🕯️Start Your Year with Rituals: Define Your Values at Jan. 18th's Workshop

8 Rituals for Work and Life and a complimentary course to set you on track

☎️ Hello. I’m Julia, Editor of The Switchboard. I’m grateful you’re here. As we begin the year, I’d like to invite you to be my guest at this Define Your Values workshop with

Al Dea

on Jan. 18th (4:30pm PT/ 7:30pm ET). Meet a community of like-minded professionals and engage in meaningful conversations. Register below.

Here are 8 rituals for keeping your values in check throughout the year:

1. Track Impact with a Personal Annual Report

Start tracking your progress in January in a shared doc. Incorporate meeting buffers and schedule time on your calendar to ensure that you can make time for tracking your progress.

• ✏️ Start Your Documentation 

• 📝 Create Your Master “Doc” 

• ⏰ Create Meeting Buffers

• 🗓️ Schedule Time on Your Calendar

• 🎨 Track What Inspires You

📅 How to Start Writing Your 2023 Annual Report Today

2. Invest in your Growth with a Learning Commitment

Learn how to select, focus and achieve one learning goal — focusing helps you achieve your goal. There are also inspirational ideas from Switchboard leaders.

• ❓Talk to Yourself

• 📅 Schedule it on your Calendar 

• 🎐Turn Idea into Ritual

• 🎥 Believe It’s Possible

• 🍭 Celebrate with Rewards

🌱 Choose One Way to Grow This Year

3. Focus on Prioritization

Both my sweet tooth and curiosity for prioritization processes are quite similar. I like to browse, sample and choose my favorites. Along the way, I’ve discovered helpful tools from experts, mindsets from productivity thought-leaders and recommendations from leaders. Learn more about these areas:

• 🧰 Tools

• 🍭 Mindsets

• 💡 Recommendations

🎫 🍫 A Golden Ticket to Prioritization with Willy Wonka

4. Create Your Smile File

A Smile File is particularly powerful whenever you need it most, whether you’re feeling low or nostalgic. Your Smile File can be digital — a label in your email or physical — a folder or box filled with cards and printouts. Here’s a guide to creating your smile file and ways to incorporate into your work day.

• 🪩 Embed the Smile File into Team Culture 

• 🖼️ Encourage Recognition Programs

• 🎉 Host Thank-a-thon’s 

😃📂 Create Your Smile File

5. Start a Wrap-Up Ritual for your Work Day

I set out to gather resources for the way we end a work day — the wrap-up rituals and actions we can take today to set us up for success tomorrow as the sun sets.

• ⏰ Schedule Wrap-Up Time

• 📚 Reflect on Learnings and Track Progress

• 📰 Gather Your Reading List

• 📅 Prepare Agendas and Review Your Homework

• 💗 Send a Thank You 

• 📂 Add to Your Smile File 

• 💻 Scroll Through Your Messages

• 🌅 Set Your Morning Priority 

• 🌝 Say Good “Night”

• 🔌 Unplug

🌆 The Way We Wrap Up a Work Day Matters

6. Embrace Your Inner Artist To Build Community

Consider creating an art ritual for yourself or your team to spark creativity, joy and wonder. Here are a few activities to consider:

• 🌌 Create Dreamcatchers

• 🧘 Meditate with Watercolors

• 🧩 Design a Puzzle

• 🪨 Draw Cave Paintings

• 🖍️ Color in a Coloring Book

🎨 Create an Arts and Crafts Ritual at Work

7. Think Like LEGO to Nurture your Community

Our work doesn’t have to be done alone. It’s more impactful and meaningful with others. Here’s how to approach building a community with inspiration from LEGO:

• 🛣️ Create Communications Channels

• 📣 Treat Employees like Fans

• 💡 Invite Ideas from Experts

• 🧰 Empower Employees with Tools to Create

• 🎨  Tap into Community

• 💰 Reward Team Members

• 🏄‍♀️ Keep The Momentum 

• 🌲 Embrace Growth

• 🧪 Create a Lab

• 🧱 Complement Each Other 

🧱 Take a LEGO Ideas approach to Culture

8. 🎨 🧪 Create Your Annual Plan like an Artist and a Scientist

Here’s a guide from me and leaders featured on The Switchboard for how to approach this process. While it’s intended for internal comms and culture, you can adapt it for your professional path.

• 🦚 Begin with Inspiration

• 📈 Listen to Analyze Impact

• ✅ Organize by Action

• 🎯 Align with Organizational Goals and Leader Voices

• 📅 Outline Your Calendar 

• 🏹 Identify Risks

• 📕 Define Roles, Responsibilities and Support

• 🥇 Discuss Success

• 📝 Summarize in 1 Page or Less

• 🏆 Don’t Leave The Plan on a Pedestal 

🎨 🧪 Create Your Annual Plan like an Artist and a Scientist

How do you plan to incorporate rituals into your work and life this year?

☎️ The Switchboard Exchange

Here are a few links that captured my curiosity recently:

• 🚀 Wrap up 2023. Kick-off 2024:

  Jeremy Caplan
  in
  Wonder Tools

• 📆 A Short History of the Daily Planner:

  Jillian Hess
  in
  Noted

• 📗 Make This Year Your Best Yet:

  Peter Yang
  highlights Executive Coach Katia Verresen in
  Creator Economy by Peter Yang

🙏 Thank you for reading The Switchboard. I enjoy sharing stories and best practices with this community. If you appreciate this newsletter, would you share it with a friend, post your favorite edition on social media or reply to let me know what resonated? I hope to support more people and that’s only possible because of you. Thank you. ☃️