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6 async practices that surface buried insights (and how AI can help)

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 20:48:53 +0000

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5-second summary

Knowledge workers often struggle to uncover relevant insights (like past research results or a list of ideas brainstormed last quarter) exactly when they need it, leading to wasted time, energy, and money.
Intentional async practices surface vital knowledge that helps teams prevent duplicate work and make better decisions, faster.
AI can serve as a helpful partner in gathering and summarizing what already exists before creating anything new.

The worst thing you can do is sink a lot of money into something that you end up having to scrap, for reasons that could have been flagged at the beginning of the project…
VP, Fortune 500 financial services company, in Atlassian’s State of Teams 2025 report

It’s a painful rite of passage for knowledge workers: You spend days or weeks on a project, only to discover a related idea you wish you’d known earlier, a piece of data that changes your work, or (worst of all) something that negates everything you’ve been doing.

Maybe you launch a survey, only to learn afterward that another team ran almost the same survey last quarter – and already answered your key questions. Or you might spend a week assembling a strategy deck, then stumble across a document with sharper thinking and fresher data that never crossed your radar.

That’s the all‑too‑familiar problem for many teams, especially those who work asynchronously: lack of visibility into work that’s already been done, ideas that have already been considered, and insights that have already been gathered.

This information may be:

Buried in an old deck, an epic from two years ago, or a page no one can find
Delivered after the deadline or the moment you were looking
Shared quietly or held back completely

Either way, if knowledge isn’t surfaced at the right time or in the right way, it never gets used – leading to wasted time and energy at best, and costly mistakes at worst.

The good news is there are plenty of ways to overcome those barriers. Here’s how your team can tackle these challenges, use async benefits to your advantage, and do your best work – together.

Teams have more information than ever, but they’ve never been less informed

As the pace of work accelerates, employees are using more tools than ever and scattering data across a graveyard of disconnected work artifacts. This leaves people struggling to find and use relevant insights, like past research results or a list of ideas brainstormed last quarter.

In fact, Atlassian’s most recent State of Teams report shows Fortune 500 companies waste 2.4 billion (yes, with a “b!”) hours every year searching for information. One in two knowledge workers report that teams at their company tend to unknowingly work on the same things, and just 20% feel confident that their team has an effective process for quickly informing other teams of decisions that may impact their work.

The three things teams say they need to collaborate more effectively:

Clearer goals
Shared processes for how to get work done
Ability to easily find the exact information they need

Let’s dive deeper into that third benefit and explore six practical, research‑backed habits any team – especially those who work async – can use to surface knowledge faster and make even better decisions.

6 async practices to uncover existing insights

How to excel at asynchronous communication with your distributed team

By Jaime Netzer In Communication

1. Write before you meet

Practice: Ask team members to write their thoughts and ideas about a topic before meeting.

One of the biggest challenges with making decisions in live meetings is that meetings perpetuate groupthink and introduce bias. One way to avoid this is to give people time and space to write down their thoughts before they meet.

Studies comparing group brainstorming to brainwriting (individually writing ideas) find that people generate more – and more unique – ideas when they write first instead of speaking in a group. Writing slows thinking down enough for nuance and clarity to emerge. People can draft, edit, and refine instead of reacting in real time. That means a designer in Sydney can write down three thoughtful concerns about a proposed UI change, rather than trying to get a word in during a rushed, late-night call.

Similarly, writing also removes pressure to respond instantly or compete for airtime, which is especially helpful for introverts, junior team members, and those from under‑represented groups.

Try it:

Before a meeting or working session, share a short prompt for your collaborators to answer in writing. For a planning session, it could be, “What risks do you think we’re underestimating?” For a new campaign brainstorming session, it could be, “What’s the best campaign you’ve seen lately, and why?”
Ask each person to write their thoughts in a shared document before any live discussion.
Let people add async follow-up comments.
Start the live meeting by reviewing a summary of themes the team wrote down and any notable outliers that may influence decisions.

Where you can ask AI to help:

Give the tool an overview of the meeting goals, topics to discuss, and what success looks like. Then, ask it to brainstorm questions and prompts for attendees to answer in writing ahead of time.
Cluster themes among the responses, and highlight outliers.
Present your team’s ideas in search results when another team is looking for similar information months later.

2. Design for time-delayed contribution

Practice: Give everyone an opportunity to respond before you review.

Some people are fast thinkers and communicators. Others take more time to formulate and write their thoughts. Some team members may be in a different time zone or out of the office. The fastest replies often get the most attention, but speed isn’t a signal of insight or value. Building in time for everyone who wants to contribute levels the playing field and avoids missing potentially important perspectives.

Research on remote and virtual teams shows people are less likely to share when they feel like they’re being watched and more likely to share when they feel psychologically safe. Encouraging collaborators to share knowledge async – and giving them more time to do so – puts them in control over when and how they show up. That creates space for more robust, thoughtful input, and fewer decisions led by whoever responded first.

Try it:

Set clear response windows for async comments, like “Add comments to this proposal by end of day Thursday.”
Give people clear direction on what type of contributions you’re looking for. Feedback on existing ideas? New ideas? Additional context the group may not have considered? Intentional disagreement to poke holes in a concept? (See practice #3 below.)
Send a reminder before the deadline, tagging people who haven’t responded (if appropriate).
In your recap, you can call out key contributions that arrived later in the time window in case people who responded earlier missed them.

Where you can ask AI to help:

Resurface lightly engaged threads before the response window closes, and summarize who hasn’t responded yet: “Only 2 of 5 assignees have replied. You are waiting on Marcos, Jennifer, and Lynn.”
Schedule reminders for the team to contribute before the deadline.
Flag contributions that are significantly different from earlier responses so you don’t miss something that changes decisions.

3. Intentionally invite disagreement

Practice: Build in opportunities to respectfully dissent in writing and with purpose.

Humans are hardwired to avoid conflict, especially at work. But questioning, disagreement, and arguing (respectfully, of course) can expose issues, clarify confusion, and reduce the risk of bigger problems later on. Conflict also signals that people care about a particular person or topic.

In async work, there aren’t as many obvious opportunities for disagreement. You’re not meeting live or talking back and forth with someone you can share your true thoughts and feelings with in real time. That’s why it’s important to build in async opportunities for team members to disagree.

Inviting people to share their questions and concerns in writing, on their own time, also gives those who may not feel comfortable speaking up live or face‑to‑face – especially across power or culture gaps – space to think, write, and edit their feedback before sharing.

Try it:

Add standard prompts to big decisions, such as:
- “What are we missing?”
- “If this fails, why will it have failed?”
- “What do you disagree with, and why?”
- “What feels riskier than we’re admitting out loud?”
- “What would a smart critic say about this plan?”
Add “risks and concerns” fields to planning page templates and intake forms.
Add a section to retrospective and incident review templates where people can share considerate critiques of a decision or tradeoff made.
Run the Sparring Play to get async feedback on an idea or piece of work.
Normalize respectful questioning and dissent as a helpful contribution to quality, not as criticism or an attack. (Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson shares three rules that contribute to building psychological safety, meaningful dialogue, and co-creation: listen more and speak less, build on others’ contributions, and respond to what’s emerging vs. pre-planning ideas.)
Publicly thank people who disagree and say the hard stuff out loud. Show how their input shaped the outcome.

6 types of meetings that are worth your time (and 3 that aren’t)

By Sarah Goff-Dupont In Teamwork

Save for syncs

Not every comment or conversation is appropriate for async. Opt for real-time communication if it’s:

Individual one-on-ones
First-time meetings with people who have never worked together
Topics that are emotionally charged (performance issues, interpersonal conflicts, etc.)
Project kickoffs

Where you can ask AI to help:

Analyze multiple messages and flag areas of repeated uncertainty or concern, like “Several people have raised concerns about privacy.”
Summarize themes after a sparring session.
Automatically add a step to suggested workflows to invite disagreement, instead of relying on people to remember to do it.
Edit dissent messages for tone and clarity so those messages are better received, like changing “This plan is reckless and ignores basic security” to “I’m concerned this plan may introduce significant security risks that we haven’t fully evaluated yet.”

4. Separate idea generation from evaluation

Practice: Don’t mix “What could we do?” with “What should we do?”

There are two types of thinking: divergent and convergent. Divergent thinking is unrestricted, judgment-free, and takes a meandering path to explore all viable (and some not-so-viable) options. Convergent thinking uses logic to narrow down ideas in a structured way.

Alex Osborn, who developed the creative-problem solving framework in the 1940s, noted that both types of thinking are essential to creativity. The problem is people often jump to convergent thinking as the most direct path to one “right” solution. If they don’t diverge first, they may make a short‑sighted decision and miss out on an even better solution.

Try it:

Break up the brainstorming or problem-solving process to diverge first, then converge.
Start with divergent thinking to generate ideas (async):
- Share a collaborative document or form with the team for brainstorming, and ask them to share any and all observations, concerns, hypotheses, and ideas about the topic.
- Remind them to suspend judgment. Don’t worry about what’s been tried before or what “won’t work.” There are no good or bad ideas at this point.
- Encourage writing down every concept, even if it’s not certain or fully formed yet.
Then evaluate ideas (later, async or sync):
- Shift to sharing feedback, prioritizing, and making decisions using clear criteria (e.g., impact, effort, risk).
- Decide which ideas become experiments, tasks/issues, or backlog items.

Where you can ask AI to help:

Label contributions by type (observation, risk, assumption, idea, etc.) so you can see what’s missing.
Group similar ideas based on themes.
Compare ideas to requirements or context to spot gaps or misalignment.
Prioritize ideas based on criteria.

5. Surface summaries

Practice: Share recaps of conversations and decisions with the rest of the team.

Insights often get lost in conversation threads, notes, and documents. After doing any of these practices above or meeting live, share a summary of what was discussed and decided in a Slack or Teams channel, shared workspace, or wherever your team communicates.

Summarizing and resurfacing information not only helps close the loop, but also means the next team doesn’t have to re‑ask the same questions or repeat the same experiment six months later. Decision logs and recap notes are consistently cited as a cornerstone of effective async collaboration, as GitLab notes in their handbook.

