Jessica's Friday Five: You've been using Post-its wrong your entire life
Published 7 days ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader,
This week, I finished a book that felt really comforting and lovely. If you think you need a read like that for this moment in time, try The Twilight Garden by Sara Nisha Adams. I'm so glad my book club chose it for this month—it's the first time I can remember we all unanimously loved a book.
This weekend, we are bringing our community together for some pumpkin carving and a baked potato bar with all the toppings, and I'm hoping to finish my stack of letters to California voters (yes on Prop 50) before that gathering. I hope you have something restorative ahead for your weekend. Let's get to your Friday Five!
Get $50 in books, free: When I was visiting the Bookshop.org site to get the link to The Twilight Garden for you just now, I noticed they use Rakuten (my favorite tool ever for online shopping). If you're not yet a Rakuten user, use my link to join, then spend $50 at Bookshop, and you'll get 50% back + 3% extra of whatever you spent, basically getting paid to buy books. Definitely get the browser extension that alerts you when a site offers cash back, so you can click and activate it —that's key! My lifetime cashback from Rakuten over the last 6 years or so is $5,396. Not bad, right?!
Post-its Trick: Earlier this week, I was in Los Angeles leading a session on project management for some talented summer camp leaders across the country, and they taught me something - I've been using post-its wrong my entire life. Most of us peel from the bottom up, which makes the notes curl right where the adhesive is. Start at the left edge and pull across to the right—or vice versa. The result? Perfectly flat notes that actually stay put. Who knew, right? 🤯Thanks, Yitro folks. :)
Know any US government employees? It's a ROUGH time out there for folks working in the US government during what is already the 2nd-longest government shutdown in history. Even if you're not sure what to say or do to support them, saying something is better than nothing. Here are some ideas if you have people you know who are furloughed, recently laid off, or working without pay right now: send them a gift card, text them, "I'm picking up coffee in a little bit and I'm going to get you something too while I'm there. What sounds good to you?", ask them if they want to meet up to go for a walk, send them a Postagram for $2, pick up an extra bag of Halloween candy and drop it off to save them the expense, or try one of these ideas I wrote about a few months back.
Two ways to help students: If you have any school-aged kids in your life, here are 2 things that might help them. First, my good friends at The REACH Parent District have been getting incredible results tutoring students in reading, and I'm so excited to see that it's now available for students anywhere in the US. It's free and super effective (grants fund it). If you want to support your child with reading, you can find out more and enroll a child here. Next, if you or someone you know is parenting a child who doesn’t fit neatly inside the lines at school, check out the School Support That Sticks Summit next week. It has four days of expert sessions packed with insights, strategies, and encouragement to help your child thrive. It’s completely free to attend! It's October 27-30, and you can get a free ticket here. I've learned a ton from the organizer of the Summit, Scotti, and I think this is going to be a great event.
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Bonus Sponsor Resource: Wouldn’t it be ideal if your career were both fun and rewarding? And you could be your own boss? Owning a Brooklyn Robot Foundry franchise is all of that and more! They offer the most amazing classes and camps for kids. They're all about hands-on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) in a way that inspires creativity and empowers kids. It is women-founded/owned/operated, and the business model is brilliant - they provide everything (curriculum, materials, set-up), and teach you how to do it all, so you're learning what works right from the beginning. Definitely check them out if you’re considering a new career. Oh, and if you're lucky enough to live near an existing Robot Foundry, go build a robot! (It's not just for kids - they offer team-building workshops and parties for adults too!) 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 blog post about taking online surveys if you need to supplement your income a bit during a rough time or when you are saving up for a financial goal.