OG Tuesday Issue #88

Start your morning with this affirmation:

Today’s checklist: Learn about automation tools that save you time, swipe the habits of the best strategic partners, brush up on some timelessly essential skills, and embrace a newly created role with confidence.

Automation takes efficiency and getting sh*t done to a whole new level. By some estimates, leveraging automation could give you up to 22 hours a week back. Go on…you know you want to let your most boring and tedious tasks do themselves!

Here are some simple ways you might kiss redundant time-sucking tasks “goodbye.”

Old task: Sorting through emails or forms to create contracts and reports.

Old task: Relying on discipline and willpower to focus despite myriad aggressive distractions.

Old task: Emailing and calling a variety of work contacts to hunt down approvals.

Old task: Reminding all the people that their deadlines for all the things are past due.

Old task: Manually researching or looking up social hashtags and guessing which ones boost your reach and connections.

Old task: Aggregating messages from multiple tools and accounts.

Old task: Mining long text or Slack convos with your exec to find to-dos.

Old task: Copy and pasting things from one app to another.

Old task: Manually following up on tons of emails.

If you’re old school and keep a notebook and pen handy to write down your to-dos, or use a handful of apps to stay on top of projects, monday.com can either supplement your workflow or become your sole solution to get things done.

The really cool thing about it is that you can manage all your team’s work in one place (oh, and you can get it free if you’re strapped for cash).

No more endless e-mail threads or long meetings. With monday.com you can keep track of everything your team’s working on, communicate in context, and get started in minutes with a super easy set-up.

The world is full of examples of partnerships and pairings, some which seem to work as though by magic and some that seem doomed to go up in flames.

Luckily, partnerships that seem magic rarely are. They work thanks to mutual consideration, effort, and communication. If you’re hoping to be the Ben to someone’s Jerry now or in the future, you don’t have to cross your fingers and hope for the best. You can learn from and adopt these habits of the best strategic partners. 

They value one another as both humans and friends. (Like Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) and Winston Churchill, who collaborated with mutual respect and compassion to help lead the world through World War 2.)

They genuinely share and believe in each other’s visions and dreams. (Like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, a couple whose mutual commitment to advancing civil rights changed the world.)

They help each other learn from (instead of blaming each other for) past mistakes. (Like Bill Gates and Paul Allen, who supported each other through early failures to build the tech giant, Microsoft.)

They work to transform feelings of competition and rivalry into mutual respect. (Like Klaus Kinski and Werner Herzog, who made critically acclaimed films together when they could have turned into resentful rivals.)

They emphasize their complementary areas instead of clashing over their differences. (Like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who built Apple into an empire while avoiding dramatic battles and maintaining a down-to-earth friendship.)

They talk about and come to an explicit agreement on core priorities. (Like Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield who grew an ice-cream dream company while never losing track of their ultimate philosophy of charity before profit.)

They communicate openly to build trust and clarity on objectives. (Like tons of companies who have enjoyed the most fruitful strategic partnerships.)

The Dream To-Do List

 

With Office Otter, you can automatically convert your daily requests and convos throughout the work day into individual tasks on your to-do list.

Here are 5 steps to use it effectively:

1. After creating your free account, make sure you enable the integrations (Chrome, text, email, Slack).
2. When you create a task make sure you add an urgency tag (now, soon, later, not sure) to help with prioritizing.⭐ Tip: Create an event out of the task to timeblock your calendar.
3. Check reporting at the end of the week to see how you’re stacking up against your goals.
4. Review your leftover tasks and revise them for the next day.⭐ Tip: Since Office Otter tracks your completed tasks and effectiveness, you can leverage the reports in your next performance review.
5. Celebrate your wins by viewing your completed tasks.

Try it for free

Listening well and making decisions with empathy will always be an asset to practically any role in practically any industry.

That’s just common sense, right? While listening and decision-making may be soft skills, they are also smart ones to constantly develop and improve. You can do just that with any of these classes: 

Picture this: You’re starting what isn’t just a new job for you, but what’s also a new job for everyone, a newly created role. 

It’s a scenario both exciting and intimidating, rife with both possibilities and uncertainties. A new role is just so…new! There’s no predecessor to train you, no past work examples to browse, no precedents to use as benchmarks. Throughout this exciting, independent journey, you’ll need to rely heavily on your own fabulous self — starting now.

Feel just a little bit more confident and prepared to step into a newly created role with this imaginary Q&A with a future you who’s been thriving in said role for years.

Q: How can I possibly learn everything when everything is new?
A: You can’t, and you shouldn’t. Focus instead on learning only what’s relevant and useful in terms of the bigger-picture goals and needs, the big-picture context, in which the new role was created. You can further guide your learning strategically by setting a detailed learning agenda.

Q: If I have no predecessor in this role, who can help me with questions and issues?
A: It’s true that you have no direct predecessor to count on. That’s why it’s important to pinpoint and cultivate instead a support network of people with a variety of strengths and skills, so you’ll always have the support you need, no matter what issues you come across.

Q: How can I make sure I’m successful with no previous benchmarks?
A: A lack of previous benchmarks is actually a boon for your odds of success because you get to decide what success looks like. Instead of worrying about how to live up to past examples, you can consider your strengths and skills and set expectations based on where you think you will add value.

Q: How can I stay motivated?
A: Closely monitor your progress and successes, using a project management tool for easy tracking and record keeping. According to the Progress Principle, celebrating your successes as you grow will inspire you to do even more good work.

Q: How can I make sure leadership feels that creating this role was a smart decision?
A: Be agile and communicative. Be prepared to shift your priorities as expectations change, and most importantly, give yourself a chance to demonstrate your flexibility by checking in with leadership often so you know when it’s time to pivot.

The Daily Upside helps you rethink your financial news diet and gives you crisp, unbiased business insights each morning for free.

Bonusly just came out with a free Ultimate Retention Checklist for Managers that you can download for free.

CultureBot is the first Slack integration specifically designed to foster connections, start conversations, and help your company culture bloom.

Bambee is the one-stop shop for all your HR needs.

Check out our Pride Month LGBTQ+ Crossword Puzzle or browse our Etsy Store.

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