Try it:

Assign a teammate in each meeting or working session to share a recap with all stakeholders.
In a simple written summary or decision log, capture:
- What was discussed or decided
- Key findings and patterns that informed the conversation and decision
- Points of tension or disagreement
- Open questions and notes to revisit later
Store summaries where the team actually works, like a project’s Confluence page or Slack channel.
Resurface findings at key moments: planning, retros, onboarding, or when similar work starts.

Where you can ask AI to help:

Add an AI notetaker, such as Loom, to your meetings to take notes and automatically share a summary.
Create insight‑focused summaries, like “Here are the four main concerns and why the group chose Option B.”
Schedule reminders to revisit notes, open questions, and past decisions for further review and assessment.

6. Create dedicated async “thinking spaces”

Practice: Set up a document, workspace, or chat channel for random thoughts and brainstorming.

Our brains work differently when they’re thinking than when they’re doing. (Both modes are equally important.) Even when we’re not thinking, like when we’re trying to fall asleep or in the shower, ideas strike at random. That’s because people generate better ideas when they have time and space to think alone, then come together to collaborate.

It’s crucial to intentionally think before we do and to capture those thoughts before they disappear into the void. Async “thinking spaces” (like a Confluence page, whiteboard, or Slack channel) do exactly that: give team members a low-pressure place to jot down questions and blue‑sky ideas as they come up, instead of letting them disappear.

Try it:

Create a shared place as the team’s async thinking space. This space is specifically for:
- Questions and hypotheses, like “Is adoption suffering because of friction during onboarding?”
- Patterns people are noticing across customers or incidents, like “Three different tickets mentioned confusion about payment methods this week.”
- Ideas to revisit in the future
Treat these as “slow” channels with fewer, but deeper messages and thoughts.
Model the behavior by posting your own reflections, not just directives.
If appropriate, share the thinking space with other teams to cross-pollinate knowledge.

Where you can ask AI to help:

Schedule weekly reminders to add any new ideas.
Highlight emerging themes or repeated concerns, like “Social media posts featuring real customers are gaining popularity” or “Customer trust has come up 5 different times this month.”
Surface themes across different projects, documents, and channels to bridge silos.

How to get started: small experiments, big payoffs

Async work won’t surface every insight or replace every meeting – nor should it. But when you make small, deliberate changes to the way your team writes, reflects, and disagrees, you can turn time zones and quiet personalities into a competitive advantage. Your team likely already has valuable work and hard-won lessons just waiting to be uncovered.

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The post 6 async practices that surface buried insights (and how AI can help) appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian.

Brain drain: Are Zombie Projects eating your team’s productivity alive?

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 23:25:12 +0000

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Picture the scene: You’ve returned from a wonderful holiday break, invigorated to tackle ambitious projects, and then it hits you. Maybe it’s pinned to your Jira board, or taking up a tab in Confluence.

It’s that one project that won’t go away. Its status hasn’t updated in three weeks. The Slack channel for the project is silent. Everyone else knows that they’re never going to find the time or the energy to see it through, but the boss still considers it “active.” We call this a Zombie Project – and it’s just as scary as it sounds.

Atlassian, in partnership with Censuswide, recently surveyed 8,000 global office workers. What we found just might explain what’s been quietly draining the life out of modern work for years.

What is a Zombie Project?

Happy circle-back season, to those who celebrate

By Dr. Molly Sands In Productivity

Zombie Projects aren’t just slow-moving; they’re at a standstill. Often, they’ve become calcified as more time-sensitive (or more exciting) projects have taken priority. But these projects were kicked off for a reason. Likely, they were meant to address a problem that the company still struggles with, so it’s difficult to just kill them outright.

It’s often impossible to ignore this snag around the holidays. Last year, Atlassian researchers found that December 17th is the most common drop-off date for projects, at which point punting things to the new year is preferable (We aptly dubbed it “World Circle Back Day”).

Here’s the rub: modern knowledge workers aren’t so sure they can jump back into projects with purpose and momentum – and Zombie Projects are often to blame. Almost half (44%) of workers came into 2026 weighed down by Zombie Projects, our research found, and over 90% say it’s causing issues.

At worst, Zombie Projects don’t just slow productivity; they drain the tank.

37% of workers said they feel stressed and overwhelmed by the clutter of undead work
32% of workers say it directly impacts their own productivity.
32% of teams worry Zombie Projects put them on a fast track to burnout
31% of teams say Zombie Projects gobble up valuable team resources

Amid today’s rapid AI acceleration, the stakes have never been higher.

Almost 9 in 10 executives say their organization needs to move more rapidly than ever just to keep pace, per Atlassian’s State of Teams 2025 report. Teams should be conserving their time and energy to make space for AI experimentation and implementation, not carrying along the dead weight of a project that won’t see the light of day.

Why Zombie Projects won’t die

Stalled-not-canceled projects are a brain drain, and nobody’s happy about them.

But if that’s the simple answer, why haven’t we just killed them? New year, clean slate? It’s actually more complicated than you’d expect, and it comes back to a basic lack of autonomy and alignment at most workplaces.

More than 1 in 3 employees we surveyed said they fear that pulling the plug will result in negative perception, like a boss assuming a project failed to get off the ground or workers didn’t sufficiently rally around it.
A similar share cited a decision gap, which is when the projects lacks a clear sense of who has authority to call it quits. If nobody owns the kill decision, the Zombie lives forever by default.
Another third of workers are caught up in the “sunk cost” fallacy. They’re attached to the program – and the many months of effort that went into it – and don’t want to waste that effort. Better to leave it open-ended and hope the time will eventually be right to bring it back.

Momentum is also partly to blame; if it doesn’t require much effort to keep a project perpetually on ice, workers are more likely to keep it zombified than sign up for the hard work of bringing it back to life. And when that low-effort limbo coincides with a lack of clear focus, it’s even harder to make a clean call.

Often, Zombie Projects are a sign that teams are missing clear focus. These are the projects that don’t obviously contribute to team or organizational goals, so they keep getting nudged down the priority list. They never feel important enough to invest in but without a clear connection to strategy, nobody feels confident enough to say out loud, “This doesn’t fit where we’re going,”.

AI teammate? More like Zombie Hunter

By Shaina Rozen In Teamwork

The strength of a company’s human-AI collaboration will determine its ability to meet the moment in the coming decades. A thoughtfully integrated AI teammate might be the perfect tool for clearing out the graveyard.

60% of global workers believe an AI teammate could guide the decision on whether to revive or retire a project. (That figure rose to 79% among workers in India, but hit a low of 44% in Australia.)

When we put aside the emotional “sunk cost” and the anxiety of “failing,” we clear a path for AI to provide the information it needs to make the call.

43% of workers want AI partners to act as master summarizers, filling teams in with full project context so they can decide if it’s worth a reboot.
37% of workers want AI to create realistic time estimates based on their actual availability and timelines. This is a crucial reality check in determining whether a deliverable is even feasible within the desired time frame.
35% of workers want a comprehensive summary of project insights. The right AI partner can extract action items from old email threads and Slack archives and draft quick, fresh replies.

AI teammates are a Swiss army knife every team can utilize – especially those bogged down by projects lingering in limbo. Often, it’s the unexciting work of “information hunting” and “context searching” and “silo-busting” that keeps us from moving forward. That’s why it’s such a relief that we can offload the boring bits to our AI partner.

I’m sticking to my prediction that human-AI collaboration will separate the high achievers from the folks who miss the moment. That’s why Zombie Projects are so crucial to tackle; they’re the ultimate enemy of collaboration. They suck up resources, they muddy the waters of accountability, and they prevent teams from aligning on the work that actually matters.

Fortune 500 companies waste 2.4 billion hours each year searching for information, our State of Teams 2025 report found. That’s more than a quarter of each workweek. Consider how much time could be saved with those hours back in your calendar. I’d bet that’s plenty to resurrect a zombie or two—or, if you’d rather, bury them for good.

Special thanks to Jane Thier for her contributions to this article.

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7 ways to reinvest the time AI saves you at work

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 16:26:03 +0000

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As recently as a year ago, AI tools were seen as a “nice to have.” Now, AI is emerging as a strategic partner. According to new research from Atlassian, the number of knowledge workers using AI tools on a regular basis doubled from 2024 to 2025, with those who use them saving a little over an hour each day.

This begs the question: what to do with all that newly freed-up time? Some of the most popular options from our survey include:

Skill-building and training
Brainstorming, prototyping, or spinning up a side project
Clearing out bottlenecks and improving processes that slow the team down

All of which are perfectly solid ways to invest the time you’re saving. That said, there are also options that tap into specific skill sets and may prove more exciting.

Although AI is dramatically changing the landscape, creativity, analytical thinking, and problem-solving skills are still in high demand by employers, as are traits like empathy and adaptability. With that in mind, here are seven ways to invest the time you’re saving that will help position you as both a leader and super-star collaborator.

1. Amp up your team’s AI enablement

AI systems are only as helpful as the data available to them. So let’s start with a few ways to improve the quantity and quality of information your system works with:

Look through your team’s documents and Confluence pages to see what could be unlocked so AI is free to access and reason on it.
Experiment with ways to further digitize knowledge so you’re adding context to the company’s overall knowledge base. For example, turn on AI note-taking in your team’s meetings and encourage people to default to public channels rather than direct messages.
Document your team’s goals, then make sure project plans and tasks link out to the corresponding goal(s). This adds helpful context for AI.

In concert, explicitly define the role AI will play in each of your projects. Will it analyze data? Build the project roadmap? Draft an announcement? Thinking about AI’s role proactively helps you use it strategically, especially when you’re using it in new ways. More details are in the Atlassian Team Playbook.

2. Kick off an initiative to improve something (anything!)

5 skills teams need to thrive in the age of AI (and how to build them)

By Erin Mosbaugh In Teamwork

Seize the opportunity to be the change you seek, whether that means converting an under-used conference room into bike storage to encourage carbon-free commuting or finding new formats for your team’s retrospectives that will keep things fresh and tease out new insights. Even better, take a cue from Atlassian’s ShipIt Days and form a “tiger team” to revamp a cross-team workflow or implement a long-standing enhancement request that will surprise and delight your customers.

