Does anyone else feel like they’re talking to themselves this week?
I get that next week is a holiday, but that’s NEXT WEEK.
Why isn’t anyone working THIS WEEK?
As I scrolled through my gazillion of blog post ideas, I couldn’t get excited about any of them.
Because, the truth of the matter is, I’m sort of feeling like I want to be on holiday right now, too.
But then I had a brilliant idea (at least my team who is paid to think I’m brilliant thought so)!
Every night, at bedtime, I ask my Small Child a series of questions:
- What was your favorite part of the day?
- What was your favorite thing you did for a friend?
- What was your favorite thing you ate?
- What was your favorite book you read?
- What was your favorite game you played?
It can go on like that for eons, as she struggles to find every reason in the book not to go to sleep.
We thought it’d be fun to do Tell Us Your Favorites with a twist.
I am going to ask six questions.
In the comments, we’d like you to answer the six questions.
I’ve asked my team to participate so I have their favorites under each.
It might become something larger that has tons of recommendations useful for all of us.
Let’s play Tell Us Your Favorites.
What is Your Favorite Book of the Year?
I just finished The Women in the Castle two nights ago—and it’s my favorite of the year, so far.
Other recommendations from my team include:
- The Power of Habit
- The Nightingale (I second this!)
- Break the Habit of Being Yourself
- In a Sunburned Country
- Ready Player One
- Emperor’s Blades series
- Million Dollar Outlines
- Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
What is a Not-to-be-Missed Podcast?
Corina said “How I Built This” on NPR is her favorite.
It’s not PR, but that’s OK! We’re all in business.
Of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t recommend Inside PR.
And, this is totally tooting our own horns, but the Big Data episode that aired earlier this week is one of our best.
Laura said her favorite is Presidential (which I can attest to because she quotes me stats from it that I could not care less about so I just smile and nod).
Mike said his favorite is Writing Excuses (you may be sensing a theme).
No one else listens to podcasts so they can up-vote Inside PR for me.
What is Your Favorite Movie of the Year?
Gosh, this is a hard one for me these days.
Gone are the days of lazy weekends sitting in the movie theater.
Now the only movies I see in the theater are G-rated.
No, wait!
I LOVED La La Land. One of my favorites of all time.
I know that’s technically a 2016 movie, but I saw it right before the Oscars this year.
Love.
Other recommendations from my team include:
- LEGO Batman
- Beauty and the Beast
- Hidden Figures
- Rogue One (which I always pronounce as ro-gay own-nay)
Who is a Must-Follow on Twitter?
You may have heard that Voldemort blocked Stephen King on Twitter.
No matter! JK Rowling to the rescue.
It’s A-M-A-Z-I-N-G to read their tweets about our president.
She is the favorite of many of us on this team.
Mark Manson, the author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, is another favorite.
(TWO people who are clearly gunning for raises said I am a must-follow on Twitter. I disagree. I curate a ton of content there, but I’m not funny. Facebook is different story.)
What is Your Favorite Productivity Tool?
It won’t come as a surprise to most that I love, love, love Slack.
Like I might marry it, love.
It has changed the way we communicate internally and it’s the host of the PR Dream Team (which is awesome).
It integrates with other apps I use, such as Wunderlist, to make life incredibly easy.
And there were at least two +1s on this one among my team.
The other life-changer for me has been Sanebox.
I now get maybe 30 emails every day in my main inbox. That’s so much easier to manage than hundreds at once.
- Pen and paper
- Buffer
- Microsoft Office Suite (this hurts my Mac-loving heart)
- Wunderlist
- A notebook
What Should Everyone Binge on this Holiday Weekend?
I spend a lot (A LOT) of time on the trainer so I’ve pretty much seen everything.
My favorite of the year, so far, has been The Handmaid’s Tale.
It’s super compelling and it hits a little too close to home. It’s well worth the time investment.
Other recommendations include:
One smarty pants said, “They should turn off Netflix and get outside!”
And another smarty pants said, “Whuacamole and tortilla chips” and included a GIF of whack-a-mole.
I would complain, but I feel like I’ve created a culture that allows smart butts (as my mom would say). It serves me right.
Tell Us Your Favorites
Now it’s your turn!
We’d love to hear your favorites in the comments here.
To make it easy, go ahead and answer the following:
- What is your favorite book of the year (it doesn’t have to be published this year, just something you’ve read this year)?
- What is a not-to-be-missed podcast?
- What is your favorite movie of the year (it didn’t have to come out this year, but you’ve had to have watched it this year)?
- Who is a must-follow on Twitter?
- What is your favorite productivity tool?
- What should everyone binge on this holiday weekend?
Let’s hear it!
1. Book: This is SO challenging. I really enjoyed The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language by Melvyn Bragg. So much deep detail about the language of English. I always love that! (And The Power of Habit deserves an honorable mention. Laura only has 19 posts left about it.)
