📓 Reviewed my weekly takeaways in 2023. Unsurprizingly to me, the themes that emerged are wellbeing, work and career, and productivity. It is also clearly apparent how intertwined they all are. There is enough here to repeat and work on for many years ahead. Here goes.

🪴 Wellbeing

• Burnout symptoms - exhaustion, cynicism, ineffectiveness
• Hobbies and pursuing interests are effective recovery mechanisms
• Messy flat - messy mind
• Never too late in the day or week to write a journal entry
• Take care of yourself so you can take care of others
• At your limits, it is OK to say no and focus on recovery
• Poor short-term memory is a symptom of too much stress
• Ominous meetings and days are often better than anticipated
• Resilience is showing up every day

👨‍💻 Work and career

• Managing enthusiasm is essential to keeping things simple
• Career growth requires crossing the boundaries of your role description
• Challenging situations are an opportunity to build skill and improve the status quo
• No one is going to remember your work achievements in a year
• Know your “chase the fun” and “a place to call home” activities at work for effective recovery
• There is no place for guilt in have to take a sick leave
• Do not exhaust your “complaint budget”, i.e. pick your battles
• Trust the fundamentals especially when feeling overwhelmed
• The role of leadership is to maintain the necessary tensions and the constructive interaction stemming from them

🤹 Productivity

• Scrying your list is useful - “needs to be done today” or ”makes tomorrow easier”
• Even a single daily journal entry makes it easier to reflect during the weekly review
• Returning from vacation in the middle of the work week is a neat recovery trick
• Book time for focused work, delegate, work on unique leverage, be kind to yourself
• Preparation pays off, think and write, write and think

📚 Misc

• Making bread requires experimentation - try, learn, improve
• I think I have a harder skin then I actually do
• “Jos kukaan ei suutu, mikään ei muutu”