OG Tuesday Issue #260

🛋️ Make progress in therapy by setting goals that truly help.

🤖 The hiring assistant you didn’t know you needed.

🎯 Motivate your team without the guesswork.

⚡ 10 realistic ways to move forward even when you don’t feel like moving at all.

Some parts of work feel like quicksand. You keep sinking time into them, and the payoff is…meh.

Instead of spending your brainpower rewriting notes, sifting through an inbox avalanche, or cleaning up someone else’s “spreadsheet,” let AI step in.

With the right prompt, the stuff that normally eats your whole afternoon can be knocked out before your next coffee break.

📝 Turn messy meeting notes into a crisp brief.

Use when: you have a transcript/notes and need decisions, owners, and next steps.

Prompt: You are my Chief of Staff. Analyze the pasted meeting notes/transcript.

1. Ask up to 3 clarifying questions if critical details are missing. Otherwise proceed.
2. Return a 1-page brief with these sections:• TL;DR (3 bullets)• Decisions made• Open questions blocking progress• Action items as a table: Task | Owner | Due date | Dependencies• Risks/assumptions (ranked High/Med/Low)

Constraints: Be specific. Deduplicate. Use people’s full names the first time, then initials.

Input: [Paste notes/transcript here]

📥 Inbox triage + reply drafts.

Use when: you’re buried in emails and need fast sorting plus ready-to-send replies.

Prompt: You are an Executive Assistant. Triage the emails I paste.

Output 3 parts:

A) Summary table: From | Subject | Priority (H/M/L) | Category (Update/Request/Decision/Calendar) | Suggested action.

B) Draft replies (≤150 words each) for items marked Request or Decision. Mirror sender tone; keep friendly and assertive.

C) 3 canned responses I can reuse next time (short, fill-in-the-blank).

If anything is ambiguous, include “Needs Info” questions under that item.

Input: [Paste emails or bullet summaries]

📋 SOP from a brain dump.

Use when: you want a repeatable process someone else can run.

Prompt: You are a Process Designer. Turn my raw steps into a Standard Operating Procedure.

Include:

• Purpose & scope (2 sentences)
• Trigger/inputs
• Step-by-step with checkboxes
• Quality bar: “This is done when…”
• Variations (what changes for edge cases)
• Handoff points & SLAs
• 10-minute onboarding walkthrough for a new hire

Input (messy notes welcome): [Paste your rough steps/links]

📊 Data clean-up + quick analysis plan (for spreadsheets).

Use when: you have a messy CSV or export.

Prompt: You are my Data Analyst. Based on the pasted header row + 10 sample rows:

1. List specific clean-up steps (dedupe keys, normalize dates, fix text-to-number, etc.).
2. Provide exact Excel/Google Sheets formulas or steps for each fix.
3. Propose 3 fast analyses with expected insights, plus the pivot tables/charts to build.
4. Output ready-to-paste formulas and sample pivot configs.

Input: [Paste header + sample rows]

🔎 Research scan → outline you can write from.

Use when: you’ve collected articles/notes and need structure.

Prompt: You are a Research Synthesizer. From the pasted excerpts/links/quotes:

1. Create a 6-section outline for a 900-word article or briefing.
2. For each section, propose the key argument, supporting evidence, and 1 credible source to reference.
3. List 5 pull-quotes/statistics with the original wording and source.
4. Provide a 120-character summary for social.

Input: [Paste excerpts/notes (no browsing required)]

💼 Turn a rough job description into a compelling posting.

Use when: you’ve got bullet notes or an old template and need something that attracts the right candidates.

Prompt: You are a recruiting copywriter. Write a compelling job description for [role] at [company].

Input (raw notes): [Paste notes here]

Requirements:

• Start with a 3–4 sentence hook that excites candidates about impact + culture.
• Include “day in the life” bullets so candidates can picture themselves in the role.
• Separate must-haves vs. nice-to-haves.
• End with a call-to-action that highlights inclusivity and growth.
• Keep it to ~500 words.

Copy. Paste. Done. You’ll free up hours and look like you’ve got an extra set of hands behind the scenes. The kind of quiet upgrade that makes work feel lighter.

Running a business today means wearing a lot of hats.

Sales? That’s you.

Support? You again.

Social media, email marketing, admin work? All you.

Some days, it feels like you’re doing everything… and getting nowhere. And the hardest part? You know you could be growing faster if you just had more time.

Here’s how to lighten the load and start scaling smarter:

📞 Close the Sale (Literally)

Leads slipping through the cracks? Still buried in follow-up emails? Close is your sales sidekick—built to help you sell faster and stay organized. Track every call, email, and deal in one place. Automate your follow-ups. And stop losing leads to inbox chaos.

🛎️ Support That Actually Scales

Customer support shouldn’t drain your team (or your sanity). Zendesk brings it all together, AI-powered ticketing, live chat, self-service tools, so your customers get help fast, and your team stays focused.

🧠 Plan Like a Pro

Your sticky notes aren’t cutting it. monday.com turns your scattered task list into a smart, visual dashboard that keeps projects on track, your team aligned, and your brain un-frazzled.

