OG Tuesday Issue #187

😬 Interview Awkwardness: Deciding when to walk away from an opportunity is a personal decision.

👯 Leadership: How to navigate becoming your friend’s boss.

⚡ Productivity: This 8-minute podcast episode has a tip for increasing your productivity by 90%.

⌛ Procrastination: Hear how one “serial procrastinator” pivoted to getting things done early.

🔎 Job Search: Would you lose your composure after applying to 1,700 jobs?

Cognitive control is a complicated subject, but in general, it’s a short, fancy term to describe how our brains direct all the complex processes required to turn our thoughts and ideas into behaviors.

Dr. David Badre runs a lab dedicated to studying cognitive control. His work largely applies to others in the field of neuroscience.

However, every so often, his research returns valuable insights for people who want to optimize their time and energy.

Here’s one big takeaway to keep in mind as you tackle your big long-term goals and dreams:

Approach your long-term goals like you might approach weaving a complex web: Strand by strand.

Badre presents the image of a spider — it can weave a web too large for its field of vision to take in. By constructing and connecting incremental components, it effectively creates while having no mental image of what it’s creating.

This can be helpful for humans to keep in mind, especially if they’re feeling frustrated about not following through on certain large, long-term goals.

Cognitively speaking, this is perfectly natural.

We find it hard to determine the incremental steps necessary to reach distant, abstract goals we can’t visualize.

In these moments, remember that you can achieve large goals by continuing to focus on incremental actions, like a spider weaving its web.

But as you go, remember to reassess frequently.

Spiders edit and adjust as they weave their webs. A gust of wind warps the threads or a wad of dead leaves muddies up the design.

They’re not able to visualize the complete web they’re working toward.

They are, however, able to check in and verify their incremental actions are adding up to progress and adjust as needed.

Frequent check-ins, replanning, and adjustments can help you do the same on your way to your own big lofty goal.

Teacher Appreciation Day is coming up (May 7th).

Are you still using Venmo to organize teacher gifts?

It seems easy just to share your details with the other parents….at first!

Until the night before when you’re manually counting who has paid, chasing parents to sign the card, and probably still have to buy the gift.

Not to mention zero transparency (or privacy) — nightmare!

You need to try GroupTogether instead 😍.

It’s the easiest way to collect money for a gift and create a gorgeous group card all-in-one.

Just share a link and parents can pay and sign the card online. Then choose from 150+ eGift Cards, or give the AnyCard and let the recipient choose.

It’s SO easy. And it’s free. No school sign-up needed. Perfect for co-worker gifts too.

It’s no wonder why 1 million+ people use GroupTogether.

👉 Try GroupTogether today.

One TA Subscriber wants to find more joy in their busy life:

The biggest challenge I’m facing right now is not spreading myself so thin that I forget to enjoy life.

Feeling too busy to enjoy life can be such a suffocating feeling.

All the work and must-dos sometimes leave little room for fully experiencing life.

We feel for you and also want to thank you for having the awareness and bravery to confront this problem — and for reminding the rest of us how important it is to make time to smell the proverbial roses.

Here are some short, sweet, and completely doable daily exercises for finding presence amidst daily chaos:

Exercise: Take 5…to do absolutely nothing

• Dedicate just five minutes a day to doing absolutely nothing.
• Close your eyes and sit, stand, or lay in silence. Observe your thoughts, your breath, and your surroundings just for observation’s sake and not to change or influence anything.
• If your phone buzzes or your computer dings, remember that few things, practically no things, legitimately cannot wait for you to finish your 5 minutes of presence.

Afterwards, repeat this quote as a mantra: “We do not remember days, we remember moments.” — Cesare Pavese

Exercise: Prove your assumptions wrong

• Listen carefully to your internal and spoken dialogue for any variation of: I can’t / I don’t have time / I’m too busy / I can’t right now / I need to get this done instead, etc.
• Pick one limiting belief a day to challenge with an action.
• For example: You can’t wait to crack open a new book you just got. You also have a pressing deadline.
  • Your internal voice says: I can’t read right now because I need to get this done.
  • Challenge it: I can take a 15 minute break to read and then return, refreshed, to finish my work.
  • Tip: Remember that small breaks can offer huge benefits. Even if you realistically have only 5 minutes, you can make those minutes count.

Afterwards, repeat this quote as a mantra: “You only waste time if you’re not intentional about how you spend it.” — Jake Knapp, Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day

Exercise: Tap into joy you may not realize you experienced

• End each day by taking a few minutes to write about one experience or event from your day that brought you joy, satisfaction, fulfillment, insight, or really any positive association.
• Busyness may at times allow those moments to go unnoticed and unappreciated, which is why this exercise is so helpful for people already spread too thin: Instead of trying to find more time to enjoy life, it focuses on enhancing the satisfaction you get from enjoyable moments already built into your life.

Afterwards, repeat this quote as a mantra: “You can be grateful for what you enjoy, not longing for what you are missing.” – Daniel J. Siegel, Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence

ClickUp Brain has just launched and is here to enhance your daily productivity and improve your connections with projects, documents, team members, and organizational knowledge.

It breaks down into 3 parts:

• AI Knowledge Manager: This AI chatbot enhances your understanding of contextual details related to documents, tasks, and projects making it easier to navigate and manage information.
• AI Project Manager: Acting as a digital assistant, this tool takes charge of your workflow by automating routine operations such as progress updates, daily standups, and general team communications.
• AI Writer for Work: This feature serves as a dynamic content creator, capable of composing, revising, and summarizing materials across various departments like marketing and design, streamlining content creation efforts.

Try it free today.

✈️ Do you travel for work? Make booking business travel a breeze with this free platform.

🎀 If you’re always losing your hair ties like us, get this value pack that comes with neutral colors and don’t cause breakage.

✨ This wood serving tray can amp up the aesthetics in your kitchen, dining room or even your office.

📚 Dive into Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? by Dr. Julie Smith for enlightening tips on managing anxiety, overcoming low moods, boosting motivation, and nurturing relationships