Welcome to the Weekly Reads, where I highlight articles that I found on the web and that are focused on career advice, lifestyle, beauty or anything I think would round-up as useful for the young, modern, working woman.
The Weekly Reads are perfect for your morning commute or your first coffee break of the day. So get yourself comfortable, pour a cup of coffee – or tea – and enjoy this week’s reads!
What have I been up to this week
I cannot believe it’s April already. The first three months of the year have just flown by. Spring/Easter break is just around the corner and I am so looking forward to my holidays in the second half of the month so the countdown begins. To be honest, I don’t have many other updates except for being super excited for spring to finally settle in – which I cross my fingers for so that it happens rather soon – and trying my best to stay on top of work and grad school while also attempting to get real fitness back into my routine.
The Weekly Reads
How to get ahead at work. I loved this post from Capitol Hill Style on understanding that you need to be good at both your job (work hard and get things done) and your work (build relationships in the office, manage upwards, laterally and downwards) in order to get ahead. This sort of career advice is a gem that everyone needs to know about.
“…professional success is not just about being hard-working and competent, it is also social and political.”
Make sure you read through the comments section as well, there is a rich conversation happening in there and there is a lot of value in it. In my opinion there are some comments that went a bit too far – some readers found that as “mainsplaining” – but that exaggeration aside, it’s valuable advice that will help you get ahead in today’s workplace reality. I work with mostly women in my department and management and I can tell for sure that the same rules of politics apply and it’s not just a “boy’s club” rule.
Self awareness is the key. I’ve been discussing this topic a lot lately and I truly believe that self-awareness is the greatest gift you can ever give yourself. This episode from the Goop podcast brought it back and I took it as a reminder that I should not wait for external change but rather trigger internal change.
Design Thinking. If you work in tech or any dynamic industry, you will find this post from Consultant Mind quite useful. He shares a deck from Stanford d.school and also some useful frameworks that can be applied both if you are a designer or not and just want to reframe a problem, explore new outcomes or just solve a problem in a different way.
Habits for productivity. Staying on top of my daily tasks, walking prepared in and out of meetings as well as still having time to live a life is a an ever-struggling … HBR has this article on why some people are more productive than others and what habits are fueling that; so make sure to scroll to the bottom of the article and get some good tips that can help you stay organized and productive. Also, for me adding to the tips in there would be sending meeting notes with action holders after the meeting; it’s crucial to ensure everybody know what they need to deliver and you can also follow-up and keep them accountable easily, especially if you are the person who wants things to get done.
Pet peeves. But wait, why is it called a “pet peeve” ? To be honest, it took me a while to get the meaning behind “pet peeve” and luckily, thanks to all the online content I consume I kinda got it on time to actually be able to name mine in an offline conversation. At the end of the day, it’s weird phrasing so you migth as well just want to find out where is it coming from…because it has nothing to do wiht your dog or your cat.
Thank you for reading and I hipe you are having a great week!
