Blog: Well-being

What I love most about working from home

What I love most about working from home

I'm an introvert and I'm also easily distracted and bothered by noise. So, I am en-joy-ing working from home! It is utterly delicious. My "regular" (non-COVID-19) situation was that I went to the University of British Columbia (UBC) several days per week for my...

read more
What’s making me smile?

What’s making me smile?

Let me preface this by saying that I am not spending my days with a big smile plastered onto my face. However, there are a number of things that have been lifting my spirits over the past few weeks and I wanted to record these here. More time with my immediate family...

read more
Awe

Awe

For as long as I can remember, I have been awed by a beautiful singing voice. Certain song/voice combinations stop me in my tracks, pull me in like some sort of powerful vortex (does a vortex suck people in? that may be scientifically inaccurate, but you get my...

read more
Your workspace and well-being

Your workspace and well-being

The physical space in which we work matters--a lot. Yet, it isn't necessarily the first thing that comes to mind when we think about career satisfaction. I have noticed my workspace affects my mood, my productivity, my sense of calm (or lack thereof), and my overall...

read more
Catastrophizing (do you remember 1999?!)

Catastrophizing (do you remember 1999?!)

I was thinking back 20 years to December 1999--do you remember the "hysteria" leading up to that month?! Back then, my spouse and I ran a disc jockey (DJ) business; December 31 had us worried because we weren't sure how Y2K would play out. Anyone who is old enough to...

read more
Anorexia, gelato, gratitude

Anorexia, gelato, gratitude

Letter to Uno Gelato, a Vancouver-based business. Dear Paddy Mahony (Owner), Mike Raffan (Managing Partner) and staff at Uno Gelato in Kitsilano, Last summer, our 13-year-old daughter, Nayeli, was suffering intensely with anorexia nervosa. This mental health condition...

read more
How to deal with our weaknesses

How to deal with our weaknesses

I grew up with the belief that 'fixing' my weaknesses was something I should consistently work on. Given I have no shortages of weaknesses, I had my work cut out for me. 😕 It was only a few years ago, when I was introduced to "StrengthsFinder"1 and trained to become a...

read more
Reading more: My 5-month reading challenge

Reading more: My 5-month reading challenge

As an only child, I adored reading. I made frequent trips to the public library and relished the process of selecting and then immersing myself in a book. I rarely read more than one book at a time, but read a lot. Most of the above still holds true, except the 'read...

read more
Should I celebrate my 50th birthday?

Should I celebrate my 50th birthday?

I'm having a first world problem and it has to do with my birthday. The problem is that I'm highly ambivalent about whether I should celebrate my 50th birthday in a "big" way. Not a big deal, you think? Why I feel stress around this choice It goes something like...

read more
How to save time by simplifying

How to save time by simplifying

Should I write first or do mindfulness? Should I respond to emails that are piling up or write? Should I check social media or do something more productive? Should I exercise or grade papers? Those might be some of the decisions you need to make at the beginning of...

read more
Doing meaningful work through volunteering

Doing meaningful work through volunteering

In this post, I describe how my desire to do meaningful work has shaped my career and a recent volunteer activity. I briefly recount an experience I had this summer that brought me great joy because it hit a "10" in my own doing-meaningful-work scale. Finally, I...

read more

Want to move forward in your higher education career without throwing quality of life out the window?

Each month I send out a newsletter to ambitious perfectionists with resources, actionable advice, and ideas that support gentle productivity.

Move forward in your higher education career...

...without throwing quality of life out the window.

Get monthly resources and actionable advice for gentle productivity.

SUCCESS! Thank you for joining.