Stuff #76 - Chicken Fashion, Michelin Stars and Heardle

Hey, I'm Matt...

The platform move of last week didn't seem to generate any problems, the delivery and open rates have remained stable, so I'll stick around here for a while!

The news cycle remains relentlessly grim, I'm hoping that Stuff can help give you a little light distraction.

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Onward with the Stuff that MattR's this week...

Monday Motivation: Let this week be the week you put some thought into your own career plan. I'm right in the middle of the career/development planning cycle and stumbled across this article. This guide has 25 practical steps that you can take to drive your career conversations and have more meaningful dialogue with your manager. #6, #18 and #25 are particularly insightful. Bonus Stuff: What if we rethought the traditional career track?
Your new superpower: Forget trying to get to inbox zero, aim for calendar zero instead. Controlling who has your time could be the greatest power that you develop as a knowledge worker. This is a 'lightbulb moment' article that could help reframe your productivity. Bonus Stuff: What if we just stopped being so available.
Essential Reading: Four practical techniques to help build long-lasting rapport with your colleagues. In this hybrid working age, finding tighter bonds with the people you work with will become an important superpower.
How to take care of yourself: Five actionable ways to cope with a stressful news cycle. I implemented some of these when I was feeling anxious about the Covid-19 pandemic, this week I revisited some of the suggestions.
TWIL: The world record for holding your breath under water is close to 25 minutes. Last year, a 56-year-old free diver from Croatia, Budimir Šobat, broke the world record for ‘longest time breath held voluntarily’ with a time of 24 minutes and 37.36 seconds, surpassing the previous record by a full 34 seconds. For reference, that’s longer than an episode of The Simpsons or Seinfeld.
In praise of listening through: I'm a massive advocate of listening to whole albums in one go, but what about the journey of listening to ALL the albums by a favourite artiste or band in one 'sweep'. I can get behind this idea, and I'm currently thinking about who I should start with, if you fancy the journey with me, hit reply, and let me know what you will be listening to. I'm going to someone with about 6/8 albums and blog my journey through their work.
In honour of: International Womens Day is tomorrow (8th March) and in honour, this article about Dame Stephanie 'Steve' Shirley is essential stuff. Steve was a computing pioneer, entrepreneur, and essentially 'invented' remote working.
Common as muck: This is a beautiful, life-affirming article by Birmingham based journalist Kirsty Bosley who went to a two-star Michelin restaurant for the first time, and was pleasantly surprised. Chefs-kiss!
Haute cluck-ture: Are you looking to spruce up your chickens' wardrobe? Well, we have the answer for you right here.
Finally: The simple daily puzzle apps keep coming, the best I've seen this week (and right up my alley) is the lovely Heardle. It's Wordle, but with music - you have six guesses to figure out what intro is being played, each guess gets you one second more. Obviously speakers/headphones on!

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My aural stuff for you this week is a terrific new album from France by Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupil.

Topical Dancer mixes influences from around the world, with a poppy electronica that brings to mind early Christina and the Queens, or maybe Mura Masa. It is a terrific listen, curious and uplifting all at the same time.

Listen to Topical Dancer by Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupil on Spotify here.