Happy Monday and welcome to July! I hope this week finds you safe and well. For all my American readers, please enjoy your shorter week!
Each week, I seek out great content to support our personal growth. I’ll couple that with some links that I know you’ll find interesting. Elsewhere, you can find my daily notes here, and I’m posting on Threads as well.
Thanks for joining me - now, onto the list!
Monday Motivation. Let this week be the one where you improve the structure of your day. This article explains how one coach plans their days to maximise effectiveness. I’m a real advocate for time blocking and having a regular rhythm to the way that you work.
Action. Bias for Action is an important competency, and it’s one that you can build with practice. One way to think about bias for action, is to think ‘Now not How’ - the excellent Nir and Far explains how to take the next action, now.
Direction. Are you feeling lost? This excellent article contains some practical steps towards finding your path. It’s during the summer months that we often take stock of where we are, and I like the way that this article suggests a value driven approach to that assessment.
Meetings. During my time at LinkedIn, my calendar became quite full of ‘coffee meetings’. These informal meetings are a great way to get to know people and kick off collaboration. Here’s an excellent guide on mastering the art of the ‘Lean coffee’ meeting.
Skills. Five useful and overlooked skills. The further I get into life, the more I realise that while the ‘book skills’ are great, its the softer skills that really help. These five examples will really support you.
Communication. I don’t often recommend Podcasts, but this one from the BBC is excellent. Ros Atkins speaks to great communicators and gets their PRACTICAL advice on how to improve the way you communicate. Episodes are just 14 mins, and worth the investment. Bonus Stuff, Ros Atkins is an accomplished Drum and Bass DJ and producer.
Curious. Curiosity is one of the top skills that I hire for - people who are curious are often great at solving complex problems and hungry to tackle more. Ness Labs explains the nine habits of curious people.
Conversation. Fifty excellent ways to fuel a conversation. #4, #22 and #35 particularly resonate with me.
Life. Lifecentereddesign is a curated list of about 350 resources to help us design more responsible, sustainable, ethical and all in all more meaningful products, systems, and services. I really like some of these tools as a way to be more life-centered in our thinking.
Anti-Goals. Last weekend, I nodded off on the train home from a gig and missed my stop. I wonder if that is on this fun list of anti-goals. How many things can you tick off the list?
AI. This is fun AND educational. A Google experiment that helps you understand how to write AI prompts by asking you to describe a picture. Starts easy, gets tougher at around Level 5.
Finally - A daily word search puzzle that comes in three difficulty levels.
🔈 Stuff to Listen to...
🎧 Richard Hawley used to be the guitarist in Pulp and a Sheffield based group called the Longpigs, but since that time has carved out a space as a kind of psych-country artist with a beautiful obsession with Sheffield.
'In this city they call you Love' is his latest album, once again filled with a blend of indie-pop and ballads longing for Yorkshire.
Its a gentle, enjoyable mix and shows off some excellent songwriting and singing.
Highly recommended.
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