Publications
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Take these ideas…please
For the next month, I’m committed to sharing almost every one of my ideas — no matter how valuable, and no matter how terrible.
A bird’s eye view of hashtag diffusion
What's it like to be on a panel with rock stars Peter Shankman, Julien Smith, Chris Brogan and Russell Bowers? For all who have wondered, I can answer that question with a video -- at the same time, answering a question that came in on Twitter during today's panel at...
Help your kids learn with Etsy and the Maker Faire
Tonight Little Sweetie was thrilled to learn that she has been accepted into the Vancouver Maker Faire, a DIY festival we attended last year. She loved it, and immediately wanted to run her own booth, based on her Etsy store, 2 Dots 1 Symbol, which sells emoticon...
Tx is short for f*** you, not thank you
Today's practice: Write your thank yous instead of abbreviating them. Last night, I caught myself on the verge of a profound etiquette violation. A colleague had replied quickly and helpfully to an email I had sent, asking for information, and my breezy reply ended...
Meet Your Pinterest Customer
Pinterest is the social media darling of the month, growing madly and reported to be driving more traffic to third-party…
Stop blaming yourself for your kids’ challenges
Today's practice: Focus on healing your kids, not on figuring out how you've damaged them. In the past year a number of very important and dear people in our lives have started or grown their families in a way not everybody knows is possible: by adopting kids who have...
5 essential steps to online security
Today's practice: Tighten your online security. You'd think that writing a dissertation about political computer hacking would make a girl sensitive to the challenges of online security. And it has, up to a point. But I recently decided to up my level of tech...
Make a family tech schedule
Today's practice: Make a family tech schedule. We recently took the bold, terrifying step of pulling all the gaming consoles (Xbox, Playstation and Wii) out of our home media center, and sending them on a vacation to the closet. We took this measure in response to our...
What experience do you want to have online?
Today's practice: Think about the social media experience you want to have, not the brand you want to build. About three years ago, in a conversation that ultimately led to me shifting gears and joining Emily Carr, the very wise Morgan Brayton passed along a pivotal...
From the Wall Street Journal’s Daily Wrap: Twitter for CEOs (audio)
Why and how should CEOs use Twitter? That was the focus of my conversation with Michael Castner yesterday, on the Wall Street Journal's Daily Wrap. You can listen to that interview below, or read the Wall Street Journal story we were riffing off: Better Leadership...
The Harvard Business Review
Take these ideas…please
For the next month, I’m committed to sharing almost every one of my ideas — no matter how valuable, and no matter how terrible.
A bird’s eye view of hashtag diffusion
What's it like to be on a panel with rock stars Peter Shankman, Julien Smith, Chris Brogan and Russell Bowers? For all who have wondered, I can answer that question with a video -- at the same time, answering a question that came in on Twitter during today's panel at...
Help your kids learn with Etsy and the Maker Faire
Tonight Little Sweetie was thrilled to learn that she has been accepted into the Vancouver Maker Faire, a DIY festival we attended last year. She loved it, and immediately wanted to run her own booth, based on her Etsy store, 2 Dots 1 Symbol, which sells emoticon...
Tx is short for f*** you, not thank you
Today's practice: Write your thank yous instead of abbreviating them. Last night, I caught myself on the verge of a profound etiquette violation. A colleague had replied quickly and helpfully to an email I had sent, asking for information, and my breezy reply ended...
Meet Your Pinterest Customer
Pinterest is the social media darling of the month, growing madly and reported to be driving more traffic to third-party…
Stop blaming yourself for your kids’ challenges
Today's practice: Focus on healing your kids, not on figuring out how you've damaged them. In the past year a number of very important and dear people in our lives have started or grown their families in a way not everybody knows is possible: by adopting kids who have...
5 essential steps to online security
Today's practice: Tighten your online security. You'd think that writing a dissertation about political computer hacking would make a girl sensitive to the challenges of online security. And it has, up to a point. But I recently decided to up my level of tech...
Make a family tech schedule
Today's practice: Make a family tech schedule. We recently took the bold, terrifying step of pulling all the gaming consoles (Xbox, Playstation and Wii) out of our home media center, and sending them on a vacation to the closet. We took this measure in response to our...
What experience do you want to have online?
Today's practice: Think about the social media experience you want to have, not the brand you want to build. About three years ago, in a conversation that ultimately led to me shifting gears and joining Emily Carr, the very wise Morgan Brayton passed along a pivotal...
From the Wall Street Journal’s Daily Wrap: Twitter for CEOs (audio)
Why and how should CEOs use Twitter? That was the focus of my conversation with Michael Castner yesterday, on the Wall Street Journal's Daily Wrap. You can listen to that interview below, or read the Wall Street Journal story we were riffing off: Better Leadership...
OneZero
The 23 stages of the task management software lifecycle
Totally on top of all pending tasks Moderate slippage of select tasks leads to mild anxiety Catastrophic failure to complete one or more mission-critical tasks leads to wholesale re-evaluation of career choice, self-worth and why are we even on this earth anyhow?...
