Well hey hi hello there! This thing still on, time is flying, we're all progressing linearly through space as far as we can tell, etc.

I completed my first seven days of effort streak exactly one month ago and after hitting publish on #200 I just kind of...dipped.

And, well, it's because I realized during my seven days of effort that my blog wasn't really where my focus wanted to go right now. It's amazing and wonderful and so thrilling to have published 200 pieces of writing over here (as of January of this year when I compiled this entire blog into a single document it was 847 pages and 368,264 words – wild!) but right now I'm–well–I'm working on launching my own company, so that's really taking up the brain space that usually goes to making quips about the quality of recent movies or my whatever daily whim I'm writing about over here.

That company is called The Meeting Medic and, in the grand tradition of enjoying sending out instructional somewhat inspirational emails about how facilitation is the solution to many of our work problems, I've started a newsletter!

(I will also be like, taking meetings (about meetings), doing consultation work for businesses who want to make their meetings better systemically, and helping people understand the "how" of their agenda and how it makes all the difference to the quality of information/ideas/decisions that happen in meetings.)

But! Newsletter-wise, every Monday morning I send out a prompt.

They range from uncovering project-specific intrigue to reflective processes that encourage looking at a central concept from multiple angles – but whether it's a minute paper or a slightly bigger brainstorm, the goal is to create a moment of thoughtful pause.

I barrel my way through work tasks a lot of the time, and it was leaving me feeling unsatisfied. My work ethic isn't really the issue, I get everything done when there's a looming deadline, but I wanted to give myself a better chance to align my interests with the work I was spending so much time on. Slow myself down enough to really get something out of the tasks I'm doing.

And the phrase "that meeting could have been an email" breaks my heart because I love meetings, they're such unique spaces for conversation/ideation/connection and instead they're often glorified surveillance check-ins and a chance to re-up dynamics that serve no purpose beyond bolstering emails. Good meetings can't be emails because they're inherently collaborative. Something back-and-forth writing can't simulate in satisfying ways! Which is why that review of a meeting is a fucking killer, god who wants to be in a work-based lecture as an adult?

When it comes to meetings, biggest difference between a good plan and a bad plan is breaking down how we cover the "what" of the meeting.

Having a discussion? Great! How do you want to have it.

Running a brainstorm? Amazing! How are you going to collect ideas in a way that democratizes the process of submitting them in order to get a wider array of responses?

Want to generate buy-in organically? Boy howdy have I got the specific facilitation process recommendations that effortlessly shape those moments.

Got decisions to make? How ya making them? Voting? Makin' a matrix? Sometimes the reason things don't "get done" is because no one has taken responsibility for choosing how the choices will be made.

Below is the Monday Morning Prompt #8 (eight weeks of consistency whooo!) from The Meeting Medic. Most of the prompts over there are Minute Papers or the slightly longer version, Journal Journey's. But today's is a little different, we're doing a process called Four Squares.

Want to sign up for a free trial meeting with me? I'm in the early beta stages so there's no cost besides the hour (or however much time you'd like the meeting to take) + promising to fill out a short feedback form at the end! You book right now if you are interested I've set up the Calendly here!

I'm working on re-writing my resume, and starting has been the hardest part. So creating a word/idea bank about my relationship to work via breaking it down into experience/skills/passion/personality was the least intimidating way to start!

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Monday Morning Prompt #8

week sixteen time to nail that routine

Good morning happy Monday, April 14, 2025!

What a year to be alive. So calm and tranquil, every week bringing a fresh batch of calm and—

Oh. Oh I’m so sorry. I’m getting reports that it isn’t—oops. What are you telling me? What’s going on?? And what speed???

It’s all happening! But here we are, it’s us and this Monday morning newsletter against the world! Or at least like, retroactively against the Sunday Scaries. A term I’ve never totally jived with because like, it’s the Monday Scaries and we’re only attributing it to Sunday because of alliteration! Don’t let fear of the future ruin your weekends!

(Scared on a Sunday? Take a nap!)

(It’s so great to start a Monday newsletter off with a rant about how if you’re going to experience dread you should be doing it on a weekday!)

This week I’ve got a slightly different style of prompt for everyone, so let’s get into it!

Four squares and seven years ago…

I’m currently in the midst of job hunting. It’s one of those “not urgent yet” type of deals where I’ve got a little more time to get my shit together before I have to Figure It Out. One of my major hurdles in terms of work is doing things that don’t have rapidly approaching deadlines.

I’ve never been an “outline the paper” type of girl! Much more of a smash-my-way-through-the-intro-oh-there’s-an-idea-aaaaand-we’re-off type. Yeah sure, I’ll go back and do drastic re-edits of everything I wrote afterwards, but if I rarely give myself the opportunity to take a planned/more calm approach because, well, there’s a deadline and it’s rapidly approaching.

