Learning and growth have been built into the bones of The Woodshop. For some, it comes in the form of podcasts, and for others, it’s books. Sure there are clearly ‘self-help’ or ‘marketing’ or ‘leadership’ titles… But sometimes the best lessons come from the most unexpected places.
We hit the streets (not really, everyone works indoors here) this month to see what everyone in the office is learning about. A little bit of self discipline, emotional growth and perspective seeking.
Evan – Agency Coordinator / Integrator
TB – Evan, you’re a reader, what’s been your favorite recently?
Evan – Atomic Habits! I get really passionate about growing and developing personally, but I sometimes fall prey to the bad habit of starting strong, then ultimately running out of steam and giving up.
Atomic Habits helped me in a couple different ways, but primarily, it was encouraging.
It taught me about how my brain works and how to create long-term consistency.
The best parts of the book weren’t the practical tips and tricks—you may have heard of habit stacking or the 2-minute rule—but the psychology and the philosophy he wrote on which explains why we behave the way we do. I really gained from that and am having more success currently than I’ve ever had making real progress in the areas I truly care about most.
I almost didn’t read this one, thinking to myself ‘I’ve read enough books about habits…,’ but enough people recommended it that I finally bit, and now I’m wishing I read it a long time ago!
Kayla – Internal Accountant
TB – What have you been reading lately, or rather what’s really stuck out to you in your readings?
Kayla – I’m going to say Deep Work. I’m still noodling over it (pretty much just reading it again).
I really like it because It’s specific, actionable, and relatable. I know reviewers have said (somewhat fairly) parts of the book are repetitive (the whole point is: “remove distractions, learn to focus more on one task at a time.”). There’s only so many ways you can say that, but I think the reason reviewers take it as repetitive is that he tries making it relatable to everyone: students, business owners, individual workers in larger knowledge-economy jobs, and craft and trade positions.
TB – Any specific takeaways so far?
The biggest change I have implemented was getting noise canceling headphones that block out almost all noise from the office, allowing me to get into a flow every day. It helps me tackle more tough technical challenges and get to some of the projects I’ve been wanting to do since I started.
It’s easy to get distracted by the small mundane things that pop up, but blocking things out and paying attention to singular tasks makes it seem less daunting. Time tracking has also helped.
Erin – Graphic Designer
TB – Erin, what’s good in the podcast world these days? Anything inspiring you these days?
Erin – Definitely the “All My Relations” podcast. I love this podcast because it’s uplifting native voices teaching me how to decolonize my professional and personal life.
It has a lot of talk about learning how to slow down and ask “why?” Why we do things the way we do them?
It also teaches me about native culture, practices, and history. My favorite episodes are the ones talking about policies and laws in America and how they are affecting native people and our land. I feel like it’s extremely important to be aware of these things so that I can better support my native brothers and sisters!
Tony – Do you feel like that perspective shift affects your work?
It most definitely affects how I do my job every day. It helps me to be more aware of the fact that there are so many different kinds of people and perspectives, and it’s important to recognize that in my design work.
Having awareness of your audience and their perspective is a huge part of a designer’s job. It is also important to ask “why” when you’re designing,nderstanding the purpose and intent of something, and recognizing its intended impact. Also, slowing down and taking in each moment as it comes makes anyone better at their job!
Mykel- Content Specialist
TB – Pop Quiz! Best Books of recent…. Go!
Mykel – Easy. Codependent No More and Emotional intelligence 2.0
Codependent No More is helping me recognize that I shouldn’t change myself to cater to others based on how I think they’ll react. I simply can’t control that; I can only control how I respond.
Emotional Intelligence 2.0 is great because it makes me rethink how I do everyday things in my life. It has me thinking about how these everyday things relate to my (and others’) mental and physical health. It has great activities throughout, too, and challenges me to think and act critically.
Tony – Very cool, how do you think those reads have supported you as a marketer?
Mykel – Marketing is communicating. Here with the team, the stronger we can communicate, the better we can create. Working on interpersonal relationships supports that communication. I’d also say the perspective is really great for evaluating and re-evaluating problems, and super helpful in brainstorming, too. What better way to create new ideas than to see things from another’s perspective?
Adapt or Die is said a lot around the office, and clearly there’s no stopping the growth and adaptation of this group.
Cheers,
TB
