Wellness Wednesday Issue #200

📈 Two hours of lead research and zero emails sent? Apollo fixes that.

👶 Working moms of kids under 5 just had their steepest workforce drop in 40 years.

💭 85% of workers worry about money on the clock, spending about 3.5 hours a week on it.

⏸ Before you fire back that Slack reply, try the five-minute pause that speeds up promotions.

1. They reply-all to correct you. Don’t reply-all back. Privately: “Thanks for catching that. Going forward, could you send corrections to me directly? I’ll fix them just as fast, and it keeps the thread cleaner.”

2. They take credit for your idea. Restate the record and move on: “Right, that’s the approach I proposed Tuesday. The piece I’d add is [detail only you would know].” The detail establishes authorship without anyone having to make an accusation.

3. They keep interrupting. Evenly, no apology: “Let me finish this thought, and then I want to hear yours.” If it’s a pattern with one person, raise it one on one after the meeting.

4. They’re condescending. “That came across as condescending, and I don’t think you meant it that way. Can we keep this straightforward?” Naming it once, calmly, is usually enough.

5. They dump work on you at 4:45 on Friday. “Happy to take it on. I can get to it Monday morning. If it can’t wait, what should I push to make room?” That last question hands the tradeoff back to them.

6. Your boss gives contradictory direction. “Last week we landed on X, and now it sounds like Y is the priority. Which should I protect if I can’t do both?” Then confirm it in writing so the decision lives somewhere besides memory.

7. Someone’s silence is blocking you. “I need a decision by Thursday to stay on schedule. If I don’t hear back, I’ll move forward with [specific plan].” A deadline plus a default is what moves people who don’t answer.

8. You’re furious and the meeting starts in ten minutes. This one is a script for yourself: “I’m going to be mad about this for an hour, then deal with it tomorrow.” Go to the meeting, and save whatever you draft tonight for the morning. Sometimes you won’t send it at all.

Why these work

Every script says the real thing out loud. Each one names the behavior and asks for a specific change, which keeps it professional and makes it repeatable. If the behavior keeps happening after you’ve addressed it directly and kindly, you have something concrete to escalate, plus a record of having tried.

Traliant’s Preventing Workplace Harassment training is attorney-authored and shot like a TV series, with situations employees recognize from their own workplaces. Industry editions (office, healthcare, retail and more) plus global and country-specific versions keep it relevant across your whole organization.

• One assignment delivers the right course for each employee’s role and location, so HR stops sorting by state
• Built to meet state and local training laws in all 50 states
• Short Micro Reel videos keep the lessons fresh all year, long after the annual course wraps

👉 See the training in action.

I was 32 when a psychiatrist told me I had ADHD, and I cried with relief when I got off the call.

I had walked in ready to fight for it, armed with an Excel spreadsheet of every pattern I could trace to childhood, because I’d been brushed off by doctors before and assumed this would be the same. Instead he listened, confirmed what I already felt in my body, and gave the thing a name.

For years I’d been moving through life like I was wading through mud five feet deep. It didn’t matter how fit or driven or disciplined I was. The mud was still the mud. I thought my cute chaos was normal, but really it was ADHD 🙂

What I’ve learned since is this: a whole generation of us slipped through, and it was never our fault.

The test was built for somebody else

The ADHD most people picture is a hyperactive little boy who can’t stay in his seat. That’s the behavior that’s impossible for a teacher to ignore, so that’s the kid who gets flagged. Girls tend to run inattentive instead: daydreaming, disorganized, forgetful, talkative, restless on the inside where no one can see it. We don’t disrupt the class. We get called spacey or flighty, and we learn early to mask it and people-please our way into looking like we have it handled.

And when the exhaustion of all that masking finally shows, it often gets treated as anxiety or depression first, while the ADHD underneath goes unnamed for years.

