What To Do When Things Go Sideways

Vintage malachite and sterling necklace. Currently for sale!

You're walking along in your normal life when ka-pow! Something whacks you out of left field.

My life recently took a couple of hard left turns. Where there is before and after. When you know life will never be the same. I tell you this not to invite you to caretake me (no need; I'm good). I tell you this so you see that I understand the experience of life going upside down.

As many of you wrote to me, for all kinds of personal, professional, and political reasons, things feel topsy-turvy.

So, what do you do? That is my next series, starting today.

The first thing you do is hyperfocus. When your world feels chaotic and out of control, set your sights on two things:

1. Your doing: What are your priorities? Make those front and center, and let everything else go. Drop balls. Remove things from your life so you can do and be what you need to do and be. If you need to care for someone, make that #1. If you need to make doctor's appointments, do that. If you need to pursue an opportunity, charge forward. Your garden can wait. Those emails can wait. Your weekend plans can wait. Your vacation can be canceled. In some extreme situations, even that work project can wait.
2. Your being: Who do you want to be in this situation? How do you want to show up? For others and yourself. Anxious? A chaotic mess? A drama queen? Calm? Loving? Present? Connected?

Then choose accordingly. I am referring to emergency situations here, and the same principles apply to what has become our regular daily chaos (sigh, ugh). You choose who you will be, how you show up, and what you will do, no matter what is happening outside.

I'll talk more about this in the coming weeks. Stay tuned. And feel free to continue to send me your thoughts and questions.

Here's What You Are Worried About

Time to read: 10 seconds

My puppy, "helping" me in the garden

You are generous, kind, and transparent. I'm grateful to be able to spend this summer writing about what matters to you! You shared stories, thoughts, and the things keeping you up at night. Here is a short list of what you said so you know you're not alone:

• life balance
• the intense job market
• how to design the next phase of life (ie retirement)
• AI
• self care
• caretaking like aging parents
• too many emails
• your mindset around money
• family drama

And overwhelmingly, you wrote about your distress over the state of the world and our country. Many of you lie awake at night worried about the cost of gas, groceries, the job market, climate change, and the feeling that humans have stopped caring about each other.

All of these subjects share common themes, like change, living with uncertainty, managing fear, trusting life and yourself, and sustaining hope as a way of life.

I'll tell you up front: I am hopeful. I believe in the power of human ingenuity, resilience, and care.

I will be writing about all these things. Stay tuned.

Love to all of you, and thank you!

Know someone navigating a demanding season at work? Share this blog article with them. They can subscribe here

Questions about focus or making the most of an intense stretch? Email me . I read every one.

What are you worried about these days?

Time to read: 10 seconds

I don't drink, and last week, I had one, ok, two, cocktails at our daughter's college graduation

I'd like to create a series or two for you this summer, and I want to address the topics you care about. Please email me and let me know what you think.

Use these questions as inspiration. Then I will use your emails as inspiration.

• What are you thinking about these days?
• What keeps you up at night?
• What would you like to process or know more about?
• What issues are front and center in your world?

I love to hear from you, and I am excited to take the pulse of this community and create some content just for you!

Know someone navigating a demanding season at work? Share this blog article with them. They can subscribe here

Questions about focus or making the most of an intense stretch? Email me . I read every one.

Bonus: Celebration!

Time to read: 87 seconds

This is me, snuggling my dog

You did it!

Six weeks of building a new relationship with your focus. That deserves a moment. Pausing to celebrate locks in new habits — and honestly, it's just fun.

I'll go first.

I recently came through one of those intense stretches — constant travel for work and pleasure, back-to-back client work, and time with people I love scattered in between. To move through it calmly and collected, I put everything we've talked about into practice.

When it was time to write, all I did was write. Bags were packed days before travel. My to-do list was sharp — what must get done, and a separate list of nice-to-do if time allowed. I used plane rides the way I recommend…no one knows where you are, no one can reach you. Maximum focus.

And because of that focus, I still walked my dogs, made it to the gym, ate real meals, and watched The Pitt. I was fully present at every work event, every client meeting, every family visit.

I'm proud of how I navigated it. I hope you're proud of yourself, too.

I'm celebrating with sleep, vintage buying and selling, dinner with my husband, and dog snuggles.

What about you? Even if you changed just one small thing over these six weeks — celebrate. You deserve it.

Email me and tell me all about it.

Know someone navigating a demanding season at work? Share this blog article with them. They can subscribe here

Questions about focus or making the most of an intense stretch? Email me . I read every one.

Making It Stick

Time to read: 1 minute

It's a lotus vase. Or officially called a "frog."

Six weeks ago, focus felt impossible.

You were buried. Reactive. Jumping between tasks and ending the day wondering where the time went.

I hope things feel more manageable.

