OG Tuesday Issue #137

Start your morning with this affirmation:

Today’s checklist: Find your friendship style, write for greater productivity, make a greater impact with content, and swipe some tips for boosting your net income.

You can love and respect yourself, but you can never really know what it feels like to be friends with yourself.

Or can you?

Taking these quizzes feels like peeking into a magic mirror of friendship clarity:

Keep cool and upgrade your IT management… and get a free YETI cooler.

All you have to do is learn about upgrading your IT and saving yourself a few headaches. if you’re an IT decision-maker at a US-based business with 5-500 employees, Electric is so confident they can help that they’ll gift you a YETI cooler simply for taking a qualified* meeting!

Trusted by 900+ businesses, Electric streamlines employee on/offboarding, standardizes security across your devices, and simplifies reporting to help ensure compliance. Don’t let IT become your Achilles’ heel–book a meeting by April 30 to collect your free YETI and level up your IT management.

Business leader, speaker, and author Amy Pechacek (@pechacek_amy) tweeted “10 Things that will optimize your productivity in less than 2 minutes.”

We look at a lot of productivity hacks and were surprised and delighted to find a novel recommendation on her list:

2. Write

Your brain can only remember so much.

When it’s full, older information that you have stored will be deleted to make room for new information.

Writing down your thoughts will free up space, which gives you more brainpower.

This tip is the mental version of decluttering. When you write down all your random and chaotic thoughts, they leave your head and settle onto the page where you can actually forget about them (and move on with your day).

Give it a try and see what happens by writing just three pages of anything that’s on your mind. The process here is more important than the product.

Feel free to rip your pages to shreds when you’re done.

If you own or update a website, a newsletter, a blog, or really any asset read by people other than you, remembering a few simple rules of content strategy can help you better meet your goals and fulfill your end-user’s needs.

This helpful graphic, courtesy of Brain Traffic, will help you remember 4 things to think through when you’re making content decisions.

Substance: What messages or information do you want the content to deliver?
Structure: What formats, sequences, and lengths should you use to deliver the content?
Workflow: How and when will you create the content?
Governance: Who will promote and maintain the content and how will they do it?

Make an up-front investment in bonds, stocks, or real estate to reap the long-term benefits of a passive income stream. (Motley Fool)

Consider monetizing a hobby you’re passionate about. For example, selling botanical imprint postcards on Etsy. (Clever Girl Finance)

Try side gigs you also find enjoyable and/or relaxing, such as pet sitting or babysitting. (Millennial Money)

Look into certifications relevant to your position and ask your boss if earning any of them could potentially merit a pay increase. (CNBC) 

Do some research and calculate the earning differences of performing the same function in a different industry. If there are stark differences, a change might make sense for increasing your income in both the short and long term. (Money with Katie)

Invest in people with expertise, such as certified financial planners and other niche professionals, to manage your wealth management and portfolio growth. (CNBC) 

Carefully review the benefits your current job offers and ensure you’re taking full advantage of them all, especially 401K matching. (Seattle Times)

Take a cue from the top 5% richest people, who get up to two-thirds of their income from investments, such as owning shares in private companies. (Motley Fool) 

Bonus Tip: Declutter your house and sell all the stuff you don’t need or want by way of a yard/rummage sale or by selling them to second-hand stores. (Fonds de solidarité FTQ)

Miro, our fave (free) online whiteboard tool, has partnered with us to bring you the best of the best work templates. Sign up with your work email and get them for free.

Bonusly put out a free one-on-one meeting agenda template for Managers & Employees. Swipe it here.

Sunsama is not just the best digital planner out there, but it also helps you build sustainable productivity habits.

monday.com is a top rated OS that lets you manage tasks, projects, and team collaboration so efficiently, you’ll have time to actually enjoy your Monday (for once).

📋 Improve your recruiting process with these fab templates.

✅ If you’re new to managing a team, check out this list of essential skills you need to be developing.

🔖 Catch up on all OG Tuesday newsletters here.

🏪 The Assist Store: Check out our Planner Bundle and browse our Etsy Store.

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