You’ve felt it before. You’re at home on a Friday night with Shark Tank on the TV, a cold glass of Pinot Grigio in hand, feeling anxious and insecure instead of relaxed and self-assured, all because you glanced at your Instagram feed and saw the proof that all your friends, colleagues, and even your dorky younger cousin are living it up. So much for enjoying a rare night of rest and quiet, much-needed for mental restoration...
“Shut off inbox notifications.” “Only check email once in the morning and once in the afternoon – no more, no less.” “Set an ‘out of office’ response to let people know you’re focusing on work and not checking email.”Email management advice like this is commonly espoused by work and career experts who warn that the inbox is the ultimate productivity-killer. And it’s true: One of modern business’s most ubiquitous tools has b...
If you have great ideas, you need to know how to communicate them. At work as in relationships, it all starts with conveying confidence. But a challenge many high-achieving women run up against are bad speech habits that have been conditioned in us over the years. Without us even knowing it, these verbal crutches can damage our internal and projected confidence levels and can even negatively impact how we’re perceived at wo...
If you’re like most people, you’ve been affected by stress-related sleep problems at some point or another, lying awake at night filled with anxiety about your career and the future.Often everyday worries about impending deadlines and your to-do list give way to bigger, more stressful questioning, “Is this job really what I want to be doing with my life? What if I quit? Will I ever discover what I’m truly passionate about?”...
At one point or another, we’ve all felt totally irritated while at work: You pull an all-nighter on a project that then gets scrapped, a client criticizes your team for no apparent reason or your co-worker shows up late for a meeting again, dumping all the prep work on you. These office aggravations can make your blood boil. Your focus is immediately hijacked from the important task at hand. Instead, your mind goes into fig...
We’ve all faced days at the office where we’re just not feeling motivated. Off days happen to everyone and it’s tough—if not unrealistic—to constantly do your best work. There are bound to be times when you procrastinate too much, lack focus, or struggle to start important projects.You may react by getting down on yourself, wondering where your determination has gone. It can be disappointing to feel like you’re not living u...
You’ve been told you can achieve anything you set your mind to, right? That’s the message that’s been ingrained in us since childhood when we imagined becoming astronauts, athletes, and movie stars. Most of us come to realize that we can’t all be LeBron James or Taylor Swift—and that we don’t want to be, anyway! As we get older, we typically outgrow these fantasies of youth and begin mapping out a career that’s aligned with...
It’s time for your annual review, and you’re gunning for a raise. You enter the meeting with your boss armed with a list of reasons why you deserve a salary bump—including the extra responsibilities you’ve taken on since a more senior colleague left the company, the major project you spearheaded last month, and the consistent positive feedback you’ve received from your clients, peers, managers, and direct reports over the p...
The first day of the new year is always the same. You start off strong, a long list of resolutions planned, ready to conquer your career goals. And you do—for a week, maybe two, or even a few months if you’re on a roll.Then, something throws you off track. The culprit may just be a seemingly insignificant workplace annoyance, but it has the power to affect your motivation in a big way.It’s easy to become discouraged and fru...
Talking about money can be difficult, even scary. It’s a topic that makes a lot of people feel uncomfortable. Whether you’re negotiating higher pay in a new job offer or vying for a promotion in your current role, discussing salary is downright stressful.You’re afraid of getting turned down, making things awkward, or even offending your manager. So, you make excuses as a way to sidestep the conversation. You tone down your...