Every Friday, I send out an email with the most intriguing or cool things I found and enjoyed that week.
“This is OK on Friday” is a free weekly newsletter that gives you tiny bits of food for thought that I personally like or find interesting and thought-provoking. Typically, these are useful tools, tips, techniques, and thought-provoking portions of information to enhance your well-being at work and in life in general.
You’ve done a lot. Finished what others quit, handled what seemed unmanageable, shipped projects, survived hard years, built things you’re proud of. Then someone criticizes you, and in a moment, you find yourself wondering whether maybe you’re not good enough. Where did the confidence go?
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Most workplace urgency is, in reality, the discomfort of waiting.
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A few ideas from the conversation that resonated with me. I listened to it on Eric Jorgenson’s YouTube channel. Quotes have been lightly edited for readability. Emphasis mine.
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“One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.”―Bertrand Russell
Most high performers read it, nod, and go back to treating their work as terribly important. Sometimes, the harder they try, the worse it gets. Not always. But more often than you think, and through a mechanism many people never see.
Continue readingWait, what? “Within normal range” glucose doesn’t tell me much?
I am not a doctor, nor have I ever received a medical education, nor am I trying to be one. But I do notice patterns, decompose systems, and distill principles to their core. And I noticed some in at least a handful of people. I thought, if it was useful for my close friends, it could be for you.
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“But that sounds miserable, doesn’t it?!” was the first thought that popped into my mind when I came across the concept of boring breaks.
The idea is to be bored during your breaks so that, when you return to work, it feels more interesting.
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“How screwed is this?” — I thought, reflecting on suddenly resurfaced memories of things I hadn’t done.
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Know your goal = Why are you in this conversation?
You can have both productive and unproductive conversations on purpose. For example, if your goal is to hang out, it may not be traditionally productive — but it is productive for that purpose. What matters is knowing why you’re in the conversation to begin with.
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“Do you like living in Japan?” — That’s a question I’ve been getting a lot lately. But in some cases, what people really mean is: “Will I like living in Japan?” That’s when I realized I need to be careful with my answer.
There’s another question: “Should I go to Japan?”
My answer to that one is short — yes. At least once, and for at least two weeks.