2. I haven’t listened to a single podcast all year so I’ll have to pass on this one, sadly.
3. Hidden Figures! My thoughts: http://biggreenpen.com/2017/03/05/female-engineers-history-hidden-figures-and-one-engineers-advice/
4. Dang, this is hard. I have *so many* faves on Twitter. Challenge your assumptions about race relations with @blackgirlinmain Get a fun dose of Broadway from @cateelefante (child actress who plays LuLu in Waitress – hopefully it’s actually a parent doing the social media but it’s still a fun perspective) Get important news, quick from @smartbrief (shameless plug!) And I love tweets from artist @rubemrobierbart
5. I agree on the recommendation re: Slack. I also keep an old-school calendar on paper in addition to my Google Calendar. It creates a little bit of duplication but I just need to see everything laid out on one page for a month’s worth of “stuff” AND it’s easier to jot down a new commitment quickly than to pull it up on my phone and data enter it.
6. Netflix? What’s Netflix? I *still* need to see Orange is the New Black, which is (I think) what I said I planned to binge on when I got interviewed for the now-defunct inquisition!
Sigh.
Now hang on. I gave 200% of the book recommendations requested, FOUR Twitter recs (maybe the issue is one of them wasn’t (at)ginidietrich) AND presented a supporting blog post. YEESH it’s tough around here.
Look, I have worked VERY hard to get you to watch Netflix. VERY HARD.
1. Book: Skeleton Horse, J. Michael McNealy (High school friend)
2. Podcast: N/A
3. Movie: Rogue One but waiting to see Despicable Me 3 (minions!) & Wonder Woman
4. Twitter: Christoph Trappe (@ctrappe) – marketing, exercising & travel
5. Productivity: Still pen & paper + online calendars + Google Drive (I’m GenX after all)
6. Binge: I’m going for Mr. Robot and maybe Black Mirror. I’d recommend Longmire which has Lou Diamond Phillips in the series.
Or, as my four-year-old calls them…minnnnnons!
Book: A Man Called Ove (listened to on Audible and it was amazing – my heart swells just thinking about it)
Podcast: N/A – apparently I should be listening to a few, but Alec Baldwin’s “Here’s the Thing” is on my list
Movie – Lion (yes, technically 2016, but watched right before Oscars)
Twitter – Gini Dietrich (seriously!)
Productivity tool – haven’t found the perfect one yet
Wknd binge – will be bingeing on my friends & family (because I don’t give that the time it deserves during my work week)
You guys are funny! I’m not super fun on Twitter. At all.
YET WE KEEP TRYING (twitter)
I bought the book you mentioned for our remote holidays on the islands. Plan on reading it to the teenies (it is a tradition). Good to hear you enjoyed it because I heard mixed reviews on that one.
1. Deep Work. Love it. Life changing.
2. Too many good ones to single one out.
3. As of right now, either Megan Leavey (with Kate Mara) or The Hero (with Sam Elliott).
4. Deadline (keeps me connected with the entertainment industry)
5. Slack. Sanebox, huh? I use unroll.me — serves my purpose. People should either have one or the other. My other productivity tool is my bullet journal. So I’ve cheated and listed 3.
6. CW’s Reign
I do love my bullet journal.
Book: Built to Sell (business)
Podcast: Entreleadership (business) and The Herd (sports)
Movie: Rogue One
Twitter: @ginidietrich and @crestodina, duh.
Productivity: bullet journal
Binge: Turn (perfect for leading up to Independence Day!)
Kiss butt.
Yeah, that was some pretty overt sucking up. Even worse than me.
1. Book: I just picked up The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared. The strange title intrigued me, and the amazing story that follows is even more intriguing! Definitely a must-read.
2. Podcast: I’m addicted to Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! – NPR program that’s full of games and snarky panel members.
3. Movie: As a childless 26-year-old I’m a little embarrassed to say my favorite move this year is Moana. It’s amazing though! Fun fact: Lin Manuel Miranda, creator of broadway show Hamilton, also co-wrote the soundtrack for Moana (no wonder I love it).
4. Twitter: Roy Wood Jr., a correspondant for The Daily Show always has the most hilarious tweets. @roywoodjr
5. Productivity: I agree with Slack. I don’t know where I’d be without it!
6. Binge: Currently bingeing the first 6 season of Game of Thrones. Preparing myself for the season 7 premier next month!
We were JUST talking about Wait, Wait. I saw it live taped a couple of years ago. Super fun!
Also, there is nothing wrong with loving Moana. It’s a great movie!
It’s my 9-year-old niece’s favorite movie too, so we have some common ground to bond! 🙂
My four-year-old can quote nearly every line. She’ll say, “Wanna hear some Maui lines?” And then she’ll come up with stuff I don’t even remember seeing in the movie. It’s pretty incredible, actually.
1. Book – The Goblin Emperor by Kate Addison. (Sci-fi)
2. Podcast: N/A (
3. Movie – Denial (with Rachel Weicz and Tom Wilkinson). It is about Holocaust deniers and Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt.
