Jessica's Friday Five: hard Google Drive lesson, 3 holiday tips, multitasking
Published 9 days ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader,
It's been a bit of "a week" over here. One family member got a new diagnosis and has entered hospice care, another was in a car accident and is hospitalized, and annual blood test results for another showed something a bit off that might be no big deal or potentially a big deal. I made some hard decisions on things to stop doing so that I can prioritize other things more. There's been moments of love all throughout, but it's also a lot right now. I am planning to put on my coziest pajamas tomorrow night and then hit the "on" button on my fave cozy winter accessory after a busy Saturday and stay in them until at least early afternoon on Sunday.
Let's get to your Friday Five, shall we?
Joyfully Managed Worklife: It's finally (almost) back! My signature group cohort program to get more organized while avoiding burnout, called Joyfully Managed Worklife, starts in January. Hit reply if you'd like me to email you as soon as registration opens so you can have the first bite at the apple, and I'll add you to my list to email once I've got all the systems in place to launch everything again. A handful of folks are already registered, so this cohort will sell out (January's cohort is historically the most popular, and I will do 2-3 cohorts overall in 2025).
Boy Mom App: If you are a mom to boys, you should get this free app right away! It's from my in-real-life friend Rachel who is the smartest person I know when it comes to being a really intentional parent. It's basically like having Rachel in your pocket. This week I typed into the app some Qs about supporting one of my kids with screen time limits and got great advice that helped me figure out what to do. I wish I'd had this years ago.
3 Holiday-Related Tips: 1) If you like to keep and display holiday cards you receive (it's fine to recycle them too!), here's one way to do it and here's another. 2) If you have kids in your home and expect an influx of new "stuff" as holiday gifts, consider handing them a basket or box this weekend to have them choose toys that no longer are their favorites to donate so that you can clear space for the new gifts. You can set a timer: "How many things can you find to donate in 5 minutes?" or just set a # target: "Can you find 3 stuffed animals that you are ready to give to another child?" or "Can you pick out 5 books that you can pass along to a younger child?". 3) Another tip for those of you with kiddos - if you need to diversify your bookshelf to help learn about all the ways cultures across the world celebrate holidays in the winter, here is a list of great books we have in our home and enjoy on holidays like Lunar New Year, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa.
Maybe this kind of multitasking is not so bad: I liked this way of thinking about "multitasking" that Jamie shared this week. We all know that trying to do multiple things at once doesn't work (the science is clear), but if doing the same task for too long is hard or boring for you, this approach is genius.
Workshop Wrapped: I've been finding small moments to do some annual reflection and data analysis, and I was inspired earlier this week to figure out the most requested workshops from my clients this year. I covered 14 different topics with 44 client companies and nonprofits, and in this "Wrapped" you can see the Top 5 most popular workshops for these talented teams in 2024. #1 didn't surprise me at all because it was the top workshop by far. I'm curious what 2025 will bring, as I'm already collaborating on some new workshop topics with clients that I think many organizations will want to bring to their team.
Bonus Friday Fave: Dara created the coolest tool! If you use Google Drive, you should really check it out and add it to your list to use this tool once every so often (I've set a task to do this annually for myself). She calls it G-Drive Avenger, and it helps you quickly identify which files you might think you "own" but are not actually owned by you (I learned how terrible this can be a year ago when I transitioned a contractor I was working with and all the work he did for me got deleted...). You can also easily see if folks who shouldn't have access to your files still do, or if things are set to "public" that shouldn't be. It makes you an easy list to make your file-fixing easy. Such an incredible and simple tool; thanks Dara! If you get G-Drive Avenger through this link, I setup an automation to automagically gift you my popular course on polishing-up-your-work-systems (usually $27) for free. Enjoy!
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