Monday: Returning to biz as usual - except we're in HGG season!

Good morning!

Last week was such a week.

It started playing pretend professor and was rounded out with a week packed with NYCWFF activities…oh and trying to stay on top of an exploding inbox in between.

alywalansky

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My body is exhausted, but I had so much fun and saw so many people I adore - so it was absolutely a successful week at NYCWFF…but now I have a lot of catch up (or as my friends and I call it in our group text, life administration, to do.)

Today's productivity tip is inspired by a song that has a permanent place in my workday playlist.

Manic Monday!

I get it - Monday is not the most popular day of the week for many people, and it also tends to be the busiest and most hectic.

I assume all these factors are related.

So, what do we do to make Monday less of a...well...Monday? Well, what works for me is taking some time to prep on Sunday night.

This idea grew out of how I have for years spent Sunday night meal prepping for the week. It’s also the night I generally do stuff like wash my hair and touch up my pedicure. But why can't we "meal prep" (or beauty prep, as the case may be) the rest of our lives? 

Set a calendar alert for yourself right now for Sunday evenings. Give yourself an hour every Sunday to get into that Monday morning mindset. This may be taking some time to glance at your calendar or to-do list for Monday, or giving what you were working on that Friday a quick once-over so you can take stock of where you left off and what you need to continue with or follow up on, come Monday.

You might want prep your lunch for the next day (I do this anyway!), or even pre-line up what you will wear the next day, or pack the bag you need to take with you. Whatever you need to do to have a little less to do on Monday. 

This is also a great time to look at the next day's to-do list and prioritize items and goals so you can fine tune your schedule. For example: This week, I know I have a meeting Tuesday, evening plans both Wednesday and Thursday night, and a consulting session I’m prepping for Thursday afternoon. So that means, this week I'll be eating dinner at home on Monday and Tuesday.

Considering this on Sunday also helps me with planning my grocery list and meal prep, as well…which is why last night I roasted a chicken that will be my foundation for everything I prepare the next few days.

Then...start the day as early as you can for Monday. This helps to set the tone for the day and week, but also gives you a head start so that if anything unexpected pops up later in the day or later in the week, you will be better equipped to handle it!

Lots of new content published since my most recent newsletter, including for Plate Magazine’s Bite of the Week, I wrote about the best potato dish I’ve tried this year: Marcel Vigneron’s Cracked Potatoes Make a Case for Freezing Your Fries. For Today.com: 27 healthy fast food items at popular US chains, according to dietitians and doctors, for Southern Living: Can You Eat Squash Skin?, for Forbes: 12 Halloween Cocktails That Will Add Some Spirit To This Spooky Season, and for Apartment Therapy, a fun one: My Mom’s Method for Cleaning Makeup Brushes Isn’t Makeup Artist-Approved (but I Still Use It!),

Reminder that I’m currently working on a bunch of holiday gift guides and if you want to be extra prepared to pitch, be sure to check out the complete recording of our Holiday Gift Guide Q&A with Jill, Aly and Alice (sign up for access to this recording from August 2024) — you’ll need to be subscribers of all three of our newsletters to grab this particular recording but you’ll get tons of value!

Newly published or freshly updated

Since people are often asking about the status of stories from a while ago, and I only share stories in this newsletter that were published or updated in the current week, I have created a list of my author pages at various publications to which I contribute. Bookmark it and make your life a bit easier.

This list will live on my Substack URL and be updated as necessary. That way, you can see what I’m doing at any publication, at any time, from types of stories to general structure of stories to even volume and frequency of my content at that outlet.

This can also help you to target pitching a bit better. That makes your job easier, and mine too!

• Newsweek Readers Choice: Best U.S. Wellness Resort (I was on the panel that created the list of nominees! as well as those for Best Vodka, Best Gourmet Subscription Box, Best Mattress, and Best Outdoor Grill - more categories coming very soon!

• Plate Magazine: Marcel Vigneron’s Cracked Potatoes Make a Case for Freezing Your Fries

• Today.com: 27 Healthy Fast Food Menu Items, According to Dietitians

• Southern Living: Can You Eat Squash Skin?

• Forbes: 12 Halloween Cocktails That Will Add Some Spirit To This Spooky Season

• Apartment Therapy: My Mom’s Method for Cleaning Makeup Brushes Isn’t Makeup Artist-Approved (but I Still Use It!),

• The Kitchn: Mindy Kaling Says This Fall Soup Is the “Best Thing” She’s Ever Cooked

• Travel & Leisure: The $9 Flight Attendant-loved Hack That Changed the Way I Carry My Bags at the Airport

• Apartment Therapy: I Asked a Chef to Help Me Organize My Fridge, and Here’s What He Said

• Clean Plates: 8 Delicious Trader Joe’s Fall Foods That Dietitians Love

• RetailMeNot: The Best Free Beauty Gifts With Purchase Deals to Shop

• Yahoo: Get a handle on your sleep health with the best sleep trackers for 2024, tested and reviewed

• Parade: Clueless About How To Use an Air Fryer? Consider This Your 101 Guide

• Forbes: Fine Dining At 36,000 Feet? Inflight Menus Have Gotten An Upgrade

• Apartment Therapy: We Asked 5 Pro Travelers How They Keep Their Luggage Clean, and Here’s What They Said

• RetailMeNot: 50+ Government Employee Discounts Worth Knowing in 2024

• Clean Plates: 20 Quick and Healthy Air Fryer Snacks You Can Make in a Snap

• Apartment Therapy: I Sent a Pro Organizer Photos of My Tangled Mess of Cord Clutter — Here’s How She Fixed It

• Travel & Leisure: This Flight Attendant-approved Jumpsuit Is My Go-to Comfy Airplane Outfit — and It’s Only $27 Right Now

• Today.com: 11 healthiest fast food breakfasts, according to dietitians

• Apartment Therapy: The One Thing You Always Travel with That’s Actually Disgusting (And How to Keep It Clean)

• Travel & Leisure: I Tried Amazon’s ‘Magical’ Sleep Mask on a Long-haul Flight — and Now It’s the Most Important Item in My Bag.

