Hi Reader,

You know what isn't helpful in almost any circumstance? All or nothing thinking. I prefer "all or something". So you didn't get a 30-min workout in, but you went for a 10-min walk. That's something. You didn't bring your lunch from home like you wanted every day this week, but you did 3 times? That's meaningfully better than 0 times. Life is messy. Do what you can with what you've got. Let's get to your Friday Five!

1. Eclipse: For those of us in North America, there's a total solar eclipse happening on Monday. Be sure to protect your eyes with legit solar eclipse glasses, and if you've got very little humans who can't reliably keep their eclipse glasses on, keep them away from windows during the event (do the same for pets!). Mark your calendar to ensure you can check it out if you want when it happens near you (here's where you can find out the timing and a graphic of how obstructed the sun will be in the place you are). I hope any of you in the path of totality (or who are traveling to it) enjoy clear skies. Tell me how it goes if that's you - I'd genuinely love to hear.
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2. Checklists: I was chatting with one of you (hi Laura!) about doing some workshops for her team, and she told me about an article written by one of my favorite authors (Atul Gawande) on the same topic as his famous book, The Checklist Manifesto. Checklists are a secret power in my work and the work of many folks I respect. Teams that use them, in my experience, are much more effective than those that do not. Here's an idea: have your team at work read this article and then discuss what kinds of checklists might be most valuable for your specific kind of work. Not all work can be made into a checklist, for sure. But a surprising number of things can, and they supercharge your impact when you put them to use strategically.
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3. Plan Anything Calendar: One of my favorite companies, Essential Calendar, just came out with an awesome new product. It's an undated 3-month wall calendar. It's big and so great like their others, but without dates so you can use it to visualize things like a busy quarter at work, an election cycle, your 3rd trimester of pregnancy, your marathon training plan, a kids' sports season or whatever is happening in your life. So many possibilities here. If you get it, make sure to get the erasable gel pens and the dot stickers too - they're so helpful. My code JOYFULLYMANAGED gets to a discount!
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4. Working Parents: I'm speaking next week at the Whole Wellness Mamas Summit with 5 super-practical tips for balancing things as a working parent. You can get a free ticket to the summit here, with lots of really excellent talks I'm eager to watch.
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5. Free Excel Training: I shared about a free Miss Excel training with y'all last month and I heard from a huge number of you that you went and loved it. So I want to share about the ones they just announced for this month on data visualization and pivot tables! I'm going to attend and take my spreadsheet game up a few notches. Join me! They send the replay if you can't join live.

Bonus Friday Fave: If you have an iPhone, did you know that if you take a photo of a plant and then swipe up, it will tell you what kind of plant it is? I had no idea until I posted a picture on Facebook of a beautiful flower in my neighborhood and my friends Edgar and Jen told me the trick. The Google app will also work either on iPhone or Android using Google Lens for the same thing. In case you were also in the dark about that, enjoy!

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