3. Invest in personal enrichment

While I don’t suggest you use all your reclaimed time this way, picking up a new hobby can translate into professional development. Take my friend and fellow storyteller Ashley Faus. Along with being Head of Lifecycle Marketing at Atlassian, she’s an avid baker who turns lessons learned in the kitchen into tangible, bite-sized bits of wisdom for other marketers. By sharing them on LinkedIn along with drool-inducing photos of her cakes, Ashley has grown into a leading voice in marketing and a familiar face on the conference circuit. Or, my pal who works with technical teams in Ukraine and Georgia. Time spent on Duolingo is more than just fun and games for him. If nothing else, a new personal pursuit might simply recharge your batteries so you can take on the next challenge, as I found for myself when I took up skating.

4. Be a multiplier

If you’re mid- or late-career, spend more time mentoring. Coaching someone within your craft is a great way to pass down the tricks and techniques you’ve refined over the years, saving them time and frustration. You can also be a resource for junior colleagues outside your discipline when it comes to navigating career advancement and “how things work around here.”

Even if you’re fresh out of school, you probably have knowledge to share. Consider becoming a reverse mentor to more senior teammates who may not be up to speed on the AI time-savers you use every day. You could also strengthen cross-team relationships with a workshop that gives others a deeper understanding of your team’s work and a chance to brainstorm ways to work together more effectively.

5. Develop a talk to deliver at industry conferences

The life-long learner’s guide to mentorship

By Sarah Goff-Dupont In Teamwork

Speaking at conferences is a terrific way to network, talk shop, enhance your company’s reputation, and travel to new places. And while it’s not required, it’s customary for your employer to cover your travel costs, which might enable you to stay an extra day or two at your expense and explore. Bonus!

6. Learn to think like a gamer

Logic puzzles like Sudoku or Pips, strategy games, and chess make you think on your feet in much the same way you do at work: read a situation, identify the possible paths forward, assess them, and choose the best option.

Multi-player games like the Catan series or chess also help develop adaptability because you’re responding to other players’ actions. Even simple games like Qwirkle (for ages 6 and up!) build analytical skills. Form a lunchtime gaming group, or take 15-20 minutes for solo games and puzzles as a mid-afternoon break.

7. Volunteer in your community

A growing number of employers offer paid time off for volunteering as part of their benefits package – typically around 20 hours per year, but sometimes as much as 40. Don’t sleep on this! Look for a recurring volunteer opportunity where you’ll be working with people you probably wouldn’t meet otherwise. Over time, you’ll have a chance to hear new perspectives and learn about others’ life experiences, both of which help with creative thinking and problem solving. Besides: it feels good to contribute in this way.

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How to implement goal refresh cycles on your team

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 20:18:48 +0000

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5-second summary

The traditional annual goal cycle is too slow for fast‑changing environments, which can leave teams focused on outdated priorities and running in the wrong direction.
A quarterly refresh cycle helps teams quickly adjust as reality changes.
Use this five-step process to set clear annual goals, then review and refresh them throughout the year so everyone stays focused on the work that’s most relevant and impactful.

At the beginning of the year, setting annual goals can feel like cracking open a fresh notebook – clean and full of possibility. By the end of the year, that same list can feel more like a yearbook from another era: recognizable, but not exactly reflective of who you are anymore.

Everyone has good intentions when they set new goals, but then, life happens. Competitors launch similar features. Company strategy changes. Customer feedback reveals a bigger opportunity. The market shifts and forces your business to do the same. Our work pivots quickly, but our goals often lag behind, still technically “active” but sitting in a stale document or slide deck…somewhere.

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Atlassian’s State of Teams research shows 64% of knowledge workers feel their team is pulled in too many directions, and 70% say it would be easier to make progress if they had fewer, more specific goals.

The solution isn’t another, more focused annual planning marathon. It’s a more frequent goal refresh cycle. Here’s how to shift to a more iterative, quarterly rhythm that leads to fewer “outdated yearbooks” and more “amazing year in the books.”

Why refreshing goals matters (and why a quarterly cadence works well)

Don’t underestimate the outsized impact of short-term goals

By Kat Boogaard In Productivity

Setting annual goals is a strategic and important step, but a 12‑month cycle is painfully slow in a fast-changing environment. Without a shorter feedback loop, your team may spend months executing on priorities that have already changed.

That’s why so many teams are moving to a quarterly cadence:

It’s long enough to make real progress. Many teams can design and ship something meaningful in 90 days.
It’s short enough to adapt. If your assumptions were wrong, you find out in three months, not 12.
It’s motivating. Research inside and outside of Atlassian shows that short-term goals are more tangible, less overwhelming, and more likely to get done.

Think of your company’s annual objectives and key results as the “destination.” Monthly and weekly actions are the “roadmap,” and quarterly check-ins are “rest stops” along the way – recurring reminders to pause and refresh.

By shifting to a 90‑day rhythm where your team:

Sets clear OKRs that align with your company’s strategic goals and deeper purpose
Checks in each month to reflect on status and learnings so far
Reviews quarterly progress to measure milestones, look back, and plan ahead
Refreshes goals where needed
Re-allocates resources and re-shares plans

…your team gains clarity about what to focus on now, permission to adapt as reality changes, and confidence in your ability to not just hit any goals, but the ones that matter most.

Learn from Atlassian

At Atlassian, we set annual goals and then use a ritual called Rolling 4 – Quarterly Company Planning to review progress and adjust targets and resources as needed. This approach complements long-term planning to help our business adjust quickly to change, make better and faster decisions, and allocate resources more effectively.
You don’t have to adopt the whole Rolling 4 ritual to benefit from the underlying concept: Make it a habit to revisit and refresh goals every 90 days.

5 steps to implementing a quarterly goal refresh cycle

1. Set annual objectives, key results, and clear milestones

Objectives and key results clarify what is a priority and what isn’t. That way, you can focus on what matters most and understand how your work makes a meaningful difference for your team, company, and customers.

Think of your annual objective as “what success looks like at the end of the year” and your key results as “how you’ll measure success.” Objectives are typically qualitative, ambitious, and meant to inspire action. Key results are usually metrics or measurable outcomes.

Once you’ve set annual OKRs, break down each key result into quarterly and monthly milestones so you can see whether you’re ON TRACK, OFF TRACK, or AT RISK. Check out Atlassian’s OKR Play for more tips on how to create OKRs and a scoring rubric to track progress.

Write better OKRs with Rovo

Teams with clear goals are 20% more likely to be productive. Customers can use the OKR Generator Rovo Agent to harness the power of AI and write clear goals that help your team make progress on work that matters.

2. Do a quick check-in each month

Regularly monitoring goals helps identify discrepancies, obstacles, unforeseen challenges, and areas needing improvement, which increases the chances of meeting those goals.

To keep goals alive throughout the quarter, do a lightweight check each month. This doesn’t need to involve hours of analysis – just a quick reflection on how you’re tracking and what you’ve learned so far.

You can score whether your OKR is ON TRACK, OFF TRACK, or AT RISK, and include a short summary about how the metrics moved and why. That way, you can share learnings with others and look back in the future. (Atlassian’s OKR Play has more guidance about how to assess and document progress.)

And remember: It’s good to set ambitious goals, and it’s okay not to achieve a perfect score every time. In fact, our scoring philosophy at Atlassian focuses on stretch goals, even when there’s only a 50% chance of hitting them.

Lean on the Atlassian System of Work

Tools like Atlassian Goals simplify the process of tracking goals, connecting teams’ work to outcomes, and keeping everyone in the loop. Atlassian Focus, part of the Strategy Collection, can also auto-generate an OKR review page based on linked goals.

3. Review quarterly progress

How to write SMART goals

By Kat Boogaard In Productivity

Research shows that when an organization develops processes to sense changes in the environment, seize opportunities, and reconfigure resources and capabilities when needed, it’s more likely to sustain a competitive edge, respond faster to opportunities and threats, better allocate resources, and operate with more agility and adaptability. Consider your quarterly goal refresh a way of doing exactly that.

Start by scheduling a quarterly review and refresh. This includes reflecting honestly on qualitative and quantitative progress.

Metrics are important, but they don’t tell the whole story. Before reviewing OKRs, ask yourself and your team questions like:

What worked this quarter? Where did we see meaningful progress or impact?
What didn’t work? What efforts didn’t land, stalled out, or never got off the ground?
What changed outside our control? Were there market shifts, org changes, new constraints, or opportunities we should consider?
Where did we feel most energized? Most drained?
Where did we actually spend our time compared to our original plans?

Next, turn to your OKRs and discuss questions like:

Are we ON TRACK, OFF TRACK, or AT RISK – and why?
If the goal is OFF TRACK or AT RISK, what lessons should the “future you” (or a teammate setting a similar goal) keep in mind?
What’s our plan to address risks or gaps?
What support or resources do we need?
What efforts do we expect will continue driving or accelerate progress on this goal?

If you’re seeing lots of yellow and red, don’t worry! It’s better to know now before it’s too late, and this is the perfect opportunity to course-correct.

4. Refresh goals where needed

Now, it’s time to decide if each goal should remain as-is, be retired, or be refreshed.

Remain	Retire	Refresh
– If the OKR is still relevant, stay the course. – If you’re ON TRACK, reflect on what you can do to stay that way, or set a stretch goal. – If you’re OFF TRACK or AT RISK, use the cheat sheet below as a starting point for a path forward.	– If the strategy has changed or something else has happened that deems this goal no longer relevant, it’s okay to move on. – Capture the final metric or status and the reason for retiring the OKR, and consider whether a new one should be created in its place. – Celebrate progress – even on “missed” goals – if you learned something from the experience! Note key learnings for the future before moving forward.	– Adjust OKRs where needed to reflect strategic shifts, new opportunities, and lessons learned. – If you’re adding goals, try to keep the list as focused as possible. Most teams are more successful with 3–5 specific objectives than with sprawling lists that spread their time and effort thin.

