Jess's Friday Five: Email tip, fall calendar, and lunchbox notes
Published about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader,
In case no one has told you lately, you’re doing a great job. Things are hard out there for so many of us. You made it to today. I'm cheering for you. Let's get to your Friday Five!
Tracking emails you're waiting on responses to: This week I was asked by a former client about how to keep track of emails that she's waiting to hear back about. Here's what I shared with her, and I thought it might help many of you, too! "I think the best way to do the "waiting on" setup is probably to use a filter where you BCC yourself and have that automatically apply a label (that you could name the label something like "Waiting On" so you could easily see all those in one place, and then remove that label when you've either gotten a response or decided to stop following up). I tried to see if I could find a video or blog where someone set this up and this is basically exactly how I'd do it." That link works well for Gmail (which is what she uses), and here's how you'd do it in Outlook.
Where should we donate? As you might know, I donate all of the affiliate fees that are paid to me from Amazon if you ever buy things through my links. I've been paid from January - May 2024, and it's sadly much lower than normal because I accidentally changed a setting on my website that meant no affiliate tracking happened for most of those months. It's fixed now so the second half of this year we'll be generating way more donations! We've got $84 to donate and I'll round it up to $100 (we'll have many hundreds to donate in a few months now that I've fixed the tracking issue). Help me decide where to donate! Here are some options that I have personal experience with and can vouch for: Vida Verde, which provides excellent outdoor education to young folks in the Bay Area; UndauntedK-12, who are supporting America's K-12 public schools to make an equitable transition to zero carbon emissions, and Outdoor Afro, which inspires Black connections and leadership in nature. Click below to vote on where we should donate! Vote for Vida Verde | Vote for UndauntedK-12 | Vote for Outdoor Afro
Fall Essential Calendar: Y'all know I love these wall calendars to keep my family organized. The calendars themselves and so helpful to have a big-picture view of the season, and the accessories (especially the erasable gel pen with clip, sticky circles for moveable things, and holiday sticker sheets) are so helpful too. Their Fall 2024 calendar is just $15 and so worth it. Use my code JOYFULLYMANAGED for 10% off. I have the teak magnetic frame to hang ours, but they work great on refrigerators or with brass grommets or tacks or sticky tac on the wall.
Lunchbox Notes: I made these lunchbox notes for you if you have a kiddo that you'd like to encourage with a surprise in their lunchbox. Print them here as a PDF, or if you'd like to edit them in Canva, this link lets you do that.
Tip from De'Nicea: This comes directly from one of you (submit your tips for Friday Five here!). "Sometimes that Words of Affirmation may come creepin' up, right? So instead of using behaviors to get it from others, I input some Love Notes to myself that'll pop up at random times using the Bright Notes app (I use iOS, btw!) Just love putting in some of the funniest things to myself and I chuckle when reading them later. And they can pop up at times when I definitely could use those words of encouragement. And how sweet is it that the messages came from me to me!" I just checked out that app and I love it already - thanks, De'Nicea!
Bonus Democracy Deed: Hi, friends. As you might know, I live in the US and we have a consequential election in 88 days. There's a lot at stake, and while I certainly will lose subscribers for mentioning how important this political election is, the reality is that lives are at stake. Unsubscribes are a small price to pay for playing a positive role in this important moment in history. So I'll be including bite-sized and actionable tips for how to get involved in our election if you're in the US in this newsletter in the coming weeks. You'll still get five Friday tips as always, plus a bonus democracy deed to give you some ideas on how to help. If you're not a US-based person, please ignore these bits for the coming weeks.
Today, I recommend you sign up to get some free postcards sent your way that you can then write and mail to voters. I've signed up for 200 postcards from TurnoutPAC and 20 from MomsRising. I'll be inviting friends to come to my place and hang out while we write postcards and hopefully engaging my kids in the project, too.
There may be affiliate links in this email which means I may receive a commission if you purchase something through a link. However, please be assured that I only recommend products I have personally used and love!