Reflect before you plan | The journalist test | The last Action Club

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If you're new to the show, here are three of the most popular episodes from the last year:

• ​Episode 113 - Three Before Screens: Guardrails That Protect Your Mornings​
• ​Episode 114 - Attention Anchor Part 1: The Environment Set-Up for Better Focus​
• ​Episode 124 - Make Prioritization Visible: A Leadership Diagnostic​

This week I presented to meeting professionals at The Speaker Exchange, hosted by the International Platform Association.

Twenty-eight speakers, seven minutes or less each, and every one of us a Certified Speaking Professional® or in the Speaker Hall of Fame. I used my 6.5 minutes on a topic from my latest book, The Right Things First: A Pocket Guide to Relentless Prioritization

Speaking of books, opening the Little Free Library in front of my house is my favorite thing I've done this year, for myself and for my community.

This week is Banned Books Week, and knowing a book is challenged makes me want to read it even more. It also makes me laugh at some of the reasons why. I could get on a soapbox here, because banning a book?

Historical fact: the Nazi regime officially banned 5,485 book titles.

I've read a lot of books from the American Library Association's most-challenged lists.

Three I love: Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe, #3 on the 2025 list (a graphic novel, which isn't my normal genre, but I love this book so much), The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, and Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

Reply and tell me one of your favorite frequently challenged books.

I'm also on the board of the Work Meaningful Foundation. We create pathways to opportunity and help break cycles of intergenerational poverty in under-resourced communities in the U.S. and Ghana. We've built a middle school and a tech lab, and we're raising money to build an elementary school in the village of Akyremade.

My husband and I sponsor a young woman there and pay for her schooling and uniform. She caught our eye in 2022, dancing with so much passion it made our hearts burst.

The Work Meaningful Foundation is looking for two people: a bookkeeper and a new board member to serve as treasurer. (The bookkeeper role isn't a board seat. The treasurer role is.)

If you want to learn more, read the descriptions and reply to this email.

When you get this, I'll be walking and doing quarterly reflections and getting ready for a weekend of kitchen decluttering (we do one room a month to keep it manageable), attending the Band Together music fundraiser, mountain biking, and cataloging the books in my Little Free Library.

On with the Weekender!

​Episode 130: What has to happen before you plan? Planning is a productive-looking way to procrastinate. An afternoon, a document, and the feeling you worked on the quarter.

Then you go execute a list you never examined. Reflect. Prioritize. Plan. In that order. One Thing You Can Do Now: Before you plan next quarter, write down three things you said yes to last quarter that you'd love to take back. Listen (15 min) ​Read the 5-minute blog.​

The Journalist Test. Suppose a journalist followed you for three days...

Would they write down that you're living your stated priorities? Would they see you protecting the time you said you'd protect? Or would your actions tell a different story? Your calendar shows up in that story, and so does what you decide when something else tries to take the slot. One Thing You Can Do Now: Look at next week's calendar and find the one block that would embarrass you in that article. Move it or kill it. WATCH (40 SEC)

WHAT THE ACTION CLUB IS COMMITTING TO: Each week, Reclaim Your Workday Action Club members commit to one move before the next session. Our recent sessions focused on Remote & Hybrid Work and Vacation & Time Off.

Two commitments from this session: "I will re-start my annual plan/job document that I never have time to work on. There is literally NO 'how-to' guide for my role." "I mapped out the remainder of my vacation days for the year. I tend not to use all my vacation, and lose those days." Two big Ahas: "I don't have a hard time not working on vacation but I have a REALLY HARD time taking the time off in the first place. I can do it! Nothing bad will happen." "I'm going to really think about how I can set a timer for the end of the day or have some kind of audible trigger to stop working." This is the last cohort. If you want this kind of follow-through for your team, reply and let's talk.

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P.S.Planning next quarter with your team? The Right Things First gives everyone the same filter before the next yes, and every copy comes with the full audiobook. Team orders start at 10 copies. Reply with how many you need and I'll send a quote.