Where life and work collide
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Productivity hacks that don’t work (and 5 things that really do)
This week has been a rollercoaster of emotions from my media consumption! 🎢
Productivity advice misses the point
Our friend, Chris Mitchell, rowed across the Atlantic Ocean this year. He and teammate, Robbie Laidlaw, raised over £250,000 for charity — an incredible achievement. Chris and Robbie have been given awards, written about, and invited onto stages, podcasts, and panels to talk about their epic row and the three years of work that led to it.
Never see productivity advice the same way again
I’ve been interviewing people with complicated lives who still get a huge amount done.
People who rely on carers to get out of bed. Kids with additional needs. Parents who can’t remember if they ate their dinner or left it in the microwave. Or any combination of these and other challenges.
Can AI change my life?
A year into tinkering around the edges of AI it was time to up my game and see what this baby can really do.
Is it more productive to be alpha?
Women are 20% more likely than men to say they feel sad (data according to global data from the Hologenic Glocabl Women’s Health Index). And that’s 32% if we’re talking about British women. 32%!!!!
The difference between Good and ‘Off’ online content
“I have to watch 4 hours of online training before the end of the month. It’s why I’ve gone back to knitting, even though my friends think it's weird” says a manger in her 30s in financial services.
Navigating magical tech solutions
I talk a lot about the tech paradox: everyone is wanging on about machine learning while also moaning about how rubbish and disjointed their current tech stack is.
20 years of Gmail: has it ruined our lives?
20 years of Gmail. For those too young to remember it was when email storage got big. Huge!
Leading directly to the joyless digital swamp that is my inbox.
Could you send THAT email?
Tamu Thomas has views!
Hear her thoughts as she launches her new book “Women Who Work Too Much”.
What Role Do Humans Play in an AI-Driven World?
A central theme at the LinkedIn Talent Connect conference, that I had the pleasure of hosting this week was: In a world shaped by AI, what roles will we, the humans, fill?
Slow productivity or more toxic productivity?
Cal Newport (of Deep Work fame) has written a new book. Inspired by his audience bristling against toxic productivity. Which has largely been his jam until this.
Unveiling the truth about working parenthood
Lily Allen’s quip that her children ‘ruined’ her career has ignited a flurry of headlines.
When invited by Good Morning Britain to weigh in, I found their hunger for a ‘polarising’ view troubling. Working parenthood is all about nuance: personal choice, money and support systems.
IWD. A big mistake?
In my poll this week less than half of you (44%) said International Women’s Day events are useful. Over 55% of you either think they should be done away with or were not sure if they are useful at all.
“What we need is a good recession”
This week I’m exploring some of the rage about changes to how we work, my response to on default answer and sharing more data on women’s feelings about the office. It’s not what you think.
One group is VERY UNHAPPY with the office.
The week that EY got flack for announcing they are tracking attendance data, I’ve had a secret data drop from our friends at Randstad (“the leading global partner for talent”) this week.
How to get more done AND be happier (from someone who’s done it)
Research by Atlassian, into Fortune 500 and 1000 leaders, reveals that their top focus for the year ahead is productivity 🚀
I’ve been meeting leaders in London every Wednesday this month and they too are asking how to increase outputs AND decrease burnout, turnover and a lot of complaining (crikey there’s a lot of complaining, and we’ll come back to it.)
Two big productivity lies
“Those email footnotes that say ‘just because I’m sending this message late or early reflects my working hours and doesn’t mean I need you to respond now’ make me FURIOUS”.
I wait to hear the lawyer explain to me why this is, with an inkling I may already know.
“Because when I send an email, at whatever time, I DO want a response. Right then.”
9 productivity tips that’ll wreck your day
Most of the productivity advice I read is wonderful. Brilliant. Inspiring.
Yet often doesn’t work when applied to my day.
Today’s vlog explores why not and how that’s inspired pretty much everything I’ve done since 2009.
Get ahead by planning in ten year cycles (not ten minutes!)
There’s a 102 year old American lady called Dr. Gladys McGarey, and what is amazing about her is that, even now, she has a ten-year plan. She checks in on it every day with her friend Rose. In a Times article about her, she was pictured riding her tricycle. I think we should all try to be like Gladys when we grow up!
How I doubled what I get done in an hour
We spent the morning running power cables as the electricity had tripped in my office and I was freezing like a faun in Narnia. It’s provided a temporary ⚡ fix but also eaten a chunk of the day.