4. Twitter: N/A
5. Productivity – TalkWalker Alerts are great.
6. Binge. Designated Survivor (TV show) and lots of opera DVDs.
Ohhhhh. I haven’t seen Denial. I’ll watch it. And I LOVE Designated Survivor.
1. Book: It’s a tie between IT and 11/22/63. (I’m on a King kick… what can I say?) I’d read IT before when I was around 11 or 12 (way to go, Mom… NOT APPROPRIATE… ¯_(ツ)_/¯ ) but this time around it was just SO much better. Makes me even more excited for the movie. 11/22/63 was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. I put off reading it forever because it just didn’t sound like my cup of tea but once I started I couldn’t put it down. I was so sad when it was over.
2. Podcast: Now Playing. It’s a movie podcast and they focus on one movie per podcast. It’s complete with trivia and recaps and what they thought and I just love those guys! (Plus, Marjorie. She’s great too.)
3. Movie: I watch soooo many movies it was really hard to pick, BUT I’m going to go with Jordan Peele’s Get Out. It was funny and creepy and weird and I loved it. I’ve seen it multiple times now. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it, even if you say you hate horror films because it’s not REALLY horror.
4. Twitter: I feel like I’m in the minority of people who use Twitter strictly for comedy. I’m bombarded with sad and depressing news tweets while I monitor my company’s twitter account (we work in security so the stuff that comes through is fairly depressing 99% of the time) but for my personal twitter account I love @WolfPupy and @PleatedJeans. Both crack me up on a regular basis.
5. Productivity Tool: My planner. If you know me you know I’m obsessed with my planner… I just got a new Kate Spade one that starts in August and I’m already itching to use it!
6. Binging: Game of Thrones, duh. The new season starts in like 2.5 weeks and you need a good recap. Of course, if you’re not into the whole “as soon as you love a character he/she dies” thing, you might want to switch to something lighter. Maybe Riverdale. It’s based on the Archie comics with a dark take. It’s obviously for teens but no one ever said I wasn’t a sucker for a good teenage soap opera!
Happy Holiday Week, everyone!
I also LOVED 11/22/63 and I cannot wait for the remake of IT to come out. Laura and I are planning some sort of viewing together.
Come to Lexington and we’ll all go be terrified together!
OK!!
I still don’t like to walk by sidewalk drains. Shudder.
I JUST started “How I Built This” and already love it. So I second Corina on that one.
And I’m use to you just nodding and smiling at most of the things I say….
I want to add SaneBox to my productivity tool, I can’t believe I forgot it!
Save all the ants!
LLOL!!! #neverforget #antmassacre2017
I am giving myself 5 minutes to reply to this one…this stuff is just fun:
1. Author Mo Gawdat: Solve for Happy. This is a pick me up of the century and I loved it.
2. Michael Gervais’s interview with David Goggins: I was listening to this whilst jogging and I then I started hyperventilating, it got to me so much. But actually I love all of Michael’s interviews.
3. Sorry Gini, but my daughter and I walked out of La La Land with a HUGE question mark above our heads. We just didn’t get this movie at all, but I understand we are in the minority. I watched Rogue One with my son, that was pretty cool.
4. Well, kind of boring but the news channels.
5. I am an Evernote fan.
6. Sun, relaxation and time with friends. We will be on a remote Swedish island with 6 teenagers, no wifi/TV and no neighbours. It will be about the only thing we CAN binge on. By the way, the teenagers insisted we do this and asked for it 2 years ago so that everyone could plan accordingly. Go figure…
Can I come to the Swedish island with you?!?
You know you can! I’ll send you the coordinates since there is no such thing as an address out there. Be forewarned, we eat massive amounts of food since we all love to cook and we drink copious bottles of wine because….well, just because. There is also a workout-of-the-day planned since everyone is into fitness. No idea what that will entail, swinging from the trees like tarzan?
I am completely in for all the food and wine. I’ll bring my bike!
1. What is your favorite book of the year (it doesn’t have to be published this year, just something you’ve read this year)? “Detroit Beer – A History of Brewing in the Motor City” I really like learning about the local history of Michigan, especially the Detroit area. Plus I know the author (he used to be my boss) But I really did enjoy the book and learning how much the mob influenced the industry.
2. What is a not-to-be-missed podcast? My old boss’ just started a pod cast and I make sure to listen when it comes out, which has been easy to do since they are only 2 episodes in. But you have to start somewhere. “2 Beers In” if you want to take a listen.
3. What is your favorite movie of the year (it didn’t have to come out this year, but you’ve had to have watched it this year)? Ug. I have so many. But “Women In Gold” I have seen a few times now and just love it.
4. Who is a must-follow on Twitter? James Breakwell: https://twitter.com/XplodingUnicorn He will make you laugh all day long.
5. What is your favorite productivity tool? Love Slack. After Gini started using it we started using it for when we work events. WOW! So much easier to keep track of us all.
6. What should everyone binge on this holiday weekend? Hemlock Grove (2 seasons) and Roadies (1 Season) Great music and bands in Roadies, I was really sad when it didn’t renew. 🙁