“It’s in the quiet moments that you are open to magic.” ✨~Courtney Carver
Shout out to Michelle Valiukenas for buying me coffee! ☕️ Thank you!
Michelle is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Colette Louise Tisdahl Foundation. This organization helps families in crisis due to high-risk & complicated pregnancy, NICU stays, or loss.
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This week was pretty busy on the job front, but I felt a little lighter, so I’ll take the win. And answer another reader question:
Q: How do you keep organized? How organized are you?
A: I guess you are probably curious about how I manage two jobs, a business, caregiving, and living life? I wish I could say that I knew the answer. Some days I can’t even figure out how it all works myself. 😂. I will say there is coffee involved and the occasional tequila shot. But I will share some things that help me keep it all together.
📓. Bullet Journal.
I’m not even sure I can call it that since I only use the daily task/meetings page spread and the symbols. It’s my version of bullet journaling, I guess? 🤔 I love technology but have never been able to stick with a task management tool. Early in the pandemic, I started with the bullet journal (this article got me started) and have been using it ever since. It works better to be able to write my tasks down by hand and check them off.
🗓. yourweek.app
While I keep day-to-day tasks in my bullet journal, I like to keep less time-sensitive things here. For example, I can capture ideas for pages or posts I want to create and pieces of training I want to review at some point. It’s a straightforward app, with a “this week” section and a “later” section. If the task doesn’t go in my journal, it goes here.
📆. Google Calendar.
Appointments, meetings, and anything with a set time and place goes here. On my phone, I use the Google Calendar app, combining all my different calendars to get a sense of what’s happening on any given day.
💪🏾. Virtual Assistant.
Hiring my virtual assistant to help with graphics and social media has been a game-changer. I feel like I have more mental space to focus on some bigger-picture thinking.
🎗. Calendar Reminders.
I tend to take on too much (hard to believe, right?), so I’ve set up some daily calendar reminders that pop up at good moments for me to pause and take a breath:
7 am - What is the most important thing for me to do today?
Noon - Don’t do more today than you can recover from tomorrow.
🧘🏾♀️. Self Care.
I couldn’t do much of anything without taking care of myself. At a bare minimum, I realize that I need to get 7-8 hours of sleep every night. Rest does a lot for me, including helping me focus while juggling all the balls in my life. Aside from that, I try my best to get to my BeMoved dance class every Wednesday night. Exercise, yes, but dancing is so good for my mental health. So if I can get those two things every week from a self-care perspective, I’m good.
🚫. Saying No.
This one I struggle with, but I’m getting better at it. I try to say no if an opportunity is anything other than a firm “uh-huh” from my gut. I don’t always honor that, but I’m working to improve there. Baby steps!
🤗. Grace.
Sometimes different things will have to take different priority. And sometimes balls will drop, even doing this newsletter weekly. So when that happens, I want to try to have grace with myself and prioritize rest and self-care in those moments.
Let me know if that answers your questions or if you have follow-ups on any of these. I love doing these, so if you have more questions, just reply and let me know.
On to the picks!
Note: This email may contain affiliate links. If you click through my link and make a purchase, that means I may receive “thank you money” at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products that I use and love.
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#loves 😍
📚. Reading: Unmissing. Definitely enjoying this one so far. Premise: Lydia, a woman who was missing for ten years and presumed dead, returns to her husband, who has remarried and built a new life. He and his new wife decide to help her, but nothing is what it seems. She seems to have some secrets.
📺. Watching: Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls. My colleague Lauren told me about this show, and it does not disappoint. Lizzo is auditioning backup dancers for her concerts, but the show is about more than that. There are themes of body positivity, empowerment, representation, and stepping into who you are. And of course, the dances are 🔥.
🎧. Listening: Do you Need to Monetize Everything In Your Biz? I enjoyed this Denise Duffield-Thomas podcast episode that digs into how she makes her money in her business and why she offers some things for free. She also talks about why she doesn’t offer advertising on her podcast and how she is pricing her new books.
#reads
Balancing a Job and a Side Hustle — Getting the Best of Both Worlds — medium.com
“The normality of a 9–5 on its own can be crippling for a lot of us if a bit of spice is not added, in the form of side hustle goodness.
Side hustles are a fantastic way to get the best of both worlds and have more variety in your life.”
I love being able to work and have a business. And right now, the combination works so well together.
Do Less: 8 Little Notes To Help You Pull Back And Reset — bemorewithless.com
Definitely resonating with allllll of this:
“Productivity culture will call you to do more. It will make you believe that if you could do a little more, finish one more thing and just ignore what you know about yourself for a little longer, you’ll be happy, loved, successful, rich, and (insert other lies here).
Unfortunately, burnout and illness is the common response to productivity and hustle culture. Doing more things doesn’t make you a better person. It makes you a tired person.”
#icymi
😍. Last issue’s top pick was: Side Hustler Tools and Resources
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#lifevibes
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