Hello there! This is a follow-up to my Social Media Deep Clean, after spending time on LinkedIn recently to read some articles in my feed. I ran across about personal branding for EAs by making the most of your LinkedIn profile. I don’t recall the poster because frankly, this topic comes up every few months. In this post, I contribute to this topic and provide my top 5 ideas for managing your LinkedIn profile.
Back in the early days, LinkedIn was the upscale alternative to other resume and job posting sites. It was professional, allowed people to build their network, and provided an outlet to show one’s area of expertise.
Nowadays, it’s just like the other social media sites with sponsored content, messages from marketing/sales people trying to sell you fill-in-the-blank, and another algorithm to game, if you’re into that.
The term personal branding puts me off. It feels like a professional human is reduced to a marketing campaign for a fancy cheese. To make it more palatable to me, I prefer to reframe LinkedIn as a professional tool.
My advice is:
Look at your LinkedIn profile as if it’s someone else
Update your profile each time you change jobs
Update your profile headline and keep is short
Keep the descriptions of each role short
Pick 1 or 2 articles and post a thoughtful comment
What makes a “good” LinkedIn profile changes every few years. If nothing else, the RIFs of the past couple of years demonstrates that anyone can be looking for a new job at any time. Best to be prepared.
Finally, I recommend setting a time limit on how much social media you consume. My personal limit is 3 ads, then I walk away to do something productive or creative.
Hello friends. In today’s post, I share simple tips and prompts to get you on your journaling journey. On paper. Quaint, yeah?
Why I recommend a handwritten journaling
It’s a fact (check out this Scientific American article) that people learn and retain information better by taking a pen to paper.
I’ve tried digital journaling but it’s not the same as taking a pen to paper. After working on a computer all day, I need a break from screens. When I need to journal due to insomnia, digital journaling is the last thing i need.
How to Journal
You don’t need fancy paper or pens to get started. Any type of paper and pen will do: composition, spiral, Moleskine, or that random blank book you bought but had no plan for.
Journaling is quiet time set aside for you to gather and express your thoughts in a safe place. Your journal is always there for you. It won’t judge you. No one has to read it. Future posts on will cover a few techniques for hiding your journal entries.
What the methods below all have in common: no editing, don’t worry about spelling or grammar. date each session or not. it doesn’t have to be legible. you may or may not refer back to it.
It’s your journal.
Here are 3 methods to get you started:
the brain dump
Julia Cameron’s morning pages
catalog of the day’s events
Let’s unpack those.
The Brain Dump
You put pen to paper and write it all out. Don’t stop until you have nothing left to say. I find the brain dump works best on nights when I can’t sleep, usually because I’m replaying the day, some random slight, mistake I made, or the conversation where I thought up my witty response 2 hours later.
Follow your stream of consciousness and write. It may take a practice and that’s ok. You may find yourself editing in your head before writing. Let it go. Just write. If it’s in your head, get it on paper.
Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages
This method is from her book, The Artist’s Way, which sounds hifalutin’ but is actually a workshop in a book to help release creative blocks. Morning pages are part of her unblocking process.
Morning Pages are a Brain Dump with a 3 page limit, written first thing in the morning. If this sounds appealing, check out Julia’s website for more info but it’s truly no more complicated that that.
Catalog of the Day’s Events
This is a good prompt when you have something on your mind but don’t know where to start. In this method, you start by writing a detailed narrative of your day, from the moment you woke up. There may be science behind this, but all I know is that it works to jump start your brain to letting go of what’s bugging it.
How Often to Journal
I find journaling is a lot like exercise: a little journaling everyday is better than one long journaling session. Regular journaling helps me recognize and correct behavior patterns I want to release more quickly.
Need Rules to Get Started?
If you need some kind of boundaries to get started, start with Morning Pages, or try these 4 steps to create a daily journal practice:
decide when you’re going to journal
set a timer for 10 minutes
write until the timer goes off
close your journal
If you find the blank page intimidating, scribble on the page to “test” your pen or start doodling. Write “I have nothing to say” over and over until you find your words. You can’t mess it up. I don’t rip out pages; instead, I glue pretty paper over it, or glue to pages together.
Journaling is not a test or homework. There are no grades or rules, except for the ones you set for yourself.
You can’t “get behind with your journaling.” If you miss a day because life happens, start over the next day. No big deal. This is time for YOR. Honor yourself as you would encourage your bestie.
Once you get into a daily habit, you’ll find your rhythm and create your own journaling ritual, clarity and perhaps some peace of mind.
The key takeaway is: journaling is cathartic; it gets stuff out of your head so you can move on.
There’s no right or wrong way to journal. There’s only your way.
Hello friends. In today’s post, I share the reasons i feel journaling is good self-care.
