Podcast appearances and mentions of shana lebowitz

IN EPISODE 178: Before we look for a better job, we should look for ways to make our job better. In Episode 178, Shana Lebowitz Gaynor provides helpful tips for making work...work for us. She explains why it sometimes pays to stay, how to use our current job for on-the-job training, how to tap our network to gain job clarity, and when it makes sense to move on. ABOUT SHANA LEBOWITZ GAYNOR: Shana Lebowitz Gaynor is a writer, editor, and the author of Don't Call It Quits: Turn the Job You Have into the Job You Love. Previously, Shana spent eight years covering careers, leadership, talent management, and workplace culture for Insider and launched their HR Insider column. She also helped develop a leadership training program for Harvard Business Publishing.

Enjoying our content and want to support us directly? Join our premium subscription for access to our podcasts, bonus content, merch discounts and more! Visit: www.psych2go.supercast.com So perhaps you're in love with someone, and you're curious as to whether they feel the same way about you. But, they haven't quite said those three magic words. Here's a few psychological secrets that can boost the likelihood of love in your future. What are they you may ask? Watch on to find out. We also made another video on the psychological ways to impress your crush: https://youtu.be/9HiaVFKiHNA Writer: Michal Mitchell Script Editor & Manager: Kelly Soong VO: Amanda Silvera Animator: Bry Gavino YouTube Manager: Cindy Cheong References: Guéguen, N. (2007). Courtship compliance: The effect of touch on women's behavior. Social Influence, 2(2), 81–97. doi.org/10.1080/15534510701316177 McGinley, H., McGinley, P. & Nicholas, K. Smiling, body position, and interpersonal attraction. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 12, 21–24 (1978). doi.org/10.3758/BF03329613 Hess, E. (1975). The Role of Pupil Size in Communication. Scientific American, 233(5), 110-119 from www.jstor.org/stable/24949943 Santos-Longhurst , A., & Wilson, D. R. (2018). Is It Love? Dilated Pupils and 7 Other Signs to Watch For. Healthline. www.healthline.com/health/dilated-pupils-love. Millward, J. (0AD). Phenylethylamine. A Chocolate Composition. www.chm.bris.ac.uk/webprojects2001/millward/phenylethylamine.htm#:~:text=Phenylethylamine%20is%20known%20as%20the,relieves%20depression%20from%20unrequited%20love. Moore, L. (2019, October 24). 6 Scientifically Proven Ways to Make Someone Fall for You. Cosmopolitan. www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/news/a40829/scientifically-proven-ways-to-make-someone-fall-for-you/. Shana Lebowitz, B. I. (2018). Here Are 16 Psychological Tricks to Immediately Make You More Likeable. ScienceAlert. www.sciencealert.com/16-psychological-tricks-to-make-people-immediately-like-you. Cox, T. 4 techniques to make anyone fall in love with you. TODAY.com. www.today.com/health/eye-contact-aloofness-4-techniques-make-him-fall-love-you-t100640. Lebowitz, S. 15 psychological tricks to make people like you immediately. The Independent. www.independent.co.uk/life-style/sixteen-psychological-tricks-people-like-you-a7967861.html.

Today's show we talk about remote work, hybrid work, talent shortage, and everything in between. Since COVID, many futurists felt remote work was here to stay as "the new normal" and many employees felt a certain power in being able to request working from home. However, there were some large organizations that began to require employees come back to the office full time even though studies showed employees not only preferred remote work but were just as productive working from home. Now, we're seeing that there can be a balance between the extreme of employers demanding working in the office and employees demanding they work from home full time. Hybrid work arrangements are now offered by the majority of companies which offers a sort of "truce" between employers and employees. My guests this week are seeing this same harmony in hybrid work; Frank Tirelli and Alex Kirillov are executives from Alliant Group who have noticed better collaboration, stronger culture, and clearer communication when companies strike the balance between coming into the office and working from home. Here's our conversation about how to make room for both.Resources:Business Insider article, "Here's a list of major companies requiring employees to return to the office" by Shana Lebowitz, Marguerite Ward, Emily Canal, Rebecca Knight, and Alexandra York Fortune article, "Bosses and workers are finally reaching a ‘truce' on remote work" by Alicia Adamczyk Flex Report by Scoop, Companies by Office RequirementAlliant Group Alliant Group Senior Director, Alex Kirillov, LinkedIn ProfileAlliant Group Chairman of Professional Services, Frank Tirelli

