From Pussyhats To Boosting Your Job-Search SEO: This Week’s Top Leadership Stories

This week we learned about the genesis of the Pussyhat Project that gave the Women’s March movement their most recognizable symbol; a few tips for writing better to-do lists; and the nuts and bolts of “defensive Googling” for job seekers this year.

These are the stories you loved in Leadership for the week of January 22:

1. Six Items That Should Never Be On Your To-Do List

To-do lists are notoriously easy to write and just as notoriously hard to complete. Among their key pitfalls, as writer Stephanie Vozza puts it, is that they “don’t provide context about the tasks, they don’t give you a timeline, and they’re easy to ignore.” Sometimes the way around those problems is to stop yourself from adding certain items to your list in the first place.

2. This Google Expert’s Top SEO Tips For Job Seekers In 2017

Do you practice what digital marketing consultant and Google aficionado Tina Arnoldi calls “defensive Googling”? If not, you should consider it. Here’s her game plan—with step one being to Google your own name—to help job seekers optimize their personal brands so that recruiters can find them easily (and for the right reasons).

3. Why Google, Twitter, And LinkedIn Employees Are Kicking These Seven Work Habits

When it comes to daily productivity, it’s sometimes the things you stop doing, rather than the new habits you adopt, that make all the difference. Fast Company asked employees at some of the leading tech companies to reveal which routines they’re trying to weed out of their workdays in the year ahead, and why.

4. Five Ways To Say “No” So You Can Finally Reclaim Your Focus

There’s no better way to invite distraction into your workday than to say “yes” to every request thrown at you. But batting them away in real-time can be exhausting. Here are a few alternative methods of tuning out the most taxing demands on your attention so you can stay focused for longer.

5. The Creators Of The Pussyhat Project Explain How Craft Projects Are Protest

The day after Donald J. Trump’s inauguration, millions of women (as well as men and children) participated in the Women’s March in the U.S. and globally, and many wore pink knitted caps. That moment was weeks in the making, and it began when several American women decided to turn a common craft into a symbol of organized defiance. This week they shared their process and objectives with Fast Company.