Work Archives

At Microsoft, Diversity and Inclusion Equal Innovation

What difference do diversity and inclusion make for Microsoft? What could these values do for your company? Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella can be seen as a diversity success story: an Indian immigrant who was able to rise through the ranks of Microsoft to eventually become its CEO. In his book Hit Refresh, he discusses Microsoft’s diversity and inclusion efforts under his leadership and why he has these values. Read more to learn how diversity can help a company do new things.

How to Improve Decision-Making in the Workplace

How are decisions made in your organization? Is it ever a good idea to let employees question the leader’s decisions? In most organizations, key decisions are made by team leaders and executed by lower-rank employees. Decisions made at the top are almost never questioned or scrutinized. According to Adam Grant, the author of Think Again, team leaders should not only share their decisions, but also the entire decision-making process they used. With this in mind, here’s how to improve decision-making in the workplace by introducing transparency to the process.

How to Heal From Burnout: 4 Tools for Recovery

Are you feeling tired and overwhelmed? Are you wondering how to heal from burnout? Burnout can happen to anyone who feels stressed, whether it’d be from school, work, or personal matters. Amelia and Emily Nagoski, the authors of Burnout, have four tools that can help you get back to your best self. Learn how to heal from burnout with these four effective tools.

Is the Current Labor Shortage Due to Jobless Benefits?

Why is there a labor shortage? What’s causing the shortage of workers? Could jobless benefits be the cause? As the economy starts to recover from the pandemic, some analysts contend that unemployment benefits are so generous that they discourage work. Many recipients make more through their benefits than they did in their previous jobs, so observers argue they have little incentive to seek work. Keep reading for our analysis of the current labor shortage and what factors are to blame.

3 Tips to Stay Focused and Keep Distractions at Bay

Do you find it difficult to resist distractions and get your mind to focus on the task at hand? What is the secret to sustained focus? When your mind is scattered, getting it to focus might seem like a tall order. According to Neil Fiore, the author of The Now Habit, the first step to getting into the zone of sustained focus is to get into a flow state. Here are three tips to stay focused and keep distractions at bay.

Avoiding Work: The 3 Reasons You Do It

Do you find it difficult to get yourself to sit down and do your work? Do you tend to put off work until the last minute and then end up scrambling? According to Neil Fiore, the author of The Now Habit, avoiding work is a symptom of anxiety rather than laziness or lack of motivation. Therefore, discipline is not an enduring solution. To address the problem, you have to tackle the underlying psychological reasons that make you dread work. Here’s why you’re avoiding work and just can’t get things done.

Why We Procrastinate and How to Avoid It

Do you tend to procrastinate on important projects, delaying them until the last minute? Why do we procrastinate? Is procrastination a symptom of laziness? Before we can tackle procrastination, we need to understand why we procrastinate in the first place. According to Neil Fiore, the author of The Now Habit, procrastination isn’t a character flaw—it’s a symptom of underlying psychological distress. Here’s why we procrastinate and how to avoid it, according to Neil Fiore.

Debunking the Myth: Procrastination Is Not Laziness

Does procrastination result from laziness? What is the real reason we tend to procrastinate on important tasks? Traditionally, we tend to think that procrastination results from laziness. In this view, procrastination in itself is the fundamental problem: It results from a failure of motivation or willpower, and the solution is to try harder and be more disciplined. This is simply not true. Here’s why procrastination is not laziness, according to Neil Fiore.

Possibility Thinking: Using Thought Experiments to Make Decisions

What are thought experiments? How can you use them to make better decisions? It can be fun to imagine what’s possible. You can actually harness this imagining to assist in decision-making and problem-solving. In The Great Mental Models Volume 1, Shane Parrish and Rhiannon Beaubien discuss the mental model of possibility thinking. Continue reading to learn how to turn your imagination into productive thought experiments.

How Perfectionism Drives Procrastination

Do your perfectionist tendencies cause you to procrastinate? How does perfectionism prevent you from getting things done? Sometimes we procrastinate because we’re worried about what can go wrong with a task or project. This happens especially when we demand perfection from ourselves. But perfectionism only exacerbates procrastination by making you more stressed. Here’s how perfectionism drives procrastination and what to do about it.