Tinkering With Ideas #043: Good livin'


Hello, fellow tinkerer 👋 -

Happy Friday. It's the tail-end of a holiday week here in the U.S. I took the week off from client work and did some traveling with my fam.

Taking part of next week off also. No matter if you work for an employer or work for yourself, I highly recommend giving yourself at least one "recovery day" to get caught up on life stuff before resuming work.

This week, I have something a bit different for the newsletter. I started writing down a bunch of tips for travel / summer and couldn't narrow it down into my regular newsletter format! So rather than save the ideas for future issues, I'm giving you the whole list.

Enjoy!

  1. If you're ever visiting the state of Wisconsin in the U.S., I highly recommend a Wisconsin Ducks tour in the Wisconsin Dells. Stunning tour and amazing tour guides.
  2. If you get a bee sting, mix baking soda with a little bit of water to form a paste and put it on the sting. It works wonders.
  3. I have a lot of tattoos and recently discovered Mad Rabbit tattoo products. I bought the Defend Tattoo Sunscreen (and then also ended up with the Enhance Tattoo Balm).
  4. I'm not great at taking care of my yard, but I've had good luck with Sunday Lawn Care products, especially Dandelion Doom and Weed Warrior.
  5. I ended up with a summer sinus infection last week (yuck). But my neti pot came to the rescue. Someone on Threads called it "fractional drowning" and that feels about right - but it works. I think my sinus infection would have been a lot worse otherwise.
  6. Whenever I travel with my family, we bring clipboards with printed itineraries. Here's how it helps keep my kids chill.
  7. Until very recently, our suitcases were a free-for-all when we traveled. But before a big trip last year, I bought organizing cubes. Makes life in a hotel room with five people a lot easier.
  8. I travel with a weighted blanket (yup) and a Hug Sleep Pod to make sleeping easier. On this last trip, my 12-year-old borrowed the Hug Sleep Pod and loved it, so I'll be getting him his own.
  9. Ear Candy: Fantasia Barrino won American Idol in 2004, and I still think about her performance of Summertime.
  10. I'm obsessed with the musical Hamilton and it's become my 4th of July tradition to watch it on Disney+. If you haven't seen the show, go watch it RIGHT NOW!

That's it for this issue of Tinkering! See you again in two weeks.

Anna


Want more ideas?

I talk about repurposing my LinkedIn posts to Threads in this video.

A few more things to read and listen to in this list.

That's it for this issue of Tinkering! See you again in two weeks.

Cheers,
Anna


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Anna Burgess Yang

Practical tips to make your day better & make your life easier.

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