Jessica's Friday Five: Why I'm paying to disappear (kind of)

Hi Reader,

I don't know about you, but goodness gracious, this week has been a struggle to stay motivated to get work done. It's become a predictable pattern for me: around this time of year, when the days are short and the holidays are approaching, I'd much rather be reading a good novel or watching a Hallmark movie than working through a to-do list. So if you're feeling that way, you're not alone, and it's natural for living things to slow down and rest during this season.

Unrelatedly but fun - if you're an American football fan, you'll enjoy this silly video my family and I have watched several times this week.

On to your Friday Five:

1. Set a reminder to check your spam: Our email services (like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo) are doing a lot these days to help us focus on the most important emails. One downside of these new algorithms is that I've noticed a lot more legitimate emails (from my good friends and clients, even!) getting caught in my spam folder. I've now got a reminder set to check my spam folder every 2 weeks and "rescue" (mark as "Not Spam") those emails so my account learns to send those to my inbox instead. You might be surprised what you find in there!
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2. 2 Winter Kid Suggestions: For those of you with kids in your life, here are two suggestions for the fall/winter season if you're in the Northern Hemisphere. First, it can be so great to get outside with kids after dinner time, but it's so dark this time of year. Go on a flashlight walk with them - just hand out a few flashlights and go for a brief walk. It somehow changes the whole experience and makes it more fun. Second - on a rainy or snowy day, go to a pet store if you're feeling cooped up. As long as you set clear boundaries at the start of the adventure (today is not the day we get a new guinea pig), it's a free but entertaining way to spend half an hour checking out birds and fish and cute small furry things while getting out of your house.
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3. 2 really great things just for us from my friend Emilia: I'm building some collaborations with a brilliant neuroscientist that I've met recently, Emilia (those of you joining Joyfully Managed Worklife and who are alumni of the program will hear soon about a bonus workshop in January with her!) Last week we chatted, and she set up a few things just for us Friday Fivers! You can get both of them here - first you'll get her list of really great tools for this fall/winter season of the year for wellness (some of which I've been using myself like red light!), and then you can get the book (Biohacking For Mothers) she normally sells for $93 totally free just for us (use code JESS100) to make the book $0. This isn't a technical textbook. It’s your simple, practical starter guide to making tiny shifts that boost your energy, focus, and resilience every single day.
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4. 2 Christmas-related tips: If you celebrate Christmas, this is my favorite playlist. Put it on while you’re prepping for your next gathering or during your holiday parties. It's got songs outside of the traditional ones that are upbeat and fun. Also in the holiday vein, here's a 2-minute podcast episode where I shared one of my favorite holiday tips that's a little techy and a little magic.
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5. Happily renewed to protect my family: This week, I happily renewed my paid DeleteMe subscription. They help get my personal info removed from the internet. In the age of doxxing, scams, and phishing, this is one concrete thing we can all do to keep our private information, like our home address, out of the public domain without our consent. My friend link gets you 20% off if you want to try it. I've been super impressed at how well this works without me doing the work (it's about $100/year).

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Last Friday's Most-Clicked Link: The little video about how we display the holiday cards we receive this time of year, with a close second of the 1440 newsletter (see below), one of my fave free sources for unbiased news.