OUR HOSTS: Corinne Foxx - https://www.instagram.com/corinnefoxx/ (@corinnefoxx) Natalie McMillan - https://www.instagram.com/nataliemcm/ (@nataliemcm) What we're drinking: https://www.merryvalefamilyofwines.com/product/Merryvale-Late-Harvest-Riesling (Merryvale 2017 Late Harvet Riesling Dessert Wine) TOPIC This week, Corinne and Natalie break down the 24 life skills that Business Insider recommends you master in adulthood. Listen to find out if they've mastered these skills yet or if they've got more to learn! The article: https://www.businessinsider.com/life-skills-every-adult-should-master-2015-10 ( 24 Life Skills Every Functioning Adult Should Master Before Turning 30 by Shana Lebowitz and Allana Akhtar) In this episode, we discuss: 24 life skills to master before turning 30 Everything from How To Accept Feedback to How To Mend Your Clothes Which life skills Corinne and Natalie have mastered thus far Our previous episodes on: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/time-management-how-to-get-more-done-in-less-time/id1526684996?i=1000502443895 (Time Management), https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-become-the-masterchef-of-your-kitchen-with/id1526684996?i=1000527972469 (Basic Cooking Skills), https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/growing-as-a-grown-up-why-its-never-too-late-to/id1526684996?i=1000539750116 (Learning A Second Language), https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/morning-routines-how-the-most-successful-people-start/id1526684996?i=1000525579011 (How To Wake Up On Time) END OF THE SHOW Corinne and Natalie introduce the Hottie of the Week: Mindy Kaling WINE RATING: https://www.merryvalefamilyofwines.com/product/Merryvale-Late-Harvest-Riesling (Merryvale 2017 Late Harvet Riesling Dessert Wine) = 6.5/Mindy Kaling WRAP UP To wrap up the episode, Corinne and Natalie play a new game called Recent Obsessions. Natalie talks about her obsession with acai bowls. Corinne talks about her obsession with coffee. If you have any questions or future episode ideas, feel free to DM us https://www.instagram.com/amidoingthisrightpod/ (@AmIDoingThisRightPod) or email us at amidoingthisrightpod@gmail.com Check out our new website: https://www.amidoingthisrightpod.com/ (amidoingthisrightpod.com) Don't forget to rate and review the podcast! It really helps us grow!

In episode 22 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett and Kris Dunn are joined by Shana Lebowitz Gaynor to discuss her work at Business Insider and specifically her articles about SHRM’s handling of BLM statements and top HR innovators. The crew also talks about Tim’s Utah adventures, the CHRO move of the week, and KD’s many ideas for HR-related articles at Business Insider.  Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 1:00 - No Jlee this week! We hope she’s having fun on her beach vacation! 2:00 - Tim just got back from another (socially distanced) Southern Utah vacation. Tim and KD talk about how to get into Zion National Park and how Tim works the system to get into Zion the easiest way. KD thinks Tim is getting spoiled with views.  4:50 - Check out Tim’s instagram for all of his cool Utah excursions and his most recent jet ski and cliff jumping adventure.  7:20 - New segment alert: CHRO move of the week! Eileen Moore Johnson is the new EVP and CHRO at Scientific Games. Johnson moves from an operational role at Caesars to this new role. KD and Tim break down what they like about the move. 12:00 - Time to welcome our guest for the episode! Shana Lebowitz Gaynor is the correspondent and HR insider writer at Business Insider.  14:00 - Where are most HR people getting their news from? Shana thinks most HR people are getting their news like many other industries, on social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn.  16:00 - Tim asks Shana about her experience at Business Insider and what she sees people are connecting most with their content. She says that people respond the most to articles about what to do if you hate your job.  17:50 - Shana says that her time at BI has taught her to get to the point and be succinct in her articles. KD praises BI for this formatting.  20:00 - Tim asks Shana about her article about SHRM and their response surrounding BLM and the response she got to the article. She says she learned about the passion of SHRM members  22:00 - Tim discusses his and KD’s criticism of SHRM and how the toughest critics are often the ones that want to see an organization succeed the most. Shana talks about how she sees the criticism of SHRM as a microcosm of what’s going on in the business world.  24:20 - KD asks Shana what surprised her about SHRM and the HR community that she learned in the writing of her article. She responds by saying that she doesn’t see the demands from racial injustice and other injustices going away.  27:00 - KD has a lot of requests for HR reporting! He brings up an idea to create a list of HR companies that are doing the best work to take meaningful action to get results.  28:30 - Tim brings up Shana’s article “HR innovators who are transforming company culture”. Shana talks about FedEx’s program to hire young tech talent and a tech startup’s effort to make a non-homogenous workforce.  34:00 - KD asks Shana about any grassroots efforts she’s seen that she is excited about. Shana talks about PWC’s training program for new employees and their commitment to better mental health programs for employees.  36:30 - Tim asks Shana about how she foresees company culture changing in our new WFH environment. Shana takes an optimistic view and sees a better and more flexible company culture and increased humanism in the business world.  42:00 - Check out Shana on LinkedIn, Twitter, or read her articles on Business Insider! Thank you to Shana for joining us this week and for all of her great work about the HR industry! Check out their paid membership for all of their content.

