Weekender #191

🤔 Brainteaser of the day: How can Sarah go 8 days without sleep?

Click here to see the answer.

✅ Today’s Checklist: 

• The family vacation tips that actually keep the peace
• An anxiety reframe that might change everything
• Meet our pampered retirees: Croix & Sage

🗓️ Upcoming Event: Want to learn how to handle tough convos with confidence? Check out our upcoming free workshop, “Courageous Conversations” with the team at NextArrow next Thurs 6/19 (9AM PT/12PM ET).

🎯 20 self-help blogs to help you stay motivated.

⏰ Still busy and burnt out? This might help.

🏢 Office chaos? Not on your watch.

🗣️ “Just” and “sorry” (why we say them and when to stop).

Traveling with kids is a special kind of adventure. Magical, messy, and often mildly maddening (sometimes all at once).

As a married mom of two (a curious 11-year-old girl and an endlessly energetic 9-year-old boy), we travel a lot. My husband and I have braved cross-country road trips, survived red-eye flights with snack-deprived children, and navigated more public restrooms than I care to count.

Do I have it all figured out? Absolutely not. But I’ve logged enough miles—and meltdowns—to know what keeps our family trips joyful and relatively sane.

💡 My Hard-Earned Family Travel Wisdom:

1. Everyone needs a job. Especially the grown-ups.

Before we leave, my husband and I divide roles like we’re running a project. Routes, tickets, and hotel logistics? One person. Snacks, emotional regulation, and packing the “Oh No Bag”? The other.

When expectations are clear, the load feels lighter—and no one’s arguing in the rental car line about who forgot the headphones.

2. The “Oh No Bag” is non-negotiable.

This bag has saved our butts more times than I can count.

Inside:
Travel wipes
Kid meds + Band-Aids
Chargers + backup battery
Snacks (protein > sugar)
Electrolyte packets
Uno cards

If you think it’s overkill, you haven’t experienced a delayed flight with a tween meltdown.

3. Build in recovery time for everyone.

Instagram might make it look like family trips are all museums and hikes. But real joy lives in the downtime. A pool afternoon, solo coffee run, or just lying on a hotel bed doing nothing? That’s the good stuff. Don’t schedule the joy out of your trip.

4. Let the kids lead at least once a day.

Each of our kids gets a “power pick” per trip: a restaurant, an activity, even just a snack stop. They feel empowered, heard, and way less likely to resist the historical walking tour you want to do later.

5. Don’t forget the marriage in the middle.

Traveling as parents doesn’t mean forgetting you’re partners. A morning coffee before the kids wake up, a glass of wine on the hotel balcony, even just a long walk while they FaceTime Grandma—those mini-moments help keep you synced and sane.

✨ Your Family Travel Sanity Cheat Sheet:

BEFORE YOU GO:

✅ Align on parent roles
✅ Build a loose itinerary with buffer time
✅ Let each kid pick one thing
✅ Pack the “Oh No Bag”

ON THE MOVE:

✅ Divide and conquer daily
✅ Schedule downtime (for kids and grown-ups)
✅ Leave room for spontaneity
✅ Make time to connect as a couple

MINDSET SHIFT:

The goal isn’t perfection. It’s connection.

Ten years from now, your kids won’t remember if you hit every stop on the itinerary.

They’ll remember that time you all cracked up over spilled snacks, that weird souvenir shop, that moment when you let the day unfold.

So go make the memories. Pack extra snacks. Embrace the chaos. And when in doubt? Deep breath. Big laugh. And maybe… one extra snack bar in your bag, just for you.

Kristel (TA Marketing Ops)

Work isn’t just busy—it’s fragmented. Between context switching, approval chasing, and a graveyard of open tabs, no wonder your brain feels like a browser with 47 windows.

Let’s fix that.

Here’s how high-functioning teams lighten the load without adding hours to the day:

🧠 Need to see who’s overloaded and who’s free?

→ Resource Guru shows you team capacity in real-time, so you can assign projects smarter—and dodge accidental burnout.

🗂 Your “project plan” is a mess of tabs, and no one’s following it.

→ Smartsheet brings timelines, dependencies, and collaboration into one shareable space. Spreadsheet vibes, way more power.

🧩 Tasks live in 10 tools, and none are up to date.

→ monday.com pulls all your workflows into one customizable board—goodbye chaos, hello clarity. Check out our monday.com StartUp Guide here!

💬 Clients slipping through the cracks?

→ Close CRM automates reminders, follow-ups, and next steps so you never ghost a client (even by accident).

💸 Still chasing payments like it’s your full-time job?

→ Ramp simplifies billing, approvals, and cash flow visibility—so you’re not stuck playing collections agent.

🧾 Payroll giving you whiplash?

→ Paychex takes care of payroll, tax filings, and benefits—freeing you up from compliance chaos.

✨ Smart teams don’t hustle harder—they automate, systematize, and get out of their own way. These six are a great place to start.

📚 Read: Thriving with Anxiety by David H. Rosmarin

Learn how to flip anxiety into your biggest asset with 9 science-backed tools that boost focus, clarity, and motivation. This book makes anxiety feel less like a battle and more like a superpower.

📺 Watch: The Bold Type on Hulu

Follow three best friends navigating love, career, and identity while working at a women’s magazine in NYC. The Bold Type is witty, bold, and full of girl boss energy.

🎧 Listen: Even the Royals

If you love juicy royal gossip mixed with sharp cultural insights, Even the Royals is your new obsession. Kristen Meinzer and Tiara Willis serve up thoughtful takes that keep you hooked from start to finish.

You don’t need a full creative team to market like a pro, you just need the right tools (and fewer tabs).

Here’s how solo marketers, side hustlers, and small teams keep their brands sharp without the burnout:

Want to get found online without wrestling the SEO jargon?

• 🔍 Find the right keywords with Keyword Explorer, so you’re not guessing what your audience is Googling.
• 🛠️ Fix technical site issues that are hurting your rankings, with easy-to-understand crawl diagnostics and site audits.
• 📈 Track your rankings over time across multiple search engines—so you can see what’s working (and what’s not).
• 🔗 Build stronger backlinks using Link Explorer to uncover high-quality opportunities.
• ✏️ Improve your content strategy with SERP analysis tools that show what’s ranking (and how to beat it).
• 💡 Stay ahead of algorithm changes with regular updates, suggestions, and competitive analysis.

Croix (11 years) and Sage (12 years) have recently made the transition into retirement in our home.

In addition to a copious number of naps, these cozy little bears love endless pets on the couch, chasing the teeniest tennis balls I can buy, chasing any bug that’s made it’s way into our space, and long slooooow walks to the mailbox.

They recently had their first groom with us and LOVED being pampered. Please enjoy their headshots.

🐾 Got a cute fur baby? Submit them to be our pet of the week in an upcoming issue.

• Planet Pharma is hiring for a Research Associate III (Tucson, AZ).
• MX is hiring for a Content Coordinator (Hybrid).
• Signature IT World Inc is hiring for a System Integration Specialist (Frisco, TX).
• Coda Search│Staffing is hiring for a Compensation Director (New York, NY).
• Kovitz is hiring for a Jr. Sales And Marketing Associate (Greenwich, CT).

⭐ View more jobs here >

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