Jessica's Friday Five: The $5 Safety Upgrade You're Missing
Published about 11 hours ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader,
It was a delight to see so many of you at the free workshop I led earlier this week on planning your week. Thanks for your engagement and excellent questions! If you know of any groups or communities that could use workshops like that for their people (here's a list of topics I love to teach), let me know!
Let's get to your Friday Five, shall we?
The Smartest $5 Safety Upgrade for Your Home: I have one of these fire blankets, and I think it's a great idea for every home. They smother small fires—grease fires, grill flare-ups, even clothing fires—without the mess or intimidation of a fire extinguisher. You just pull it out, cover the fire, and done. We keep ours in the kitchen hanging on a hook near the stove, and at just a few dollars each (I got a multi-pack to share with friends), it's one of those "I should have gotten this years ago" buys. These make such great graduation or housewarming gifts, too—it's one of those practical things people never think to buy for themselves but are so grateful to have.
Three Concerning Technology Trends:This article feels like a must-read for anyone who is a parent. As online gambling becomes a huge industry, with 60% of high school students participating (!!) and even higher numbers as you get into early adulthood. The high percentage of kids encountering extremist content in their online video games (or being sent content way above appropriate for their age) was also really surprising to me.
Search tip: Sometimes when you're searching for content, you want only the most recent information. OR you might actually want older information, on purpose. You can type in "before:__" or "after:__" where the underlined part is a year, or specific date, and you'll get results that are time-specific. For example, maybe you want to find the original source of a concept or quote before it got widely repurposed, so you could use a "before" modifier to weed out recent content. Or maybe you want to avoid outdated health, legal, or financial guidance that's been superseded, so you use an "after:2024" modifier in that case, so you're not looking at content from a decade ago when you want only the latest info.
If you're procrastinating: Avoiding procrastination is one of the hottest topics I'm hearing from clients lately and in workshops. And I get it, because I struggle with this myself (this is one of my favorite memes because of that) and have had to develop tons of strategies over the years to move myself to action on my most important priorities. So I loved this novel tip I read this week in Pat Flynn's Lean Learning book: "Ask a champion of yours (ideally, a mentor) to create a deadline for your project on their calendar and invite you to the event. You won’t be able to move it, and you’ll know it’s on the calendar of the person who is holding you accountable. It will be harder to get out of it, which means you are more likely to follow through.”
Free DaysTo App: This cute little countdown app keeps track of all your special events and gives you a visual reminder of how many days are left until the big day—be it a wedding, graduation, anniversary, birthday, or some other important moment you’re looking forward to. Thanks to Amanda for recommending this during one of our Joyfully Managed Worklife sessions! I've been using the free version and made a little widget on my phone screen for an upcoming trip countdown. You can pay for more designs for your countdowns, but I haven't found that useful yet.
Bonus Sponsor Resource: Make-Your-Own-Retreat:This free guide helps you set up your own private mini-retreat—creating a quiet pocket of time that truly feels like a retreat, even if you can’t get away. With a few thoughtful choices about when, where, and how you pause, you’ll create a nourishing reset that helps you settle your nervous system and arrive more grounded and present (so you’re not starting from stress when you sit down to practice). This resource is from one of our Friday Five sponsors - thank you to them for keeping this newsletter free for readers!