EPISODE 331 These are unprecedented times in the world of work. First, the Covid-19 pandemic and then the killing of George Floyd and other black men by police officers. How leaders and organizations address race and the recent events in Minnesota is crucial for their employees. The Dr. Ck Bray show will be discussing an organization whose efforts are proving to be a case study in how to broach sensitive cultural issues in a workplace context. **Special thanks to Tatyana Walker and Shana Lebowitz for their June 1st article in Business Insider.

In a recent opinion piece at Business Insider, Shana Lebowitz proclaimed, “Divorce isn't a failure...In fact, it could mean your marriage was a success!” According to the relationship experts cited by Lebowitz, the goal of marriage isn't that two people become one flesh, or create a family, or even share lifelong love. No, the purpose of marriage, these so-called experts claim, is that we grow as individuals. Even marriages that end in divorce can accomplish that goal! If the goal of marriage is looking out for number one rather than two becoming one, then it makes sense that calling it quits could be a success story. But, I doubt that the abandoned spouses and children of even the self-improved would agree with that new way of thinking. This sort of sad nonsense can only be written in a culture where marriage has been redefined and reimagined around an already redefined and reimagined idea of love. Ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have victims. Individual lives and entire cultures are devastated whenever love is reduced to something less than God intended, much less when it is redefined as selfishness. The love, or more accurately, the loves God created for us are way bigger than most of us understand. Back in 2013 when Sean McDowell and I wrote our book on so-called “same-sex marriage,” I asked a friend to write the epilogue about what he, as an individual who struggled with same-sex attraction, needed from the church. “Don't move the goalposts,” he wrote, and pretend the Scriptures aren't clear on this issue. But, he added, if we are going to ask gays and lesbians to forgo sexual intimacy (which we should), we must not withhold friendship and family from them. Behind his remarks is C. S. Lewis' life-changing book, “The Four Loves”—a book I think is more relevant now than ever. In it, Lewis identifies four types of love: affection (or the Greek word, storge), friendship or brotherly love (Greek, phileo), sexual love (or eros), and sacrificial love (agape, what older Bible translations call “charity”). Of course, Christians believe that marriage is the only rightful place for eros, but Lewis also makes it clear that affection, friendship and especially sacrificial love—the kind Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 13—should define all of our relationships, including and especially marriage. This  is why pornography is so devastating. Beneath this cultural epidemic is a terrible mis-definition of eros, which not only twists inward the good God-given eros that can define marital relationships, but it corrupts all other loves as well. I say “twist inward” because erotic love is intended by God to turn our attention outward, toward a captivation with the other. Think about it: Eros is literally life-giving. It's what creates babies and families. Thus it can be said that erotic love is personal, but it's far from private. By design it draws us out of ourselves, toward another person, toward her family, and Lord willing, toward new little lives who are the result of that love, who then take their place in the larger community. Pornography not only corrupts and twists eros, but also phileo and storge as well. When the relationship between men and women becomes as hyper-sexualized as it is in our culture, men and women can't be friends or show normal signs of simple affection and caring. Today, even the relationships between men and men, and women and women have been hypersexualized, which places a queer question mark over normal, healthy same-sex friendships that should be based on phileo and storge. Re-orienting sexual love so that it serves both phileo and storge, and is sanctified by agape as Scripture teaches, isn't just a recipe for a joyful and long-lasting marriage. It's a recipe for healthy communities, families and friendships. Not to mention, it aims for things so much higher than “personal growth.” Every relationship we have calls us outside of ourselves and invites us to show forth the image of the God who not only chose love for His own name, but put so much of it in His world that one Greek word simply wouldn't do.

