What's the point of this?

It's Monday. I'm here for you.

The Pick Me Up is a Monday morning newsletter filled with advice, personal stories, and tips to help you get out of bed and jumpstart your week.

I’m currently repulsed by social media like I can’t even bare to go on it and when I’m on it I can’t stop asking myself: what is the point of this? what is the point of this and our lives?

I went to a funeral last week and forced myself to stare at a pink painted hill on a stained-glass window whenever I thought I was going to cry. There are different kinds of cries but funeral cries sound like ghoulish howls and once you start, you can not stop, so I thought the best way to stop was to never start. I squeezed my fists and held my breath and focused on those pink little hills and I kept saying to myself:

You can’t keep on living like this.

It’s a foolish waste.

I absolutely despise how it takes the saddest of days to knock the bullshit out of our paths.

The pinks hills were screaming at me, you know, saying things like: why aren’t you writing that book and how come you haven’t called Rachel back, and why are you still doing a podcast hardly anyone listens to, and when are you going to get your finances back on track, and how come you’re still moping around the apartment in stained pajamas when you have a closet filled with bright beautiful things.

I hope you too didn’t spend a Monday at a funeral. But I hope you get the point.

That life isn’t lasting forever yet we sure live like it is.

So if you’re going to kick anything out of your life this week, perhaps it’s imposter syndrome, lazy spells, the fear of trying, the urge to procrastinate.

And if you’re going to remember anything, try remembering this:

When it’s all over, it’s over. So what do you want to do before then? And why haven’t you done it yet.

In this issue: How to find wasted time, my favorite Amazon purchases, and why I ask people to tell me something good.

Why you’re getting this: I'm Jen Glantz and this is The Pick-Me-Up newsletter. I've been sending it every Monday, for 8-years, to thousands of awesome humans, just like you. Thank you for letting this email live in in your inbox. It truly makes my heart explode with joy.

Ps. I’m so grateful that you’re reading this because writing this newsletter every week is my favorite thing. If you know anyone who would adore getting this in their inbox, it would mean the world if you’d share it.

⚡Instant Pick Me Ups

📚: A friend sent me this book as a gift and I’ve been reading it every night before bed. It’s tremendous.

📄: All about Barbie. I haven’t seen the movie yet but I’d like to sneak away, grab a popcorn, and go.

🎧: My podcast binge of the week is this fascinating and really awful story. Please send me recommendations!

🛍️: Giving you a preview of the last few things I bought on Amazon that I loved

• These sunglasses are amazing

• I clean the house with these every night

• Pants that are good quality and nice fit

• I was inspired by TikTok to buy this for my phone and it works well

• Have this for the baby stroller but also great for the park, your desk, or around the house.

💬: Tell me something good. I read it in a newsletter. Every night, a woman asks her husband before bed to tell her something good from the day. I’ve been texting this to friends instead of asking them how they are.

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Find the Time That’s Wasted

The year is more than half over. How’s your life looking?

I want you to fill in this blank:

Before the end of the year, I am going to do ____________.

Scribble down your list.

Make doing the things on your list your top hobby.

If you don’t have the space to do it, see what you can delete.

Make room for the things on the list by kicking out the things that have ate up the first half of your year.

Not sure what those things are?

What do you waste time on?

Open your phone - check your usage history from last week.

Open your credit card statement - what you spent money on often tells you how you spent your time

Open your browsing history - did you stare at the screen longer than you needed to?

Open your Netflix play list - did you watch too many shows?

Open your calendar - did you say yes to too many things?

I did this last week.

I have at least 2-hours of time a day that I waste. That’s 10-hours a week.

What could I do with 10-hours extra a week?

Take better care of myself. Start another passive income stream. Get all my work done earlier in the week so I can take Friday off work. Spend uninterrupted time with my baby.

I can do a lot of meaningful things.

I can do the things that will make me feel like i’m living the kind of life I desperately want to live.

So often we feel stuck, we feel lost, we feel like we’re not on track anymore.

There are many ways to help yourself when you’re feeling like that.

But this week, perhaps the way is to find your wasted time and do something different with it.

How much of it do you have? What will you do when you find it?

-Jen Glantz

Hello, from my life:

The humongous little things I can’t stop thinking about from last week.

1. I gave my friend her keys back. She’s moving out of NYC and I kept her spare key in a drawer in my kitchen. I’ve never had a friend give me a key to their apartment. It’s taken me 30-years to find the immense courage and openness to truly have best friends. So I’m trying not to be sad about another one of my best friends leaving NYC (NYC is a city that people leave often) I’m trying to stay happy that I’ve met some of my soulmates in this wacky little town and I hope we’re all old enough to hold onto good friendship no matter where it lives.

2. My parents came to NYC last week to meet the baby. I’ll forever remember the moment when they walked into my apartment and saw Gemma. My memory is foggy these days. But that moment won’t ever leave me. I just know it.

3. Our lease is up on our 1-bedroom apartment in the neighborhood of Brooklyn we call our homes. The tough part is that we can’t afford a 2-bedroom in this town anymore (they start at $6k….). It’s also so competitive to snag apartments these days. When we find out about one, it’s gone within the minute. I have an email saved in my draft folder with all my financial documents ready to go so I can send it over instantly in case one (for a decent price) becomes available. I don’t know what we’ll do or where we’ll move but I will keep you posted.

4. I’m building an AI tool that writes really badass and personalized maid of honor speeches for people instantly. If you like to test tools and give feedback, hit reply.

Until next Monday…All my love,

Jen Glantz