Morning Brew - 🚀 I need space

Solve the logistical nightmare of being stuck in a center seat for 8+ hours with no airplane TV by using the Airhook. The tool holds your phone, iPad, or tablet in place and conveniently has a cup holder. It’s practically like being at the theater.

Put your distractions to the side and keep them there with the Focus Lock app, which disables all downloaded apps (think: Instagram, TikTok, and that one game you wind up playing at 2am), for a set amount of time you choose.

If you’ve ever experienced feelings of exhaustion or sickness when taking some well-deserved time off, you’re not alone. A recent Well+Good article put a name to the phenomenon: leisure sickness (the guilt and stress some feel while on PTO), and offered tips to overcome it.

A head start on your hustle.

We usually think of “side hustles” as extra work: a new skill to learn, another webpage to set up, and more emails to send. But in a world of ever-increasing unusual side hustles, there are lots of options that require minimal effort and startup costs. One example is Neighbor.com. Much like Airbnb, Neighbor.com, which was launched in 2017 by cofounders Joseph Woodbury, Preston Alder, and Colton Gardner, is a platform that allows people to rent out space in their homes, yards, or garages.

Neighbor.com allows users to rent a neighbor’s unused extra space at a rate lower than the average, overcrowded, and often distant chain storage unit. The idea came to Alder when he needed to temporarily store his items while he left the country on a mission trip, but couldn’t find a location that met his needs at a reasonable price.

We spoke with Woodbury to learn more. “There’s this nationwide [storage] occupancy problem,” Woodbury told Sidekick. “Right now the average occupancy rate is 96%, so all the facilities are basically completely full and you’re going to have to drive like a half hour to the next town just to find one with any sort of vacancy.”

In other words, if you have some extra room in a closet, basement, garage, or even driveway, you could be making cash in your sleep. According to Woodbury, setting up a page is simple: Make an account, enter the size of the space you’re looking to rent out, as well as any amenities it has (smoke detectors, secure locks, or climate control). Neighbor.com will give you an estimate of how much you can expect to make based on a nationwide algorithm.

“It will provide you a recommended price that will make [your space] 90% more likely to be rented and maximize your earnings,” Woodbury told us.

To protect both renters and hosts from liability, hosts are required to go through a full government ID verification process. And you can rent anything—from an RV to a parking space in your driveway, or even an extra room at your small business location. Once you’ve made an account, take some pics of your space and let the cash roll in.

“You don't have to be a great driver or have a designer Airbnb. You literally just need to have excess space,” Woodbury concluded.

So if you recently did some spring cleaning and now you’re wondering what to fill that empty closet space with, consider your neighbor’s Funko Pop! collection.—SS

Tech tips and tricks.

If you don’t have dual monitors and have to continuously click between pages, then we say this in the nicest way possible: Get it together and set up a split screen view on your Mac. First, drag your tabs apart to create two separate windows. Click and hold the green, full screen button to view all the options. Click the side of the screen you want to view the page in. Then select another open window to view it on the other half. Drag the slider in the middle to make one page larger or smaller than the other. I just saved you from clicking back and forth a million times simply to copy and paste. You’re welcome.—SS

Burning questions of our time.

Your thoughts on reference honesty hour:

Never provide negative feedback in a reference unless you’re illustrating an improvement story or are spinning it in a positive manner. If you have a crisis of conscience over this, then be honest with the job searcher and tell them you would include that (and let them decide whether they still want the reference).—Blake

As a business and career instructor, I inform students that one should always ask permission to use someone as a reference. If there is hesitation in the reply, be cautious—this is a sign that they may not give you the best reference. When I’m asked to be a reference and know I will not give a glowing reference that will help someone obtain a position, I suggest other folks in their life who may know them much better than I—a coach, teacher, a church leader, etc.—Debbie

The health insurance quandary:

We’ve all heard of employees staying at a job they hate just to keep their health insurance. Under our current healthcare system, these situations are extremely common. And you could argue that they exist to discourage employees from pursuing entrepreneurship, full-time freelance work, or retirement.

Proponents of separating our healthcare from our employment claim that it would lead to lower healthcare costs and better care. Opponents say our current approach is simply our best option, since a high-quality healthcare system can be an indicator of a strong economy.

Is separating health insurance coverage from employment the future of healthcare, or a mistake waiting to happen? Send your best arguments over to the Sidekick inbox!—MW

Read: Learn about the dark history behind the founding of the world’s first independent Black nation: Haiti. This investigative series calculates the total bill the country was forced to pony up to France and the US in exchange for its freedom.

Watch: You know Kim Kardashian and Marilyn Monroe. But have you heard about the original billboard queen, Angelyne? Get the scoop on the mysterious bombshell’s beginnings and impact on pop culture from Peacock’s new limited series.

Follow: Tune into @sciencechannel’s TikTok for some wholesome doomscrolling. The account includes everything from how ice cream sandwiches are made to the history of an ancient human skull that might be the remains of biblical figure Mary Magdalene.

Subscribe:  Sunday Snippets is a weekly newsletter that delivers actionable productivity hacks, practical business tips, and lessons from Ali Abdaal’s entrepreneurial journey from med student to 7-figure business owner. More than 137,000 people read it every Sunday, and it’s completely free to join. Subscribe today!

Weekend vibes: Treat your legs to Vuori’s Sunday Performance Shorts for the perfect blend of style, comfort, and 4-way stretch. Perfect for living, working, playing, and chilling. Get 20% off your first purchase.*

*This is sponsored advertising content.