Just because you’re OFF TRACK or AT RISK doesn’t mean you should necessarily retire or refresh your goal. The key is to determine when reality has changed in ways that make the original goal no longer appropriate.

Here’s a cheat sheet to use as a starting point:

Does this OKR still align with our company’s strategy and original thesis? If not, retire or refresh it.
Are we the right team to own this? If not, reassign it or partner with someone else.
Is the scope still right and the timeline still achievable? If not, rescope or change the time horizon.
Is the “key result” still the best signal of success? If not, refresh it.
Are we changing this because of real, external change, or just because we’re behind? If it’s just discomfort with being off track, keep the goal and adjust execution.

5. Re-allocate and re-share

Without refreshed resourcing, a refreshed goal is just a wish. Once you’ve aligned on the updated objectives, revisit the owners and contributors, staffing, budget, and other support you’ll need to hit the target.

Then, share these updated goals and plans in your shared workspace so everyone can stay aware and aligned. Atlassian’s State of Teams report shows that teams that transparently share goals and regularly document progress are 6.4x more likely to produce high-quality work, 2.2x more likely to focus on what matters most, and 4.9x more likely to meet deadlines. If you’re wondering if your goals are visible enough, ask yourself: “Can I find my team’s latest OKRs in fewer than 3 clicks?”

Set it and forget it edit

For most modern companies, project and product management has shifted from waterfall to more agile and iterative approaches. It’s time to do the same for goal setting. When we treat our OKRs as a living itinerary rather than plans set in stone, the team won’t just reach any destination, but the best one yet.

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76 quotes about growth to inspire your next big leap

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 22:06:46 +0000

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This is the season for drafting goals and dusting off New Year’s resolutions. Maybe you’ve got a big, audacious dream you want to achieve in 2026, but you’re a bit scared of the growth and work it will take to get there.

That’s understandable enough. But the good news is, you’d be following a path that many others have trodden before you. So, how do the most successful people think about growth? How do they overcome fear? How do they deal with mistakes along the way?

We collected a list of quotes about growth to help you understand and navigate it all – and keep you inspired along the way.

Growth quotes about putting in the work

95 motivational teamwork quotes you’ll actually like

By Natalie Mendes In Inside Atlassian

“Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle”

– Napoleon Hill, American self-help author

“Give yourself something to work toward – constantly.”

– Mary Kay Ash, American businesswoman and founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, Inc.

“Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.”

– James Cash Penney, American businessman and founder of JCPenney

“All growth depends upon activity.”

– Calvin Coolidge, 30th president of the United States

“If you can’t be consistent, then you can’t be anything.”

– Tony Gaskins, motivational speaker

“Growth is painful. Change is painful. But, nothing is as painful as staying stuck where you do not belong.”

– N. R. Narayana Murthy, Indian businessman

“The investor of today does not profit from yesterday’s growth.”

– Warren Buffett, American investor and philanthropist

“Discipline, consistency, and patience. If you lack these, you won’t grow.”

– James Clear, American author

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

― George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright

“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

― Paulo Coelho, Brazilian novelist

“Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.”

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer

“To be successful at anything, the truth is you don’t have to be special. You just have to be what most people aren’t. Consistent, determined, and willing to work for it.”

– Tom Brady, American football player

“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”

– Jim Rohn, American entrepreneur and author

“Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.”

– Booker T. Washington, American educator and author

“Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.”

– Andy Rooney, American journalist

“Nothing will work unless you do.”

– Maya Angelou, American author and poet

“Careers, like rockets, don’t always take off on time. The trick is to always keep the engine running.”

– Gary Sinise, American actor

“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.”

– Booker T. Washington, American educator and author

“The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs…one step at a time.”

― Joe Girard, American motivational speaker

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”

– Frederick Douglass, American abolitionist

“Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.”

– Stephen Hawking, English scientist

“It takes twenty years to make an overnight success.”

– Eddie Cantor, American singer and actor

“Don’t bother just to be better than others. Try to be better than yourself.”

– William Faulkner, American writer

“Change is never easy, but always possible.”

– Barack Obama, 44th president of the United States

“Luck is predictable; the harder you work, the luckier you get.”

– Brian Tracy, Canadian-American motivational speaker

Growth quotes about learning

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

– Maya Angelou, American author and poet

“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.”

– Frank Zappa, American composer

“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”

– Benjamin Franklin, founding father of the United States

“Learning never exhausts the mind.”

– Leonardo da Vinci, Italian polymath

“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.”

– Albert Einstein, German physicist

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

– Walt Disney, American entrepreneur and founder of Walt Disney Company

“Your best teacher is the person offering you your greatest challenge.”

– Cheryl Richardson, American author and speaker

“Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.”

– Vince Lombardi, American football coach

“Growth is the only evidence of life.”

– John Henry Newman, English theologian

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”

– Bill Gates, American entrepreneur and founder of Microsoft

“A feeling of continuous growth is a wonderful source of motivation and self confidence.”

– Brian Tracy, Canadian-American motivational speaker

“You won’t learn if you think you already know everything.”

– Robert Kiyosaki, American author

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”

– Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”

– Benjamin Franklin, founding father of the United States

“I am still learning.”

– Michelangelo, Italian artist

“Life is growth. If we stop growing, technically and spiritually, we are as good as dead.”

– Morihei Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist

Growth quotes about overcoming fear

54 inspirational quotes that will give you an edge

By Jamey Austin In Teamwork

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”

– Zig Ziglar, American author and motivational speaker

“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.”

– Abraham Maslow, American psychologist

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

– Viktor E. Frankl, Austrian psychotherapist

“Thinking will not overcome fear, but action will.”

– W. Clement Stone, American businessman

“Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.”

– Napoleon Hill, American self-help author

“The only time you run out of chances is when you stop taking them.”

– Alexander Pope, English poet

“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.”

– John F. Kennedy, 35th president of the United States

“Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up.”

– Barack Obama, 44th president of the United States

“Be not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid only of standing still.”

– Chinese Proverb

“You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety.”

– Abraham Maslow, American psychologist

“When you look fear in the face, you are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’”

– Eleanor Roosevelt, first lady of the United States

“One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.”

– Henry Ford, American industrialist

“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

– Francis of Assisi, Italian mystic

“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.”

– John D. Rockefeller, American businessman

“Life opens up opportunities to you, and you either take them or you stay afraid of taking them.”

– Jim Carrey, American actor and comedian

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

– Barack Obama, 44th president of the United States

“Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.”

― Henry Ford, American industrialist

“Always do what you are afraid to do.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson, American author

Growth quotes about failure and humility

75 inspirational leadership quotes you haven’t heard yet

By Jamey Austin In Teamwork

“Growth begins when we begin to accept our own weakness.”

– Jean Vanier, Canadian theologian

“All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.”

– Ellen Glasgow, American novelist

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”

– Thomas A. Edison, American inventor

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

― Winston S. Churchill, British statesman

“A failure is like fertilizer; it stinks to be sure, but it makes things grow faster in the future.”

– Denis Waitley, American motivational speaker

“Life is a long lesson in humility.”

– James M. Barrie, Scottish novelist

“The only sure way to avoid making mistakes is to have no new ideas.”

– Albert Einstein, German physicist

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”

– Henry Ford, American industrialist

“Growth is an erratic forward movement: two steps forward, one step back. Remember that and be very gentle with yourself.”

– Julia Cameron, American author

“When life takes the wind out of your sails, it is to test you at the oars.”

– Robert Breault, American artist

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or happy.”

– Norman Vincent Peale, American author

“Ultimately there is no such thing as failure. There are lessons learned in different ways.”

– Twyla Tharp, American dancer

“None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody – a parent, a teacher, an Ivy League crony or a few nuns – bent down and helped us pick up our boots.”

– Thurgood Marshall, American civil rights lawyer

“I like criticism. It makes you strong.”

– LeBron James, American athlete

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

– Thomas A. Edison, American inventor

“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”

– Oscar Wilde, Irish author

“I’m always asked, ‘What’s the secret to success?’ But there are no secrets. Be humble. Be hungry. And always be the hardest worker in the room.”

– Dwayne Johnson, American actor

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The post 76 quotes about growth to inspire your next big leap appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian.

How to make work visible and improve alignment (with or without AI)

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 20:31:25 +0000

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Making work visible is crucial for minimizing misalignment and maximizing efficiency. Indeed, a lack of visibility can lead to soul-crushing amounts of wasted time and energy. “I met with a car manufacturer who has several brands under their umbrella,” says Sven Peters, AI Evangelist at Atlassian. “Two different brands had their engineers developing essentially the same braking system for more than a month before they realized it.” Collectively, they would’ve accomplished twice as much if they hadn’t been duplicating efforts.

And they’re not alone. Atlassian’s 2025 State of Teams report revealed that roughly half of knowledge workers say teams at their company tend to unknowingly work on the same things.

In small companies, people keep their work aligned simply by talking to each other. But in larger companies, just figuring out who to talk to can be tough. And even then, that person may be several time zones away from you. Let’s examine some ways to improve visibility at enterprise scale, including methods that are only possible now because of AI.

Moving beyond transparency toward visibility

You might think that a culture of open work, and the psychological safety that underpins it, would solve the alignment problem. Although keeping records unlocked by default and encouraging cross-departmental collaboration fosters transparency, that isn’t the whole story – it’s certainly possible to have transparency without visibility.

“Another customer, a bank, had integrated Jira with Jira Product Discovery and Jira Service Management,” Sven recalls. “Management thought the teams were aligned now because everyone could see everything.” In reality, however, the teams were still working in silos. They weren’t proactively surfacing goals or problems to each other, resulting in a frustrating cycle of do-overs and wasted work.

The 5 commandments of information discoverability

By Sarah Goff-Dupont In Productivity

If transparency is the extent to which people can access the information they need, and discoverability is the extent to which people can find additional information via search, then visibility is the extent to which people intentionally share relevant information with others. It’s one thing to keep your project plan unlocked and easy to find (which you absolutely should do). It’s another thing to tag your collaborators on the page to bring them in, and flag it with adjacent teams.

