Latest
Catch up on Alex’s latest publications and appearances here.
Get the latest blog posts delivered!
Find out when Alex is in the news
The Joy of Tedious Work
Feb 21, 2023 | Productivity, Newsletter
Coaches and strategists often encourage us to maximize impact by spending most of our time and attention in the zone where we make the greatest contribution. We’re told: Focus your days on the projects and tasks where you have something unique to add, or where only...
The Hybrid Worker’s Guide to Information Overload
Feb 7, 2023 | Toolbox, Hybrid and remote work, Newsletter
The overwhelm that so many people feel when working from home—or when returning to the office, conferences or other group settings after a few years of relative isolation—is intimately related to the cognitive, psychological and sensory challenges of living in a state...
Culture in the hybrid workplace
Jan 24, 2023 | Hybrid and remote work, Newsletter
What does hybrid work do to our organizational culture? How do we help nourish a sense of culture within a distributed team? Why do I feel so disconnected from my colleagues, or so isolated in my time at home? These are questions I hear when speaking with...
Tune up your burnout busters
Nov 29, 2022 | Lifestyle, Clips WSJ, Hybrid and remote work, Newsletter
Combine meeting and walking. If you don’t need to be on camera, or need to take only minimal notes, go for a walk during the call. I’ve found that these meetings often allow me to be more creative—and make a stronger personal connection—than what happens on a...
R.I.P. social media. Long live hybrid work?
Nov 15, 2022 | Newsletter, Social Signal, Social Media, Clips JSTOR
Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has sent me into mourning — not just for that once-beloved social network, but for social media in general. And with that grief has come something like recognition: recognition that my optimistic view of hybrid work parallels the...
What Mastodon means to your work
Nov 13, 2022 | Newsletter, Social Media, How to build community online
Just four weeks ago, I posted that I was officially, permanently worn out with social media. But it only took three weeks to change my mind. And four weeks for me to see that a better version of social media could create better workplaces, too. Hope looks like...
How to learn from hybrid mistakes
Nov 1, 2022 | Hybrid and remote work, Newsletter
Don’t be surprised if you make some mistakes during the transition to hybrid work. I’m not just talking about mistakes in how you transition to a hybrid work arrangement: I’m talking about garden-variety operational, service and professional errors that happen as a...
Why it pays to blur work and home
Oct 18, 2022 | Career, Family, Clips WSJ, Hybrid and remote work, Neurodiversity, Newsletter
The less we see each other in the literal sense—the less time we spend co-working in the same physical location—the more our culture and bonds depend on seeing each other in the metaphorical sense, as full humans. And we can’t do that if we continue to patrol the...
How Hybrid Work Solves the Resilience Gap
Sep 20, 2022 | Newsletter, Productivity, Family, Hybrid and remote work
Nothing is more essential to personal or professional success than resilience: the ability to rethink, reorganize and recover when your plans go awry. Resilience is what allows us to find another path forward when we hit a roadblock; to let go of what we expected and...
The hybrid worker’s guide to screen time
Sep 6, 2022 | Family, Tech advice, Family Tech, Family tech policies, Hybrid and remote work, Newsletter
How do you keep screen time intentional, healthy and rewarding? It’s a question many of us ask about our screen-glazed kids, but it’s also a question we need to ask of ourselves. Phones, computers and other gadgets are easy to overuse, not simply because we are frail...