Is there something in the air this week?

Because I have not been able to get my head in the game.

It’s Friday afternoon, and I have as much on my to-do list today as I did on Monday. (Hi, clients. Promise I’m going to meet next week’s deadlines!)

I don’t often send Friday emails, but when I do, I can’t resist the urge to use an opening-day Barbie GIF and turn everything pink.

I was, in fact, a Barbie Girl — we had an entire closet full of dolls, their clothes and accessories, the Barbie Dream House, at least three cars (ooooo, the sparkly pink coupe!), the yacht.

Lord, we gave Mattel a lot of money.

Now, Barbie’s equal-parts-curvaceous-and-skinnyskinnyskinny body probably didn’t hurt her chances of getting ahead in life in the ’90s.

But I’d rather convince myself that Barbie could fake it till she made it thanks to having the right tools at her disposal for her many jobs.

🧑🏼‍🚀 Astronaut Barbie — my very first, a gift from my mom at the start of a long road trip — had a little helmet. 

😻 Veterinarian Barbie had a doctor bag, medical supplies, food and water bowls for her four-legged charges, and a bone as a treat after whatever trauma she might inflict on them.

✈️ Flight attendant Barbie had a little suitcase and a jaunty pink hat, presumably for turning heads in the airport (would she need zip ties now to contain unruly men on board?)

💼 And business executive Barbie came with… ::checks notes:: day-to-night outfits.

Well, maybe not every Barbie had the right tools, though I can of course appreciate a strong happy hour lewk 👀

So Barbie. My girl. Here are five tools I’d recommend for a day at your desk. (Some of these are affiliate links, but I’d share them even if I didn’t get the satisfaction of knowing if you sign up.)

• Sunsama for task management: I love it because it pulls in tasks from a bunch of tools (ClickUp, Google Calendar, Trello, Asana, pick your poison) to create one unified plan, one day at a time. I realize how deeply hilarious it is that I’m sharing a productivity tool right now.
• ActiveCampaign for email marketing: Well worth the price of admission if only for its insanely granular automation capabilities.
• ThriveCart for course creation: You pay a one-time fee for a lifetime license, and the interface is simple and powerful on the back-end but pleasing on the front-end. (There’s an inappropriate joke in there.)
• brain.fm for focus music: Science! 🔬 It uses “gentle rhythmic pulses in the music that support sustained attention,” and I should be using it right now instead of this album.
• OneLook for getting unstuck on words: It’s a super-simple search that helps you find related words, synonyms, words that start with certain letters, and various permutations thereof. 

Notice I didn’t recommend ChatGPT?

Man, I’m deeply suspicious of AI after reading a few weeks ago that it could herald the end of civilization. Little stuff like that.

When I need to tap into a genius hive mind, I’d rather know exactly whose brain I’m picking.

That’s why my bonus tool is an amazing network of fellow copywriters who are always down to peek at stuff I’ve written and offer sweetly constructive feedback to get me out of my own headbox.

Like Ken with his rollerblades, “I literally go nowhere without them.”

Let’s go party,
Paige
aka Procrastination Barbie 🤦🏻‍♀️

P.S. A client pal showed me her printout of Win Hearts With Words yesterday — her guarantee that she’d actually use that tool. Have you grabbed my tips for infusing your marketing copy with 100%-you voice yet?

P.P.S. My sister named three of our Ken dolls Bobo, Durf, and Lonnie.