OG Tuesday Issue #292

🎯 Employee points programs boost engagement without adding to HR’s plate.

⚖️ Before you comply with RTO, these ADA protections might change the conversation.

🤖 Shopping for a new CRM? These eight AI-powered options are where to start.

💙 It’s Cesarean Awareness Month, and these C-section facts deserve a wider audience.

The older you get, the easier it is to get comfortable. You’ve earned your expertise, you know what works, and the technology you’ve been using has been getting the job done just fine. Why fix what isn’t broken, right?

The job market isn’t waiting around for anyone to catch up. Ageism is running rampant in tech hiring, and seasoned professionals over 40 are increasingly being edged out, often because they’ve stopped keeping up, even when their experience is rock-solid.

The good news is that staying relevant has less to do with mastering every new tool that comes out and everything to do with your mindset. Get that right, and the skills follow naturally.

Stay curious

“Innovate or die” sounds dramatic, but it’s one of the best professional mottos you can live by. If you aren’t willing to stay curious and innovate, someone else will be, and that person will get the opportunity you wanted. Curiosity is a practice, and when you commit to it, something great happens: you stop fighting change and start looking for it. You naturally become more creative in how you approach problems. You find yourself asking “how could we do this better?” instead of defending the way things have always been done. That openness makes learning new tools feel less like a chore and more like a natural extension of how you already think.

Make it a practice, not a project

Keeping up with technology requires consistency more than it requires anything else. You don’t need a bootcamp or a certification. You need 15 minutes a few times a week, so create a time slot on Fridays dedicated to learning or practicing something new.

Following curated newsletters like Future Ai Unfiltered, exploring subreddits like r/technology or r/womenintech, or listening to a podcast on your commute are all low-lift ways to stay in the loop. Small and steady beats occasional and overwhelming every time.

Find yourself a reverse mentor

You’ve heard of mentorship. Now flip it. A reverse mentor is someone younger in their career who can teach you what you don’t know, whether that’s a new tool, a different way of thinking about a problem, or what’s actually being talked about in the industry right now. This kind of relationship benefits both people. They get your decades of experience and perspective. You get their fluency with the current landscape. Don’t let pride get in the way of that exchange. It’s one of the smartest moves you can make.

Let go of “the way we’ve always done it”

Comfort is sneaky. It feels like confidence, but sometimes it’s just resistance in disguise. Being willing to evaluate new approaches with an open mind, even when the old way still technically works, is what separates professionals who stay relevant from those who slowly get left behind. Your experience is an asset. Pairing it with adaptability makes you genuinely hard to replace.

Use the resources already out there

You don’t have to figure any of this out on your own. Reddit communities, newsletters, LinkedIn thought leaders, YouTube tutorials, and AI tools like ChatGPT can help you get up to speed on almost anything, at your own pace and on your own time. The learning infrastructure exists and it’s more accessible than ever. All it takes is a willingness to show up for it.

You’ve spent decades building expertise, navigating complexity, and delivering results. That foundation is remarkable. Now just stay curious enough to keep building on it, and you’ll be a lot harder to overlook.

We’ve all had that “I should’ve just written this myself” moment with ChatGPT. Usually about three minutes after the prompt.

The prompt itself does most of the work. Generic prompts produce generic output. The people getting real leverage out of AI are the ones who learned to ask better questions, and HubSpot’s free guide is the shortcut: 100+ copy-paste prompts tested across actual work scenarios.

What’s inside:

• 15+ industry-specific use cases: prompts for the role you actually have
• 21-point productivity guide: the moves fluent AI users have already figured out
• 100+ ready-to-use prompts: for emails, content, data, and support
• Challenge buster: fixes for the “ugh, why isn’t this working” moments

If you’ve ever side-eyed AI, this is what turns you into the person your team asks for help.

👉 Grab HubSpot’s free prompt guide and put it to work today.

“I have ADHD, and my biggest challenge is remaining consistent with utilizing digital workflow systems that I put in place. I might do really well completing a brain dump and organizing my day every morning for a while, but then I will randomly quit using it for a while, and have to intentionally force myself to pick it back up.” — Rebecca S.