To review, you've

• Shaped your environment instead of fighting it.
• Worked with your brain and energy’s natural rhythms.
• Protected time for the deep work that moves your career.
• Give yourself guilt-free rest.

None of this is magic. It's practice, and like any practice, it takes time, and you will slip.

A crazy week hits. The boundaries erode. The phone creeps back onto the desk. You cancel the fun for something urgent. That's not failure. That's just how a full, rich life works.

The question is how quickly you notice and come back.

That's the whole game. Do your best. Slip and recover. Start again. Skip the part where you judge or beat yourself up.

Learn to consciously reset. Take ten minutes at the end of the week to reflect. What worked? What didn't? What's one thing to protect or change next week? Small, consistent reflection compounds over time and creates powerful new habits. New habits transform your life, one step at a time.

Keep going! The skills you've built these past six weeks, focus, deep work, and recovery, aren't just productivity tools. They're career tools. They're what makes you someone who does exceptional work, builds a strong reputation, and is ready when opportunity appears.

Which, as we've talked about, is how careers advance.

This week: Set up your weekly reset. Pick a time — Friday afternoon, Sunday evening, whatever fits — and put it on the calendar. Ten minutes. Every week.

That's the whole practice.

Know someone navigating a demanding season at work? They can join us here.

Questions about focus or making the most of an intense stretch? Email me I read everyone.

Next week: Your environment is talking to you. Let's make sure it's saying the right things.

Rest Is Not a Reward

Time to read: You're gonna like this week's assignment. It's one minute down.

I'm starting to accept that the 1980s are vintage. Especially for these beautiful 1980s Tiffany earrings.

You've been grinding for weeks.

You're getting stuff done. Protecting your focus. Taming the noise. And somewhere in the back of your mind is a voice that says, “I'll rest when this is over. I'll have fun when I've earned it.”

I know this voice. I bet you do, too.

Rest makes work possible. It’s a must-have, not a nice-to-have. When you rest, your brain consolidates learning, generates creative connections, and recovers its capacity for focus. Cut downtime, and your effort will produce diminishing returns.

The same goes for fun. The things that have nothing to do with your career. A walk, a game, a long dinner with people you love. These aren't distractions from a productive life. They're the point of life.

Rest and downtime matter to your career. Some of your best thinking won't happen at your desk. It'll happen in the shower, on a run, staring out a window, while driving your car. The brain that's been given room to wander comes back sharper. That's how brains work. Giving yourself a break is you consciously using your brain’s full capacity.

The professionals who sustain high performance over a long career aren't the ones who grind the hardest. They're the ones who know how to rest and recover.

So, stop waiting to earn a break. Schedule it with the same intention you bring to your deep work blocks. Put it on the calendar and make it non-negotiable.

This week: Schedule something purely for you. Not productive. Not career-adjacent. Just fun. And if you’re tempted to cancel it, don’t. You must. Your coach just told you to rest. :-)

Know someone navigating a demanding season at work? They can join us here.

Questions about focus or making the most of an intense stretch? Email me I read everyone.

Next week: Your environment is talking to you. Let's make sure it's saying the right things.

How to Do the Work That Really Matters

Time to read: It's a long one! 1.5 minutes!

Deep work is rare.

Not because people are lazy. But because focus is hard to protect. There's always something urgent that gets in the way, and we humans like the dopamine hit of checking something off the to-do list.

The work that advances your career, builds your reputation, and creates opportunity is almost never the reactive, urgent stuff. It's the thinking, creating, and problem-solving that requires you to be fully present for an extended stretch of time.

That deep work doesn't happen by accident.

It starts with a ritual. Something small and consistent that signals to your brain that it’s time! A cup of coffee. A specific playlist. Clearing your desk. It doesn't matter what it is. What matters is that you do it every time, until it becomes a reliable on-ramp for focus. For me, it’s a clean counter and a cup of tea. (My office is the kitchen.)

Then protect the time. Notifications, open tabs, and email will try to distract you (read the newsletter about creating your environment). The sneakiest distraction is the urge to switch tasks the moment things inevitably get hard. The hard is good. It’s you stretching, creating, and using your gifts to do important work. It's not a sign you should stop. It's a sign to keep going.

The quality of thought that emerges on the other side of that resistance is where your best work lives.

Start small if you need to. The human brain can focus for 25 minutes. Take a break and come back again. 25 minutes of genuine focus beats three hours of distracted effort.

This week: Schedule one deep work block. Treat it like your most important meeting. Show up, do the ritual, close everything, and see what you're capable of. Know someone navigating a demanding season at work? Forward this to them. They can join us here.

Know someone navigating a demanding season at work? Forward this to them. They can join us sign up here.

Questions about focus or making the most of an intense stretch? Email me. I read every one.

Next week: Your environment is talking to you. Let's make sure it's saying the right things.