Disclaimer – As with all self-care advice: if you suffer severe trauma, PTSD or other mental health issues, please work with a professional. dealing with that is putting your mask on first.
It’s a fact that people learn and retain information better by taking a pen to paper. Want to learn more? check out this Scientific American article on the subject.
Why pen & paper
Digital journaling is not the same as taking a pen to paper and writing long hand for two reasons, IMHO. After working on a computer all day, I need a break from screens. When I’m journaling to counteract insomnia, a screen is the last thing I need.
My Top 3 reasons to Journal
Get what I call the time loop of crap out of your head.
Explore your thoughts and feelings in a safe place.
Calm your nerves.
Let’s unpack those.
The time loop of crap
Everyone has bad days now and then. When you find yourself brooding over that stupid thing that happened, it can be a signal from your brain that someone walked all over one of your boundaries. journaling can help you find that boundary and work out how to deal with it next time it happens.
Whatever you call that nagging voice in your head latches onto that stuff and feeds it back to you. Letting it roll around in your head can keep you from getting to sleep And it certainly makes you crabby.
Explore all the feels
Our brains are amazing. At night it gives us coded messages in the form of dreams. during the day, it bubbles up a memory via your emotions. Getting it out on paper can help you identify triggers from the past and help you manage emotional outbursts on some unsuspecting soul.
Journaling is for you. There’s no need to share it with anyone.
Calming
You’ll know that you’ve got everything out of you head because you’ll feel at ease. Calm. relaxed. until the next stupid thing. which is why journaling is a good habit.
How to start: Shop your House
Start with what you already have: look around your house right now and you’ve probably got a blank or partially blank notebook and a pen. USE THAT.
Hello admin pros! I’ve started and revised this post several times over the past couple of weeks. I’ve been with my new team, at the Seattle office, for 5 weeks. This post chronicles my job transfer within the US and preparation for relocation to Canada.
On Feb 6, my work assignment changed to my new teams. These teams don’t overlap, so I have to learn two business units. They are similar in that they internal network resources for Amazonians, but that’s where the similarly ends. I’m enjoying getting to know my new leaders, teams and EA peers.
Both teams are pushing hard on goals due in Q3, so the pace is already fast. Contrasted to my previous team, Q1 and Q2 were generally slower following the fevered pace of peak holiday shopping.
In terms of moving to Canada, I was offered two relocation options:
a cash payout where the employee is responsible for everything: applying for and obtaining the work permit, finding housing, managing tax returns, and arranging for the household move.
Relocation support, where a team is assigned to manage the move: secure a move company, arrange for temp and permanent housing; tax return support; and legal support to manage the work permit applications.
After talking it over with my husband, I chose the second option; it was going to be hard enough adapting to new leaders. We didn’t need to spend every non-work, waking moment on organizing all aspects of moving to another country.
First lesson: know your limits and ask for help.
On top of moving, we had the Noir City Film Festival, Emerald City Comic Con and scheduling time with family and friends to talk about the move. All the running around resulted in a lot of stress and restaurant eating.
I gave myself grace for a couple of weeks then dusted off my scale for weekly weigh-ins, adjusting my food intake and adding in some low-key movement. Extra stretching, stopping to close my eyes and take deep breaths and eat more mindfully. Purposefully slowing down was a way to take control where possible in a whirlwind of a lot of Things That Are Out Of My Hands.
Second lesson: manage the stress eating.
The movers show up on the day this post publishes; we drive to Canada on Friday. Our home of 22 years goes on sale the following Wednesday. I’ve had to give away houseplants I’ve had for decades because I don’t know their countries of origin.
It’s a lot of a lot and all doable. Everyone has been wonderful and supportive. The Mister and I have treated this like a project, making shared task lists, setting timelines and helping each other through this upheaval.
At the end of the day, we’re moving 3.5 hours north of Seattle. I’ll be back in town regularly to support team events and visit Seattle friends.
In today’s post, I’m following up on a tip from the Mean Admin Club post: journaling – how I journal, tools, my journaling evolution and examples of both physical and digital pages.
I started with written journals as a tween using those old timey locked diaries then moving on to pretty blank books. As an office and art supply junkie, the pens were of various kinds: felt tip markers, multi-color clicker pens, until Uniball gel pens came onto the scene and quickly became a favorite.
Journaling is a great way to brain dump and, at first, it didn’t bother me that someone could read my journals. Until a friend gifted me The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon. Sei was a Japanese court lady circa 1000. The work is a collection of essays, lists, court gossip – basically an ancient Bullet Journal. These journals were kept, you guessed it, under one’s pillow. At one point in the story, the pillow book is stolen, throwing Sei into a panic because of the content and her mortification that someone was reading her journal.