Why it’s all surfacing now

Adult ADHD diagnoses in the US have climbed from about 6% to 10% over the last two decades, more than 8.7 million adults, and the jump has been steepest since 2020.A lot of that is women watching a 30-second video and realizing the “quirks” they’d pinned on their personality had a name all along. Researchers are even debating whether ADHD should be framed as a disorder at all. Call it what you want. For a lot of us, the word itself was the beginning of relief.

Signs to watch for in a little girl

Since it’s ADHD Awareness Month, here’s what it can look like long before anyone thinks to ask:

• The daydreamer. Called spacey or flighty, even when she cares deeply about what’s in front of her.
• The talker. Chatty, finishes your sentences, fidgety or restless even when she’s sitting perfectly still.
• The one who loses everything. Keys, homework, the water bottle that was in her hand ten seconds ago.
• The perfectionist who’s secretly drowning. Looks like she has it all together and is burning herself out to keep it that way.
• The smart kid who can’t start. Capable of anything, yet somehow two months late on the project, and it was never about caring less.

Don’t assume a girl who’s smart, organized, and a total go-getter is in the clear. Often it means she’s bright enough to have built her own coping system before anyone knew she needed one.

People with ADHD run better on routine and structure because it strips out the overwhelm and the endless decisions, so the straight-A kid with color-coded everything can be managing her own chemistry so well that no one sees it!

If this is hitting close to home

My diagnosis handed me a tool, the permission to stop white-knuckling my way through life and start building it around how my brain actually works. I can ask for accommodations now, hire out the things that drain me, and stop cramming twelve hours of effort into eight just to keep up.

ADHD is wildly underdiagnosed in women, so if something here keeps tugging at you, that tug is worth following. Bring your own spreadsheet if you have to, and take it to a real professional instead of the algorithm. And if it’s your daughter you’re recognizing in all of this, you may have just saved her twenty years.

Here’s what each of us does next, so you can borrow whichever habit fits.

Cameron (Ops): send it before the next call

Cameron has Granola running in the background, so she can share the summary and action items as soon as the meeting ends.

Andy (Co-Founder): plan the week from it

Andy uses Granola’s Chat feature to summarize his meetings for the week, turning what was actually discussed into next week’s top priorities.

Kailey (Sales): check what she promised

Kailey asks Granola’s Chat feature for a list of deliverables and due dates, then sets reminders. Before a follow-up, she asks Granola, “Did I mention pricing or promise any deliverables?”

Tyler (Marketing): set up the call in ten seconds

Tyler opens each call with a line about why he’s there and what he wants from it. That gives Granola context and confirms it’s running. He also added the names and shorthand it kept misspelling, which took about two seconds.

Joanna (Co-Founder): take it to conferences

At in-person events, Joanna keeps Granola running for the whole session and focuses on the speakers. Afterward, she turns the transcript into takeaways she can share with the team.

Try it on your next meeting and see why we’re obsessed.

👉 Download Granola and try it in your next meeting. Free month with the code THEASSIST.

🩵 The Assist Team

🥄 Hostess gift sorted: an 8-piece acacia wood spoon set that comes boxed and ready to give.

✨ Your next at-home skincare night deserves this viral collagen sheet mask for an extra dose of pampering.

💧 Joanna has reordered this toner more times than she can count.

💛 Positive DONUT is a free weekly dose of optimism, gratitude, and stories that’ll restore your faith in humanity.

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👩‍🍳 Recipe of the Week: B&T’s Irish Coffee

A mix of an Irish coffeeshop and the traditional Buena Vista.

Ingredients (per serving):

• Double shot espresso
• 1 to 2 oz Jameson
• 1 to 2 parts Demerara syrup
• ¼ cup heavy whipping cream (½ cup makes 2 servings)
• Hot water
• An orange (for the peel)

Steps:

1. Warm the glass with boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes, then discard the water.
2. Add the syrup and whiskey, and stir.
3. Add the espresso, stir, and top with hot water.
4. Shake the cream to your desired consistency and pour it over the top.
5. Twist orange peel over the cream and run it along the rim.

Thanks to TA reader Tara for sharing!

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