Gratitude for 2022 and hello 2023! /  by Ashley Villanueva

Wow, another year is upon us already! In this first week of the year, I’ve been reflecting on how 2022 was quite a year full of growth, adventure, and boundless (that was my 2022 word of the year) fun.

My annual holiday card shares some highlights of the past year, including:

  • Finished my executive coaching program

  • Completed Invisalign

  • Took a pen & illustration class

  • Met Free at J.Dilla Night <3

  • Continued my walking/hiking journey by visiting 20 of the 73 East Bay Regional Parks

  • Traveled to: Barcelona, Lake Como, Portugal, New York, and Denver

  • Got to see the following shows/artists: Tom Misch, Rema, Blue Note Napa, Terrace Martin, Jack Johnson

  • Visited Rosenblum Cellars approximately 92 times.

  • Read the following books:

    • The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

    • You are a Badass by Jen Sincero

    • Emotional Agility by Susan David

    • Stop Being Mean to Yourself by Melody Beattie

    • Braving the Wilderness by Brené Brown

    • By the Book by Jasmine Guillory

    • Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman

    • The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson

    • Savvy Sheldon Feels Good as Hell by Taj McCoy

    • It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

    • Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover

    • Crying in HMart by Michelle Zauner

I have become a total geek for life hacks and I have the TikTok fyp to prove it. The top three best and newest resources I discovered for myself in 2022 were:

  1. essie Gel Couture nail polish: They look and feel like gel nail polish without the hassle of a UV lamp and come off easily with regular nail polish remover. At only $10-15 per bottle, these are a steal!

  2. Buy Nothing groups: Hyperlocal neighborhood groups where everything is free! I’ve picked up so many great essentials and learned more about my neighbors/local area this way. Not to mention feeling one step closer to my minimalist dreams by offloading items that I no longer use.

  3. The power of writing and reflection: At the end of each week, I set time aside to write for 1-3 pages. I titled these “heart dumps” where it would be a nonsensical stream of consciousness. I found that when I write down my goals and dreams, there is a higher likelihood of me reaching them. Each week felt like a personal improv session where I would pour out all the random noise in my head and heart. Every so often an illuminating thought will shine through and oh, it feels so good!

While the would boundless served me very well in 2022, I’m ready for a new intention! For 2023, I selected the word peace. I have been experiencing more high stress/anxiety moments and I hope this word will help me weather through those times. A lot of those moments are rooted in fear and pressure that I put on myself for certain expectations or outcomes. This word reminds me to take my time and return to the present moment.

Wishing you all a wonderful 2023 and I look forward to reaching my personal goals and then some!

2021 Small Business Holiday Gift Guide, curated by @ashhunny & friends /  by Ashley Villanueva

What is the 2021 Small Business Holiday Gift Guide?

I started curating a gift guide last year, during the pandemic to help folks support small businesses. I received so much positive feedback that I decided to continue it this year. My goal is to purchase gifts through small businesses (instead of Amazon and big box stores) as much as possible. Below, I’ve curated a list of these small businesses for you to “browse” as possible gifts. Please join me in supporting these talented and creative folks — for the holidays and beyond! Even giving them a follow on social media will go a long way.

What if I don’t see what I’m looking for?

From Small Business Saturday 2021 (11/27) to New Years 2022, I’ll be updating this gift guide weekly, so please email me to add more businesses to the guide.

Apparel & Accessories

Art

Books

Food & Drink

Home Goods

Health & Beauty

Coaching

Experiences & Event Planning

My rituals and tools for a successful work week /  by Ashley Villanueva

Over the years, I have developed an organizational system of rituals and tools that help me with efficiency, productivity, and accomplishment. I am proud of finding a system that works for me! While it takes quite a bit of strict organization and discipline, it allows me to carve out the time for creative projects.

Preparing meeting notes 1 week in advance

Every Friday, I look at the following week in my Google calendar to jot down notes and ideas for my upcoming meetings. As a processor, this ritual helps truly unplug for the weekend and makes me feel confident and prepared for any planned meetings.

What does this look like?

  • I will jot down the title of the meeting, date/time, and include bullet points for items I’d like to discuss and any relevant links.

  • If it’s a standing meeting, I have a running document that I share with the other attendees so they can also contribute.

  • If I’m the lead or facilitator of the meeting, I’ll take a few extra minutes to organize the ideas, add time stamps, and assign topic leads.

  • During the meetings, I do my best to take detailed notes and highlight any action items in red.

My color-coded email labels.

My color-coded email labels.

Email management

I strive to end every day with zero emails in my inbox. How do I do it?

  • I have a label for every area of work. I start every day by assigning labels to every incoming email so I have a general sense of the work on my plate for that day.

  • Anything in my inbox means the work has yet to be completed. I archive anything else that I need to reference later and send the rest to the trash!

  • I snooze emails until the day that I will be able to dedicate time for that specific task/project. If I need more information for that specific task/project, I snooze the email for the date that I anticipate that info will come through or need to follow up.

  • I often have several email drafts waiting in my inbox. If I have a detailed response or “high stakes” email conversation, I like to take my time to draft responses and allow myself the time to wait until the next business day to send it. I also try to send my emails during the 9am-4pm hours as much as possible.

File Management

I manage all my files by semester: Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Summer 2022. Within each of those folders, I organize them by project: Class of 2022 Profile, Master of Engineering Recruitment, Student Intern Hiring. If I have a creative project, I make sure to follow a naming convention that allow me to document iterations: v1, v2, v3, FINAL. After each academic year, I upload the semester folders into Google Drive or sync them into my hard drive for back up and delete them from my laptop to clear space.

All shared items for my creative team are uploaded to Box. This includes video and photo files that take up a lot of space on my laptop.

On a monthly basis, I conduct a mini clean up. On my laptop, I file away any “loose” files on my desktop or in my Downloads folder. I trash anything that is not worth storing. In Google Drive, I do the same!

Microsoft To-Do

I use Microsoft To-Do for my personal and team’s task management. Each person on my team has their own folder and we can access each other’s lists. This allows us to see what others are working on and has facilitated transparency and collaboration. How do I organize my list?

  • I created a To-Do for all my repeating duties, ex:

    • Check departmental inbox, 1x per week

    • Update website header with new alumni features, 1x per month

    • Submit items for XYZ newsletter, every Friday

    • Add an Instagram story, 1x per week

  • When new projects and tasks come into my inbox or arise from meetings, I immediately create a To-Do and assign myself a due date. Even if there’s no real due date, I assign a date where I should check in. If there is a real due date, I add a star. IMPORTANT: I allow myself the flexibility to move the due date around depending on how my day changes, i.e. low energy, increased meetings, sick day.

  • When I need to assign a project to a team member, I fill out the fields as much as possible: title, due date, steps, and notes. In the notes, I specify whether the due date is flexible, add in collaborator contact info, and relevant links.

I hope these help others figure out their own personal email/task management system. I hope the biggest takeaway from this blog is that one size does NOT fit all! We can all develop our own that works for each of us respectively.