Season 1, Episode 17 Former Vice Chair and CMO of GE, Beth Comstock, discusses how to manage innovation in large businesses and her new book ‘Imagine It Forward’ - Beth’s personal approach to mastering change in the face of uncertainty. Beth was interviewed by Shana Lebowitz from Business Insider. Subscribe and leave a review for us in Apple Podcasts! Follow us on social media and use #builderspodcast FB IG Twitter This episode of Builders was hosted and produced by Laila Oweda. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/betaworks-builders/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/betaworks-builders/support

This week Pete (@mr_van_w) manages to keep his cool over a website published by #hisABC that seems to serve no purpose other than to shame/enrage parents in both the public and private sector of education.  John (@jfcatto) highlights the lack of correlation between college achievement and fame and fortune.    Pete: You decide: Should you send your kids to a public or private school? - Cristen Tilley, Ben Spraggon, Nathan Hoad  http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-31/public-vs-private-school-you-decide/8380980    John: Why valedictorians rarely become rich and famous - and the average millionaire's college GPA was 2.9 - Shana Lebowitz https://amp.businessinsider.com/why-high-school-valedictorians-dont-become-really-successful-2017-5    Visit www.teacherstalkingteaching.com to see more of the podcast.

This week Pete (@mr_van_w) manages to keep his cool over a website published by #hisABC that seems to serve no purpose other than to shame/enrage parents in both the public and private sector of education.  John (@jfcatto) highlights the lack of correlation between college achievement and fame and fortune.    Pete: You decide: Should you send your kids to a public or private school? - Cristen Tilley, Ben Spraggon, Nathan Hoad  http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-31/public-vs-private-school-you-decide/8380980    John: Why valedictorians rarely become rich and famous - and the average millionaire's college GPA was 2.9 - Shana Lebowitz https://amp.businessinsider.com/why-high-school-valedictorians-dont-become-really-successful-2017-5    Visit www.teacherstalkingteaching.com to see more of the podcast.