Four ways to make work in progress visible

Open up and integrate team collaboration tools

It probably goes without saying that systems should be integrated with each other as much as possible so it’s easy to trace a piece of work through all the various tools it might touch. This is where the value of standardization comes through. If some teams are using Jira to track work while others are on MS Project or just use a spreadsheet, that will limit the extent to which you can connect the tools, and therefore constrain visibility.

From there, make sure Jira projects, Confluence spaces, and Bitbucket repos are unlocked for read access by default. That way, people can find and follow the work that relates to their own. Here’s Sven again: “I follow 50 different projects, which always blows people away. I get updates pushed to me every Monday morning, so I can get caught up on everything without attending status meetings or asking people for updates.” If that sounds overwhelming, you may find it easier to receive individual updates as they happen, rather than taking it all in at once.

Announce important project milestones

When a project kicks off, share an announcement with any team you’ll be collaborating with or whose work will be affected. Also consider teams who won’t be touched directly by the project, but might appreciate being informed in case it becomes relevant in the future. Include an invitation for feedback and comments. How could the project be tweaked to deliver a bigger impact? Are there potential synergies with other teams’ work? Or potential conflicts? Now is the time to raise issues and ideas, before you’re too deep into the work to change things up.

For longer projects (say, those spanning more than a quarter or two), come back with updates as you hit major milestones. Repeat the call for feedback in case new opportunities or issues have come up. And be sure to call out your project team and thank them by name for their work thus far.

Do this as an internal blog post, email, or video message (more on that later). Bonus points if your department head or CEO can give it a quick shout-out in the next all-hands, too.

Tag collaborators on relevant artifacts

“I’m always adding people to my projects and pages when I want them to stay informed for whatever reason,” says Sven. “People appreciate being looped in, even if they don’t follow the project closely.” Here’s what that looks like on a tactical level:

High-level – Add collaborators as followers on Jira projects, Confluence spaces, and Bitbucket repos to give them visibility into that workstream as a whole.
Mid-level – Surface roadmaps, strategy one-pagers, messaging docs, and technical designs to teams whose work intersects with yours or works “in the same neighborhood.”
Granular – @mention or tag people on pages, commits, pull requests, issues, agile boards, and other records when you want them to get notified about updates to that specific artifact.

Be sure to include your manager on those high- and mid-level artifacts, even if you’re sharing regular updates in team meetings. Giving them an easy way to look at your work (whenever it’s convenient for them) will make your 1-on-1 conversations more productive. Plus, making your work visible ensures they won’t overlook any highlights at annual review time.

Use video to humanize and add context

Consider using Loom to create and share updates via video. This works best for quick, ad-hoc project updates and longer, higher-level updates that cover a lot of different projects. For example, some leaders at Atlassian record weekly Looms that they share with their entire org. They cover goals, strategy, new work kicking off, customer anecdotes, big wins, small wins, losses, and emerging opportunities. Not only are these videos quick to create (just start talking!), team members can watch them at 2x speed.

Video also offers the advantage of seeing faces and hearing tone of voice. That’s a win for good old-fashioned human connection and team cohesion. For distributed teams, recording a short Loom and popping it into your chat channel might be a richer and more enjoyable way to do daily stand-ups compared to conference calls or text-only methods. And because Loom generates a transcript, the contents of each video are discoverable via search.

Sharing an update at the end of major projects has several benefits, too:

Colleagues will know the work is complete and where they can find the retrospective notes for reference, should they need them in the future
It’s a forum for acknowledging and thanking your teammates
You get a chance to (not-so-)humbly brag about the results the project achieved

Level up! Using AI to turn transparency into visibility

By Shaina Rozen In Teamwork

So far, we’ve been talking about making our own work more visible to others. But what about the other way around? Even if your colleagues haven’t proactively surfaced their work to you, you can still gain visibility into it using AI. A sales rep who wants to stay on top of the product development pipeline can configure an AI agent using Rovo that flags new user stories, for example. Similarly, you might use AI agents to:

Summarize projects
Flag new projects related to your work that you might want to follow
Track specific Confluence spaces, repos, or shared network drives
Generate a weekly summary of updates across the projects you follow and post it on a Confluence page, chat channel, or deliver via email

Information from past projects can also be useful, thanks to the power of AI for search and analysis. Remember the car maker who accidentally developed the same brake system twice? They took that lesson to heart and now use Rovo to avoid running duplicate wind-tunnel tests, which are notoriously expensive. When the need for a test arises, Rovo scours company archives, which comprise multiple systems and file types, for past tests that used the same parameters. Every time a match is identified, the company saves both time and money.

In less dramatic (but perhaps more relatable) fashion, the Jira project team at Atlassian uses Rovo’s AI agents to create a feedback analyzer, making customer sentiment and pain points more visible. AI also comes in handy when teams embark on a new project. It can look through information about past marketing campaigns and pull out lessons learned, or analyze repos and knowledge bases to summarize past development work in that area of the product and identify risks.

Whether it means creating an AI agent to alert customer support whenever a new development epic is created, or sharing your project plan with adjacent teams, improving visibility requires intention and action. Fortunately, none of it is hard. Start your visibility journey by sharing these tips with the teams around you, and set yourselves on the path to less stressful and better-coordinated work.

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How to harness the power of professional development goals

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 16:11:00 +0000

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Though it’s become something of a cliche, it’s probably not too often that we’re actually posed the question “Where do you see yourself in five years?” Some among us will have that five-year plan mapped out and memorized – they’d be able to answer without missing a beat. But for many more of us, even if we’re happy at work, there’s a distinct lack of ownership over our professional paths.

A whopping nine in 10 workers say they feel stuck in their jobs. Rapid changes in the workplace — from shifting priorities to new AI-powered tools – can make it feel like your career is happening to you instead of with you.

One sure-fire antidote is setting professional development goals. Read more for the how and the why.

What are professional development goals (and why do they matter)?

Don’t underestimate the outsized impact of short-term goals

By Kat Boogaard In Productivity

Professional development goals are objectives you set that benefit or improve your career in some way.

While that might immediately make you think of landing a promotion, job growth is only the tip of the iceberg. There’s plenty of variety in the professional development goals you can set for yourself, including:

Developing a look-forward plan focusing on advancing or growing in your career
Improving your skills and knowledge, whether in a current strength area or an aspirational one
Building your digital and AI literacy, so you can confidently use new tools to support your work rather than be overwhelmed by them
Building a network of people who have the knowledge and/or skills you aspire to own
Boosting your productivity and efficiency, so you have more time for what you like to do most
Enhancing your well-being

While our focus here is on the professional goals you set for yourself, managers and employees can also work collaboratively to determine these objectives as part of a career development plan.

Rich Hurley, former Senior Program Manager for Team Anywhere at Atlassian, was part of the core team that rolled out our employee growth profiles. Each profile includes a list of career competencies – the skills, knowledge, and behaviors that are specifically valued in a particular profession – and are connected to future career growth. They’re used in quarterly check-ins and the assessment process, meaning that managers and employees are each held accountable for assessing, reflecting on, and discussing each employee’s career.

“To me,” Rich says, “the most impactful managers are the ones who take it one step further and focus beyond the role you currently hold and rather explore together where you want to be one, three, five years from now.”

But regardless of how heavily your manager is involved, setting these goals is more than a formality or a feel-good exercise. They significantly impact your motivation, commitment, and career satisfaction. Goals trigger dopamine, the neurotransmitter frequently associated with feelings of pleasure and gratification. And you don’t just get a dopamine spike when you achieve a goal — simply setting a goal triggers that neurotransmitter and pushes you toward that potential reward (hence the boost in motivation).

How to set professional development goals: 4 tips for meaningful missions

You likely have a few targets lingering in your mind, but bringing some structure to those loose objectives can help you transform them from ideas to action plans. Here are four tips to set meaningful professional development goals.

1. Consider your values

Your professional development goals shouldn’t just be meaningful — they should be meaningful to you. Achieving a goal isn’t satisfying if the outcome doesn’t align with your priorities, principles, and ambitions.

Rich says, “Too many times, we wait for the organization we work for to decide a topic or skill is important. I’d urge people to spend the time, effort, and resources on skill development that matters to them. Disentangling learning and development from your workplace is freeing; it puts you in the driver’s seat.”

Sure, that promotion might look good on paper. But if you’re ultimately seeking a better work-life balance or a fresh start down an exciting path, then greater responsibility at work may eventually feel more like a detour from that five-year plan than a success.

Not sure how to identify your core values? Print these cards and then sort them into three piles:

Very important to me
Important to me
Not important to me

Once you have a stack of cards that are very important to you, narrow it down to only 10 must-haves. Just like that, you have your core values.

Rich shares an experience from his own career: “During an interview for my grad school internship, a team member asked me three questions: ‘Who are you? Where are you going? Why?’ They’re incredibly hard to answer, but give you a lens into how someone views themselves, what aspirations they have, and why those aspirations matter to them. I would recommend that everyone be ready to answer these questions for themselves. They’re an introspective vehicle for discovering what truly matters to you.”

2. Use the SMART goal framework

How to write SMART goals

By Kat Boogaard In Productivity

SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Using this framework pushes you beyond vague objectives to ones that are detailed enough to motivate you (and they make it easier to monitor your progress too).

For example, maybe your goal is to improve your public speaking skills. Applying the SMART goal framework, your final goal could look like this:

Improve my public speaking skills and my visibility within the company by taking a public speaking course, using an AI-powered presentation coach to practice talks twice a month, and volunteering as a speaker for at least three company-wide events this year.

3. Identify relevant action items

Take another look at the example goal above and you’ll see that it doesn’t just state an objective, but also specific steps to get there:

Professional development goal: Improve public speaking skills

Related action items:

Take a public speaking course
Volunteer as a speaker for at least three company events

You can set long-term goals or short-term goals. Breaking your bigger objectives into smaller tasks or milestones makes the objective feel more achievable and the process more enjoyable — as you can celebrate those small wins along the way.

