I hope your financial year is starting or continuing well! Thanks to all of you who entertained my bonkers Happy New Year email a while ago.
One of you even responded to let me know that you celebrate St. Olaf's day every 19th of July just to irritate your colleagues. So I appreciate that we're all just trying to keep joy alive.
On the spirit of keeping joy alive... an interesting piece of research I've come across recently is the importance of rest for productivity. While rest for productivity itself isn't new, there is recent research that shows that the amount of rest you need is pretty startling.
But it's not actually how much you should be resting, it's how much you will be resting. If you're not resting that percentage of the time, your body will force you to rest in one way or another - by making you unwell, by making you tired, etc.
All these things will slow you down. And so resting on purpose is something that the Fireside team are looking really closely into.
If, like me, you sometimes struggle to switch off, you may find yourself googling 'How do I rest?'. One of the most restful activities you can do is reading, and as such while we often recommend business books or books that we thought would be good for fundraisers, this time I asked each of the team to recommend their favourite fiction book.
It is actually a kid's book that is about a Little Prince travelling the universe with a rose by his side. The moral of the story is that time spent with a loved one is never wasted, and it's something that brings me comfort when I'm struggling to relax.
Lisa's favourite book is Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland.
A book about coming of age and the unavoidable nature of growing up - featuring dystopian visions and... well, a girlfriend in a coma.
We might not have all had a coma, but we've all struggled to grow up. We can take comfort from knowing we all share this lived experience.
Lucy's favourite book is The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.
An awesome book by an even better author, about two teenagers living with cancer. It's a hard read at times, but beautiful throughout. I actually remember reading this for the first time myself at 16, and there are passages that still stay with me: there's poetry in this story, I'm sure.
Laura's favourite book is The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver about a missionary family who moves to the Congo.
The father of the family creates his own mis-print of the Bible and it's a story about how, as we pass things down, they change and mean different things to the people around us.
An interesting one when we consider the history of storytelling!
I'd love to hear what your favourite book is, particularly if these books remind you of any others that you can recommend to me or the team and we'll see you back in your inbox fortnight, rested up.
See you by the Fireside until then,
Thanks,
Andy.
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