OG Tuesday Issue #318

📈 Once AI use got graded, one Disney employee pinged it 460,000 times in nine days.

📋 Juggling five projects at once? These action plan templates keep every deadline visible.

💪 One Canadian dropped 119 pounds in seven months with an app and no calorie counting.

💸 Raise budgets are stuck at 3.5% next year, and AI skills are deciding who gets one.

1. When the feedback is vague

“Be more strategic” is an impression, and you can’t act on an impression.

Say this: “I want to deliver on that, so help me get concrete. Can you point to a specific moment where you wanted something different, and what would getting it right have looked like?”

2. When it’s about your personality

Too intense, too quiet, too much or not enough.

Say this: “I’d like to turn that into something we can both track. What business outcome do you want to see change? If I hit it, would this be resolved?”

3. When your reviewer barely knows your work

Say this: “You came in partway through the year, so I put together a summary of what I delivered before you joined. Can I walk you through it and add it to the record?”

4. When you’re blindsided

Say this: “This is the first I’m hearing about it. When did it happen, and what was the impact? Going forward, I’d love to hear this closer to when it happens so I can correct it.”

5. When the feedback is anonymous

Say this: “I want to take that seriously. Without names, can you tell me what was described? And is it a pattern you’ve seen yourself?”

6. When the review is glowing and the raise isn’t

Say this: “Thank you, that means a lot. The compensation doesn’t match the review, though. What would need to be true for that to change, and can we put a date on the calendar to revisit it?”

7. When you hear “let’s revisit next cycle”

Say this: “Happy to. Before we close this out, can we write down the specific criteria now so we’re measuring against the same thing? I’ll send a recap today.”

The move that works every time

Ask for specifics, then put it in writing yourself. Send a same-day recap of what was discussed, what was agreed, the criteria and the timeline. Keep it warm and factual. The person who writes the record controls what gets remembered.

If something lands hard in the room, you’re allowed to say, “I’d like some time to sit with this. Can we pick it up Thursday?” A thoughtful follow-up two days later reads as composure.

Swag.com lets you pick, brand and ship gifts in one sitting. It’s from the team behind Custom Ink, and the catalog leans toward things people hang onto: cozy layers, good drinkware and curated gift boxes for clients and teammates.

• Per-item pricing on every product, so you can build to a budget without a sales call
• Bulk shipping to the office, or straight to each remote teammate’s door
• Order now while the full catalog is open, before holiday production slots fill up

👉 Build your team’s gift order.

Picture it: you’re in your third meeting of the day, someone’s walking through Q4 priorities, and a Slack ping pops up. You glance at it for two seconds. When you look back up, you’ve missed the one decision that’s about to land on your plate.

Kiana, that struggle is your brain working exactly as designed. The mind wasn’t built for heavy-duty multitasking, and switching back and forth can eat up as much as 40% of your productive time. Leaders who seem to juggle everything usually have a system that catches every to-do, so their attention stays in the room. Here’s how to build yours.

1. Capture everything in one place

Let an AI notepad handle the note-taking so you can stay in the conversation, and jot down only the moments that matter (“budget??” or “me: draft deck”). Give every meeting’s notes the same four sections so nothing slips: key decisions, my action items with due dates, what I’m waiting on, and open questions.

2. Give every to-do one home

Research on unfinished tasks found that making a specific plan for them stops them from nagging at you, even before they’re done. So pick one list and route everything there. If it isn’t on the list, it doesn’t exist.

3. Run a 10-minute end-of-day sweep

Before you log off, pull every action item from the day and sort it:

• Do: it’s due soon and only you can do it, so it gets a calendar block.
• Delegate: someone else could own it, so assign it with a deadline.
• Defer or decline: it isn’t a priority right now, so say so early.

No direct reports? Swap “Delegate” for “Waiting on” and use it to track what other people owe you.

💡 TA Team Tip: Our team loves Granola for this. It’s an AI notepad that takes notes without a bot joining the call, and you can save a custom template (they call it a Recipe) with the four sections above so every meeting comes back organized. At the end of the day, ask it “What are my action items from today’s meetings?” and your sweep is half done.

Try it in one meeting tomorrow. Want a head start? Grab our free planning template bundle, and read our take on monotasking over multitasking.

Apollo puts the whole process in one place:

• 240M+ contacts across 30M+ companies, so you’re not guessing at old addresses
• Signals that flag who’s worth reaching out to this week
• Sequences that send for you while you get on with your day

Already living in Claude or ChatGPT? Apollo works right inside them, so you can type “VP of Marketing at Series B fintechs in Austin” and get real names back. The Free plan includes that AI connection, and more than 600,000 companies already run on Apollo, so you can try it this week without expensing a thing.

👉 Start free with Apollo.

🌿 Menopause can change how work feels. Balancia helps women work with more clarity and confidence.

🏠 Swap the scratchy guest towels for a six-pack of soft cotton hand towels.

🖤 Kristel lives in SPANX Tight-End Tights all fall: smooth up top, deepest black down below.

🎁 Every client and teammate gifted before December, no addresses needed.

 Upcoming Events

• TODAY 10/27 @ 9AM PT: Delegation, Reimagined: What Actually Belongs on Your Plate? (SGS Only* | Join the waitlist)
• Wed 10/28 @ 8AM PT: Vibe Code Workshop (SGS Only* | Join the waitlist)
• Thu 10/29 @ 4PM PT: Halloween Craft Night (SGS Only* | Join the waitlist)
• Fri 10/30 @ 8AM PT: AI Office Hours (SGS Only* | Join the waitlist)
• Wed 11/4 @ 9AM PT: Goal-Setting & Accountability Workshop with NextArrow

* 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:

“Do not go over 40 hours per week. You’ll be a temporary hero and then a zero because you’re tired.” — Barb (Customer Service)

 Share your best work wisdom here.

 Browse our job board here.

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