“You’re a plant. Water yourself daily.” 🪴~Lalah Delia
Shout out to Kirsty Cleverly for buying me coffee! ☕️ Thank you!
Kirsty is the founder of Bonjour Quilts. In addition to selling gorgeous digital quilt patterns, she also provides tutorials and techniques to help you make your next handmade masterpiece.
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Last week, it was so great to have Kandice take over #jesspicks. And based on the awesome replies I got, I think I may try to do more. So if you have any themes or topics you’d love to see in future #guestpicks, let me know.
The last couple of weeks have been hectic but also rewarding for me. Over the 4th of July weekend, I fostered a pup named Waffles. 🐶 It was a wonderful experience, and it was uber hard to let her go. I mean, look at this face. I’m so grateful that I could give her a good home for a few days while she recovered from surgery.
Also, I signed up to walk 30 miles this month to raise money for St. Jude’s. I’m currently at a little over 20 miles. Follow along with my progress and fundraiser here.
And lastly, I am teaching this summer! I am participating in the One Summer Chicago program, and we are helping high school juniors and seniors become leaders in their communities. This week, we’ve already spent some time helping them discover their strengths and working on their LinkedIn profiles. Future topics include public speaking, data and research, human-centered design, marketing, and emerging technologies.
You may be asking how I’m managing everything? So. Am. I. 😂 And if I’m uber honest, I haven’t been sleeping well lately—so many nightmares about work. 😫And I feel anxious about getting everything done and not letting balls drop. It took me a minute to recognize that teaching takes a lot of energy and that, as an introvert, I need to build in some extra time to recharge. The juggle is real.
I’m thinking of reworking my schedule a bit as I head back into the office more and creating more structure for my workdays. As it might be helpful to you, here are a few things I’m trying:
☎️ Batching. Putting like activities together as much as I can. This looks like stacking meetings or phone calls. And putting writing and creating tasks together.
👩🏾🎓 Carving out time for learning. As you’ll see in the #reads section, I like the idea of having an hour or two every week to focus on learning. That can look like getting through some coursework or even catching up on blogs in my Feedly.
💃🏾 Movement. I am trying to walk as much as possible because I know every little bit of exercise helps my mental health. I’ll also be getting back into dance (because I have a performance coming up soon) and maybe even some yoga.
These three things feel manageable. And makes me feel a lot better knowing that I have a plan for moving forward.
Sometimes when our schedule, commitments, or work somehow changes, it might take us a little bit to find a new rhythm. That’s OK. It’s an excellent time for us to have grace with ourselves and find more moments of joy and care.
What are you struggling with right now? How can I help? Hit reply and let me know. Or, if you have a question about anything I’ve mentioned or that you are curious about, I’m happy to respond over email, or we can chat live.
On to the picks!
P.S. Have you had the opportunity to meet other #jesspicks readers? I hear great things. If you haven’t, add your details here, and you’ll be matched soon.
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#loves 😍
📺. Watching: Virgin River. OMG, have I been sleeping on this show? I kept seeing it in my recommendations and decided to take the plunge, and it is so good. I finished season 1 in one weekend. Romantic drama is the genre, I think? I fell in love with the characters. Season 3 dropped yesterday.
🎧. Listening: How to Double Your Income (Without Working Harder). Love this podcast episode from Denise Duffield-Thomas. She gives some great ideas for making more $$ from raising your prices to creating VIP offers to thinking about passive income ideas.
💁🏾♀️. Tool: Fascinate Test. Personality tests have been on the brain this week as it’s something we’ve been covering with high schoolers. This is one of my favorites. It’s a bit different from others because it tells you how other people see you versus how you see the world. And lets you know what your primary advantage is - how you best communicate. Mine is Trust, so when I’m on the top of my game, folks see me as dependable, familiar, and stable. Have you taken this test? What’d you get?
#reads
Start a Side Hustle, Build Yourself an Empire — entrepreneurshandbook.co
This post popped back up on my radar and I thought it was worth a re-share.
“One of the greatest missed opportunities in life is starting a tiny little business.”
You start by finding one thing to pursue that you are interested in. Then see if there is a way to use that interest to escape stress. Start noticing and refining your process. Provide value repeatedly. You start to see what’s possible. And then you can build your version of an empire.
Why not working first thing on Monday can supercharge your productivity — www.fastcompany.com
“Instead of giving my brain a chance to spiral while thinking about everything I have to do the next morning—and the order I’ll do them in—I spend Sundays knowing that the first thing on my calendar is a pretty relaxed learning block.”
I read this post and was an instant fan. Hannah Herman says she blocks the first two hours of her Monday for learning and development time. Plus, it’s a great way to ease into the week. I have already blocked off 8-10 am on Mondays on my calendar and am looking forward to giving this a try. How about you?
#icymi
😍. Last issue’s top pick was: The ‘20-5-3’ Rule Prescribes How Much Time You Should Spend Outside
#lifevibes
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