Every week on Friday, I share a list of the most interesting and inspiring content I’ve read lately here on my blog. You can expect thoughts on productivity, happiness, balance, spirituality, politics, and more. Subscribe here to get updates. See archives here.

I’m getting ready to launch my very first “product” to the world (if you want an early sneak peek, you can see it here!!) and, as with any new project, this one came with its fair share of technical difficulties. I was BLOWN AWAY by the level of customer service I got from the team behind the plugin I’m using, Memberful. Not only did they troubleshoot with me for hours on end, they solved my problem by coding me a custom plugin for my website. Truly unbelievable. If you ever need a membership app, this is the one to use.

In other fun app news, I have now gotten my whole family onto the app Carrot, which gives you rewards (Aeroplan points, SCENE points, etc) based on how active you are throughout the day. It is so much fun to “compete” with family – my dad is taking it very seriously and kicking our butts. If you sign up, you can use my code stephaniep5372 and get bonus points yay.

Last weekend I installed the Facebook News Feed Eradicator and I cannot tell you how much happier and less stressed I feel as a result. Goodbye endless scrolling! Sayonara time suck! I can still go to my groups and see notifications, but everything else is just: gone.

Extremely supportive of this sentiment from Adam Grant about who gets to give you feedback. Criticism is not universally helpful.

I like this distinction between habits and workflows, and definitely need to take some time to think about how this applies to me and my own work life.

I really liked this episode of “What Should I Read Next?” and especially liked the guest’s habit of checking in with her library holds on the daily, which to me is #goals.

This week, my team at With/out Pretend threw a launch party for our new digital magazine, The Vault. If you haven’t already, please check out these beautifully illustrated original stories and consider becoming a member! They’re so wonderful.

This week on the podcast, I chatted with my friend Sonja Seiler about the recent sold-out success of her retreat and her long journey to get here! It really struck a chord with people based on how many DMs and texts I got about it afterwards.

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I spent last weekend dogsitting for the puppy, and it was such a peaceful and lovely time. I got so much done in the quiet, which was a good reminder for me to spend more time free from distractions and with fun projects to work on. This weekend I am going home again for more family time, to celebrate Thanksgiving with my loved ones. I feel lucky daily, but Thanksgiving is a great excuse to voice my deep and profound gratitude for my life. I hope you have a wonderful weekend too. xo.

Every week on Friday, I share a list of the most interesting and inspiring content I’ve read lately here on my blog. You can expect thoughts on productivity, happiness, balance, spirituality, politics, and more. Subscribe here to get updates. See archives here.

This week I used Loom multiple times to record screencast walkthroughs of various tools for my clients. I love the little circle pic feature, it adds so much more personality! So useful.

I’m so inspired by my friend Sonja’s retreat selling out this week! She has worked so hard on this and really invested in herself and this business, and is now reaping the rewards. You can learn more about her retreat, Nurture, here.

In The Useletter last week (one of my fave newsletters), Amy mentioned a newish tool called Notion which I’ve been testing all week. It’s a project management/wiki/document sharing/to-do list/database app and it’s pretty cool so far.

Last week I read the book Places I Stopped on the Way Home and really enjoyed it. It was nice to read about her romantic trials & tribulations and feel how much she really believes in love. Very inspiring.

Very into this radical idea to set up a vacation autoresponder that tells people you are automatically deleting any emails that come in during your vacation. Wowow.

Important reminder that things often take way longer and are much harder than they look. Having recently built a few things I’m super proud of, I can confirm. Patience is so important, and so is the willingness to be bad at first and fumble through.

An interesting case for taking some things for granted. This is less of an instruction manual than it is a thought exercise.

Psychologists are finding that fatigue may not be about physical exhaustion or depleting willpower, but perhaps about motivation. This makes sense to me, and if it’s true, this has interesting implications!

In case you missed it, this week on the podcast I was “inspired” by the new show Escaping NXIVM to discuss the potential dangers of “spiritual language” being used in manipulative ways.

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This week my family had an early Thanksgiving, as a going away party for my little sister who is bravely moving to the States for a year for work! It was so nice to see my family all together again. And it was a great work week too: I love it when I discover new business tools that are smart and helpful, it makes me so happy. I also had a lot of fun wins with clients, which felt amazing. This weekend I’m dogsitting for my mom, and I can’t wait for puppy cuddles! I hope you have a wonderful weekend too. xo.