Weekender #251

💪 Building muscle as a woman shifts significantly with each decade.

💻 Microsoft Copilot’s most useful tricks in Excel, Outlook, and Teams, all in one guide.

🏡 Three decluttering methods the Homes & Gardens editors swear by this year.

⏰ Time management tips for professionals that go beyond the obvious.

My husband and I both work from home, with a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old currently spread across every surface of the house for summer break. Which means come mid-July, our whole rhythm resets overnight, and if I don’t plan for it, I’m the one hunting for a lunch box at 9pm the Sunday before school starts. There’s no gentle ramp into it either. One week we’re doing popsicles on the porch, the next we’re packing lunches at 6:45am.

This year I did something different. The same week school let out in May, I sat the kids down at the kitchen table and had them pick out next year’s backpacks, lunch bags, and water bottles. Then I ordered their school supplies while the stores still had stock, weeks before the “back to school” rush hit (School starts on August 3rd where we live!). Forty-five minutes, total. And it’s one less thing sitting on my list for the rest of the summer.

A few other things keeping our house from turning into July chaos:

1. Start the routine reset two weeks early. We move bedtime and wake-up back toward the school schedule in 15-minute increments, starting about two weeks out. Wait until the night before, and you get a kid who’s a zombie for the first week of fifth grade.

2. Do a workspace audit before day one. Since we’re both working from home, we walk through where each kid will actually do homework this year, what’s charged and working (headphones, chargers, that laptop), and what needs replacing now, not during week one.

3. Block the school calendar today. My husband and I keep separate work calendars, and every year one of us “forgets” an early dismissal. Now, the second the district posts the calendar, we block off the whole year on both of ours.

4. Keep one drawer for “school stuff you’ll need eventually.” Permission slips, backup masks, the sunscreen the nurse’s office always wants, extra snacks. One drawer, so it’s not a summer-long scavenger hunt every time the school emails.

5. Build a “first week” info sheet before you need it. One shared note with each kid’s teacher, bus number or carpool plan, lunch account login, and who’s on pickup for early-release days. We reference it a dozen times in the first two weeks, so it’s easier to build once on a calm afternoon than to reconstruct it standing in the pickup line.

I’m not saying I’ve got this fully figured out. I still forgot my son’s specific pencil brand until the third order. But moving even one or two of these from the last week of July to the last week of school? That’s the difference between an easy Sunday and a 9pm Target run. Pick the two that would save you the most stress, and let the rest go this year.

And if you’re still figuring out what to buy before the first day, we’ve already done the homework for you. Check out the ultimate back-to-school shopping list for 2026 that are actually worth adding to your cart.

Here’s to a smoother Back to School.

Kristel (TA Marketing)

Thrive Market is the members-only store for organic, clean-label brands at wholesale prices: Siete, Chomps, RXBAR, the vitamins you’re already buying, just cheaper.

Their Back to School Blowout runs through tomorrow, Sunday, August 9: up to 25% off sale items, $20 off each of your first three orders, and a $60 free gift when you join.

Members save an average of $40 per order. That’s before this week’s offer.

👉 Claim your $60 free gift + up to 25% off.

📚 Read: The Can-Do Mindset by Candace Parker

WNBA legend Candace Parker shares the mindset behind three championships, two Olympic golds, and a career she built on showing up authentically. Part memoir, part playbook, and genuinely inspiring whether or not you’ve ever followed basketball.

📺 Watch: Big Girls Wanted: Escaping Pearadise (HBO Max)

What starts as a body-positive sisterhood for plus-size women turns dark when former members come forward with allegations of coercion, control, and assault. Three episodes on HBO Max, and you will not be able to stop thinking about it.

🎧 Listen: I Can’t Love You Anymore by Ella Langley feat. Morgan Wallen

A sultry, ’70s-influenced duet that lands somewhere between a Fleetwood Mac record and a modern country heartbreaker.

Your inbox already has three newsletters promising to keep you in the know. You’ve opened maybe one of them this week. Between back-to-back meetings and the group chat, five minutes to actually catch up on the news rarely shows up, so you end up buried in headlines or completely out of the loop.

The Flyover cuts each day’s politics, business, tech, sports, and culture news down to one quick, unbiased morning email you can actually finish. No five-app scroll, no outrage bait. Just the stories that matter, fact-first, in the time you actually have.

Subscribe instantly by clicking here.

Upcoming Events

• Wed 8/12 @ 9AM PT: Harnessing Change Workshop with NextArrow
• Thu 8/13 @ 10AM PT: Your Voice, Not Theirs: The public speaking class for leaders (SGS Only* | Join the waitlist)
• Mon 8/17 @ 1pm PT: Coworking Session (SGS Only* | Join the waitlist)

* 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.

Meet Pacer, a 12-year-old who beat parvo as a puppy and has been proving he has a very human soul ever since. He’s a master of leisurely walks, intense sniffing missions, and a single look that says ‘don’t even think about leaving without me.’ His human says it best: she’s just living in his world.

Have more feedback? 💌 Reply to this email and tell us.

✨ P.S. Want more inspiration and positivity to kick off your week? Sign up for our Motivational Monday texts (U.S. only).