First, let’s normalize this. The start-stop cycle you’re describing is what an ADHD brain does. Systems built for a neurotypical brain feel like a chore the moment the novelty wears off, and that dopamine drop is real.

The goal is to build a system built for your brain. Not what everyone else is doing.

Notice what you default to

When the digital system falls away, what do you reach for instead? A notebook? Sticky notes? Voice memos? Pay attention, because your default is the compass.

If you consistently drift back to analog, your brain is telling you something. Work with it. A hybrid system that starts with a quick handwritten brain dump and then moves to digital is a completely valid workflow. Productivity doesn’t have to live entirely in an app.

Find what your brain naturally reaches for and build around that, instead of forcing yourself back to something that keeps not sticking.

Make consistency the goal

With any new habit, consistency takes time to build, and it rarely looks like a perfect unbroken streak. Missing a day or even a week just means you’re human.

The reframe that helps most: make it easier to get back on. Keep the barrier to re-entry as low as possible. A system that takes two minutes to restart is one you’ll actually return to.

Use AI to do the heavy lifting

AI tools can automate the hardest parts of execution. Use Claude to connect to your Google Calendar and turn a chaotic voice-to-text brain dump into an actual structured day. You talk, it listens, asks clarifying questions about how long each task will take and what the priority is, then places time blocks directly into your calendar.

Voilà. No formatting, no decision fatigue, no staring at a blank planner wondering where to start.

You can also use Claude or ChatGPT as a thought partner to troubleshoot your specific drop-off points. Try: “Help me figure out where in my workflow I lose interest, then design something that excites my brain so I’ll actually keep using it.”

The more specific you are, the more useful it gets.

Make the dopamine work for you

The secret to any system sticking for an ADHD brain is finding the dopamine hit inside it. That might be a satisfying interface, a color-coded calendar, the sound of a task getting checked off, or the visual of a clean schedule taking shape.

Experiment until you land on something that feels good to use. When the system itself is something your brain looks forward to, consistency stops feeling like discipline and starts feeling like a habit.

Your brain just needs a system that was actually designed with it in mind, and you’re allowed to build exactly that. Stop measuring yourself against productivity advice written for someone else’s brain and start getting curious about what works for yours. The right system is out there. You just get to make it.

Most workplace conflict starts small: a tense exchange on the floor, a frustrated customer at the register, a back-and-forth between coworkers that goes from heated to public. The cost shows up later in lost productivity and HR cases.

The skill that prevents that escalation is teachable, and most teams have never been taught it. Traliant’s De-Escalation Training equips employees in manufacturing, retail, hospitality, and office settings to recognize warning signs, manage tense interactions, and respond confidently before situations spiral.

What employees walk out with:

• Spot escalation early, before it becomes a serious incident
• A repeatable framework for responding calmly under pressure
• Techniques that reduce daily disruption and operational risk

Traliant’s 2025 Fear Factor Survey found 30% of employees have witnessed workplace violence. De-escalation is how HR gets ahead of the numbers.

👉 Explore Traliant’s De-Escalation Training.

💵 Getting matched with a financial advisor through Money Pickle takes two minutes and zero awkward phone calls.

😌 A calmer day is a few minutes away with the Mindful App’s free meditations, short reads, and quick resets.

👉 Unlock AI-powered coaching for all your big meetings with MasterClass On Call. Free for MacOS.

🛁 Nothing says stay in tonight like this super plush robe that feels like a spa day at home.

 Upcoming Events

• Wed 4/29 @ 9AM PT: Speed Meet (SGS Only* | Join the waitlist)
• Thurs 4/30 @ 10AM PT: Automate Your Life: Live Build Workshop (SGS Only* | Join the waitlist)
• Thurs May 7 @ 9AM PT: Communication Workshop: Developing Conflict Intelligence
• Fri May 8 @ 9AM PT: Taking Control of Your Money by Creating an Intentional Spending Plan

* 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:

“Get help before you burn out. Hire a student or intern and delegate tasks to more junior staff. They are ambitious and will appreciate the opportunity to grow. You’ll get some breathing room and the opportunity to mentor others.”

Lisa Brackenridge, Strategic Communications Manager

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