On this episode of The Future Is A Mixtape, Matt & Jesse explore the most exceptional work of utopian thinking since the days of Occupy Wall Street: Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams' Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work (2015). This is the co-hosts third such “CliffPod,” and they will hum over some of the most far-reaching and visionary aspects of this book, weighing out the co-authors' success in diagnosing why the left has been--to use Jesse's apt phrase--“drowning in failures” amid the continued carnage of Neoliberalism's rotisserie blades. Matt & Jesse will also evaluate the insights the authors gain from how the founders of the Mont Pelerin Society were able to masterfully deploy “second hand dealers” and create a winning strategy for the right that the left has yet to match in any transformative way (and which go beyond the Cult of Direct Action and Paper Anarchy). Finally, our Abbot & Costello co-hosts will assess these authors' policy demands and solutions in order to learn why this book about a post-work world is so vital to read for our deserved Star Trek future. Mentioned In This Episode: The Brief Wild History of “CliffsNotes” (Inspiring Our Nascent CliffPods)The Background of Karl Marx's Illustrious & Legendary Quote: Marx's oft-cited comment in The German Ideology that in a communist society (or some version of a post-capitalist society) he would be able to "hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic" has become more famous than what he said in other places, more specifically.To Learn What Marx Actually Thought About What the End of Capitalism Would Look Like, You Would Have to Read What He Wrote in Chapter 32 in Capital: Volume 1: A Critique of Political Economy:"Along with the constantly diminishing number of the magnates of capital, who usurp and monopolize all advantages of this process of transformation, grows the mass of misery, oppression, slavery, degradation, exploitation; but with this too grows the revolt of the working-class, a class always increasing in numbers, and disciplined, united, organized by the very mechanism of the process of capitalist production itself. The monopoly of capital becomes a fetter upon the mode of production, which has sprung up and flourished along with, and under it. Centralization of the means of production and socialization of labor at last reach a point where they become incompatible with their capitalist integument. Thus integument is burst asunder. The knell of capitalist private property sounds. The expropriators are expropriated.” IMPORTANT CORRECTION: Matthew Snyder's allusion to “some weird kind of Mars landing where you have to do mine-work in some bad 1980's Science Fiction film” is actually Peter Hyman's Outland (1981)--the setting of which takes place on Jupiter where Sean Connery must find his inner High Noon as exploited workers mysteriously and ceaselessly continue to die. Caroline Fredrickson's Long Essay in The Atlantic: “There Is No Excuse for How Universities Treat Adjuncts” Matthew Snyder's First Job at Seventeen: J.C. Zips (which is actually just barely in Richland, Washington) Charles Eisenstein's Book, Sacred Economics (2011) and Ian Mackenzie's Short Film Inspired by Eisenstein's Work of NonfictionAlex Williams and Nick Srnicek's Co-Authored Book: Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work (2015) The Indigogo Campaign to Develop a Documentary Based on the Book Inventing the Future Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek's First Co-Authored Work Appeared in the Edited Collection: #Accelerate: The Accelerationist Reader (2014) Joshua Bregman Visit With Us for Episode 6 of The Future Is A Mixtape: “Ye Are Many, They Are Few” Novara Radio's Podcast of Aaron Bastani Interviewing Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek, the Co-Authors for Inventing the Future Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek Appear on Doug Henwood's Podcast Behind the News to Discuss Their Book Inventing the Future (April 6, 2017) Novara Radio & Aaron Bastani's YouTube Definition of “Fully Automated Luxury Communism”Peter Frase's Four Futures: Life After Capitalism (Our CliffPod of This Masterful Work of Nonfiction Can Be Found Here) “Bernie Sanders Is Magical” as a GIF (& Which Later Inspired Shirt-Makers): Here. The Exact Shirt-Color & Design (the Image of Which Includes Bernie Shooting Rainbows from His Right Hand): Here. The Anarchist Library: Jan D. Matthews' “An Introduction to the Situationists” Jo Freeman's (aka Joreen's) Original Essay: “The Tyranny of Structurelessness”Vice: “We Interviewed the Revolutionaries Pouring Concrete on London's 'Anti-Homeless' Spikes” For a Very Different Interpretation, Read Mark