But! I don’t know, insert something about maturity manifesting as slightly different actions or whatever here.

I’m getting my resume together and I’m not even crying the entire time while I do it out of self-loathing and fear of failure! (See, if you stick around through the first seven prompts, things eventually get juicy around here.)

First up?

Getting a better sense of my work-self. What I’m passionate about, what my specific skills are, any experience I have that I want to remind myself of, and what personality traits tie into my professional profile.

(And hey—if you’re not looking to update your resume right now because you like where you’re at, that’s amazing! This process won’t be used as a first stepping-stone in the same way I’m about to use it, but I think that writing down answers about ourselves can be illuminating in so many ways, even if it’s just to allow us to notice how close or far we are from our work being in alignment with ourselves and our greater purpose.)

Enter: four squares on a piece of paper.

If you had told me five years ago that that making square boundaries on paper would make that much of a difference during ideation processes, I would have had more questions about the phrase “ideation process” than the whole drawing squares thing tbh, but having worked at Facilitator Cards for five years now I get it.

By cordoning off parts of the page, we create specific containers to fill. It lowers the intimidation because we’re going to increase specificity.

You will know how to answer, which will make answering the question easier!

The other thing that will make it easier? Setting a timer. Racing the clock is the quickest way to get past self-judgement and just write something down. It doesn’t have to be perfect, it can be braggadocios, it can be whatever you want it to be — there are no grades! No bosses! Just you and your thoughts, captured for your own sake.

The prompt

Grab a blank sheet of paper, divide it into four quadrants. Don’t worry if they’re perfectly even!

Label each box with one of the following words:

• Experience
• Skills
• Passion
• Personality

The goal is to write 10 items in each box. I didn’t label mine with numbers because:

1. I hate when I feel squished line-wise into making things fit because I miscalculated how long I would need for each answer
2. I find that adds to the Freeze response that seeing blank pages can cause — don’t intimidate yourself out of trying!

So my suggestion is to do what I did, write as many as you can think of and then go back and count to see if you’ve gotten to 10. Did some of my “passion” answers probably make more sense in “personality”? Maybe! Doesn’t really matter! Still got the thought down to read back for myself later!

Full honestly: I didn’t set a timer, I just went “as fast as I could” because I knew that stopping would open me up to over-thinking and this is a time for no-filters between the thought and page.

Write it down! Don’t worry about the specifics! We’re creating a list for you to use so it’s okay if you read it back and disagree with yourself or you’re worried about “taking too much credit” or anything prohibitive. We rarely get practice in expressing ourselves for our own benefit beyond when it is necessary.

A timer I would recommend setting? 10 minutes. Maybe eight if you want that “crunch” because that gives you exactly two minutes per box.

Papers squared? Pens ready? Timer on?

Well then! Ready, get set, WRITE!

And after that…

Congratulations! You did it! You wrote 40 things about yourself down!!

Isn’t it so wild to discover something unique about yourself that you apparently were already thinking but probably hadn’t put into words yet?

I love it! Every time! What a rush what a thrill!

As always, here’s my response:

My piece of paper was wrinkly crinkle and had a tiny bit of coffee on it, but we persevered gang!!! We did it! I now have a plethora of thoughts and options to choose from when it comes to rebuilding my resume, writing my new website, and I don’t know man just like generally reminding myself that I am a person who is capable of things.

That feels good! Great to remember, even!

It’s so absolutely understandable to me that when I talk to people about work, we’re all bemoaning our inability to really “lock in” this year. And uh, I just want to commend us all for even trying. Nihilism is a hell of a drug and getting through the day with optimism can feel genuinely naive these days—a heartbreaking notion in and of itself which will be added to the pile of Things I Hope We All Grieve Together Someday.

No matter how much you wrote (or didn’t! totally understand if you skipped the whole thing or added it to the very bottom of your to-do list and just wanted to keep reading for now) I really hope you got/get something out of it. Even if it’s just being impressed with yourself for following through and trying the exercise/activity/process.

Got something out of it? Surprised yourself with one of the boxes? Want to complain about the hardest box to fill out? Do it in the comments over on the newsletter!

And hey, anytime you want meeting advice, a place to vent about the annoying thing your boss doesn’t seem to understand about your department, or just like general icks you want help getting over, you can always drop a line in the comments or directly to themeetingmedic@gmail.com!

Okay, that’s it for this Monday, I hope you have a fabulous and non-stressful week! May all your outfits fit juuuuust right in that way that makes the whole day breezy!

Subscribe to The Meeting Medic here!