublin,

Welcome to Stuff #126 - Just hit play!

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Thanks for the lovely messages about the Stuff Mixtape last week which seemed to have been a favourite for many, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I'm back in Dublin this week, and it feels like Spring is arriving with sunlight in the morning on the walk to work, which is great for the spirit.  Maybe a month of taking my vitamin D supplement left!

The most clicked link last time around was the list of the 25 most beautiful streets in the world - Stuff readers love to explore!

Thanks for being here, see you next Monday...

1. Monday Motivation:   Let this week be the one where you allow yourself to be a tiny bit lazy.   There are serious benefits to being lazy, and there are techniques to combine laziness with success.   The only thing you need to bear in mind are ways to step it up and break out when you need to.
2. Your new superpower:   Conquer your fear of FOMO.  Finding ways to enjoy being 'out of loop' will help you enjoy life more.   The best way to start is to learn how not to be informed every minute.  I recently stopped reading (or listening to) the news in the morning, important stuff still finds me, but my anxiety levels are lower to start the day.
3. Essential Reading:  The UK four-day workweek pilot has completed, and NO AMOUNT of money could get people to go back to five days, and most employers are sticking with the plan.  The full report output is here.
4. Take care: There is a lot of tension in the workplace right now, especially if you are in tech with more than 100k laid off in 2023, here is a great method to stop a loop of worrying thoughts.
5. TWIL:  The world's smallest park is in Portland Oregon, and occupies a 2 feet circle in the middle of a road.  At the other end of the scale, is the Northeast Greenland National Park, which is bigger than some countries.
6. Sitting is the new smoking:  We weren't designed for 8 hours of sitting down each day, here are seven simple exercises that will help undo the damage of a day in a chair.
7. I can do that Dave:  A clever tool to create speech from any text you upload, this is useful to listen back to something you've written before you hit send.  I used it for the intro above...
8. AI-ght:  Background.lol uses AI to create a wallpaper based on your text prompt.    These Formula Generators will help you harness the power of AI to solve the most complex Excel and Google Sheets problems you have.
9. From NYC to the Milky Way:  The world's largest photograph of New York City allows you to zoom in to INCREDIBLE detail.  Alternatively, take a trip in space around our closest 100,000 neighbour stars.
10. Finally:  I'm sure you have your daily word games by now, but Clickword is worth a look.  It's a bit like Scrabble, but faster and played on a smaller grid. My high score is 424 - can you do better?

🎧 This week I have been enjoying the excellent new album from Gorillaz, called Cracker Island.  Powered by the creative genius of Damon Albarn, the cartoon band are on their seventh studio album full of collaborations.

This time around, they have guest appearances from Thundercat, Stevie Nicks, Tame Impala, Bad Bunny and Beck.  As you'd imagine it's a varied and fun collection of tracks.

Highly recommended.