Weekly Review
You spent Week 4 examining four different aspects of your professional situation: your organizational value, your financial position, your workplace standing, and your capacity to build alternatives. Today you integrate those findings to see what they reveal together and build your Week 5 plan based on actual patterns rather than
Weekly Review
Yesterday you reviewed what Week 4 revealed about your organizational standing. Today you decide which security-building actions deserve continued investment and which need different approaches. Not all security-building work creates equal protection. Today you separate what actually matters from what feels productive but doesn't change your position. What
Weekly Review
Yesterday you reviewed what Week 4 revealed about your spending, your survival number, and the gap between them. Today you decide which expense changes become permanent and calculate your actual timeline to three months of buffer. Not all expense reductions create equal benefit. Today you separate cuts that improve your
Weekly Review
Yesterday you reviewed what Week 4 revealed about your workplace visibility, your communication patterns, and your inclusion in meaningful conversations. Today you decide which navigation actions deserve continued investment and which need different approaches. Not all visibility work creates equal protection. Today you separate what actually strengthens your position from
Weekly Review
Yesterday you reviewed what Week 4 revealed about your discretionary time and your professional experiment results. Today you decide whether you have actual capacity to build alternatives and what your next experiment should test. Not all experiments reveal equal information. Today you separate what pointed toward viable direction from what
Weekly Review
This week you examined your actual organizational value from three angles: the tasks that make you indispensable, the skill gaps you could fill, and what your performance review revealed about leadership priorities. Today you review what those three examinations revealed about your real standing. What to review: Pull out the
Weekly Review
This week you tracked how you actually spend weekend time and ran a small professional experiment testing one specific hypothesis. Now you review what both revealed about your capacity and your direction. Today you identify whether you have time to build alternatives and whether your experiment pointed toward something worth
Most job applications eventually request references. Creating your reference list before you need it means you're not scrambling to find contact information or asking people for permission while a deadline looms. A reference list includes three to five people who can speak credibly about your work quality and
Employment gaps make hiring managers nervous if you don't address them. They assume the worst: you were fired, you're unemployable, or you've been out of the workforce so long your skills are outdated. Addressing the gap directly and briefly in your cover letter prevents
Cross-departmental relationships matter during layoffs. When leadership decides who stays, they consider who understands how the company actually works, not just their own corner of it. Most people stay within their department boundaries. They know their team, their manager, their immediate projects. When restructuring happens, these people become easy to
You've been meaning to join a professional group for months. You know networking matters, but scrolling through LinkedIn groups or Reddit forums feels like watching conversations you're not part of. The goal today is not to network actively. The goal is to position yourself where professional
Practical career and financial guidance for professionals under pressure
This week you tracked where your money goes, tested cutting one expense, and calculated your actual survival number. Now you compare what you learned against what you assumed. Most people discover their financial reality differs significantly from their financial perception. Today you identify those gaps. What to review: Pull out
This week you examined your workplace standing from three angles: cross-departmental relationships, email communication patterns, and which conversations actually include you. Now you review what those patterns revealed. Today you identify whether your organizational position matches what you thought or whether you discovered gaps. What to review: Pull out the
You send dozens of emails every week. You think you know what your communication patterns look like. Then you actually review a month of sent mail and realize your position is different than you thought. Email patterns reveal who depends on your work, who you depend on, and where you
You found quick income opportunities. Selling items generated immediate cash. Service work offers are coming in. You're tempted to accept everything because you need money. Some income work extends your runway without affecting job search. Other income work delays reemployment while providing short-term cash. Today you learn the
You attend meetings. You participate in discussions. You contribute to decisions. You assume this means you're valued and secure. Then restructuring happens and you discover your participation mattered less than you thought. Why this matters now: Not all workplace conversations carry equal weight. Some conversations include you because
You ran a seven-day experiment testing a professional hypothesis. You tracked responses, gathered feedback, noted your own reactions. Now you have data. Most people misinterpret their results. They declare success prematurely or abandon directions too quickly. You need to know what your experiment actually revealed. Why this matters now: Small
Your emergency fund is depleting faster than you'd like. Unemployment benefits don't cover your full survival expenses. You need additional income, but you also need time for job searching, interviewing, and networking. Today you identify which side income options extend your runway without sabotaging the work
Your performance review praised your teamwork, your reliability, your positive attitude. It mentioned several projects you completed successfully. You left feeling good about your standing. Six months later, your position was eliminated. Why this matters now: Performance reviews document contributions, but not all contributions carry equal weight during budget decisions.
You open LinkedIn. You browse Indeed. You check company career pages. An hour disappears and you found two positions worth applying to, both of which you probably saw yesterday. Random browsing consumes time without producing proportional results. Today you replace browsing with alerts that surface relevant positions automatically. Why this
You had a good networking conversation. You connected with someone at a target company, a former colleague reached out to help, or an informational interview went well. Then weeks pass and you never follow up. The contact disappears. The potential opportunity dies from neglect. Why this matters now: Most networking
Your last performance review praised your collaboration, your project completion, your professional development. You felt good walking out of that meeting. Three months later, your department announced restructuring and your position was among those eliminated. Why this matters now: Performance reviews document contributions, but not all contributions carry equal weight
You know what you spend monthly. You tracked it for 30 days. You tested cutting one expense. Now you need to know a different number: what you actually need to survive. This is not your current spending. This is the minimum amount required to keep housing, utilities, food, transportation, and