Recommendation: To Do List tool — Todoist (Bonus: email management & a life lesson)
If an email interaction was a Life of Yes℠ poster child —
I’m very protective of my inboxes, both my traditional one and my junk box.
“Junk” usually denotes unwanted ick. Not in this case. My junk box is where everything that’s not a conversation goes — flight confirmations; receipts; newsletters; credit card statement alerts; registration confirmations… Wanted! Just not in my inbox-inbox.
I want to be able to keep the noise in my conversation box at a minimum. I want to be able to ignore my junk box for a bit without worry I’m missing anything crucial.
I do not understand the practice of deleting emails without opening them — if you don’t open them, what value do they provide? If no value, why are you allowing them in the inbox? Immediate unsubscribe. The only time I delete sans opening is if I’m heads down in something-something with a deadline or traveling, and the emails pile up; I’ll delete newsletters and other non-crucial regular pings without opening them, knowing I’ll catch the next edition.
All this to say, the newsletters that make it to my inbox are a select few. One of them is Jane Friedman‘s baby, Electric Speed —
Her long-running newsletters exemplify her commitment to helping writers navigate the publishing landscape: Electric Speed, published since 2009, reaches more than 30,000 subscribers, while The Bottom Line serves as an industry beacon for more than 4,000 publishing professionals.
Even if you’re not in the writing world, you may find it of interest. I enjoy her personal musings, her recommendations, and her crowdsourcing asks and results. Her audience is smart and helpful. She offers a variety of courses, free and paid; most are writing-focused but there are a variety of ones applicable to business owners (humans?) in general. She’s also very engaged with her community, both on her Discord and via email. I’ve pinged her a few times with newsletter follow ups and she always responds, even if it’s just a “Thank you!”
One of her most recent editions had me smiling and squeeeeing — when do you say that about a newsletter?! — so I had to reach out.
This is what turned me into a giddy nerd —
OMGGGGGG. A topic I adore (life management tools). Someone I very much respect mentioned two tools I adore (Notion and Todoist). She’s a newbie to something I use all day, every day, and would dieeeeee without.
I had to reach out —
I proceeded to share what started out as a couple of “quick” tips and on brand, tumbleweeded into sharing a novella. What can I say; my passion and passions cannot be contained to quick.
I expected nothing from the reach out, truly just excited for Jane and wanting to make sure she discovered some of the features I love sooner rather than later.
A Life of Yes℠ tenet — tell people when they impact you and when you enjoy their goodness. Especially freebies. Especially time-consuming freebies that can come with repeated “Whyyyyyyy?! am I doing this?! Is anyone listening?! Does anyone care?! I should probably spend time on things that actually pay my bills” angst. Freebies like newsletters. I know how motivating and soul-filling it is when I get niceties about what I put into the world thus as a way to pay it forward and show gratitude, I make it a point to tell folks they matter and that they’re appreciated.
Another Life of Yes℠ tenet — share your gifts. Both for money and just cause. Y’all know I’m all about being valued and getting paid for your goodness (can you tell I’m repeatedly asked to consult and speak and have my brain picked for free?!). But there are times when it’s not about money, when it’s face value helping someone cause the help excites you to offer. In this case, I excitedly shared my gift of Tiny Expertise in an area where someone was a newbie.
When you live a Life of Yes℠, you’re often in the midst of and the cause of win-win scenarios. Win-win-win scenarios, even. And guess what transpired from this “I’ll just quickly share a few tips with a stranger cause I think they’ll help her” moment? Win-win-win.
Minutes after I welcomed her to the club, Jane appeared in my precious inbox. With a thank you, a writing compliment, and a suggestion of publishing what I wrote, on her blog if desired.
DEAD.
DESIRED.
I love all compliments, obvs. But on my writing?! Especially as I uncharacteristically struggle to achieve a goal (spoiler: my “book”)?! Everythingggggggg. The motivation to keep plugging along. Especially in the wake of writing-related rejections. Fellowships! Contests! Residencies! Calls for submissions! Simon & Schuster not reaching out with a contract and an advance for an unpublished, unknown Chicago gal in comfy pants with a history of goodness falling in her lap!
A Jane Friedman stamp of approval and an introduction to her folks? Of course I’ll Guest Post on your blog, bestie. As someone who has been 100% word of mouth since Day 1 of self-employment and has never spent any money on marketing, going on 21 years now, exposure to new networks, especially those spilling over with quality constituents, is also everythingggggggg.
Which is how this happened five days later —
She’s so pretty, ain’t she?! Into the Smile File*.
You should read my post on Jane’s blog for its sexiness — I mean, a life changing tool to help you manage your day to day?! How could you not be IN. But if for some reason sleek design and efficiency don’t turn you on, at least go peek at it just to see my name in lights. Perhaps not the caliber of seeing my book on a Barnes & Noble end-cap or in a library “Featured Author” display case but certainly a stepping stone in that direction.
Win-win-win. Jane wins by having a helpful musing on a helpful tool to share with her audience. The audience wins by having a helpful musing on a helpful tool to make their lives easier. I win cause I feel good. And Life of Yes℠, cause of not yet happened resulting squeeeeeees? (shrug emoji, fingers crossed emoji) That’s often how it goes…
A Life of Yes℠ reminder: Share your gifts and tell people they impact. Even if they Bluesky to the world that they will not be following (some of) your sage advice.
Another Life of Yes℠ reminder: you do you. The right way is the way that works for you.
*Smile File: a physical or digital space where you keep goodness that reminds you how fabulous you are so when you need a pick me up or when you need to list out your greatness, you have an easily accessible breeding ground of confidence.
I’ve switched to penning most of my musings in my newsletter as opposed to on the blog. If you’d like to be on the once a month’ish delivery route, join here. If you used to get the newsletter and haven’t seen it in awhile, you may have been scrubbed during one of my “remove inactive subscribers” cleanings; to ensure I’m only landing in inboxes where I’m wanted and to keep costs as minimal as possible, if you don’t open a certain number of past editions, you get removed from the list — come on back if I’m Inbox Wanted!