Where life and work collide
Short weekly newsletters and vlogs hosted by Christine. Sign up for our newsletter here.
Filter by Category
- 4 Day Week
- 50+
- AI
- Advice
- Bullying
- Career
- Change
- Clothing
- Collaboration
- Colleagues
- Conflict
- Connection
- Diversity
- Economy
- Emotional Power
- Engaging @ Work
- Flex
- Future
- Gen Z
- Grown Up
- Hostdesk
- Hybrid
- IWD
- Imposter Syndrome
- Job Cycle
- Leadership
- Life
- Listening
- Management
- Motherhood
- New Year
- Office Return
- Parenting
- Pay
- Perspective
- Planning
- Predictions
- Presentation
- Productivity
- Recruitment
- Reflections
- Refresh
- Research
- Stress
- Technology
- Training
- Travel
- Women at Work
- Work
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 to have Christmas 🎄and career and stay sane(ish)
Welcome to my top five hacks for getting to 2nd January without throwing mince pies at any relations.
One scientific way to reduce your festive stress 🎄
This week, the shiny science word that will guide us to good decisions through the festive blitz and into 2024. Appearing in your local panto as a feline barrister is not essential.
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.
Who wants to be you?
Leaders keep telling me that twenty-somethings are lazy.
The vlog this week is all about what is really going on, and what we all need to do to attract and keep the people who will one day be leaders themselves.
The one way to get better at presenting
This week on the vlog: the big mistake we all make when we present, the impact it has and the fastest and the easiest way to fix it. What do you think?
Workplace conflict is at an all-time high—THIS is why
We’ve been on an interview spree and there is A LOT more workplace conflict out there than usual.
Why?
Well, the world of work is currently divided by one massive philosophical fault line—which side are you on? 🤓
You’ll never say ‘imposter syndrome’ again after this
On the vlog today I talk about WHY we need to drop the term imposter syndrome immediately.
Plus, two simple techniques I use to turn those feelings into something positive 🦸🏻♀️ and what we should really focus on instead.
What if “flexibility” is the wrong word?
Up to 90% of people in some polls say they want flexibility in work. But when we interview them and dig into the details of what they specifically want… it’s something very different.
What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
British Chambers of Commerce data from August shows that 79% of businesses surveyed—92% of which are SMEs—have faced challenges with recruitment, with hospitality and construction firms struggling the most.
“WFH is a catastrophe for feminism”
You know that feeling when you leave a discussion and wish (so hard) you’d said something differently that you want to go back in time?
How listening improves your thinking
Steven Barlett confessed this week that he’s a ‘fixer’ who’s had to learn to ‘sit in the mud’ with other people’s problems rather than jumping into solutions.
Not interrupting is my theme of the week.
3 ways to master your emotional power
Dr Julia DiGangi is a neuro-pyschologist who has written a book on increasing our emotional power. She says her first draft was so boring she threw it in the bin and started again. Thank goodness she did, because the published version is the most fascinating book I’ve read this year.
Is WFH being murdered?
My analysis of what’s actually happening in the work-from-home/return-to-office debate right now… with a bit of help from Toto and the flying monkeys.
What's more damaging than burnout? Lessons from ‘The Bear’
The kids are back! Hope you’ve had a good summer (aside from anyone in the UK who needs to take this week off to absorb the only sunshine we seem to have had since June).
This week on the vlog, moving on from burnout to explore its opposite: Boreout—its impact on people, productivity, and retention, and what you can do about it.
The best advice for working parents
16 missed calls.
That’s what I had when I left a meeting.
Since then, I’ve learned that a supportive network is essential for working parents. But that finding it alone isn’t enough. You also need a strategy to get you through the potential rifts when your kids behave in less-than-ideal ways.
The secret to becoming a stress slasher
Stress at work is as contagious as the pox.
I once ruined a whole holiday in Cyprus… on the beach with three little girls. While we were ordering ice creams and booking those fabulous sea pedalos with slides, I was pinging increasingly pissy emails back and forth with my boss.