Hello fellow tinkerer 👋 -

It's Friday. As I write this, I can hear birds chirping, which (hopefully) means spring is around the corner... ?!

1) Reflection:

Maybe you noticed, maybe you didn't — but it's Friday and I usually send my newsletter on Wednesday. Wednesday was Valentine's Day in the U.S. but that wasn't the reason.

Tuesday was my daughter's birthday. She died when I was 16 weeks pregnant, back in 2016. For whatever reason, her birthday hit me particularly hard this year. I didn't even think about this newsletter until Wednesday evening and then I was like, "Oh yeah..." And I usually write it several days in advance.

I thought about rushing to send something out Wednesday evening. But why? Pushing myself to meet a self-imposed date on the calendar goes against everything I talk about. And Thursday is when I send out my Substack.

So now it's Friday. Thank you for understanding. And if you're also grieving a loved one, know that I am holding space for you in my heart.

2) Tip:

This week, I hired a bookkeeper. I'm actually really comfortable managing my books, but I realized that it's not a good use of my time. Someone can be focused on JUST bookkeeping, while I do other work.

I realized that I shouldn't be doing everything after listening to this podcast from Creator Science. Designer Bonnie Christine talks about delegating work.

This isn't the first time I've delegated work, but it's the first time I've done it for my business. Years ago, I hired someone to clean my house every two weeks. I hate cleaning. I'd rather spend time on weekends doing fun things with my family.

Even when I pivoted to a new career and was making far less money, my spouse and I were committed to keeping our house cleaner. We chose to adjust our lifestyle in other ways because paying for a house cleaner buys back our time.

3) Product:

If you know someone who needs a pick-me-up, you can send them an adorable stuffed animal from Send a Friend. When I was going through a rough time, a friend sent me a cow. It made my day/week/month. I'm not even 100% sure it was the same company (because it was a long time ago), but highly recommend sending stuffed animals to people you care about.

That's it for this issue of Tinkering! See you again in two weeks.

Cheers,
Anna

​LinkedIn | Threads | Medium | Substack​

Want more ideas?

→ Hate marketing yourself on LinkedIn? Here are ways to make it less cringe.

→ Keep your email attachments organized by automatically saving them to Google Drive.

→ I really enjoy my friend Carly Joy Miller's newsletter, The Food Plot. Here is her latest post.

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