How Breaks Can Turn into Breakthroughs
Just in case any children read this column—peeking, as kids inevitably will, at Mom’s or Dad’s seductive copy of SUCCESS—allow me to start with a disclaimer: I in no way endorse playing hooky. It’s a terrible, awful, dangerous idea. Unless you’re a grown-up. My own addiction to hooky began 17 years ago. On deadline with […]
The Leadership Secret to Supercharging Your Team
So you were first in your MBA class and have the smarts of Jeff Bezos and Marissa Mayer combined. If you want the brightest possible future in business, you may still have a few things to learn. “During our school years, there’s this fallacious sense that only how well you do academically is going to […]
How Social Media Helps You Be Your Best Self
The day my sink’s water filter exploded and sprayed the kitchen like Old Faithful, I did a little exploding myself. Four-letter words? I yelled them. Spluttering shrieks? I shrieked them. And then, seconds later, I was laughing. What had changed? I’d remembered my audience. Not the two cats who stood blinking nearby (though their baffled […]
Beat Boredom: Get Your Game On
Mowing the… yawn. Shopping at the grocery… snore. Whoever you are, wherever you live, chances are there’s at least one task that bores the pants off you. For me, it’s shoveling snow, something we upstate New Yorkers do while the rest of you are frolicking in meadows with bluebirds and puppies (or so we assume). […]
Give Family a Taste of Workplace Etiquette at Home
One couple embarked on a challenge to use more workplace etiquette at home. Here’s what happened—and how it boosted the household happiness.
The Power of Life’s Tiny Triumphs
Three years ago, freshly transplanted to Rochester, N.Y., I bought my first pair of snowshoes. What was the point of living in a place like this—a town that could practically host the Iditarod—if I didn’t join the burly throngs who went stomping around it in gigantic footwear? One year ago, the snowshoes still sat in my […]
The Joys of Hanging Out with My Elders
You know that poem that begins, “When I am an old woman I shall wear purple”? Personally, I plan to wear boxing gloves. I want to be prepared for the people who—the minute I pass 75 or so—will start calling me “cute” and asking things like, “How are we today?” This wouldn’t happen in all […]
Savoring Moments
Nine years ago, after my husband had a major health scare, I swore I would change. Never again would I slog obliviously through life or fail to appreciate the good things in it. I’m proud to say I lived up to that vow—until it slipped my mind. Within months I had gone back to acting […]
From Pooped to Pumped: Tackle Your To-Do List
Oh, to be a movie star. Not for the money and adulation—though I wouldn’t turn those down—but for the freedom to announce, as movie stars often do, that they are “taking a little time off between projects.” Six or eight months, say, to bake bread on a ranch in Montana. This is how I was […]
Smart Phone, Dumb Brain?
This fall, I’d like to offer my gratitude for international cellphone fees. Really. During a few recent days in Canada, my husband, Bill, and I agreed to avoid roaming and global-data charges by surviving most of the time without our smartphones. As you might expect from all the stories written about “disconnecting to connect,” this […]
Single-Minded
The other day I phoned a good friend and—in a shocking development—I didn’t cook while we talked. I didn’t do laundry. I didn’t dust shelves or water plants or cut my toenails/clean the oven/hunt for lost cat toys. I was just too pooped, for a change, to do anything but sit in a chair and […]
Practical Ways to Add Humor to Your Business
America’s Next Top Chortle Want a joke, meme or mascot that’ll tickle your customers’ funny bones? You’re halfway there if you include one or more of the following, says Cheezburger CEO Ben Huh: Anthropomorphized animals. From cats pounding on pianos to lizards selling car insurance, we can’t seem to get enough of critters acting human. […]