Publications
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Save your laptop from reclining airplane seats
I live in fear of my laptop getting crunched on an airplane. How many times have I been working away when the person in front of me suddenly reclines, threatening to trap the top edge of my laptop and break my screen? I thought my 11" MacBook Air would save me, but...
S.E.O. is payback for teenage freaks
Today I was catching up with my colleague Haig Armen when he asked me if I knew Steve Andersen. "You mean, Steve Andersen from Salesforce?" I asked. ["You mean, Steve Anderson of Open Media?" my husband asked later.] "No, Steve Anderson of Get Mental Notes," Haig...
Infographics against infographics
I am super in love with the Pinterest collection of social media infographics compiled by Irene Koehler. But the ever-growing excitement about social media infographics isn't all good news: along with the gems there are some absolute crimes against infographicality....
Be the e-mailer you wish to see in the world
How many people do you receive e-mail from that you read and reply to every single time? I'm guessing it's just a handful: Your best friend -- the one who sends you short periodic updates with a single recent photo, not the one who sends you weekly 2-pagers. The...
5 commandments for your digital fast this Lent
I'm not really a Lent kinda gal. (It may have something to do with me being Jewish.) But for the past few years, I've felt increasingly Lent-aware, because of the sheer number of people who now seem to give up Facebook for Lent (but then tweet about it), email for...
Tweet if you like to procrastinate
I am always amazed at how much I get done on my focused writing days -- the days when I leave the office and camp in one of the cafés or restaurants where ambient noise helps me concentrate and write, write, write. But it's not my word count that amazes me: it's all...
Taking a Pinterest in Emily Carr University, in & out of the bathroom
Emily Carr University has birthed a couple of major obsessions for me over the past year. Online, I have explored ways to use Pinterest, an image curating site, thanks to Emily Carr student (now alum!) Samantha Lefort. Offline, I have delighted in our bathroom...
4 last-minute social media valentines
Congratulations to all those who woke up this morning with their Valentine's cookies baked, their kids' class valentine cards addressed and boxed, and a dinner reservation in place at the romantic restaurant of your choice. You have got your Valentine act together,...
6 qualities to look for in an online date or offline mate
[Online dating] sites tend to emphasize similarity on psychological variables like personality (e.g., matching extroverts with extroverts and introverts with introverts) and attitudes (e.g., matching people who prefer Judd Apatow’s movies to Woody Allen’s with people...
5 online calendars your family can’t live without
If you think online calendaring is for scheduling business meetings, appointments and the occasional lunch date, you're missing out. Online calendars can also be a great way to bring order to the chaos of family life -- if you create or subscribe to the essential...
The Harvard Business Review
Save your laptop from reclining airplane seats
I live in fear of my laptop getting crunched on an airplane. How many times have I been working away when the person in front of me suddenly reclines, threatening to trap the top edge of my laptop and break my screen? I thought my 11" MacBook Air would save me, but...
S.E.O. is payback for teenage freaks
Today I was catching up with my colleague Haig Armen when he asked me if I knew Steve Andersen. "You mean, Steve Andersen from Salesforce?" I asked. ["You mean, Steve Anderson of Open Media?" my husband asked later.] "No, Steve Anderson of Get Mental Notes," Haig...
Infographics against infographics
I am super in love with the Pinterest collection of social media infographics compiled by Irene Koehler. But the ever-growing excitement about social media infographics isn't all good news: along with the gems there are some absolute crimes against infographicality....
Be the e-mailer you wish to see in the world
How many people do you receive e-mail from that you read and reply to every single time? I'm guessing it's just a handful: Your best friend -- the one who sends you short periodic updates with a single recent photo, not the one who sends you weekly 2-pagers. The...
5 commandments for your digital fast this Lent
I'm not really a Lent kinda gal. (It may have something to do with me being Jewish.) But for the past few years, I've felt increasingly Lent-aware, because of the sheer number of people who now seem to give up Facebook for Lent (but then tweet about it), email for...
Tweet if you like to procrastinate
I am always amazed at how much I get done on my focused writing days -- the days when I leave the office and camp in one of the cafés or restaurants where ambient noise helps me concentrate and write, write, write. But it's not my word count that amazes me: it's all...
Taking a Pinterest in Emily Carr University, in & out of the bathroom
Emily Carr University has birthed a couple of major obsessions for me over the past year. Online, I have explored ways to use Pinterest, an image curating site, thanks to Emily Carr student (now alum!) Samantha Lefort. Offline, I have delighted in our bathroom...
4 last-minute social media valentines
Congratulations to all those who woke up this morning with their Valentine's cookies baked, their kids' class valentine cards addressed and boxed, and a dinner reservation in place at the romantic restaurant of your choice. You have got your Valentine act together,...
