Welcome to the Saturday Summary! I hope you enjoy and connect with a few ideas.
What I’ve Posted – Blog Summary
This week starts the series of posts looking back on 2024 & celebrating our growth throughout the year. We start with several posts on occupational wellbeing and will move to the others next week.
Celebrate the Year. As we move through the end of the year, it’s great to look back and celebrate. My word this year was “Celebrate” and this post takes a springboard from that to look back at your year.
Occupational Wellbeing. This is the first post in the year end reflection series. Today we reflect on our occupational wellbeing and next week we will start to dive into the other 8 dimensions.
The Layoff Plan – 5 Career Insurance Strategies. We have insurance for so many things in our lives. This post explores what we could do to provide some “insurance” around our career and income.
Levels of Personal Branding. Continuing our occupational wellbeing week, this post discusses that not all personal branding is created equal. We need to define the “level” that is right for each of us.
Personal Brand Audit. The final post of occupational wellbeing week provides 10 steps to audit our personal brand. This could be a great activity to identify next steps for the new year.
What I’ve Listened To – PodList
This week, the theme of the podcasts centers around efficiency and productivity. The final one on the list takes a different direction discussing the rural-urban divide.
Retire Early with Parkinson’s Law. 10 minutes. Optimal Finance Daily. In this episode Joel of 5AMJoel.com talks about how our work expands to fill the time available. Through focus, eliminating distractions, and intentionally structuring our work, we can create a different life path.
Don’t Go. 19 minutes. Akimbo: A Podcast from Seth Godin. In this episode, Seth goes deep on meeting culture. A great listen for anyone out there who feels there are too many meetings.
A Training Program for Single Tasking and Focus – Part 1. 10 minutes. Part 2 – 9 minutes. Optimal Work Daily. In this two-part episode, Leo Babauta highlights the benefits of focusing on one thing. While it seems counterintuitive to some, this reduces stress and increases quality of work.
The Single Most Effective Thing You Can Do to Produce Measurable Results. – Part 1 – 10 minutes. Part 2 – 11 minutes. Optimal Living Daily. This two part episode will get you thinking about the differences between scheduling and planning.
The Urban-Rural Divide is Smaller Than You Think. 10 minutes. The Next Big Idea Daily. I really enjoyed this episode with Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, a public policy professor at USC, talks about content from her book The Overlooked Americans. You might be surprised by the findings.
What I’ve Been Up To
This week, I’ve continued to working on the posts I mentioned last week that will help us wrap up 2024 and begin to look ahead to 2025. I also spent some time on the topic of “career assets”. This is just another element in the movement to becoming a MeEO.
Outside of work, I drove my parents to Florida for the winter and my family joined us for our annual pre-holiday vacation in the sun. My goal this week is to relax and enjoy quality time with the family.
What Do You Think?
Which podcasts and blog posts resonate with you this week?
What one idea do you take away for the week ahead?
Are you starting to do year-end rituals – at home and work?