Happy almost Fall! (AKA the best season ever — anyone else agree?).
Today’s checklist:
Find your courage
Win the email game
Choose a learning management system (LMS)
Peep our Partner Picks
Check out our Latest Listings
Refer us to your friends (and get some cool rewards for doing so)!
YOU DO YOU
Courting Courage
Whether he made your eyes water or roll, the Cowardly Lion of Wizard of Oz fame reminds us that we all have inner stores of courage, however buried, hidden, or stifled they may be.
The key to tapping into this reserve sounds easy but is actually ridiculously hard. It’s doing stuff we fear, stuff we theoretically want to do but don’t actually want to do, like disagreeing with colleagues, leaving a secure job, and stepping out of our comfort zones.
The tips below will help you find courage to do the stuff you want and don’t want to do.
Call out your fear
According to sociologist Christine Carter, labeling fearful thoughts as nothing but fearful thoughts provides a healthy sense of distance. The fear goes from an all-controlling, all-powerful thing to an errant thought you can easily manage.
Uplift a friend with this jpg [**contains a graphic hand gesture].
Analyze the fear
Is there anything you can do to better prepare for or avoid the outcome you fear or is the situation mostly out of your hands? You might find it easier to face the fear if you listen to the helpful aspects of it and ignore the parts beyond your control.
Uplift a friend with this meme.
Visualize the pot of gold
What good things potentially await you if you go ahead and face your fears? Embodying the adage, “keep your eyes on the prize,” has helped many people find their courage.
Uplift a friend with this meme.
Make a strategy
The word “courage” might make you picture warriors running into a battle blindfolded, but real-life courage isn’t all about acting quickly and boldly. It’s about taking action against your fears, and if preparing helps you do that, then go for it.
“People who plan for how they’re going to react to different obstacles tend to be able to meet their goals more successfully; in other words, scary challenges don’t stop them,” says Carter, “especially when they formulate “If X, then Y” plans for each potential difficulty.”
Uplift a friend with this meme.
Read the full-length articles about finding courage from Washington Post and Harvard Business Review.
SPONSORED BY GOODY
Gifting Has Never Been Easier With Goody!
Over collecting addresses, trying to find the perfect gift, or your living room becoming a mailroom? Us too! Send the perfect gift with just an email or phone-number.
Goody is changing the gifting game. It makes sending thoughtful gifts & experiences to multiple recipients as easy as sending a text or email no mailing address required! Choose from their well curated catalogue of Instagramable brands for every occasion, add a cute card, upload a csv of all your recipients, and let the delight ensue. Goody keeps it simple so you can focus on the joy of gifting.
Even better than how much time this will save you? How impressed and special your recipients will feel. They'll have a branded digital unwrapping experience that allows them to either accept the original gift or swap it out for something else. They’ll select their favorite flavor, color, or size and enter their own shipping information. Goody even sends them reminders and updates on their gift status. Use Goody and you'll officially be the office hero (let's be real though, you already are).
GET MORE SH*T DONE
Email Badassery Swipe List
Golden rule: Set aside time for emails. As Laura Mae Martin, executive productivity adviser for Google, told Fast Company, “One of the reasons people feel overwhelmed by email is because they don’t consider it a task and try to fit it in between other tasks.”
Set up multiple inboxes.
Have no mercy. Unsubscribe from junk immediately instead of wasting your time deleting messages every day.
Go ahead and hit “snooze.”
Commit to ruthless inbox decluttering.
Call or IM with questions instead of responding to email. (It probably takes the same amount of time and you might get a clear answer faster.)
Make a “reply by XX day” folder.
Set up an automated gatekeeper with Inbox Pause.
Each day, focus on only yesterday’s emails.
#OOTD
Rock This Look
Get the items in this look:
Want to submit your #OOTD and be featured in a future newsletter? Email us directly with photos of your look.
LEVEL UP
Learning Management Systems to Love
Feel like you need a learning management system (LMS) just to sort through the myriad learning management system options?
We hear that.
According to ShareKnowledge, Inc., the LMS market could grow into a $20 billion enterprise before 2023. That means more providers are getting into the game every day, which means more options for you to sort.
Find your head start below.
BTW!
A learning management system is a program that helps streamline group learning. The systems host interactive content and provide user-friendly access that empowers learners to take courses and watch training videos in their own time and at their own pace.
Think of the LMS as an efficient, high-tech alternative to managed webinars and group training sessions.
Best All Around: TalentLMS
Word on the street: “They managed to create an online learning platform that's immediately accessible but also has power and flexibility to spare.”
Best Targeted Training: Looop
Word on the street: “Looop is intuitive, easy to use from an administrator's perspective and has some amazing functionality which sets it apart from other providers. Mainly it's campaign feature which allows you to target specific employees with comms, learning, surveys and more across multiple channels.”
Best Open Source / Free: Moodle via Titus Learning
Word on the street: “I couldn’t recommend Titus Learning enough to anyone who is looking to launch an e-learning system. The content and platform that they have created [sic] looks great and very user friendly. The support and training package that they offer blows the competition out of the water!”
FEATURED JOB
High-Caliber EAs Wanted
33Vincent is on the hunt for rockstar Executive Assistants to join their freelance community and support world-changing clients. They offer completely remote, flexible work and a thriving EA community of best practices and resources. They look for:
5+ years experience in executive administrative support or client services: inbox and calendar management, file management, contact management, to-do list management, travel planning & logistics, catering management, etc.
Exemplary planning, time management skills & customer service instinct
Minimum of 10+ hours/week of availability
Learn more & apply here today!
WATERCOOLER TALK
Your Weekly Dose of Employee Engagement Ideas
Add these ideas to your list:
For music aficionados — try Boom Box 🎵
Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage month — try a Mexican Cooking Class or a Tequila Tasting
Jazz up your work announcements — try the Virtual Workday Update
A class you do-nut want to miss out on — try the Donut Baking Class 🍩
Can't go wrong with a team lunch — try the Virtual Lunch Party
PARTNER PICKS
In case you missed it...
Noom helps people change their long-term habits and achieve sustainable weight loss.
Office Otter turns your convos into tasks automatically so you won't miss a to-do ever again.
monday.com can either supplement your workflow or become your sole solution to get things done, for free.
You've probably noticed there's a TON of stuff to invest in — NFTs, sneakers, video games. So how do you keep up? Check out Alternative Assets. Each week, Stefan and Wyatt find interesting opportunities & analyze the heck out of them through their newsletter and podcast.
NEW & NOTEWORTHY
Latest Listings
The Collective is a judgement free community where shared knowledge and experience rule. If you love learning from other administrative professionals and leaders in our worldwide community, all while having a laugh, this is for you. Visit our Treasure Trove page. We'll continuously add resources to this page, so bookmark it for easy access. Access every previous newsletter in our Archives.
Can't wait until next week's The Assist? Here are some recs to tie you over until then:
Break the ice with these Never Have I Ever Questions.
Why not play a virtual game show with your team (or even your homies)?
Know someone who got a promotion recently? Shower them with love and gifts!
P.S. Follow us on our Instagram and check out our newest social channel — TikTok 🎉.
SPILL THE TEA
Hooray—You made it to the end!
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