✅ Today’s Checklist:
🤔 Riddle me this: Press me and I promise you more time, but all I ever do is make you later. What am I? (Find the answer on the bottom).
📚 Help managers make confident, compliant employment decisions with practical, real-world training.
⚡ Drowning in repetitive Microsoft tasks? Power Automate, explained simply for total beginners.
📚 Adding these 12 must-read summer books to the beach bag.
✈️ Up to 17% off Spark by Hilton just for planning ahead.
A performance review should never be the first time someone hears they’re falling short. If the feedback lands as a surprise, the problem started long before the meeting. Most of us are on both sides of that table this season, so take what you need from each.
If you’re giving the review
Your job is to make the formal review boring, because you’ve already said all of it in real time. Managers drive 70% of the variance in how teams perform, and one in two people have left a job just to escape a bad one, so the tone of the whole thing is yours to set.
Give feedback in the moment, when it’s still fresh and fixable, so no one on your team walks in surprised. When you flag a problem, bring what you’d want from your own boss: specifics and a clear path they can act on. And keep your own record of their wins, so you can go to bat for them the way you’d want someone going to bat for you.
If you’re getting reviewed
Don’t wait for the formal sit-down to learn where you stand. Book a 15-minute check-in this month and ask straight out: “What’s one thing I could do better, and am I on track for where you want me by year-end?” Whether you’re an IC gunning for a promotion or a director eyeing the next rung, the move is the same: pull the feedback forward while you can still act on it.
If what you hear is rough, don’t spiral. A hard review stings, but it’s information you can use. Skip defending yourself in the room and ask for specifics and a path instead: “What would ‘exceeding’ look like next quarter?” Then come back with receipts, and keep a running wins doc so the story of your work isn’t left to memory. And if the goalposts keep moving or you’re graded on things nobody flagged, pay attention: sometimes a brutal review says more about your manager than your work.
This is the short version; the full guide goes deeper: the in-the-room scripts, why feedback keeps coming back vague, and two AI prompts that do the prep for you.
Want it all in one place? Grab our free Know Your Worth kit.
Come review season, it’s just a check-in nobody dreads, from either chair.
Scientists from Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and Stanford spent years studying one gut strain, Akkermansia muciniphila, and built Pendulum Metabolic Daily around it.
It strengthens gut lining, reduces bloating, improves metabolic and digestive health, and supports natural GLP-1 signaling pathways.*
Real user results:
15,000+ medical provider recommendations, 4,500+ scientific publications, and Halle Berry as a loyal customer.
HSA/FSA eligible. Take 48% off today.
👉 Try Metabolic Daily at half price.
*Based on preclinical studies. This product is not intended for weight loss.
**Based on a consumer survey of 274 participants using a product containing three strains found in Pendulum Metabolic Daily for 6 weeks
***Based on a consumer survey of 50 participants using a product containing three strains found in Pendulum Metabolic Daily for 8 weeks
“My biggest challenge is learning to say no when asked to take on additional work when my plate is already too full.” — Julie V.
The reason no is so hard for a lot of us is a little embarrassing: yes has always been how we prove we’re reliable. So the plate fills with everyone else’s priorities, and none of your own.
So let’s make no easier, and let’s make it cost you less.
A yes is always a trade
Every time you say yes to new work on a full plate, you say no to something already on it. Name the trade out loud. When your boss can see what a new task would push aside, “no” becomes a conversation about priorities. If holding that line doesn’t come naturally, our guide to being assertive at work breaks down how to do it without feeling like the bad guy.
Who is asking?
Now, it can depend on who is asking you to take on more. Is it your direct boss? A cross-department request? A lazy or incompetent coworker? If it’s your boss, you can highlight your priorities for the quarter and use it as an opportunity to flag any obstacles or additionally needed resources to help offset some of your workload. If it’s a non-supervisor person asking, and it’s not feasible, it’s okay to say no.
Have the words ready
The hardest part is doing it live, so borrow language you can reuse:
Want a bigger arsenal? Steal our full set of burnout scripts for the moments your plate is already past full.
Watch what you keep saying yes to
This is the part with teeth for your career. Women get asked more often to take on non-promotable work: the office-housework tasks that keep things running but never show up in a promotion case, and we say yes more often when we’re asked. Every yes to the party planning and the note-taking is time not spent on the work that gets you paid and promoted. Saying no to the invisible tasks is how you protect the visible ones.
The fallout is smaller than you think
The fear underneath people-pleasing is that no will cost you the relationship, but it rarely does. When researchers looked at how people actually react to being turned down, they found we badly overestimate how upset people get. The person asking usually just moves to their next option. The disaster you’re bracing for mostly lives in your head, and knowing that makes the word easier to say.
Saying no doesn’t make you less valuable. The woman who can be trusted to deliver what she takes on is worth far more than the one who says yes to everything and drowns. Start with one no this week, and watch how little the sky falls.
The reading list never shrinks. The tabs keep piling up. And somewhere between the headlines and the hot takes, the actual story gets lost (along with another 30 minutes of your morning).
1440 is a free daily newsletter that cuts through all of it: the day’s most important stories from 100+ sources distilled into one clean five-minute read covering business, politics, tech, science, and culture, fact-based and free. It’s the habit that finally sticks because it actually fits into a real morning.
📅 IN TWO DAYS: Free AI leadership summit on July 23. Free to attend. Registration required. RSVP here.
📧 Sharp on business, sharper on culture: TheFutureParty is the free briefing your colleagues are already reading.
This 40-piece glass storage set covers all your leftover bases.
👜 The bag that takes you from the office straight to dinner without a costume change.
Upcoming Events
* Smart Girl Society is our private community for women who want deeper conversations, accountability, and tools that actually make life easier. Join the waitlist to get in the next round.
Work Wisdom of the Week:
“Observe, don’t absorb. Take the ‘sacred pause’, that intentional moment between a trigger and your response. It’s okay to take a beat to think, regulate, and choose how to show up.” — Sami P. (Head of People & Chief of Staff)
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 250k+ ambitious readers? Join our Sponsor Waitlist here.
Join 301k+ smart women reading The Assist every Tuesday.
