You are a genius, and this new idea of yours proves it. So you pitch it to the team and…it’s shot down. C’est la vie. But don’t give up hope. There’s still a place for that idea.

Enter: idea graveyards. When you’ve spent hours toiling over an email, document, or deck, only for the team to move in a different direction, don’t trash your hard work.

• An idea graveyard is a live doc where you can stash all your scrapped pitches, half-finished drafts, and hilarious (to you) jokes. While they weren’t the right fit in that moment, they may be useful content later on.

Whether you’re a comms manager, an ambitious intern, or a Fortune 500 CEO, keeping tabs on your ideas will help you the next time you’re battling a deadline and a blank document.

Here’s how to create and leverage your own idea graveyard.

Establish a home base. Google Docs, Notion, Word, Monday.com—the world is your scribe. Choose the platform you already default to, then create your running “graveyard” document there. When you’re forced to ditch a killer paragraph, it’s just one click to copy & paste over in the RIP doc.

Don’t hesitate—just add it in. Anything is fair game to add to your list, even offhand quips and comebacks you never had a chance to say out loud. An archival doc like this is most valuable when it’s used often, so ideas don’t get stale or you don’t forget about the document entirely.

• If things start to get jumbled, go ahead and alphabetize or organize by theme.
• For example: The Raise editors organize our shared document by topic—leadership, strategy, and analytics.

When in doubt, check the doc. Your first instinct when brainpower is low? Coffee. Second instinct? Refer to the ole idea graveyard.

• And the best part about recycling ideas? It’s all free content, courtesy of your former brilliant self.

The next time an idea of yours gets chucked, reduce the sting of rejection and add it to your personal island of misfit thoughts. There’s a good chance it’ll get picked soon enough.—CS

Last week, Slack briefly stopped working for some users, giving early bird workers a surprise gift: uninterrupted time to actually get their work done.

• It turns out that when your GIFs won’t load and your “just checking in on this!” messages won’t send, you have a chance to dive into deep work instead.

It didn’t take long for the app to get up and running again, but that brief slice of peace and quiet is a great reminder that hyperproductivity can come at the expense of thoughtfulness.

Ready to set up your own hours of uninterrupted bliss at work? Here’s how to protect your time when you can’t make Slack-not-working your fall guy.

Time-block your calendar. Scheduling a few hours as “DNS—Deep Work” or “Focus Time” can help carve out uninterrupted time to actually do your work meeting-free. Bonus: If your calendar is connected to your Slack, the little calendar icon can deter unwanted pings.

• A word of caution: If your calendar is visible to the whole team, there may be coworkers who’ll see your focus time as the perfect place for their meeting. Feel free to RSVP “no” to those, although good luck if that’s your boss.

Quit Slack (for a few hours). The best way to pretend there’s a Slack outage? Close the application.

• And if you’d rather get the credit for being online or you have nosy coworkers who’ll ask why you were offline for three hours yesterday, try silencing your Slack notifications instead, or adding a status of “Deep Work/Slow to Respond.”

Put on headphones. If you work in person, putting in your AirPods—even if they’re not playing T Swift—can signal to your coworkers that you’re busy.

• Pro tip: If someone does dare bother you, you’re allowed to look super annoyed while you remove your headphones.

And remember the golden rule of focus time: If you’re ignoring people because you’re hard at work, other people are allowed to do the same to you. That quick question can wait.

Hot tip: Budgeting doesn’t have to mean saving 90% of your income and Venmo requesting your brunch friends for a third of the parking meter cost.

You don’t need to be a super saver or a stingy friend in order to reach your money goals.

You can be a great budgeter just by understanding your spending priorities and future plans.

That’s where Money with Katie’s Wealth Planner comes in. Set your strategy, track your progress, and let the spreadsheets do the heavy lifting.

Start building a financial plan that’ll actually work—get your copy right here.

In every newsroom someone has the printout “good writers borrow—great writers steal” taped to their computer. The Raise editors agree and would like to make one addition: “Great readers steal too.” Which absolves us of any guilt as we shamelessly poach some business book recs from the Morning Brew Learning Alumni Book Club.

Here are a few of their recent good reads:

Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara is about so much more than food. But if you’re a foodie, you may recognize Guidara as the former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park aka one of the best restaurants in the world. You’ll be tempted to fill up on bread and inside stories of the restaurant industry, but save room for the main course of this book: the power of hospitality to transform any business.

• Bonus: The book was recently featured in the era’s hottest kitchen series, The Bear, if that’s any indication of how great the read is.

The Ride of a Lifetime by Bob Iger recounts the Disney big shot’s 15 years as CEO of the company. Now that Iger has boomeranged back into the role after a brief retirement (when he wrote this book), consider this the prequel to his second act.

Humor, Seriously by Stanford profs Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas reveals a secret near and dear to Morning Brew writers’ hearts: why humor is a secret weapon, in life and business. And if you’re convinced you’re more of a Ross Geller than a Joey Tribbiani, this book will show you how to harness your own brand of humor.

Build by Tony Fadell takes you along for his ride from iPod to iPhone to Nest Thermostat. But don’t think this is just a victory lap around Silicon Valley—Fadell is here to be your mentor, even if that means some tough love on how to be an innovative leader.

The Culture Map by Erin Meyer is a classic coffee table book by now, and for good reason: It’s a fascinating deep dive into practical ways to be a clear communicator despite geographical and cultural differences.

Work Hacks is where we ask industry experts about the best tools and frameworks for simplifying the inefficient or boring things we all end up doing at the office.

Tyler Trame lives in Dayton, OH, where he’s a Senior Customer Success Manager at Balto and a member of the Alumni of Learning Brew Advisory Board. Here’s his No. 1 work hack right now:

“When you’re short on time and your brain is running on fumes, save yourself an email horror story and use premade groups in Gmail.

• Bundle your contacts into case-specific groups (teams, projects, direct reports, etc.) and then just plug that label into the “To” line of your next email.

This feature allows me to put my brain on autopilot when emailing a large group of people, instead of having to remember everyone who needs to receive it. Plus it ensures I don’t send the wrong Jim an email.

You can also use the groups you’ve created the next time you need to share a document or even send out an event invite.

So if you’re ready to save yourself the frustration of trying to remember who else is on the Sales team, set aside a few minutes to create a contact group. Future You will be grateful.”

Read: Learn how to nap the right way, even during the workweek.

Listen: You’re not alone if you have mixed feelings about management. Here’s how to find yourself again (including a grief period for your past life as an individual contributor).

Travel: We are now approaching the “Goldilocks window” for holiday flight prices.

Shop: Set yourself up for a promo with Morning Brew Learning’s one-week virtual courses on leadership, strategy, and analytics.