Bray's Translating Anarchy: The Anarchism in Occupy Wall Street The New Yorker's Article on David Graeber and Occupy Wall Street's Offshoot Project, Rolling Jubilee: “A Robin Hood for the Debt Crisis?”The Press-Enterprise: “Occupy Riverside Encampment Removed” (Photo-Gallery) & Article Description of the Event on November 30, 2011: “Occupy Encampment Cleared from Downtown”Jodi Dean's Phrase Worthy of Legendary Quotation Status: “Goldman Sachs doesn't care if you raise chickens.” Here Is a Review from Local-Organic Only Activist Who Quotes the Phrase & Evaluates the Book Fairly. The Overton Window: Neoliberalism Now Owns This Sheet of Glass Laura Marsh in The New Republic: “The Flaws of the Overton Window” Robert Frost's Defense of Poetic Meter & Traditional Poetry Form: “You can't play tennis without a net.” Milton Friedman Defines (Right-)Libertarianism & His Awful Ideas About Accountability and Justice During His 1999 Appearance on Uncommon Knowledge's “Take It To the Limits” Episode The Origins of Negative-Solidarity from Private Workers Toward Public Workers' Pensions: MarketWatch's “The Inventor of the 401(k) Says He Created a ‘Monster'” Bacon's Rebellion: A History of Positive Solidarity & the Land-Barons' Reactionary Aims to Create Negative Solidarity:“It was the first rebellion in the American colonies in which discontented frontiersmen took part. A similar uprising in Maryland took place later that year. The alliance between indentured servants and Africans (most enslaved until death or freed), united by their bond-servitude, disturbed the ruling class, who responded by hardening the racial caste of slavery in an attempt to divide the two races from subsequent united uprisings with the passage of the Virginia Slave Codes of 1705.” Adam Curtis' Excellent HyperNormalisation (Matt's Favorite Documentary of 2016) The Origin of Margaret Thatcher's Phrase: “TINA” (There Is No Alternative) Broken Social Scene's Brilliant New Album Hug of Thunder and Feist's Marvelous  and Moving Song Lyric: “The future's not what it used to be / but we still gotta get there.” Cory Robin's Magisterial Essay in The Nation: “Reclaiming the Politics of Freedom” Adult Swim's Hilarious and Cutting Satire Short: For-Profit Online University The Digital Aristocracy Versus the Digital Paupers: What Nathan Schneider Explains in America: The Jesuit Review: “How the Digital Economy Is Making Us Gleaners Again” David Graeber in The Baffler: “Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit” Fred Armisen in Portlandia: “Portland Is a City Where Young People Go to Retire” Dave Eggers' The Circle. The Novel Was Also Discussed in Episode 4 of The Future Is A Mixtape: “Terminal Dystopia Syndrome (TDS)” NPR: “Keynes Predicted We Would Be Working 15-Hour Weeks. Why Was He So Wrong?” Shana Lebowitz in Business Insider: “In 1930, economist John Keynes predicted we'd only work 15 hours a week — here's one theory why he was wrong” The Very Interesting But Quiet History of Paul Lafargue: The First to Argue for the 3-Hour Work Day Paul Lafargue's Most Well Known Work: The Right to Be Lazy (1883)Geoffrey Mohan in The Los Angeles Times: “As California's Labor Shortage Grows, Farmers Race to Replace Workers with Robots”David Horsey in The Los Angeles Times: “Robots, Not Immigrants, Are Taking American Jobs” Matt Bruenig's Just-Created & Emergent People's Policy Project (3P)--A Crowd-Founded Anti-Capitalist Thinktank Want to Help the People's Policy Project? Go to Patreon & Donate. The Dig: “Matt Bruenig on Why Welfare Is Great and We Need More of It”And to Close Out This Week's Shownotes About a Post-Work World, I'll End With a Revolutionary Fop Who Proudly Wore Flowers as Lapels . . . Oscar Wilde. As He So Movingly Put It, So Many Years Ago, in The Soul of Man Under Socialism:"A great deal of nonsense is being written and talked nowadays about the dignity of manual labour. There is nothing necessarily dignified about manual labour at all, and most of it is absolutely degrading. It is mentally and morally injurious to man to do anything in which he does not find pleasure, and many forms of labour are quite pleasureless activities, and should be regarded as such. To sweep a slushy crossing for eight hours, on a day when the east wind is blowing is a disgusting occupation. To sweep it with mental, moral, or physical dignity seems to me to be impossible. To sweep it with joy would be appalling. Man is made for something better than disturbing dirt. All work of that kind should be done by a machine." Feel Free to Contact Jesse & Matt on the Following Spaces & Places: Email Us: thefutureisamixtape@gmail.com Find Us Via Our Website: The Future Is A Mixtape Or Lollygagging on Social Networks: Facebook Twitter Instagram

