Thursday: Have you tried the 'scary hour' approach to productivity?

Also: See you next week, LA!

Good morning!

I’m sure you are like me in that sometimes you’ll spend days or weeks or MONTHS stressing about some life administration task that ultimately takes twenty minutes to handle and then is completely checked off.

Why do we even do that to ourselves?

I was thinking about that when I came across a TikTok trend that addresses exactly that — it’s kind of like the Pomodoro method, if that method was on speed, where you set aside a specific allotment of time and do ALL those things you have most been stressing about or dreading.

Hence, the scary hour.

So, you may set 3 pm on Sunday as your scary hour and use that time allotment to do all those things you have been putting off. By making a specific appointment with yourself to do all that stuff you don’t want to do then — you make it feel more manageable and concentrated, and you also get the benefit of the sense of accomplishment at completion. Plus, you’ve faced your fears! Go you!

So, while I originally looked into this method from a home organization point of view, I’m now trying it for work-type stuff too. You should try it too! Incorporate it into your routine and find the pattern that works for you. You may want to start with the smaller or easier “scary” tasks to get that sense of adrenaline accomplishment and then move up from there — facing your fears may not be as scary after all!

In completely unrelated news, Dr Odyssey returns tonight and it’s one of my favorite ridiculous guilty viewing pleasures this season. Are any of you watching?

Newly published this week

In other news, I have a bunch of newly published content to share. For Apartment Therapy, I Asked Pro Travelers to Share Their Packing Tips for Spring Break.

For Southern Living, I wrote about What Exactly Is "Check-In Chicken" And Will It Actually Help You Get A Better Seat On A Flight? (as someone who notoriously is at the airport like three hours early, it’s comical I wrote this story!). For Forbes, I interviewed the ALWAYS delightful Molly Yeh about her new babka collab just in time for her latest book release - Molly Yeh’s Collaboration With Popular New York City Bakery Involves A Heavy Dose Of Nostalgia.

This week for Food Network, I wrote about one of the most interesting items on Starbucks’ newly released spring menu - Starbucks’ New Spring 2025 Drink Features Cherry on Top, and for Travel & Leisure, I covered one of my go-to travel tech essentials — Frequent Fliers Say This Genius Hack Makes It Feel Like They've Upgraded Their Seat — and It's Only $30.

Travel next week!

Speaking of travel, I’ll be in LA all next week!

It’s a pretty packed itinerary so I’m sure my downtime will be very limited - but maybe I’ll get lucky and be able to give a few of you a hug while I’m there :)

Limited-time deals on consulting sessions and ad placement!

Reminder: I’m offering a limited-time special consulting session discount for paid subscribers: If you are a paid subscriber, you can for a limited time, get 25% off a virtual consulting session (where we can have your own private or agency-wide AMA session on anything you want to chat about!) — I have some slots open in the next few weeks, so if you or your agency is interested in booking one, email me today and we’ll chat details.

I’m also offering a seasonal special on advertising in this newsletter. I do limit advertising to only what would be of interest to my readers, but am open to both short paragraph blurbs and dedicated posts - if you are interested in chatting details and scheduling something, please email me at alywalansky@gmail.com today!

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Thank you for helping get the word out!

We had an amazing turnout at last week’s Mother’s Day gift guide pitching workshop — and there’s a full recording available for paid subscribers. If you are interested in me sending you the video link, drop me an email. Thanks so much for your support and happy gift guide pitching!

Related: We loved how many of attended you took the time to attend our webinar event last month, covering the upcoming ShareASale to Awin migration. We covered an overview of the migration process and timeline, pricing of networks, and choosing a network for your specific client needs. If you missed it, we do have a recording available for paid subscribers. Email if interested and I’ll share how to grab that recording as well!

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!)

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.

• Newsweek Readers Choice: Best Cruise Ship for Families 2025, Best Apres Ski Spots, Best Casinos with Live Music (outside Vegas), Best U.S. Wellness Resort, Best Packing Cube, Best Vodka, Best Gourmet Subscription Box, Best Mattress, and Best Outdoor Grill - more categories coming very soon!

• Apartment Therapy: I Asked Pro Travelers to Share Their Packing Tips for Spring Break

• Southern Living: What Exactly Is "Check-In Chicken" And Will It Actually Help You Get A Better Seat On A Flight?

• Forbes: Molly Yeh’s Collaboration With Popular New York City Bakery Involves A Heavy Dose Of Nostalgia.

• Food Network: Starbucks’ New Spring 2025 Drink Features Cherry on Top

• Travel & Leisure: Frequent Fliers Say This Genius Hack Makes It Feel Like They've Upgraded Their Seat — and It's Only $30.

• Forbes.com: Exotic Meats Are On The Menu At Indian Speakeasy In New York City

• RetailMeNot: How to Save Money on Groceries in 2025: 10 Tips That Actually Work

• Southern Living: The Unexpected Reason I Always Travel With Duct Tape—And You Should Too

• Apartment Therapy: We Asked Experts for the Best Way to Store Sex Toys — Here’s What They Said

• Saatva: Daylight Saving Time and Sleep: 5 Ways to Sleep Better When the Clocks Change

• Apartment Therapy: I Tried the 30/30 Rule, and I Discovered Something Unexpected

• Travel & Leisure: A Travel Writer's $10 Amazon Packing Hack for Shoes

• Travel & Leisure: I Travel Solo Often, and I Won’t Stay in Another Airbnb Without Packing This 1 Safety Device

• Southern Living: The 9 Best Bottles Of Bourbon, According To Southern Chefs And Bartenders

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

With March Madness and St Patrick’s Day coming up, let me know if you have anything fun cocktail/dish wise going on for that…

If you have anything for me, please make sure you have all of the following before pitching:

• Name of drink/dish

• Where served: Name of restaurant/bar, city, state, URL

• Description (not a recipe!)

• Quote about dish from chef/bartender

• LINK to image (low res is fine) - and appropriate photo credits

  If you are a restaurant or bar doing anything special this year for Purim, I’d love to hear more!

I’m also beginning to round up Kosher for Passover treats/snacks/beverages (must be certified as SPECIFICALLY kosher for passover and not just regular kosher. Please email me if you have anything!)

<3

aly