4. Use the buddy system

Rich is a big believer in the power of having a partner to keep us company on our professional development journey. “Learning and developing is a team sport,” he says. “You can take in knowledge, listen to a workshop, and reflect on its relevance to your life – but processing alone will only take you so far. It’s uncanny how having a partner can open your eyes to what you missed.” A like-minded co-worker or friend can offer a frame of reference beyond your own, allowing you to see how your journey might look different from another person’s perspective.

6 examples of professional development goals to inspire you

Better together: 8 essential teamwork skills to master

By Kat Boogaard In Teamwork

One of the best parts about professional development goals is that you have the flexibility to identify and create the ones that are the most meaningful and best fit for you. But if you need a little inspiration to get started, take a peek at these examples.

1. Learn a new skill or improve an existing one

Professional development goal: Expand my proficiency in SQL programming by the end of 2025.

Related action items:

Complete the Microsoft SQL Server Certification during Q4 of 2024.
Complete a CRM database using SQL by May 2025.

2. Achieve better work-life balance

Professional development goal: Improve my work-life balance and reduce my work-related stress levels over the next six months.

Related action items:

Commit to a firm sign-off time of 5pm three days per week.
Schedule and stick to a weekly hobby or self-care activity (such as a book club or workout class).

3. Land a promotion

Professional development goal: Move up to a manager position within the next two years.

Related action items:

Draft a detailed career pathway or development plan with my supervisor by the end of this month.
Volunteer to lead three large team projects over the next six months.
Schedule a coffee chat with a team member (even better if it’s a manager) from another department every three months to gain exposure and understand different parts of the company.

4. Build your professional network

Professional development goal: Expand my professional network this year to stay connected to industry trends and career opportunities.

Related action items:

Attend one industry networking event each quarter.
Join one professional organization or association by the end of the year.

5. Increase your industry knowledge

Professional development goal: Build more expertise, credibility, and name recognition within my industry.

Related action items:

Register for and attend one industry webinar each month.
Read at least one industry-relevant book every quarter.

6. Build AI literacy relevant to your role

Professional development goal: Become confident and competent in using AI tools that support my day-to-day work by the end of this year.

Related action items:

Complete one introductory course on AI fundamentals for non-technical professionals by the end of Q1.
Choose one AI-powered tool that’s relevant to my role (for writing, coding, analysis, or project management) and use it at least once a week for three months, documenting what works and what doesn’t.

Feeling overwhelmed? Your professional goals should be inspiring — not intimidating. If you just need an easy win to gain some momentum, try out some of these low-pressure, quick-win professional development goals:

Dust off your LinkedIn profile and update it with recent skills, achievements, and experiences.
Dedicate 30 minutes this week to learning and development, such as reading relevant articles, listening to podcasts, or watching webinars.
Test out one new time management strategy this week.
Reach out to one existing colleague or networking contact to check in or share a helpful resource.

Know what you want – and go for it

If you’re tired of feeling stuck or stagnant in your career – especially as new technologies like AI reshape many roles – setting and working toward professional development goals can help. Put the above tips and examples to work and you’ll get out of the daily drudgery and start making meaningful progress on goals that matter most to you.

“Taking ownership of our path and how we get there is not only liberating, but necessary,” Rich says. “And the best time to start is always now.”

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6 ways to prevent AI fatigue

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 19:28:59 +0000

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AI tools often claim to make our work (and our lives) easier, faster, lighter. Instead, many of us are feeling in the dark and, at the same time, sprinting to keep up – juggling tools, prompts, and pressure to “leverage” all that functionality, all at once. The result? AI fatigue. That drained-yet-frantic feeling of trying to stay relevant in a system that never stops changing.

Is the solution to stop using AI altogether? Probably not, considering AI can be such a powerful unlock. Instead, the solution lies in how we’re collaborating with it. Just like email overload wasn’t really about the technology itself – it was about how we let it structure our days and trigger our brain’s dopamine-driven urges – AI fatigue comes from letting the tools lead instead of being intentional about when, why, and how we collaborate with them.

As historian Melvin Kranzberg once said, “Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral.” AI is no different. It reflects our habits, intentions, and decisions. If we don’t pause to question how and why we’re using AI, we risk letting it dictate our priorities – and even our thinking – in ways we never intended. Every interaction with AI is a chance to reinforce or rethink the systems we’re building.

But the fix isn’t just another productivity hack. It’s learning to set up the right systems – and learning to engage with AI intentionally, not reactively.

Here are six dos and don’ts – informed by Atlassian’s latest research – to help reset your relationship with AI, turning it from a source of fatigue into a source of creativity and impact.

1. Do this: Take full advantage of AI to solve real problems

Not this: Use AI as a simple tool

“AI isn’t just a button you press for instant answers,” explains Atlassian AI Evangelist Sven Peters. To get real value, Sven says it helps to treat AI as a sparring partner – someone you can bounce ideas off, challenge your assumptions, and uncover new perspectives.

If AI gives you an unexpected answer, don’t just move on. Instead, ask “why?” and dig deeper. This back-and-forth can reveal gaps in your thinking and help you learn much more than you would by simply accepting the first response.

For example, instead of asking AI, “What’s the best way to run a meeting?” try: “Here’s how my team runs meetings now… what’s missing? What would you change, and why?” Then, challenge its suggestions and dig deeper. That’s how you turn AI into a true collaborator that creates real value.

2. Do this: Save time by making sure AI can access high-quality knowledge

The 5 commandments of information discoverability

By Sarah Goff-Dupont In Productivity

Not this: Feed AI any and all information indiscriminately – you run the risk of getting “slop”-y outputs that you then need to sift through for the answers you’re after

AI can only action what it can access. If you give it incomplete, outdated, or poorly organized information, it will amplify those flaws, degrading decision-making and causing headaches down the road.

According to our research, 79% of knowledge workers say they’d use AI more if it could access the right data. But most are held back by messy, siloed, or low-quality inputs. Teams that see the greatest AI-enabled impact make high-quality, up-to-date knowledge available to AI. Learn how to do this in our AI Collaboration Index 2025.

3. Do this: Protect your focus by assigning AI boundaries (and acknowleding its limitations)

Not this: Let AI dictate your entire workflow or interrupt deep work

At the start of every project, figure out exactly what role AI will play. For example, a team might decide that AI will analyze customer feedback trends, create the first draft of a project plan, and update Jira issues. You might even ask AI to suggest ideas for how it can best help you.

Make it a habit to regularly (monthly or quarterly) review how AI is showing up: Is the way you’re collaborating with it genuinely helping you achieve results, or just adding noise and work slop? Think of AI as a teammate to recalibrate with, not a set-it-and-forget-it solution.

Also, remember that speed isn’t everything: 42% of knowledge workers admit to trusting AI outputs without checking. Take a beat and check AI outputs – your future self and your team will thank you.

4. Do this: Create active communities for hands-on learning and experimentation

Avoiding the broadcast trap: A simple ritual for effective adoption

By Lauren Parker In Teamwork

Not this: Rely on passive training sessions or static knowledge hubs to get good at AI

Our research shows that nearly 70% of workplaces offer AI training, but it’s largely ineffective. The most impactful learning happens in small, active communities or hands-on workshops focused on solving specific, shared problems.

Hands-on AI workshops, hackathons, community learning sessions, and dedicated Slack channels drive real adoption and confidence – not to mention they’re just more energizing and fun. Meanwhile, one-size-fits-all trainings and self-serve hubs are among the least effective ways to spark strategic AI collaboration. (And they’re kind of a snoozefest.)

5. Do this: Add context to your prompts to get sharper results

Not this: Get lazy when prompting

The words you choose in your prompts matter. A lot. If you add context and constraints to your prompt, you’ll spend less time sifting through fluff. It only takes a few more moments to give more precise direction. For a great prompt, do this:

Assign AI a role: “You are a content marketing manager”
Tell it your desired outcome: “I want you to write LinkedIn ad copy. Give me 10 options.”
Give it constraints: “Make the headline 10 characters max, and the body copy 20 characters”
Share what info or knowledge it should use to respond: “Pull from this Confluence page that details our core campaign messaging”

6. Do this: Put AI to work on your biggest team challenges

By Shaina Rozen In Teamwork

Not this: Just use it to rewrite your emails

Sure, AI can make your Slack message sound better, but that’s just scratching the surface – and ultimately won’t help you achieve your goals. The real magic happens when you work with AI to break down silos, connect teams, and uncover insights that actually move the needle. According to our research, organizations that focus AI on personal productivity are 16% less likely to drive innovation compared to those that use AI for cross-team coordination and mission-critical challenges.

Want real impact? Put AI to work on things like analyzing customer feedback for new ideas, connecting projects across teams, or flagging hidden risks before they become blockers. That’s how you turn AI from a time-saver into a game-changer.

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The 5 commandments of information discoverability

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 23:24:18 +0000

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Sharing information freely makes it easier for everyone to do their jobs. For example, opening up project plans and retrospective notes can save teams from re-inventing the wheel, and makes aligning on goals much simpler. Documenting why a decision was made and what other options were explored helps teams understand the “why” behind where the company is headed and how their work fits in.

There’s the proactive kind of sharing, where you send out a link, document, or video to a select group of people because it’s relevant to what you’re working on together. There’s also the passive kind of sharing, where information lives in your company’s systems and can be accessed as needed by whoever needs it.

Collectively, this body of knowledge is more than just an archive. It’s fuel that can be used to empower teams and propel them forward. But knowledge is only as accessible as we make it. In order for passive sharing to work, information must be stored in a way that makes it easy to retrieve.

In the past, we accomplished this by giving documents descriptive titles so people could find what they need by searching a repository or browsing through network folders. Now, however, AI-powered search is increasingly popular, especially in larger companies with mountains of data stored in myriad systems.

Global search that reaches across systems and apps is a massive leap forward for discoverability. But beware: AI tools still struggle with unstructured data, and aren’t yet capable of extracting information from images accurately and consistently.

It’s time to adjust the way we present and organize information at work such that it’s easier for both humans and AI to access and understand. These are the five (new) commandments of knowledge discoverability.

Commandment zero: thou shalt not hoard information

Don’t keep knowledge tucked away where others (including AI) can’t find it, such as your email inbox, text messages, and documents saved only on your local hard drive. Information stored in private spaces essentially ceases to exist for anyone but its owner. If AI can’t “see” it, AI can’t surface it, leading to inaccurate or incomplete search results. Use tools like Confluence, SharePoint, shared network drives, or knowledge bases instead. And make sure to transfer useful information discussed in private channels to shared spaces so it’s visible to teammates who might need it.

1. Design for discoverability

Find stuff fast: How to end the endless hunt for information

By Erin Mosbaugh In Strategy

Structure matters. Any formatting that makes it easier for humans to understand the information will also make it easier for AI.

Nobody likes “wall of text” documents, for example. In fact, AI technology tends to lose sight of the context when processing long blocks of text, which can cause it to return results that don’t match the searcher’s intent. Using section headlines goes a long way in helping AI (and humans!) understand the big picture, not just individual paragraphs.

Lists are also helpful. First, they provide a welcome visual break for human eyes. Second, when we create lists, we tend to be both concise and precise. As a result, lists become a rich source of information that AI can scan easily.

Last, use tags or labels to tie related documents together and show how they are related. E.g., “customer loyalty campaign” or “employee benefits.”

2. Prioritize clarity over volume

Information overload is real, so be thoughtful about exactly what (and how much) information you’re including in each document or record. Consider who the information is intended for and the context in which they’ll be accessing it. Tailored, nutrient-dense documentation is better than endless pages that go too far into the weeds or off on tangents. Be sure to make titles and section headlines clear and contextually rich, too – ”Q3 2025 Sales Performance Report” is more helpful to both humans and AI than “Q3 Report.”

Pro tip

Confluence users can take advantage of the Expand macro. Use it in cases where some people will want all the details they can get, while others just need the basics. This technique, known in the UX world as progressive disclosure, fights information overload for humans while still making all the details available to AI.

As you’re writing, address topics directly using clear language. This can be deceptively difficult for people who aren’t comfortable writing! We tend to ramble and use overly elevated language to cover up our insecurity. If this sounds like you, take heart: AI tools can make your drafts more concise, or even kick-start the writing process by generating a draft that you can refine.

This isn’t to say you should avoid the figures of speech, slang, cultural references, or humor that make knowledge easier and more enjoyable to take in. In fact, conversational language is preferable whenever it’s appropriate. Not only are our brains trained on casual conversation, but much of the data LLMs are trained on is also written in a casual tone, so AI will feel right at home. Plus, people don’t search for ways to “optimize our synergies across teams,” they simply ask whether other teams are working on a similar project. Yet another reason to go easy on the corporate-speak.

3. Strive for “open by default”

Knowledge must be available to those who need it, when they need it, in order for it to have any value. In companies with a culture of locking everything down, making knowledge discoverable may require a fundamental shift in how information is stored.

Instead of a “closed by default” approach where you have to make a case for opening documents up, make them open by default and justify your way to locking it. Obviously, some information needs to be kept private to most people, such as HR records, confidential financial performance data, or embargoed press releases. That’s fine. But your project plan, for example, should generally be unlocked (even before it’s finalized).

Pro tip

Everybody wants to make the best impression possible at work, but that doesn’t mean you have to hide in-progress work. Just include a “draft” or “WIP” disclaimer at the top and leave the document unlocked. This way, you can safeguard your professional reputation, while still making the information available to teammates and AI search.

Beyond individual documents, striving for open access means evaluating and optimizing your systems of record. As much as possible, make them open to AI tools and anyone who might benefit from the information they contain. If user seats are cost-prohibitive, ask about free or inexpensive read-only seats for infrequent users so access isn’t unnecessarily hindered by licensing models.

Also, the value of knowledge plummets when it can’t flow from one system to another. Are there five separate Jira Cloud subscriptions floating around your company? Consider consolidating them into a single instance. And be sure to integrate apps whenever possible.

4. Be multi-media savvy

By Shaina Rozen In Teamwork

Sharing information via video can be a life-saver for people who struggle with writing, as well as for people who absorb information better by listening. Video messages, like those you create with Loom, work great for department updates, tutorials, and other one-way communications. Humans receive all the same information as they would in an email, but with the added benefit of seeing the presenter’s body language and facial expressions, which carry rich contextual meaning. Plus, they can zip through the recording at double speed to save time. Platforms like Loom also generate a transcript that AI can search later.

Imagery, on the other hand, presents some challenges to be aware of. Diagrams, flowcharts, photos, and illustrations are fabulous ways of conveying conceptual and contextual information to humans. But even though AI technology is advancing all the time, it still struggles to understand flowcharts and diagrams accurately, even when optical character recognition technology is layered on top of an LLM. AI is also unreliable when it comes to extracting text that is embedded within an image (think meme captions, for example). And again: AI can’t retrieve what it can’t see.

Does this mean diagrams are dead? No. It just means diagrams and other images need to have clear, descriptive captions that AI can access.

If you can add alt-text, that’s even better. (Here’s how to do it in Confluence, PowerPoint, and Google Docs.) Alt-text is also what screen-reading software looks for, making your images accessible and useful to people with vision impairments. Depending on the image, your alt-text might include:

The exact verbiage on a graphics-heavy slide
A description of an illustration
A summary of what a diagram explains
The purpose and description of a flowchart

Just be sure to include the keywords people would be likely to use in search queries.

5. Keep knowledge fresh

Outdated content confuses people and AI alike, so regular refresh cycles are important. Ideally, teams will foster a culture of upkeep. That might mean carving time out each quarter to look through the archives for anything that is no longer current or relevant. Or it might be ad-hoc, where team members are encouraged to flag outdated content as they come across it.

It’s also worth refreshing your knowledge of what AI can and can’t do. Search technology is becoming more capable every day, so don’t delete those product updates from your AI vendor without reading them!

Open, free-flowing information fosters collaboration, reduces redundant inquiries, and ensures that knowledge is available to inform decisions. By embracing an “open by default” mindset and actively working to make both information and the systems that house it universally accessible (while respecting confidentiality needs), you can use your organization’s collective knowledge to empower teams and unleash more of their potential.

Special thanks to Sven Peters for his contributions to this article.

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5 skills teams need to thrive in the age of AI (and how to build them)

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 16:26:49 +0000

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AI is changing the way we work at lightning speed. Tools that once felt experimental are now handling everything from scheduling to drafting reports. By 2030, executives predict only 1/3 of work will be fully done by humans. That leaves us with an urgent question: How do we future-proof our skills?

As part of our 2025 AI Collaboration Index report, we asked leaders and knowledge workers around the world: As AI takes over more routine tasks, which human qualities will matter most? Their answers reveal a clear direction. Taken together, their answers highlight the timeless skills that become even more valuable in an AI future. Below, we’ll unpack five top skills to invest in for an AI-powered future, along with practical ways to strengthen those skills and weave them into your everyday work.

The top 5 human skills for the future of work with AI

1. Critical thinking

How to build critical thinking skills for better decision-making

By Kat Boogaard In Productivity

What it is: The ability to analyze information, weigh evidence, and form sound judgments.

Why it matters: Our research shows 42% of knowledge workers admit to trusting AI outputs without verifying them due to time pressures. Without critical thinking, speed translates to risk.

How to build it:

Treat AI as a sparring partner, not an oracle. Ask it to show sources, generate counterarguments, or stress-test its own answers. Instead of defaulting to the first output, push it to “show its work.”
Build a habit of slowing down your thinking before making calls. Even a brief pause helps activate deeper reasoning. Techniques like a simple pre-mortem exercise – or imagining what could happen during a project, both good and bad, and planning accordingly – sharpen your ability to spot twists and turns and strengthen your reasoning over time.

2. Creativity

What it is: The capacity to generate new ideas, identify subtle connections, and turn imagination into tangible outcomes.

Why it matters: As routine work becomes automated, creativity is emerging as even more of a competitive advantage than it was before. The World Economic Forum ranks creative thinking among the top skills for the future of work. In an AI-enabled world, the ability to spark original ideas – and refine AI’s suggestions into something fresh – is what sets humans apart.

How to build it:

Use AI as a brainstorm buddy. Ask it for divergent exercises, rapid-fire prompts, or “bad ideas only” to unlock new directions and spark truly original ideas. You can also use AI to quickly prototype concepts—whether that’s a mock design or a sample script—so you can spend more energy refining and iterating,
Seek inspiration outside your usual lane. Studies show cross-disciplinary exposure boosts creativity. For example, if you’re in marketing, you might look to architecture, art, or even biology to spark breakthrough ideas. Build time into your week to explore industries, media, or disciplines far from your own.

3. Emotional intelligence

What it is: The ability to recognize or tune into emotions – your own and other people’s – and use that awareness to guide how you respond.

Why it matters: Emotional intelligence (also called EQ) isn’t just a “nice to have.” Research shows it’s a strong predictor of job performance across roles, and it has a direct impact on your ability to make sound decisions, build stronger relationships, and manage your own stress.

In an AI-driven workplace, EQ only grows in importance. AI can analyze sentiment, but it can’t build trust, strengthen connections, or rally a team around a big idea. That’s on us humans.

How to build it:

Do a quick end-of-day “emotion check-in.” Write down what frustrated you, what energized you, and how you reacted. Psychologists call this affect labeling – naming emotions out loud. It sounds simple, but studies show this practice reduces stress and makes it easier to regulate your reactions the next time around.
Use AI for role-play. Ask your chat tool to behave like an upset customer or skeptical boss, and practice your response. Then ask AI to critique your tone and clarity. Think of it as a safe space to rehearse tough conversations.

4. Technical proficiency

From the Playbook

Embracing new technology can be challenging, especially when it’s as powerful as AI. Build your team’s confidence in AI with the AI Innovation Day Play, a focused day of learning and doing with AI.

Run the Play

What it is: The ability to effectively use, understand, and adapt to digital tools and systems that power modern work – including AI.

Why it matters: If you can’t work strategically with the tools of your trade, you risk getting stuck on the sidelines. Teams with higher AI technical proficiency don’t just use it to automate busywork – they unlock the full spectrum of AI’s potential by collaborating with it and embedding it across team workflows. Our data shows this strategic approach to AI improves the very nature of collaboration, innovation, and problem-solving.

