Got something to discuss? Save it for the huddle — A much maligned part of the workplace is the over-reliance on long, inefficient meetings that could have been an email. But there’s one kind of meeting I’ve always found helpful, especially in remote or distributed teams: the daily or almost-daily “check-in.” Sometimes it’s called a huddle, a stand-up, a round…

Why do we ignore all the movement that is involved in being a human? — Here’s a funny thing I’ve noticed about wealthy people: The more money they make, the more they outsource the fundamental labor of being human to other people. …

Life may never get easier. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it — One thing that continues to amaze me as I get older is just how hard life is. Make no mistake: I say this as an immensely privileged person. But despite that, it can feel that adulthood is just an endless game of whack-a-mole. As soon as you extinguish one crisis…

If city living has simply become your default setting, it might not be worth staying — Two years into the pandemic, the “flight from urban centers” news cycle has gone through countless iterations. Are we still fleeing cities at this point? Or returning to them starved for office happy hours and morning commutes? I haven’t been keeping up, so I can’t be entirely sure. However, one…

It can feel radical to cede to our laziness sometimes — Conventional wisdom says that when you’re feeling down and blue, get out in the fresh air. This is, on the whole, good advice — except when it’s not. Recently, leaving the house has felt more difficult than usual for me. All my normal coping mechanisms and tips for getting-out-of-the-doldrums seem…

Success is usually defined as having lots of people working under you — what if that’s all wrong? — Picture someone you view as “successful,” and what image comes to mind? Maybe it’s the scrappy entrepreneur who started in their garage and now works with 100 employees under them. Or the executive who has multiple assistants and thus doesn’t read her incoming emails anymore. Or the cake-maker who now…

If you’re doing something 365 days a year, are you really listening to your body’s needs? — Did you meditate today? Complete your Apple Watch activity rings? Take 10,000 steps? Study ten minutes of French on your app? Did you floss your teeth? When it comes to self betterment and personal development, there certainly is something to be said for the “every damn day” approach. By taking…

No matter what happens with the pandemic from here, don’t miss its greatest lesson — For Christmas this year, I made two sets of plans: Plan A was to go see my partner’s family a few hours drive away, where a big traditional Christmas day meal would be had. Plan B was to stay home and cook a beef and red wine stew, go for…

When I examined my trophy-chasing behavior, I realized it wasn’t serving me—and I didn’t need it anymore — In the final moments of 2021, I’ve been reflecting on what was perhaps the biggest change in my life in the last twelve months: It was the year I gave up on chasing prestige. Several things contributed to this. One was when an ostensible career highpoint in 2020 turned out…