Jessica's Friday Five: Girl Scout cookie season is here

Hi Reader,

This week has felt nonstop over in my little world. The kind of week where it feels like nearly every minute is focused on a deadline that is coming up very soon, and there's no margin for anything that isn't urgent. Kids home sick from school. My husband is away on a trip. Multiple sessions with smart people I got to lead this week. An amazing Black History Month community event with 600+ neighbors that I'm helping lead this weekend.

Amidst all the tugs for my time and energy, I feel good about how I prioritized. And even with that clarity, it's still so hard because of the desire to get to everything else on the list and in the world. I was inspired by a bonus session earlier this week with Kim Jennings and members of all 5 previous cohorts of Joyfully Managed Worklife. In that session, I heard that Leslie is collecting clothing for her neighbors, and that Tamara and Mrs. Debbie are continuing their incredible college access work. And the efforts of those of us calling on the US Congress to stop the madness are working! Keep speaking up. Keep caring for people. Hope is a choice I'm consciously making.

Let's get to your Friday Five.

1. Activity for Sunday: If you are a music fan and plan to watch the 2026 Grammy Awards this Sunday, this might be a fun thing to print beforehand for yourself and your people.
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2. Girl Scout Cookies: We have a tradition in the Friday Five community of crowdsourcing Girl Scout cookie links so we can all enjoy the deliciousness and support young entrepreneurs. Got a Girl Scout in your life selling cookies? Send me the link and any notes! I'll pull it together and share next week (see what I mean here in 2025's cookie list!). Need your fix before next week? Here's Eleanor's link - her troop has been led for years by a member of the Joyfully Managed Worklife cohort. Last year, my fam did a taste test, and via a very scientific process (not at all, just kidding), I wrote a reminder for myself for this year that our favorites are Caramel Delites and Peanut Butter Patties.
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3. Coming soon: Y'all have been asking for literal years. I'm finally getting so close to being ready to make this happen for us. I can't wait to get started.
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4. Did you know Slack can do this? If you are using Slack in some way, did you know you can have to-do lists and "canvasses" (kind of like documents) inside? These features are very basic and not as powerful as other software (like Asana when it comes to task management), but keeping a smaller number of overall software tools is a worthy goal to avoid overwhelm. More on lists and canvasses. And remember if you're at a nonprofit, a paid Slack plan is free.
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5. Dictate your emails: This is a tip from a fellow Friday Fiver (thanks Lindsey!): In Outlook (Jess note: Gmail too - look for microphone icon next to blue send button) you can dictate your emails. When you open a new email, there is a button in the top right hand corner called "Dictate". In the dication settings you can enable auto-punctuation and even filter sensitive phrases. As someone who thinks faster than they can type, and prefers voice to text on my phone as well, this is a huge time saver.

Bonus Sponsor Resource: Craftsy - I really love being a member of Craftsy. On my list this weekend is to look through their Valentine's recipes for a fun dessert to make. If you like to do anything creative at all (woodworking, crafting, crocheting, photography, drawing, baking), you'll be super impressed at their library of videos and classes and tutorials. Here's my hint - go to this site and then wait a little bit and the price for a year will drop to $0.75 (!!!) - under a dollar! Totally worth trying, and I'm so glad I did. This resource is from one of our Friday Five sponsors - thank you to them for keeping this newsletter free for readers!

Last Friday's Most-Clicked Link: The new iPhone setting that might be draining your battery.