Hello friend,

I hope you've had a good week.

This week's doodles suggest running has been on my mind. Can you tell? Whether or not you’re a runner, we can all learn something from elite athletes (and even slow runners like me): building in rest is essential if we want to perform at our best.

By the time you read this email, I’ll be getting ready for my first Parkrun. Wish me luck.

Before I share this weekend’s digest, I have a quick question. As you may know, I’ve been experimenting with monthly online workshops. I want to introduce some free community events alongside the planned paid sessions—something more informal, centred around connection rather than content delivery.

Ideas so far include co-working sessions, informal discussions, or perhaps a book club, but I’m open to suggestions. I’m also reviewing the time slot; I’ve been running sessions from 13:00 to 14:00 UK time, but I understand that might not suit everyone.

Thank you—as always—for being part of this.

On with the digest.

✏️ Doodle Essays

Here is this week's short essay collection:

And here are the doodles:

📚 Read

I enjoyed the following articles this week:

What You Give Airtime to Will Expand (Via Wes Kao's Newsletter).
The Anxiety-Curiousity Switch (Via Ness Labs).

I also loved this illustration from Jono at Sketchplanations:

If you're curious about the books I'm reading, you can see my library in Tana here: Library.

📺 Watch

My friend Andy is currently preparing to deliver a TEDx talk. Talking to him about this exciting opportunity reminded me of the video below. Enjoy...

🎧 Listen

These podcast episodes are worth a listen:

Sobriety? But What About YOLO? (Via Sober Awkward: heads up, the episode talks about death and, if I remember correctly, contains a bit of bad language).
Simon Sinek on AI (Via Diary of a CEO: I don't subscribe to this podcast anymore, but I'm a big Simon Sinek fan, and he shares some interesting thoughts about human skills in this episode, so I am glad I listened).
From Stiffness to Stillness with Lawrence van Lingen (Via Feel Better, Live More: a fascinating interview with a holistic movement expert).

I listen to podcasts in the Snipd app, but you can find shows and episodes I recommend wherever you like to listen to podcasts. Use my referral link to get a month of Snipd Premium for free.

(By the way, I'm listening to this as I type...)

🧰 Tools

I've been trying to incorporate voice-to-text into various workflows recently. Tana is my preferred note-taking tool; it's brilliant, but for some reason, it doesn't always recognise my voice as speaking English (it thinks I am speaking Welsh!). I suspect the issue is the underpinning AI model, rather than Tana, but it is still frustrating. I've tested a few more AI-powered transcription tools, and WisprFlow seems responsive and accurate.

I'd love to know how you are using dictation in your work.

That's all I have to say today. Have a great week, and I'll be in touch again next weekend.

Best wishes,

Martine

Whenever you’re ready, here’s how I can help: