Hello, fellow tinkerer 👋

Happy Tuesday. I decided to send this a day early because it's CHRISTMAS WEEK. Which means my house is full of cookies, Chex Mix, Trader Joe's Winter Wake Up Tea, and children who don't have school.

1) Reflection:

As I announced last week, I'm hosting a workshop in January: Reflect and Plan.

It's a 4-week email series with guided reflection prompts, plus a private Slack community to do the work alongside other solopreneurs. Starts January 5th.

I'm going to be doing these reflections with you. (And if you've followed my brain tumor journey, you know 2025 was a bit unexpected...)

Our goal as a group is to look back on 2025 and look forward to 2026. The difference? You can talk about your reflections with a group of fellow solopreneurs.

2) Product

When I had surgery in July, a friend got me a Warmie — a microwavable stuffed animal. I love it so much that I got one for each of my kids for Christmas.

While this suggestion is probably too late for your own Christmas gift-giving, maybe a New Year's present? Or Valentine's Day?

3) Tip

Every since Spotify launched "Spotify Wrapped" years ago, companies have raced to create their own versions. The most boring I saw this year was Google Drive telling me how much storage space I used...

I think it's more fun to create your own and pull information from multiple sources. Like how many miles you ran, books you read, movies you watched, meetings you survived... whatever feels meaningful to you. Spend a little bit of time and pull it all together and you can think, "Cool, look at the stuff I did in 2025."

(And if you'd like to do this with some guidance, might I suggest Reflect and Plan? 😉)

Want more ideas?

→ 5 Corporate Ideas That Hold You Back as a Freelancer​

→ The AI Bubble Is Here and It's Filled With Failed Experiments​

→ If Reflect and Plan isn't the right fit for you, you can also check out my free Quarterly Planning Checklist.

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

Cheers,
Anna

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