6 qualities to look for in an online date or offline mate
[Online dating] sites tend to emphasize similarity on psychological variables like personality (e.g., matching extroverts with extroverts and introverts with introverts) and attitudes (e.g., matching people who prefer Judd Apatow’s movies to Woody Allen’s with people...
5 online calendars your family can’t live without
If you think online calendaring is for scheduling business meetings, appointments and the occasional lunch date, you're missing out. Online calendars can also be a great way to bring order to the chaos of family life -- if you create or subscribe to the essential...
OneZero
Should copyediting be part of your social media strategy?
I'll admit it: I'm a grammar nazi. When I see a poorly punctuated tweet, I cringe, and when I see a blog post with a comma splice in the title, I want to tear my hair out. I've fantasized about a supper club for copy editors -- the folks like me and my husband, who...
A new path to social media insight at Vision Critical
People who post frequently on Facebook and Twitter are more than 3 times as likely to care about being the most fashionable person in the room, compared to more passive social media users. That was one of the surprising findings that came out of a major social media...
5 questions about your personal brand and your day job
My latest for the Wall Street Journal addresses the challenges that companies face in managing "co-branded" employees: employees who have built a significant reputation and following through social media. The story covers a range of issues managers need to consider,...
How quickly should you reply to email?
I'm a judgemental email sender and an anxious email recipient. When I send someone an email, I judge them based on their response time: instant? slow? eternal? And by judgement, let me be clear: I'm not judging them on their email skills alone. Increasingly, I use...
More jobs of the future: essential staff for your tech lifestyle
A while ago I blogged a list of anticipated jobs of the future: new categories of employment that will be necessitated by our increasingly plugged-in lives. Now it's time to add a few to the list: Update concierge: 2 laptops + 2 home computers + 1 ipad + 1 iphone + 2...
Of shoes and men
I have a dear friend who used to say that a woman should always have three men in her life: the one currently in her heart, a second recently dispatched, and a third waiting in the wings. I now have a comparable philosophy about shoes. Every woman should have one...
7 ways to enhance your vacations with Facebook
How Facebook can help you plan a better trip — and help you remember it.
Take a one-way road trip with Ridejoy
Ridejoy is a social network that helps you share rides. Here’s how we used it to take a fantastic one-way road trip.
JSTOR DAILY
Should copyediting be part of your social media strategy?
I'll admit it: I'm a grammar nazi. When I see a poorly punctuated tweet, I cringe, and when I see a blog post with a comma splice in the title, I want to tear my hair out. I've fantasized about a supper club for copy editors -- the folks like me and my husband, who...
A new path to social media insight at Vision Critical
People who post frequently on Facebook and Twitter are more than 3 times as likely to care about being the most fashionable person in the room, compared to more passive social media users. That was one of the surprising findings that came out of a major social media...
5 questions about your personal brand and your day job
My latest for the Wall Street Journal addresses the challenges that companies face in managing "co-branded" employees: employees who have built a significant reputation and following through social media. The story covers a range of issues managers need to consider,...
How quickly should you reply to email?
I'm a judgemental email sender and an anxious email recipient. When I send someone an email, I judge them based on their response time: instant? slow? eternal? And by judgement, let me be clear: I'm not judging them on their email skills alone. Increasingly, I use...
More jobs of the future: essential staff for your tech lifestyle
A while ago I blogged a list of anticipated jobs of the future: new categories of employment that will be necessitated by our increasingly plugged-in lives. Now it's time to add a few to the list: Update concierge: 2 laptops + 2 home computers + 1 ipad + 1 iphone + 2...
Of shoes and men
I have a dear friend who used to say that a woman should always have three men in her life: the one currently in her heart, a second recently dispatched, and a third waiting in the wings. I now have a comparable philosophy about shoes. Every woman should have one...
7 ways to enhance your vacations with Facebook
How Facebook can help you plan a better trip — and help you remember it.
Take a one-way road trip with Ridejoy
Ridejoy is a social network that helps you share rides. Here’s how we used it to take a fantastic one-way road trip.
THE VERGE
How Email destroyed the world
I spent the last day of Western Civilization addressing the very phenomenon that caused our collective downfall: email. On November 8th—Election Day—I spent six hours in a rented studio in Manhattan, taping a new class for Skillshare. Email Productivity: Work Smarter...
Resistance is futile: A success story
Sometimes success looks like a little boy sobbing his eyes out. This success story begins yesterday morning, when Peanut showed up at school in his Halloween costume: a Borg cube. For those of you who aren’t Star Trek fans, let me explain that the Borg are a race of...
In The Orange Dot: Is my kid addicted to tech or am I just old?
Even adults can get obsessed with their social media analytics. So what do you do when your kids start measuring their every online move.
Rock Bottom
When we finally pulled Peanut out of public school at the end of Grade 2, I thought we’d reached rock bottom. We had a 7-year-old with a basket of diagnoses and labels: anxiety, ADHD, sensory processing issues, tic disorder, fine motor lags and a 99.99th percentile...