• Travel & Leisure: I Travel Solo Frequently, and This $18 Gadget Makes Me Feel Safer in Hotel Rooms

• Today.com: The best drugstore eye creams to tackle wrinkles, dark circles and dryness, according to experts

• Apartment Therapy: I Sent a Pro Organizer a Photo of My Messy Kitchen Junk Drawer — Here’s How She Fixed It

• Yahoo Life: The best cooling fans of 2024, tested and reviewed

• Travel & Leisure: These Arch Support Sandals Are the Only Shoes I Wear in the Summer — and They’re Only $47

• Apartment Therapy: I Sent a Pro Organizer a Photo of My Cluttered Medicine Cabinet, and Here’s How She Fixed It

• Travel & Leisure: You Don't Want to Step Foot in a Waterpark Without These 18 Essentials From Just $9

If you or your client are featured in any of these stories, I super appreciate any social media shares! Please remember to tag @alywalansky and the outlet.

Here’s what I’m working on:

Be sure to read the below list carefully. Many are stories I posted about yesterday, but some of yesterday's stories are no longer listed and a few new ones have been added since yesterday. This (below) is everything that is still a currently open opportunity as of today.

Please remember when pitching me: Email me at alywalansky@gmail.com - do NOT just hit reply on this newsletter, or there’s a good shot your email will be lost in the heap. Give your email a subject line that makes it clear which story you are pitching me for — it’ll help you in the long run.

Please consult my industry insights guides on submitting expert commentary, sending emails that will catch a journalist’s attention, how to craft pitches journalists will say ‘yes’ to, and the right and wrong way to submit photos, if you need any extra guidance before sending your pitches.

Forbes

Gift guide time!

I’m looking for the best gifts for the dorm/small apartment for the person just starting out who loves to cook. We aren't all grownup amateur home cooks with kitchens to stock, we often start out living in shared small spaces or dorms and trying to develop our home cooking and meal prep routine - often with limited resources. (Hell, some of us are entering our 40s and still living like we’re 22 in a small apartment!) These are gifts for those people to enjoy this holiday season, nourishing their new favorite hobby. (When pitching - think along the lines of the best gifts for the starter kitchen)

The best gifts for the air fryer lover. For this, I’m seeking both great air fryer variations that are an upgrade from the still-great usual but also fun meal kits/ingredients/products specifically formulated to the air fryer that someone who is obsessed with their air fryer would love. Think anything from air fryer gadget to accessory to tool to cookbook for this one.

Finally, the third gift guide I’m doing for Forbes.com this season: Beefy Texas-Inspired Gifts For The Southwestern Carnivore. So, basically…do they love to travel to Texas to eat great steaks or bbq and would DIE to know they could have it shipped to their door? Do they mail order hot sauces and spice blends and chilis that are southwestern inspired for their own at home cookouts? These are the types of gifts they’d love!

If you want to pitch me for these gift guides, please be sure to include:

• Name of product

• A few sentences about why you think I should consider it for this particular guide

• a few links to online retail for this product (MUST be available online and currently in stock)

• A LINK to an image of the product

• Price

Note: I’m ONLY interested in being pitched products for these guides. Please don’t send me your influencer or chef’s picks as their favorites - this is not an expert commentary piece. Thanks!

Also: Do you know of an airport lounge that has an especially interesting F&B offering/feature? I want to hear about it!

One more: For Forbes, I’m rounding up fun and unique Thanksgiving-themed cocktails or dishes (and please don’t just pitch me a table of turkey and trimmings for this one - I want Thanksgiving-inspired, say, perhaps if someone is doing Thanksgiving poutine or Thanksgiving egg rolls or gumbo or the like. These must be on the menu at a bar or restaurant, at least as a limited-time special (longer term is fine too), and when pitching me, please include Name of rest/bar, where it’s located, link to their website, description of the cocktail, and a quote from a bartender/mixologist/chef about cocktail/dish as well as a good-quality photo and appropriate photo credits.

Plate Magazine

I’m putting out bites/drinks of the week feelers, which is sort of a drink/dish spotlight piece. (Some examples are this Peruvian-inspired sweet potato in Savannah and a molecular banana daiquiri in Chicago.) Basically if you are pitching me something for this, think along the lines of: Is this dish/bite something new? What interesting techniques are used to make it come together? If the technique is simple, what’s the hook? An interesting ingredient? Something being made in house or in an interesting way? What’s the story behind the dish? What inspired it? Is there a cultural/family story behind the dish? An ingredient the chef got their hands on? Love to hear what you might have for me!

Looking to up your affiliate marketing game?

Affiliate marketing is complicated, and it seems that the landscape keeps changing. If you are looking to be prepared for gift guide season and all other shopping-related content, you may want to try the Ultimate Masterclass and Introduction to Affiliate Marketing for Publicists. It's a brilliant course and it'll answer all your questions (including some you didn't know you had!)

<3

aly