Planners’ Picks:
A collection of resources from CSN planning committee members worth mentioning
As we March Forth this week, we investigate WFH improvements you can employ to be more productive, effective, and loving to your housemates.
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How to Create a Home Workspace That Improves Productivity
The physical space around us can affect our creativity and productivity, and as many of us continue to work from home, being intentional about our environment is key to making sure we can stay focused. Whether you have a designated home office or you share your “workspace” with your kids’ virtual classroom, optimizing the space around you is critical to make sure you can stay efficient during the day.
We asked our Thrive community to share with us the small tweaks they’ve used to create a workspace that optimizes their focus and productivity. Which of these will you try?
https://thriveglobal.com/stories/home-workspace-changes-design-boost-focus-productivity/
Work-From-Home Habits of Effective People – VitalSmarts Download
We’re nearly a year into the pandemic — are you still floundering to have a decent routine when working remotely? Download this e-book on advice for developing effective work-from-home habits.
https://uwmadison.box.com/shared/static/nw63nh20gaeuw20kfmvo51qdap2x1x35.pdf
In a Virtual World, It’s Time to Rethink Your Networking Strategy
With everything going on, thinking about your network can feel frivolous, but now is actually the perfect time to reconsider how and with whom you connect. Our social worlds are shrinking. And rampant polarization leaving everyone less likely to interact with people unlike themselves isn’t the only culprit. Our social and professional networks are suffering, too. Especially our weak ties — the acquaintances, friends-of-friends, and casual colleagues — who are sources of novel, valuable information and serve as important social outlets.
How Couples Can Find Balance While Working from Home
Couples working from home during the pandemic face the challenge of balancing work and domestic responsibilities in a way that’s fair, and so far the ongoing crisis has largely reinforced existing gender gaps in the home. The first step to reaching an equitable arrangement is to understand the sources of conflict. Then, couples can employ negotiation strategies often used in professional settings to improve cooperation, identify unmet needs, and get them met. Taking the time to develop a work-from-home strategy can help strengthen couples’ relationships now and after the pandemic.
https://hbr.org/2020/12/how-couples-can-find-balance-while-working-from-home
The 5-Minute Stretching Routine You Should Do Daily
Whether your day job involves sitting at a desk, driving to sales calls, or bent over your phone responding to emails and texts while you run around town, we all could use stretching breaks throughout the day.
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March Forth: A Day of Rebirth and Redemption
Last year, Rich Gassen read “For Small Creatures Such as We” by Sasha Sagan and reviewed it on Linkedin. Within this book, Sagan wrote about celebrating March Forth as a rebirth of sorts:
“My mother and I have often thought that March 4th would be a good date for such a secular holiday. When you say it out loud, in English, it sounds like a bold command. It’s a pun that seems to cry out a directive to improve or ‘evolve.’ In a footnote to the book Pale Blue Dot, [Carl Sagan] describes the events of March 4, 1953 BCE, when the five planets visible to the naked eye aligned perfectly, ‘strung out like jewels on a necklace near the great square in the constellation Pegasus.’ This was observable in China and may have been ‘the starting point for the planetary cycles of the ancient Chinese astronomers.’ Up until that moment, they had a completely different view of the universe and our place in it, but faced with new evidence, they changed their worldview, abandoning what no longer made sense.” -Sasha Sagan
I get motivated to do something—anything—to improve upon what I currently have or know around this time every year as I March Forth. How will you evolve this season? Please share with CSN on this form: https://campussupervisorsnetwork.wisc.edu/march-forth/
Thank you for your thoughts! A collection of these entries will be shared in a future Planners’ Picks newsletter. – Rich Gassen for CSN
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>>> “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.”—Eleanor Roosevelt