jello nostalgia, 847 unread emails, and the recipe for burnout-free time off
by Hannah Keyes
Jul 20, 2025
You sit down at your desk with a freshly made coffee and stare at 847 unread emails, a back-to-back calendar, 150+ unread notifications in Slack, and feel a shiver up your spine at the thought of opening your project management system to see the notification number there too.
This is the general M.O. of "welcome back" routines after time off.
So intensely focused on the exit of time off, that we've built a bridge to nowhere.
Picture this:
You finally have the breakthroughā€”that lightning bolt moment where everything clicks.
Why you've been struggling.Why you've been yearning for something different.And what needs to change for you to feel aligned again.
It all makes perfect sense now.
There's a buzz of excitement and clarity.
This is it. This is the missing piece.
You can practically taste how good it's going to...
I stepped away for longerā€”and more extensivelyā€”than intended when I had a health scare after the holiday (more on this at the end of today's email).
What I discovered during those weeks didn't feel great: a major chunk of my business systems are actually me-systems, not yet real systems.
And I'm willing to bet you might have a few of these too.
Here's what I mean:
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There's something I've been wrestling with lately, and I'm going to share it with you in real time instead of waiting until I have it all figured out.
Like many late-diagnosed neurodivergent and recovering people-pleasers, I've spent much of my life trying to prevent judgment and rejection anymore than it already was happening by masking and accommodating any and everyone around me in order to ...
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