Go smell the rain 🦋

Presented by Ask Proxy™

Hey there, {{first_name | friend}},

Dolly Parton died on Tuesday, and I have been carrying her in my heart all week.

She grew up one of 12 kids in a one-room cabin in East Tennessee and spent seven decades giving it all away, most of it to children. I was born about an hour away from her home place, in Knoxville, TN. I’m not sure when I was first aware of her, but it feels like she’s always been a part of my life. I visited Dollywood as a child, read Coat of Many Colors to my daughters, and cook from the cookbook she wrote with her sister, Rachel. And I happened to be in Nashville this week, with her in my heart.  

Her Imagination Library has been mailing free books to kids since 1995, which means a whole lot of us have a Dolly book on a shelf somewhere in the house right now.

So this edition is written in her honor. I am letting her words introduce each section, because she says it better than I ever could.

This week on the podcast, I sat down with Megan Murray to talk about the gender gap in tech, Web3, blockchain, and AI. One of the most fascinating parts was Megan’s take on how blockchain and AI can work to solve each other's problems. Blockchain can help prove where something came from and whether it has been tampered with, which matters more every month that AI-generated content gets easier to make.

Megan is so skilled at breaking down complex topics in a way that feels like a friend. If you’re like me and wonder if you missed the window to learn about blockchain and Web3, you did not. Consider this your invitation.

Time to smell the rain does not appear on its own. You have to take it back from somewhere. Here are 3 prompts that pull time out of the parts of the week nobody enjoys, so you have some left over for the parts you do.

Act as my inbox triage assistant. Search my email for anything requiring my attention from the past [INSERT TIMEFRAME]. Pay special attention to messages from [PERSON, SCHOOL, COMPANY, TEAM]. Pull out only what needs something from me: forms to sign, money to send, dates to add, supplies to buy, volunteer slots to claim. Skip promotions, sales, and anything already handled. Format as a checklist with the deadline next to each item.

Mom tip: For this to save you meaningful time, you’ll need to connect your email to your AI tool. If that’s not a fit for you at this time, skip this one for now.

Act as a morning routine designer who specializes in getting kids out the door on time. Here is our current morning: [WHO WAKES UP WHEN], [WHAT HAS TO HAPPEN], [WHAT TIME WE LEAVE], [WHERE IT FALLS APART]. Ask me anything else you need, then find the 3 things costing us the most time. and rewrite the routine to optimize it. Format as a night before checklist and a morning timeline, plus one line on what to cut when we are running late.

Mom tip: Use Voice Mode to describe the morning you actually have, not the one you wish you had. Talking helps give a lot more context than typing. I’m doing this tonight since our school surprised me this week with a request to arrive ten minutes earlier going forward!

Act as my scheduling assistant. Review my calendar and block 30 minutes of “me time” every day for the next [INSERT DURATION]. I want to use this time for [INSERT GOAL LIKE RESTING OR JOURNALING OR NOTHING AT ALL] and the best time of day for me to do that is [INSERT TIME OF DAY]. Name the event “Calendar block: me time” and include a reminder in the body on how to make the most of the time.

Mom tip: You can do this a number of ways: connecting your calendar to your AI tool (ChatGPT can connect to Google Calendar, for example), using an AI tool in your browser (like the Claude Browser Extension), or using my AI assistant, Em.

Dolly's family asked that donations go to her Imagination Library. It mails free books to kids from birth to age 5, at no cost to families. If you have a little one at home, you can sign them up. If yours are past that stage, you can fund a child who is not.

And then hit reply and tell me your favorite Dolly song. Mine is "Why’d You Come In Here Lookin’ Like That" and I can’t help but sing along.

Until next time,

P.S. It was special and serendipitous to be in Nashville this week, and it also marks the beginning of my fall travel season. I’ll be in Boston, Cancun, Dallas, Fort Lauderdale, and San Francisco before Thanksgiving. If you’re in one of those cities and would like to get together, or if you’d like to add a visit to your city to my itinerary, grab 15-minutes here.

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