📧 Email Marketing That Doesn’t Feel Like a Chore

Email is still one of the best ways to grow your business if you can find the time. iContact makes it easy. Use drag-and-drop templates, build automated sequences, and see what’s working—all without a steep learning curve.

💸 Payroll Without the Panic

Payroll shouldn’t keep you up at night. Paychex helps you run payroll, manage benefits, and stay compliant—whether you’ve got two employees or two hundred. It’s HR help, minus the headache.

These tools were made for you—the scrappy builder, the one-person powerhouse, the do-it-all-er who’s ready to scale without burning out.

You’ve already proven you can handle it all.

Now it’s time to stop doing it all alone.

“My greatest challenge is my ADHD struggle with motivation, task initiation and getting overwhelmed.”—Jen

Ohhh girl. As a late-diagnosis ADHDer, I get you. For me, a low dose of Ritalin and a slew of systems and routine helped immensely!

I actually asked my doctor if I could try out a week’s worth of different medications before I settled on my dosage and type of meds. Too strong made me sleepy, the wrong kind made my jaw hurt, but Ritalin at 5mg was just right.

As a holistic girly, this was a hard decision because I don’t like taking meds of any kind unless necessary, but the way I see it is…if you need glasses because you can’t see, wearing glasses every day isn’t cheating, it’s just allowing you to live normally. So, because our brains need “glasses” when it comes to executive function, meds are required to produce [insert the brain chemicals].

Good news, though, if you don’t want to take meds, research shows that you can create these same types of chemicals in a natural way.

On a practical front, I’ve learned that these 3 things help a ton:

1. Routine + systems

• Atomic Habits talks about this, but wearing a uniform to work/school helps you work in autopilot because it’s one less thing you have to worry about. Similarly, developing systems and routines helps your brain go on autopilot and not think so much. Allowing you to focus on the things that you actually need brain power for. Decision fatigue is real and anything you can do to eliminate that. For me, that looks like protein shakes in the fridge, writing my daily to-do list and brain dump first thing in the AM in the same journal, and a whiteboard in my office.

2. Clean environments

• The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up taught me this: a cluttered environment is a cluttered mind. It’s so much harder to concentrate when there’s sh*T everywhere. So I try to maintain a clean space, and minimalist lifestyle. Less stuff means less cleaning 🙂 And when I can keep things clean, it’s easier to have a nice place to work, which in turn makes executive functions easier. Less decisions, less things to worry about. Easier to focus on the things that NEED me to think strategically. Deciding if I should do the dishes or send out a client proposal shouldn’t be a thing. So I try to eliminate those kinds of struggles.

3. Clear goals

• Understanding that ADHD loves dopamine is a useful asset to leveraging it as a superpower. I make a vision board every year and print it out. Then I try to do a mid-year check-in to remind myself of those goals. Then on the daily, I make a to-do list with a checkbox and everytime I finish something I check it off and get a hit of dopamine.

ADHD doesn’t disappear with a single hack, but the right mix of routines, environment, and dopamine-friendly goals can make the day feel a whole lot lighter.

Try one, layer them in, and notice how quickly small shifts add up.

Thania (TA Content Mgr)

You’re working hard. But getting nowhere. Why? Because your “productivity stack” looks like this:

• ✅ Asana for tasks
• 📝 Google Docs for notes
• 💬 Slack for team chat
• 📌 Trello for brainstorming

…and somehow,

12 open tabs just to manage one project.The problem? Your tools aren’t working together.

They’re working against you.

Check Out ClickUp:

• One Tool, One Workspace: Tasks, docs, chat, and project plans—all together. No more app-jumping.
• Smart Automations: No more busywork. Assign tasks, set reminders, and track progress automatically.
• Dashboards with Answers: See progress, deadlines, and blockers—without digging through tabs.

ClickUp didn’t add another tool. It replaced the others.

👉 Start for free with ClickUp and make your tools actually work for you.

“There is no such thing as a ‘career’ now. Do what you’re doing with all your effort and heart. Then do something else. Learn the business. Enjoy your friends. Move to what’s next.”

— Claudia Hall Christian (CEO/Author).

💌 Your life’s already good on paper. This newsletter helps it feel that way, too.

🤖 Joanna’s headed to the CREATE Conference 2025 (Oct 11–14, Salt Lake City). Women-led. AI packed. Grab your ticket + join her!

💪 Stay strong on the go with Momentous Creatine Travel Packs. TSA-friendly, muscle-approved.

⌚️ Sleep, strain, recovery — WHOOP 5.0 tracks it all + coaches you through the data.

• Optomi is hiring for Product Manager (Hybrid).
• Covetus is hiring for Business Analyst (New York, NY).
• Briarlake Partners is hiring for Strategic Sourcing Specialist (Oakland, CA).
• Aquent Talent is hiring for Content Production Specialist (Boston, MA).
• Frazer Jones is hiring for Human Resources Manager (Greenville, SC).

⭐️ Answer to the riddle.

Have more feedback? 💌 Reply to this email and tell us.

✨ P.S. Want more inspiration and positivity to kick off your week? Sign up for our Motivational Monday texts (U.S. only).

👀 Want to see if your company is a good fit for our 100k+ ambitious readers? Join our Sponsor Waitlist here.