Curbing Spending, Rebuilding Attention Spans and Laughter is the Best Medicine: What I’m Reading This Week

A few days ago, a told me that she sees winter as a time to give yourself a pass to rest. She said to shelve your productivity ambitions for a warmer day. I’ve been thinking about that ever since.

I have decided to embrace that mindset and let myself eat all the pasta dishes, bake all the sourdough bread and make all the cups of tea I want. Now is the time to rest, nourish and stay warm. Now is not the time to adhere to strict diets or pack social calendars.

It’s true, winter is a challenging season, and 2026 so far is no exception. But winter is also a time to cocoon and reflect. With that in mind, I’ve found three articles to muse on while watching snow fall—or shoveling the driveway. Wherever you are, I hope you’re warm, safe and can practice kindness as we get through this winter storm together.

Curbing Spending

You’ve heard of Dry January, but have you heard of No Buy January?

There’s a small, but growing, cohort of folks who are opting out (or at least scaling way, way back) of being consumers for the month of January.

The No Buy trend can mean different things to different people. I’ve seen people attempt to buy absolutely nothing at all, others who say essentials only (with definitions of what constitutes an essential and budgets for those items), and still others who say they will try to avoid spending money (sometimes, they’ll clean out the freezer, use gift cards or barter or trade to make it the 31 days).

The point is not the rules by which for they’re adhering to a no buy month (e.g., how strict they are or why they’re going out to eat—to celebrate someone’s birthday) but that they’re trying to be more conscientious and cognizant of their purchases in the first place.

We live in an age where we can order just about anything we can imagine in a few taps of our fingers and have it arrive on our doorstep in a just few minutes or days. We don’t think, we just buy. But given the rising costs, tariffs and climate awareness, more folks are realizing what they’re doing is not sustainable; they have to change their habits.

Jennifer Williams’ article for The Wall Street Journal profile several folks who have or are attempting to make fewer purchases this month or this year. It’s a fascinating insight into why we buy—and why we shouldn’t.

Read the full article here.

Rebuilding Attention Spans

Attention! Attention! May I have your attention?

There are many conveniences to having the world’s knowledge at my fingertips, but I am nostalgic for the days before I had a cell phone, texting plan or even email address. I feel like even though I had to work more to find information, I had more focus and higher productivity.

I don’t think I’m alone with my musings, if this article from Simar Bajaj in The New York Times is any indication. Rounding up advice from experts, Bajaj offers three steps to help fix our attention spans.

The fact that I don’t want to complete the first step, an attention audit, for fear of what I’ll find tells me all I need to know about how I’m spending my time. It feels impossible, nay unwise, to turn off all notifications for extended periods of time, but I will try some of the suggestions to reduce distractions—the second step. The third step is actually reassuring, because Bajaj describes focus like a muscle, something we can flex and strengthen.

If you’re distracted, restless and frazzled, I highly encourage you to read these recommendations and try a few out. Yesterday, I used 20 minutes of my lunch break to read a chapter in my book rather than scroll social media, as I normally would. I felt refreshed, calmer and more focused afterward. It was a good reminder that you don’t need to invest huge amounts of time or resources to do something that’s good for you, while also enjoying yourself in the process.

Read the full article here.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Recently, a mom told me how much her two young children make her laugh. As she was talking, I tried to recall the last time I genuinely laughed—not the polite chuckle you may make in professional or social situations.

When I saw this article from The New York Times, I knew I had to read further. Jancee Dunn does cite research that children laugh more and that laughter is good for our health. Perhaps more importantly, Dunn spoke with someone who offered ideas for how laugh more. Perhaps not surprisingly, the advice often involves tapping into our inner child.

Do something fun—and make it cute. Make a smiley face on your food. Wear a colorful outfit. Take a bubble bath. Be curious. As children explore and learn, they encounter so much newness and wonder. As adults, few things surprise us or catch us off guard, at least, in a good or fun way.

You may have to put in more work to create novelty, but you can still enjoy yourself or find yourself chuckling. The novelty aspect it explains why I can’t watch Kevin’s famous chili incident every time I need to laugh—and why seeing a dog sled down a hill prompted a sudden fit of the giggles.

Read more here.