Stuff #117 - mele kalikimaka!

Hey from Dublin,

We have 13 days.  Just less than two weeks.

This will (probably) be the last Stuff of the year; I'll take a week off for Christmas and the next issue that drops will be in 2023.  

So, we have 13 days to cast aside any disappointment, negativity or unfinished goals - everything we don't need to carry forward from this year.  Let's do that together with a final run through some curious things from the internet.

As a free gift for this final edition of the year, I'm sharing my very special Christmas gift to you, the Merry X-Matt playlist.  It's an ever evolving and growing playlist of acceptable holiday season music.  Give it a go, I think you'll love it. (It does contain the best Christmas song ever!)

If you're enjoying Stuff, I'd ♥️  if you would hit 'forward' and share this with a friend, if not hit 'reply' and tell me how I can make Stuff better for you.  

As always - thanks for being here - it's great to have you join me each week! If you received this from an amazing friend, get your own copy here.

The Stuff30 Journaling Challenge

Getting started with a journal can be tricky, I have you covered with 30 days of simple prompts, directly to your inbox.

Stuff that MattR'sMatt Rutherford

1. Monday Motivation:   Let this week be the one where you feel motivated to power through to the end of the year.  These are the three components of motivation, as well as ten things that steal your motivation and how to reclaim your mojo.    Remember - we're nearly there, we can do this!
2. Your new superpower:  Active Listening is a skill that will enhance every aspect of your life, but is particularly powerful at work where improving your listening skills will make you a more effective communicator.   Here are my five practical ways to improve your active listening skills.
3. Essential Reading:  Ten competitive advantages that you can start developing today.  We'll be revisiting some of these over the next weeks.
4. Take care: We all know how important sleep is to our health and wellbeing, here are 99 ways to improve your sleep hygiene.  The BBC have a slightly different approach, maybe we need a feel-good home. (ICYMI - another great sleep article in Stuff #94)
5. TWIL:  Everything we know about truffles is a lie.  How the global truffle 'industry' is a giant scam.
6. AI to the rescue!  You can now use AI to work out the next reply in a chain of messages, including WhatsApp, email and even dating app replies.   Use Howtoreplyto to save you in any messaging situation.
7. The best of 2022 (Part 3):  Finishing up my look at the best things about 2022, here are 99 good news stories from 2022 and an excellent roundup of the scientific breakthroughs of the year
8. From 15 to 90:  Picasso's iconic self-portraits evolved throughout his life, follow his shifts in style.  (Bonus Stuff - find a masterpiece at the Prado)
9. We're going back!  NASA has just completed its first Artemis mission, preparing the tech that will take humans back to the moon.  This amazing gallery shows some of the pictures captured.   Including this absolute cracker.
10. Finally:  Take Boggle, and Wordle and make Voggle.  I'll stop these soon, I promise.  Bonus Stuff - Is Twitter Dead yet?

With just a few days until we take a break for the holidays, I'm sharing my ever-growing dynamic playlist of very acceptable music to accompany your celebrations.

From classic Christmas tunes, to less well-known soul, hip-hop and even German cabaret classics it's the ideal playlist for your working week in the run up to the 25th!