On The Menu For This Week’s Tapas:

• TOOL 💻 Flow Club Virtual Coworking
• REFRAME 🎓 Playing (Grad)School
• DISCOVERY 💡Community is a MUST

I’m realizing that my "quirky-Raven-isms" might actually be signs of ADHD. 🥸

I’ve officially started the diagnosis process, and honestly, it’s wild this hasn't come up sooner. Like:

• I have a constant need to have a dozen projects going at once
• The belief that this productivity tool will unlock my full potential (RIP to Monday, Notion, Trello, Asana, ClickUp...)
• My ever-rotating cycle of hobbies (each making a dramatic comeback like it’s on tour)

In digging into ADHD coping tools, I found two concepts that have changed literally everything for me:

• Rubric/syllabus/briefs — even though I say I hate structure, turns out I need it 😩
• Body doubling (or "mirroring") — when someone else is working nearby, I can finally start the thing

It’s... eye-opening to say the least.

I believe the reason these things are working for me is because they give me mirrors and expectations!

✨ 🌱 Meet Flow Club 💪 💥

Flow Club is a virtual coworking space where people across the globe hop onto video calls, set goals for 30/60/90/120-minute sessions, and then work in silence with strangers. You check in at the beginning, during any scheduled breaks, and at the end.

(Cameras on, too. It's psycho and I love it.)

Over the past two weeks, I’m noticeably more focused.

I’m setting more realistic goals, noticing where I overcommit, and breaking big projects into digestible steps. This miraculous combo of structure, time awareness, and accountability from total strangers? Superrr effective.

Turns out, I didn't need more projects get things done. I needed mirrors.

Mirrors help me see how long tasks actually take. Mirrors give me space to actually start, not just think about it. (I even used Flow Club to deep clean the house. My shower liner is immaculate.)

So, yeah I fell hard for Flow Club, now I'm a session host.

If you want to try it out, come join me in a session. It's not about being social, it's about sharing your goals and not being alone while trying to accomplish them.

Playing (Grad)School

This one is a little out there, but it’s working.

Remember playing “school” as a kid?

During one summer, my friend KJ and I set up a classroom in her garage with supplies her teacher mom let us use (but never her good dry erase markers). We had the whole setup: rulers, worksheets, apple on the teacher's desk...

I'm basically doing that now.

I realized I need more structure to keep momentum in my solo business. So I've started "playing school" to complete my grown-up work.

Here’s how I'm doing it:

I asked ChatGPT to act as a grad school professor and help me create a syllabus and thesis project. It mapped out all the milestones I need to hit in launching a my new service — but in the form of coursework. Rubrics. Assignments with deadlines. It’s delulu, and oh-so cute.

There’s something about the school structure.

There's clear expectations, progress markers, that crisp sense of completion (and maybe the smell of dry erase markers after a diagramming session), that helps me move forward when I'd otherwise stall out.

If you want to be my quasi-TA and review my work, I’ll happily share my weekly “assignments.” Now accepting words of affirmation in all formats.

The Magic of Community

These coping tools are becoming more necessary the longer I'm in business for myself because launching something on your own can be SUPER lonely.

Not just because it's just me, myself, and I, but because there's no one assigning tasks, no team to bounce ideas off of, no one to ride the momentum with after a really good Slack-channel kiki.

It starts and ends with you. And that kind of pressure can be both thrilling and paralyzing.

I've learned that community isn't a nice-to-have, for me, it's a MUST.

As an Enneagram 7, the FOMO is strong because I draw energy from shared experiences. If I see someone actively cheering me on, I'll keep moving even if I wanna stop.

We learned this lesson during 2020 — isolation makes everything harder.

So installing elaborate systems just to focus might sound a bit dramatic, but it works.

Whether you're freelancing, working remotely, or the lone marketer on a small team, having someone see you and reflect your work back to you can be the one thing you were missing all along. If you want someone to work alongside you, I know the feeling.

Want to try Flow Club with me?

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Here’s to working with our brains, not against them ✌️

Editors Note: You'll notice I keep switching up the format of my newsletters. That's because I'm trying new things! I really like the "On the Tapas Menu" bit of this one. So if there's something new I try that you like, hit reply and let me know what and why!