3 tricks for monitoring Twitter mentions and trackbacks
The brilliant Lauren Bacon made a big splash yesterday with her thought-provoking post on the emotional work that often gets assigned to women working in the tech world. The response to that post has been so massive that it's left her with a challenge: how do you...
Which Facebook updates could you live without?
The beauty of being married to a man with absolutely no interest in sports is that I would remain blissfully unaware of the start of hockey season, at least until I get to the office Monday, were it not for Facebook and Twitter, which are suddenly overflowing with...
Love in flames: finding the joy in hostile comments
"I don't know why you care about the shit that a bunch of total strangers say about you on the Internet." This was my mom's delightfully candid and potentially comforting response to this week's comment eruption on my Harvard Business Review post. My mom is quite an...
Saying goodbye to pen and paper
My latest blog post for Harvard Business Review has provoked a strong reaction to the idea of saying goodbye to the paper notebook. Here's my own take on the experience of giving up on paper and pen. 4.00 22.95 Alexandra Samuel Those 25 characters, comprising a tip, a...
13 New Year’s resolutions for a better life online
As you start the new year with the best intentions for your personal, professional and emotional development, don't forget to put your tech life on the list. Here are 13 resolutions to choose from, depending on your own tech challenges and commitments; you'll know...
Please help me launch my new Harvard Business ebook, Work Smarter with Evernote
On December 18th, Harvard Business Review Press will release my first ebook: Work Smarter with Evernote. This short guide shows how Evernote can help you become more focused and effective on the job—and get ahead in your career. I'd like to ask for your help: please...
How to talk about tragedy online
Time out, people. In the past 24 hours we have been have been inspired, informed, comforted and mobilized by the unfolding conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. But it's clear that we have also had moments of feeling attached, horrified, angered and shamed....
JSTOR DAILY
The 23 stages of the task management software lifecycle
Totally on top of all pending tasks Moderate slippage of select tasks leads to mild anxiety Catastrophic failure to complete one or more mission-critical tasks leads to wholesale re-evaluation of career choice, self-worth and why are we even on this earth anyhow?...
3 tricks for monitoring Twitter mentions and trackbacks
The brilliant Lauren Bacon made a big splash yesterday with her thought-provoking post on the emotional work that often gets assigned to women working in the tech world. The response to that post has been so massive that it's left her with a challenge: how do you...
Which Facebook updates could you live without?
The beauty of being married to a man with absolutely no interest in sports is that I would remain blissfully unaware of the start of hockey season, at least until I get to the office Monday, were it not for Facebook and Twitter, which are suddenly overflowing with...
Love in flames: finding the joy in hostile comments
"I don't know why you care about the shit that a bunch of total strangers say about you on the Internet." This was my mom's delightfully candid and potentially comforting response to this week's comment eruption on my Harvard Business Review post. My mom is quite an...
Saying goodbye to pen and paper
My latest blog post for Harvard Business Review has provoked a strong reaction to the idea of saying goodbye to the paper notebook. Here's my own take on the experience of giving up on paper and pen. 4.00 22.95 Alexandra Samuel Those 25 characters, comprising a tip, a...
13 New Year’s resolutions for a better life online
As you start the new year with the best intentions for your personal, professional and emotional development, don't forget to put your tech life on the list. Here are 13 resolutions to choose from, depending on your own tech challenges and commitments; you'll know...
Please help me launch my new Harvard Business ebook, Work Smarter with Evernote
On December 18th, Harvard Business Review Press will release my first ebook: Work Smarter with Evernote. This short guide shows how Evernote can help you become more focused and effective on the job—and get ahead in your career. I'd like to ask for your help: please...
How to talk about tragedy online
Time out, people. In the past 24 hours we have been have been inspired, informed, comforted and mobilized by the unfolding conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. But it's clear that we have also had moments of feeling attached, horrified, angered and shamed....
THE VERGE
Today in the WSJ: How to network when you can’t meet up with people
Remember the olden days, when business networking meant lunches and cocktail hours? Covid may have hit the pause button on in-person meetups, but that doesn't mean your networking should pause, too. In today's Wall Street Journal, I share some alternative strategies,...
Today in Elemental: How keto saved my sanity during Covid
I try not to be an evangelist about keto. Really, I do. But my two-year "keto-versary" has hit right as many people are coping not only with all the bread-induced weight gain of Covid, but with the mental health impact of isolation and anxiety. Much to my surprise,...
Today in the WSJ: Collegiality during Covid
How can you support your colleagues during the most challenging work year most of us have ever known? That's what I tackle in today's Wall Street Journal, writing about How to Be a Good Colleague During the Coronavirus Crisis. As I argue in the piece, Even though...
Today in the WSJ: What I’ve learned from two decades of remote work
Let go of the eight-hour workday. That's the single most crucial piece of advice I have for any newly remote worker, after more than two decades of work in which I've been based from home for most of the time. Today in the Wall Street Journal, I share my most vital...