I was reading the book a 1000 years later and imagined how mortified Sei would be to know that not only had her journal has been translated into other languages, it has been read by many more people than Sei ever wanted.
After reading The Pillow Book, I wasn’t keen to have people read my journals, either in my day or 1000 years from now, so I found ways to cover what I’d written.
In addition to my love of office and art supplies, I enjoy magazines, mainly for the pictures. In the 1990s, I found the Canson spiral bound mixed media XL sketchbook 98 lb weight paper. With my love of gel pens, I prefer a smooth, uncoated paper to avoid smearing. My journal evolved into glue books or if you remember the K & Company Smash Books. I’d cut out images from magazines, collage them into my sketchbook then drew and doodled around them.
In the mid-2010s, I found Zentangles, which are doodles created from 6 or fewer steps. They lend themselves well to journaling and are very easy to learn. And I got to buy a new pen: Sakura Micron, which is waterproof.
After a few months of tangling, I’d built up my fine drawing skills and took my first online mixed media class from Jane Davenport on draw facesing. I was hooked and my journals quickly evolved more elaborate art journals.
I found art journaling as a great way to take all that awful, brain dumped material and turn it into something pretty. Best of all, no one will ever know what lies underneath.
Themes
My art journal pages favor portraits of lone figures. This is due partly to the courses from female instructors but I also feel these lone figures represent me.
Admins tend to be the only person on their team that does the job – at least the places I’ve worked. Sure, I’ve worked with a team of admins, but each admin was assigned to support specific executives. We often worked largely in isolation, coming together in weekly or monthly meetings to review policies, processes and hang out with our peers.
As mentioned in my Trust article, admin professionals should be cautious about who they talk to regarding their day-to-day world, quirks of their leaders, the stupid crap we face from people who don’t understand the complexities of this profession.
The non-admin members of your team won’t understand what you’re going through and as we learned in the Mean Admin club, not all admins are your ally. Until you’ve identified true allies, the safest place to vent is a journal.
Below is my process for journaling then covering the content. The process works for both physical and digital journals.
There is no obligation to share your journals with anyone. Ever. Make this a ritual just for you.
My process – Blonde Girl with Purple Eyes
This is the process I use in my journal pages. After the brain dump, follow some or all of the steps to cover the writing. After each step, allow the page to fully dry before moving on, otherwise the layer below will smear. Allow the final layer to fully dry before closing the book or the pages will stick together.
Brain dump with a waterproof pen – turn the page and write in all directions to further mask the words
collage with whatever printed/pattern paper is on hand
paint the entire layer
collage another layer
draw or collage the main image
Doodle and black and white inks
Add text and reframe the icky brain dump into a positive message to yourself
Digital art journal
When I started taking mixed media courses, I made a habit of taking a photo of my works in progress. I’ve saved all these images and frequently use them in my digital work.
In 2019, I wanted to switch from physical media to digital due to limited space at home. Also, I’ve never been the best about cleaning brushes and felt badly about how much brushes I ruined.
There’s no mess with digital art journaling and I can use the vast library of digital ephemera – my own work and the collections I’ve amassed from many years taking Photoshop artistry courses.
I use a 6th generation iPad, Procreate, 1st generation Apple Pencil, my own images and commercially licensed kit images.
I follow the same process listed above, and add a new digital layer for each step in order to mask and adjust layer mode and opacity as desired.
Here is a sampling of my digital art journal pages.
Keeping a journal or art journal is a great way to process your feelings, brain dump after a bad day, and express gratitude for what you do have. Getting started is easy. All you need is a blank book and a pen. From there, you can expand into whatever creative realm speaks to you: collage, paint, markers, doodles, anything. The sky’s the limit with art journaling. You can even make your own journal using 1 sheet of watercolor paper, waxed thread and a blunt needle – Teesha Moore shows you how in Part 1 of this 2 part video.
There is no right or wrong way to journal. There is your way.
To see more of my creative works, please check out my other website, Tenukihandcrafts.
Copyright notice
Please remember these works are created by artists who make their living with their art. If you want to sell any of your digital creations, you must purchase commercial licenses and adhere to each artist’s Terms of Use. Kits tend to be reasonably priced, with the lowest price for personal use only. Commercial license is a fee in addition to the kit purchase.
Note that some kits are only available as personal use only and you may be restricted from posting your work; be sure to review the Terms of Use carefully or risk facing legal action.
I own the right to use the images on this website and hold commercial use licenses for purchased kits, except where noted. I own the copyright on all the images on this page (and this site), all rights reserved.
You may not copy, use, print, share, resell or pass these images off as your own – digitally or physically or via any future technology.
If you wish to share my work, please email me to request written permission prior to posting my work anywhere – including any website and social media account.