In this episode, Darrin T. Mish, the IRS Solution Attorney, discusses the recent post on BusinessInsider.com, "15 scientific tricks to beat stress, anxiety, and fear," written by Drake Baer and Shana Lebowitz. The post initially caught his attention because he is always on the lookout for ways to help his clients and potential clients deal with the stress of their IRS problem. If you're feeling down about your IRS problem, this is a good episode to sit back and take in.

In this episode, Darrin T. Mish, the IRS Solution Attorney, discusses the recent post on BusinessInsider.com, "15 scientific tricks to beat stress, anxiety, and fear," written by Drake Baer and Shana Lebowitz. The post initially caught his attention because he is always on the lookout for ways to help his clients and potential clients deal with the stress of their IRS problem. If you're feeling down about your IRS problem, this is a good episode to sit back and take in.

Hello cubicle counters, open space scorekeepers, corner office organizers, home den designers, and coffee shop systematizers. My name is Brock Armstrong, and I am… not the Workplace Hero. There is a good reason that the website for the podcast is workplacehero.me and not .com. I want you to be reminded that this podcast is for and about you, every time you visit. And yeah… the .com domain was already taken. Before we get started, a little housekeeping. Did you know that there are near verbatim transcripts of all the podcasts over at www.workplacehero.me? It’s true. I know that the majority of you are listening to this podcast while you are on the bus, in your car, at the gym or otherwise not near a pen and paper - so to take the onus off of you having to try to remember the important points, I am making it easy. The only thing you need to remember from this episode is www.workplacehero.me/todo. Slick eh? Ok, here we go! Between your job, your exercise program, your friends, your hobbies, and pretty much everything else you want to get done, achieving your goals and nailing your deadlines is often harder than it should be. Heck, for some people just creating an efficient to-do list is a major achievement, and that is where today’s podcast comes in. According to an article on Forbes.com, one tool many entrepreneurs use to get organized and improve focus is the To Do list. And while it can be a helpful too, they estimate that about 85% of the population is using the To Do list in a completely ineffective manner. They are using their To Do list as a measure for self-worth…and this can be a mistake. They go one to say that many people incorrectly associate self-worth with checking things off their To Do list. They think: “If I can complete a lot of things in one day, it must mean I’ve done a good job and, therefore, I’m a good enough person. Right?” Well… yeah… we all want validation. Here’s the problem with this – it means that you’re likely going to waste your time on low impact, easy to complete tasks just to feel good about what you’ve accomplished. How many of you have spent time on something that was easy and quick, but not very strategic? Was this because you were avoiding the harder, more impactful thing? We waste time on menial chores and tasks just to have a sense of accomplishment. Over time, this makes us much less effective at our jobs. This is the part when I direct you back to the podcast episode I did about “Doing the Hard Stuff First”. Just go to www.workplacehero.com/hardstuff to listen to that episode. Another mistake that the article on Forbes.com points out is that we have a tendency to create a very long To Do list that we can never complete in a single day. And then we feel bad about never getting to everything on our list. If you do this, you’re setting yourself up to fail. Forbes refers to this as “Using the To Do list as a form of torture.” So, it is clear that we need to avoid setting our To Do list up as either a way to measure our productivity or a way to beat ourselves up. So, how do we do that? Before I get into the suggestions of the experts, I am going to tell you my recipe for success. First thing is that I use the Notes app that comes preinstalled on all Mac computers. The reason I use this is because it is simple, clean and most importantly it syncs across all my devices. Yeah, I am one of those guys who has an iPhone, iPad, iMac and a MacBook Pro. Hey! What can I say? I work in digital media. The reason syncing across all devices is important is twofold. I find my stress level is much lower if I can add an item to my To Do list at the moment I think of it (even if it is the middle of the night… maybe ever especially if it is the middle of the night) and I also like to be able to knock things off the list as soon as it is complete and then check what is next up. This is all a “peace of mind” thing for me. Some research suggests writing information by hand helps us remember it better, but if you’re like me and you last picked up a pen in 1995, don’t worry: There are tons of apps and gadgets out there for you to explore. Next - A key ingredient to my To Do list is that it is always more than one list! By that, I mean that I have a list for today, tomorrow, the next day and so on. It is not just a never ending single list of crap that needs to get done. It is a strategic, day by day, list of what needs to get done, when it needs to get done, on the day that suits it the best. That doesn’t mean that items don’t get moved around but I try to make each day achievable. Because I work mostly for myself right now, I even take it a step further and have certain days for certain tasks. Mondays mornings is for my coaching business, Tuesday afternoons are for video editing, Wednesdays are coding and writing days, Thursdays are catch-up or catch-all days, Fridays are podcast days. And yes, the weekends do get included on my To Do list but generally they only have items like “Go to the Gym” and “Beer with Ken” or occasionally “Finish the freakin project!” I am not a slave to that outline, but I find it helps to have a general idea of what the priority is for each day. The next ingredient in my To Do list recipe is that I add pretty much everything I need or want to do on that day. It isn’t just a dreaded list of jobs I need to get done, but it is also a joyful list of fun things I am going to do and tasks I am somewhat ambivalent about. For example, my To Do list for today: - Respond to email & Social Media - Go the gym 10:00 am - Do homework (I am brushing up on my French) - Download new client video files - Coaching call with Meghan 2:00 pm - Write the outline of “To Do List” episode Workplace Hero - Watch the Habs vs. Canucks game - No food after 7:00 pm By including things watching a hockey game or reminding myself that I want to do a short fast (by not eating between dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow) I have my tasks, my work, my play and my goals all in one easy to find spot. I won’t go too deep into this because it deserves it own episode but by including daily goals on my To Do list, I find my ability to achieve them skyrockets. When I see “Go to the gym” or “No food after dinner” every time I look at my To Do list, it simply increases my resolve to make that happen. Just make sure you word it in a positive way. As they say over at reachout.com “It might not seem like much, but self-talk is a really important part of our self-esteem and confidence. By working on getting more positive self-talk, you’re more likely to get things done and feel more in control of stuff that’s going on in your life.” The next ingredient in this To Do list recipe is to assign an order to the list. Start the list with at least two items that absolutely must get done today, so you don’t end up reorganizing your spice rack instead of finishing a project