The Optimist Daily is all about solutions — those that make big impacts in the world as well as those that enhance our daily lives. As solution-seekers, news readers, and good-for-the-world-and-soul product searchers, we often have things that have made our lives better. This week, we’ll review a few of our CEO Summers Mckay’s favorite things!
Summers is a mother (to three humans and currently five pet children!), an avid gardener, a recently returning to practice yogi, and a collaborative leader at The Optimist Daily. She has explored a lot of efficient life hacks while trying to care for all the things that she loves in her very busy MOM CEO life. Here are a few of her favorite solutions that make her life better.
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I was so excited when the editorial team asked me to contribute a few of my favorite solutions. Mostly, my life is about how things can grow better – whether it’s a business, a plant, a child, my not so Mini-Australian shepherd or one of my cats. While this may seem like a total paid promo piece for these companies, it’s not. I legitimately love these things!!!
EasyPlant
As an avid house plant lover, I really enjoy creating beautiful green spaces in my home, but there can be hurdles to keeping my indoor forest healthy. One of my biggest challenges is leaky pots that leave rings on the surfaces they reside. We also have a lot of concern about mold in our home as both my little one and I have serious mold allergies. I have fallen in love with EasyPlant for both the efficiency of watering them just once a month and also their sturdy and simple pots which blend well into home decor. It’s a great gift to send to a friend instead of flowers, and the company has awesome customer service. Pro-tip for the cat parents around here, use a bag of river rock from your local home improvement store to cover the soil so your kitty cats don’t make your houseplants into their extended litter box, and it looks pretty stylish too.
Teeccino
When we all got sent home to work, I developed a habit of putting a pot of coffee on in the morning and drinking the entire pot throughout the day. Something about being wasteful of the coffee made me feel like I had to finish the whole thing, and, needless to say, it was just too much caffeine in my life, and frankly, the wind up, wine down cycle just stopped feeling healthy. So, I made a change, got a glass pour-over coffee system and committed to just one cup of coffee a day, and fulfilled the rest of my daily warm beverage habit with the delicious caffeine-free rich and bold teas from Teecino. I love the ritual of making a warm cup before our morning podcast records and have fallen for their mushroom and adaptogenic herb blends. The Lion’s Mane Rhodiola Rose Mushroom Herbal Coffee is my fav.
Poor Pluto
Space is amazing and filled with mysteries: did you know that Pluto has ice volcanoes??? Here’s the exciting part of that…. My youngest daughter is obsessed with Pluto AND Volcanoes!!!! The teachers at her amazing nature school brought this book by Professor Felix to their curriculum, and it has become an absolute favorite read for my little one. At two years old and rounding the corner of three, she is developing awareness of the stars, moon, sun, and sky. I am deeply grateful to the caring teachers at her school who help me raise my little one with curiosity, creativity and love. It would be impossible to do my job at The Optimist Daily without their help. Her dad and I love that this book teaches compassion and science and is setting the scene for a solution-thinking mindset for our tiniest girl.
Google Docs
Running a global publishing company with brilliant minds in dozens of time zones means we need to work smart, efficiently, and together-apart. We use a lot of google docs for creating our first drafts, sharing ideas, and allowing one another to work independently and contribute when it is most effective for each person on the team. Writers, technologists, marketers, and customer service people all have different schedules and processes of completing their work, and we’ve found that good ol’ Google Docs is our go-to way to get everyone’s input and never lose a draft.
Everything Brene Brown but specifically Dare to Lead
If you’ve had the opportunity to read (or in my case listen) to any of the work of Dr. Brene Brown, you know she is a game-changer when it comes to self-awareness and personal evolution. As a leader, I have found tremendous value in applying the concepts of personal growth into how we lead our team at The Optimist Daily. If you’re interested in Dr. Brown’s work on vulnerability and leadership, listen to her audiobook!
We hope you’ll try these joyous life solutions and keep reading The Optimist Daily for more!
