Sunday Setup
A weekly newsletter to help get your mind set up for a positive workweek.
01.19.2025 — Two Holidays Walk Into a Bar
Two Days in One
For most employees, the third full week of 2025 will only have four work days. I'm sure that's music to many ears considering we're twenty days into the new year. It's time for a break now, right?
Monday, January 20, 2025 will be an historic day. President-elect Trump will be inaugurated into office as only the second president to serve two nonconsecutive terms. The split term OG, Grover Cleveland, first held the office in 1885 and again in 1893.
Monday, January 20, 2025 is also the national holiday on which we recognize Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday. With MLK Day being only 42 years old, this will be just the second time it's been observed on inauguration day. The double holiday OG, Bill Clinton, was inaugurated into his second term in 1997.
Like most people, I love a "free" day off from work, but we're getting gipped this week. How often are you asked to enjoy both items of a two-for-one deal at the same time? You can't simultaneously wear two pairs of shoes, so shouldn't we get two days off this week?
I think it's time to write your senator!
The Person at the Other End
This week's holidays present an opportunity for us to be mindful of how the work we do impacts others. Martin Luther King, Jr. dedicated his life to improving the lives of millions of African-Americans through civil rights advancements. Once President-elect Trump takes office, every decision he makes over the next four years will affect each and every one of the 335 million Americans in this country. In the end, both men will have impacted millions of people they never met, and the same is true for us.
Regardless of what you do for work, there's always a person on the other end that experiences the results of that work. More often than not, you don't get to meet that person and that can make it easy to lose sight of the big picture. So, when you're out of gas after a long day of back-to-back Zoom meetings that roll into one another like Netflix episodes, try not to "mail in" your efforts when you actually get to do the work.
Instead, take a moment to "read the credits." Put a face and name to the person that will be impacted by your work. Imagine Taylor clearly understanding the benefits, interactions, and side effects of a prescribed medicine after reading the diligently crafted and revised website copy. Or, imagine the gains in efficiency Taylor's team will experience as a result of the hard work invested in debugging the newest feature on that critical web app. Either way, Taylor enjoys the fruits of your labor, and isn't that part of why we do what we do?
When we realize that the work we do is so much bigger than us, we all win. Don't let Taylor down this week. Go the extra mile to ensure your work positively impacts the intended audience.