that is due tomorrow. Even if the rest of the list gets shifted to other days, the do-or-die tasks don’t get missed. Now many of my tasks are things that I do out of habit at particular times of the day (like answering email with my first cup of coffee - which can lead to some seriously hilarious typos), so those are easy to assign an order to. Other things like meetings or specific gym times get a time of day listed next to them. I have experimented with assigning a time of day to all of the items and that just made me mad. I like the flow of being able to reorder on the fly depending on my mood, how much time I have left in the day or which item I just plain feel like attacking at any given point. You can experiment with this one on your own. A CEO friend of mine has his day broken down into 15 minute chunks with a task assigned to each chunk. To me, that sounds like hell but he says that it keeps him sane. Each to his own, right? The next ingredient to my To Do list is that I have at least a week’s worth of To Do days on the go at any one time. This means that I can add items ad-hoc to not only to today and tomorrow but even into next week. When I get an email confirming a meeting next Tue, I add it to that day immediately. Done! No need to think about that again. If I wake up in the middle of the night thinking “I need to book a dentist appointment next week” or “I want to try that new Poke place down the street”, I don’t have to add it to a day that is already overwhelmed. I can choose a day with less on it or a day that makes the most sense. The final ingredient is that I also keep a To Done list. Yep, a To Done list. All that means is that when all the items are checked off my list for the day, I cut and paste that day into a document called, you guessed it, To Done. I started doing this when I was working remotely for a coffee company. Because there were employees all other North America, we had weekly check-ins with our managers, and I would often find myself stumped by the question: “So what have you been working on?” Nothing more alarming than getting asked the question and only being able to reply “Um… stuff”. But having the To Done list meant I could confidently say “Well on Monday I competently customized competitive schemas, Tuesday I progressively architected emerging virtualization, and Wednesday I credibly reintermediated our emerging web-readiness. Shall I continue?” Even though I don’t work for that company anymore and am rarely surprised with that question, I still keep a To Done list mostly for my own edification. But it does also come in handy when it is invoice time, and I have that terrible feeling that I may be forgetting to invoice for a task. Which is not cool at all. So that is my recipe. You can take it or leave it. I only outlined it as an example not as the MASTER LIST TO RULE ALL LISTS. Like everything else in life, you need to experiment and find what works best for you. Before I get to your homework, here are the five suggestions that Forbes offered to optimize your To Do lists. You’ll notice immediately that a few of their suggestions are directly opposed to my methods: 1. Keep it simple. Your To Do list should have NO MORE THAN THREE THINGS on it for a given day. 2. Write your To Do list the night before. This helps you start your day with clarity. You know exactly which item you need to complete by 10 am the next morning. 3. Tackle the first item on your list first thing in the morning when you are fresh. You need to get the biggest, most important task completed before moving on to anything else. 4. If you have a hard time limiting your To Do list to a maximum of three items, or your mind keeps wandering off thinking about all the other things you “need to do”. Take five minutes, no more, and write down every single thing you can think of that you need to do in the next week. This can be personal or professional. Write it all down just to get it out of your head. Then put that list away. This is NOT your To Do list. This is a data dump, and what they call a psychic release. 5. Sometimes, a small To Do becomes a huge energy suck because we’ve put it off for so long that it truly bothers us (like a stain on your carpet, cleaning off your desk at work, doing that ROI analysis, or buying that late wedding present). In this case, it IS one of the three most important things for you to do that day because releasing all the anxiety you have built up will move you forward more than anything else will. One item that I saw again and again in my research was the idea that goals such as “work on research paper” can be too vague and intimidating, meaning we’ll be too afraid to start tackling them. One way to reduce the fear factor and make goals seem more manageable is to break projects into smaller tasks. Instead of “work on research paper,” try something more specific, such as “write the first half of chapter three” on Monday and “write the second half of chapter three” on Tuesday. I do this with the scripts for this podcast. I never aim to finish it in one sitting. Today is the outline and tomorrow is the meat. I sometimes add a third day on for polishing it up, and occasionally I get in the groove and can check off a To Do item a couple of days early. That fricken RULES! Ok. Now your homework. If you don’t have a To Do list - it is time to make one. Again, don’t aim to create the perfect list on your first try but you do need to start somewhere. Follow my guide or find another one online and get it rocking. If you do already have a To Do list going, this is a perfect time to make some adjustments to it. There is always room for improvement, right? You might want to add durations to your To Do items (something that I tried but hated) or try adding in more light things like “lunch with mom” or items you would like to start doing but can’t quite pull the trigger on like “leg day at the gym” or “turn off all electronics at 8:00 pm”. One last thing, don’t forget to add “make To Do list” to your To Do list. I know that seems silly, but I have been bitten by that one more than once. It is a very off-putting feeling for a guy like me to suddenly not know what he is supposed to be doing next Wednesday! I break in to a cold sweat just thinking about that… ** Workplace Hero is researched, written, narrated and recorded by me Brock Armstrong with editing help from Eleanor Cohen. Podcast logo by Ken Cunningham and music by my old band, The Irregular Heartbeats. Today Heroic idea came from the Forbes article “Five Best To-Do List Tips” by Vanessa Loder with some extra oomph from the Greatist.com’s article “How to Actually Get Sh!t Done With a To-Do List” by Shana Lebowitz. Shownotes and transcription of this podcast can be found at www.workplacehero.me/todo  

When it comes to romantic communication, texting and online messaging can be gentle introductions into IRL conversation, or mediums in which you can royally screw another person. Some of us daters of a certain age - ahem - started this whole dating thing before cell phones were glued into our hands. Others grew up with instant communication as the norm. But how can all of us muddle through the dating world with clashing views of normalcy, etiquette, and preference when it comes to getting to know each other, digitally and in person? On today's show, we're joined by Melissa Stanger, Senior Lifestyle Editor at Revelist, and Shana Lebowitz, Strategy Reporter at Business Insider, to discuss technology and modern romance. What do we all love and hate about texting and instant messaging? Can we get a clear picture of who someone is via how they text? What are we working towards in making sure we feel proud of our own actions? And where can we eat in NYC without the light of a dozen iPhone messing up the ambiance of our pasta and prosciutto?