Thanks for signing up to all the new readers! Here are some nuggets about how networks shape your wellbeing, relationships and community to help you actively cultivate yours.
Wellbeing
As things open up, we can reflect on which groups of people that we spend time with support our wellbeing. In We Want Our Friends Back! (But Which Ones?), the author collects a number of anecdotes from people who are making choices about who they want to spend time with going forward:
Even extroverts learned lessons in pulling back. LaTonya Yvette, 31, a stylist and blogger in Brooklyn, used to hold giant parties. The din, dozens of people shouting to be heard over the next person. The shared energy from bodies familiar and not, packed tightly. But she has come to savor the intimate friendships that blossomed the past year, including with a neighbor who sang with her on her stoop every night at 7 p.m. during the darkest days last spring. “I’m so thankful to have more emotional space,” Ms. Yvette said. “I don’t see that changing. I don’t necessarily want it to.”
Relationships
My friends over at Strata have put together a resource list of “The best tools for your professional network”. It spans a range of categories from relationship management to email productivity to scheduling. A number of tools I use made the list and there are several that I’m very eager to try! Here are my favorites from the list (above and beyond Strata of course):
Community
This beautiful, interactive map shows connections between information and not people. However, it’s goal is very human-centric: “making digital experiences healthier and more beautiful for young people”. They use a network analysis approach to identify the root factors that have the highest leverage among the data they crowdsourced from young people. The hope is that by focusing effort around these factors, they can have a bigger impact. Their findings bubbled up into 3 key areas:
Positive relationships
Balanced content
Accessible resources
You can explore the interactive map here.
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About The Reliants Project
Reliant is my word for a person that someone depends on, an essential component of our social networks. With each edition, I’ll share useful nuggets about how networks shape your wellbeing, relationships and community to help you actively cultivate yours. Whether you want to cultivate your relationships, make better introductions, or activate networks to make an impact in the world, let me help you reach your goals.
You can find more about The Reliants Project here.