Your Influence Changes Everything

What you do matters.

We honor the everyday impact of executive assistants.

One Reminder of Your Impact.

This series reflects a truth you already live.
It may be invisible.
But it changes everything.

Stay Sharp - Stay Intentional - Stay Indispensable.

In The Wild

Real-World Find

Read: "Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle" Emily Nagoski & Amelia Nagoski The Nagoski sisters make a case that most of us finish our stressful days without ever completing the stress cycle — meaning the emotion never fully moves through the body. Sound familiar? This book is essentially a manual for what Maren already knew intuitively. The doorstep wasn't just habit. It was biology.

→ Get the Book:  Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski
→ Watch Here: Audiobook Summary of Burnout:The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle

Listen: "The Daily Habits of High Performers" The Tim Ferriss Show — Episode with Dr. Andrew Huberman Huberman's work on the nervous system and daily decompression rituals is remarkably practical. His concept of a "non-sleep deep rest" (NSDR) protocol is a science-backed version of Maren's evening sweep — a deliberate transition that tells your brain the high-alert portion of the day is complete.

→ Listen Here: #876: Dr. Andrew Huberman — Peptides, Performance, and Protocols

From One EA to Another

The End-of-Day Shutdown Ritual — A Practical Framework

This one is worth passing around.

Cal Newport, author of Deep Work, advocates for a formal "shutdown ritual" at the end of every workday — a specific, repeatable sequence that signals to your brain that work is complete. Not paused. Complete.

For EAs, whose work never truly feels complete, this is radical.

→ Find the Book Here: Deep Work, by Cal Newport

Here's a simple EA-adapted version:

1. Review tomorrow's calendar — one final look, then close it.

2. Write your top 3 priorities for tomorrow on paper.

3. Do your Brain Drain — everything circling, onto the page.

4. Say your Permission Statement out loud.

5. Close everything down physically and digitally.

6. Say (or think): "Shutdown complete."

It sounds almost too simple. That's the point. Maren didn't invent a complicated system. She picked up a broom.

Worth Watching

The Art of Being Yourself | Caroline McHugh | TEDxMiltonKeynesWomen

26 Minutes 23 seconds

A stunning talk on identity, self-reclamation, and stripping away the roles we perform for others. Very aligned with Maren's story.

→ Watch it Here 

What all this says about the EA Effect

Here is what no one talks about at the leadership summit, in the executive debrief, or in the year-end review:

The EA is the emotional load-bearing wall of the organization.

Not metaphorically. Structurally.

You absorb the pressure before it reaches the executive. You smooth the friction before it becomes conflict. You hold the details so tightly that the people around you experience the luxury of thinking about only the big picture.

That is extraordinary work.

And extraordinary work done without restoration doesn't produce excellence over time — it produces erosion.

Maren didn't sweep her doorstep because she was weak. She swept it because she was wise enough to know that the work required her to remain whole.

The Reset Ritual isn't self-indulgence. It is professional maintenance at the highest level.

Why The EA Effect Matters

The effect an EA has on an organization is rarely measured — but it is always felt.

When you are restored, you are precise. You catch what others miss. You read the room before anyone else has walked into it. You make the call that keeps the day from unraveling.

When you are depleted, the effect reverses quietly. Not dramatically — EAs are too skilled for dramatic failure. It happens in the margins. A beat too slow. A detail slightly softer. An intuition not quite trusted.

The Reset Ritual matters because you matter to the outcome.

Not as a resource. Not as a function. As a human being whose clarity, steadiness, and presence are the invisible engine of everything running well.

Maren knew this. She swept her doorstep not for the village. She swept it for herself — which is exactly why the village kept running.

This Week's EA Effect in Action

Your Assignment: Find Your Doorstep

This week, design your Reset Ritual. Not perfectly. Just intentionally.

Here's how:

Step 1 — Choose Your Threshold Moment What will be your signal that the workday is closing? Closing the laptop. Changing your shoes. Making tea. A single deep breath at your desk before you stand. Pick one. Make it physical. Make it yours.

Step 2 — Choose One Ritual from the Six Don't do all six. Not yet. Pick the one that feels most like what you actually need right now:

• 🧠 Brain Drain (if your mind won't quiet)

• 🔕 Intentional Disconnect (if you can't stop checking)

• 🫁 Body Check-In (if you've forgotten you have a body)

• ✍️ One Good Thing (if you've been invisible to yourself)

• 🌙 Permission Statement (if you're still holding today at midnight)

Step 3 — Do It for 5 Days Not forever. Just this week. Notice what shifts — not in your productivity, but in how you feel when you wake up the next morning.

💌 We'd love to hear what you choose. Reply to this newsletter and tell us: What is your doorstep? The best responses will be featured in a future issue.

Now on to other stuff

Bookmarks

A few more things worth your time — not directly about reset rituals, but very much about the kind of person who needs them.

🎧 Podcast: "The Lazy Genius Podcast" — Kendra Adachi Specifically her episodes on "being a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't." Deeply practical. Surprisingly moving. Perfect for the EA who over-engineers everything including their own recovery.

📚 Book: "The Artist's Way" — Julia Cameron Specifically the Morning Pages practice. Three pages of longhand stream-of-consciousness writing every morning. It sounds like it's for artists. It's actually for anyone who spends their entire day thinking about someone else's vision and has slowly lost track of their own inner voice. Which is, quietly, a lot of EAs.

📚 Book: "Four Thousand Weeks" — Oliver Burkeman A beautiful, slightly devastating book about time and the radical act of accepting that you cannot do everything. For the EA who believes that with the right system, they can finally catch up. Burkeman says: you won't. And somehow, that is the most freeing thing you'll read all year.

🎧 Podcast: "Unlocking Us" — Brené Brown Her episode with Emily and Amelia Nagoski on burnout is essential listening. Put it on during your commute home. Let it be the beginning of your reset before you even walk through the door.

The Dream Desk

A worn oak writing desk pushed against a window that looks out onto a small, quiet garden. Late afternoon light — the golden kind that doesn't rush. A single linen curtain moves slightly in a breeze that has just arrived.

No second monitor. No charging cables in sight. No sticky notes with urgency on them.

Just the desk, the light, and the quiet agreement that the day is done.

This is what it looks like when the person who holds everything together finally lets herself be held by something small and still.

Where's your dream office this week?

Reply to this email with your idea or your own image.

Ambient Luxuries

Your desk might be covered in to-dos, but your mind? That deserves a view. Each week, we’ll drop a dreamy background and soundtrack to help you through the day like the behind-the-scenes wizard you are. Headphones in, magic on.
Note: These links are publicly available and not affiliated with us just something we love and want to share.

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TheEAEffect.com  ·  See you next week.