How to build it:

Jam with AI, regularly. Block off a weekly “practice block” with your team to try new tools, prompts, or AI-enhanced workflows. Our research shows that making time to experiment with AI can boost creativity by 21%, and buy you back hours down the road.
Focus on impact, not just speed. Don’t just use AI to go faster – use it to go further. Ask yourself: Are we solving problems in innovative ways, or just automating the old ones? Fortune 1000 execs expect AI to help teams tackle nearly 2x as many innovative ideas in the next five years. Now’s the time to experiment and push boundaries.

5. Decision-making

This is how effective teams navigate the decision-making process

By Kat Boogaard In Teamwork

What it is: The ability to weigh information, risks, and context to choose a path forward.

Why it matters: AI can crunch numbers and serve up options, but it can’t tell you what truly matters, weigh trade-offs, or take accountability for the call. Strong decision-making is what lets you filter the noise (which is extremely loud in the age of AI), identify blind spots, and turn AI’s insights into smart, human-centered action.

How to build it:

Make your goals and priorities visible to AI. When you connect your objectives or team OKRs to your AI tools, you get more relevant recommendations and avoid wasted effort.
Pressure-test your options with AI. Before making a decision, ask AI to “surface risks, generate counterarguments, or highlight what you might be missing.”
Make fast, reversible decisions – and learn from them. Teams don’t need to wait for perfect information. And that’s not always realistic. Make small, low-risk decisions quickly, then use AI to analyze outcomes and pivot if needed. This “test and adapt” mindset helps teams move forward, even in uncertainty.

Our research shows that while daily AI use has doubled and perceived productivity gains are up 33%, only a small fraction of companies see true AI-enabled transformation at the team or org level. That gap underscores a truth: raw tools don’t build thriving teams; human skills and better processes do. So in strengthening these skills, teams don’t just keep pace with AI. They unlock its power to multiply their impact.

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Everything you learned in school and forgot – all in one printable

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 06:19:00 +0000

Consider the wisdom you might share with your 16-year-old self: there are other fish and a much larger sea, that outfit is not all that, and you will actually use what you’re learning in school out in the real world.

If your index cards on PEMDAS and affect vs. effect are buried in a box in your parents’ home, we have you covered with a handy cheat sheet going over all the basic math, extra credit art, and long-forgotten grammar tips and tricks you learned in school that ~~literally~~ might come up in your next meeting.

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Math

For some, no math counts as “basic,” sweat forming on our brow the second the bill comes at the offsite or we’re shared on a spreadsheet. You may not be a mathlete in time for tryouts, but the following lesson will solve at least some of your math problems.

Solving problems (in the right order)

Speaking of problems, what is Aunt Sally’s exactly? She’s actually quite helpful as the star of the elementary school mnemonic device (bonus lesson: that’s an acronym to help you remember something) for the steps you take to solve an equation:

PEMDAS: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

Parentheses: () Start here
Exponents: X^x Multiply these numbers by themselves
Multiplication and Division: Then, multiply or divide
Addition and Subtraction: Finally, add or subtract

Remember PEMDAS when writing formulas in Excel or Sheets – especially handy if you’re trying to figure out what broke and where.

Finding the average

Three common ways to find an average are through mean, median, and mode–words you may recall, applications of when and why, you may not. Here’s a breakdown of each:

Mean: Your most “average average,” this divides the sum of all numbers by the total number of numbers.

Median: This is the middle number of a set plotted out in numerical order. Median will help you understand not just an average, but what falls above and below it when looking at all of your data.

Mean and median can be used together to give you more context on distribution and how much influence outliers have on your average.

Mode: This is the number that appears most in the set. You might use it to easily identify the most popular choice.

Visualizing data

As you prep for a Big Presentation, how you communicate the numbers in your deck is just as much data as it is design.

Use pie charts to compare a group of numbers as they contribute to the whole, and go for bar graphs to compare different groups to each other.

So, to show what percentage of your entire week is taken up by each task on your to-do list, use a pie chart. Compare your time spent on one task every month over the course of a year in a bar graph.

When stuck, get literal; if all of your data could be represented together like differently sized slices of pizza, you know what to do.

Determining probability (determining likelihood)

While your Work Life Tarot deck can help you consider and reflect on the many paths before you, this handy equation will determine the likelihood of them happening:

Take the number of ways something can happen

Then, divide it by the total number of outcomes

Calculating a 20% tip

We’ve all been there – tasked with figuring out the tip, seven sets of eyes on you waiting for the grand total, Venmos ready.

Next time you’re handed a bill without gratuity included, conjure elementary arithmetic. Take the total, calculate 10% by moving the decimal point one to the left. Now, double it.

Ex: Bill is $460, 10% is $46. Doubled, that’s $92.

To make it even easier, round up and estimate. Let’s say the bill is $237. Round up to $240. 10% is $24. $24 x 2 is $48–and you’re a good tipper!

Geometry IRL: 360 vs 180

To make these geometric references grammatically-correct, consider the shape referenced. With 360 degrees in a circle, if someone does a full 180, it means they’re now facing the opposite direction, likely to describe a change in opinion or action.

A 360 is the full rotation, which is why it might be what you call your performance review covering a well-rounded assessment of your work.

Spelling & Grammar

Ping me on Slack. Per my last email. “I’m excited to share that I’ve started a new role…”

Comms has become a part of all of our jobs, making simple spelling and grammar crucial for impact and effect… or is it affect? To answer these questions and more, I went to the SME herself: Work Life’s Managing Editor, Lauren Marten Parker. Consider her top spelling and grammar tips necessary for the workplace:

Top 5 grammar rules

Make subjects and verbs agree. Singular subjects should have verbs ending in “s,” and plural subjects are paired with verbs with no “s.” He eats and they eat.
Avoid run-ons by splitting up longer thoughts into multiple sentences using punctuation or conjunctions.
Double check your homophones, AKA the words that sound alike but carry different meanings: its vs it’s, your vs you’re, there vs their vs they’re, who’s vs whose.
Don’t misplace your modifiers. Keep words that describe other words together to avoid confusion.
Avoid passive voice to keep the focus on the action. ”They booked the conference room” centers the team that booked, while the clunkier “The conference room was booked by them,” centers the room.

Commonly misused words

Literally: If you’re looking for a word that means “word for word” or “exactly,” this is it. Otherwise, skip.
Affect vs effect: Words can affect (verb, the action) your message. The right ones can have a positive effect (noun, the result).
Comprise vs compose: Your team is comprised of (made up of) 12 engineers. 12 engineers compose (make up) your team.
Should of: You really should have put it <– like this.
All the sudden: Ah, all of a sudden, it all makes sense.

Essential punctuation

Period (.) Place at the end of sentences to bring them to a full stop.

Comma (,) Use to separate words or ideas, avoid run-ons, or pause for a breath.

Colon (:) Set up words, ideas, even a quote or list.

Semi-colon (;) Connect two clauses in place of a period or conjunction.

Ellipsis (…) Sub in for omitted words, to trail off, or to add a little intrigue.

Science

The scientific method

Inform your hunches and turn them into data-backed answers with this tried-and-true process that may have even more use for A/B testing, user research, or your next team retrospective than it did for your 5th grade science fair project.

Start with an Observation, maybe a problem or something you can identify as not working.

Ask a Question.

Do Research to color that question.

Form a Hypothesis based on what you’ve learned so far.

Test that and other ideas until you have…

…Results, which you can compare against your hypothesis.

Come to a Conclusion, a good one based on the scientific method you just followed.

Art

The color wheel and color theory

Color theory isn’t just helpful for putting together a power outfit for your next presentation. It can be your roadmap to make sure the deck you’re walking the audience through looks good, too.

Take the color wheel for a spin to learn which hues complement each other–those directly across. You’ll gain a whole new respect for your brand palette and never mix in random shades again.

Psychology

Even the Spark Notes to an Intro to Psych class can be like an instruction manual for the people in your life. Start with the most common cognitive biases to better understand what can influence your customers’ purchasing decisions or drive your team’s decision-making:

Confirmation bias: Trusting information that confirms what you already think

Availability bias: Learning about something once, then seeing it everywhere

Anchoring bias: Comparing all decisions to the first known option

Planning fallacy: Underestimating how long tasks will take to complete

Modal bias: Assuming our own idea is the best

Economics

Missing this quarter’s sales goals? Go back to basics to plot your products or services in the bigger economic picture of what could be affecting pricing, consumers, and their greater needs, starting with these concepts:

Supply and demand: The relationship between availability and desire can help you determine pricing and even new product offerings.

Microeconomics vs macroeconomics: To make audience personas as prescient as possible, identify individual behaviors of the people, businesses, or markets you serve (micro) within their regional, national, or global economic realities (macros).

Inflation: A continued increase in the average price of goods that reduces currency’s value, which can affect the cost of goods and public perception of it.

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Use divergent thinking to generate fresh ideas in your next brainstorm

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 14:43:00 +0000

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5-second summary

Divergent thinking is a creative process that generates new ideas through free-flowing, unstructured brainstorming. It encourages exploring any and all possibilities, rather than taking the fastest, straightest path to one answer.
Divergent thinking is most effective when the people doing it feel safe, have the time and space to get inspired, collaborate with others, set expectations as a group, and warm up first.
Using divergent thinking exercises can help you get started by providing a little structure and inspiration to a purposely unstructured process.

If you’ve ever come up with a name for a child, pet, or even a beloved plant or car, you’ve already engaged in divergent thinking. As you were thinking of names, you let your mind wander, imagining all the possibilities. You might have compared ideas with a loved one too. Perhaps one person was thinking of popular names like Emma and Ava, while the other wanted a more unique moniker like Eowyn or Aurelia. Eventually, you converged on a name for your bundle of joy – something perfectly unique, yet easy to say and spell – but only after you diverged and brainstormed without boundaries. That’s the power of divergent thinking.

What is divergent thinking?

Introduced by psychologist J.P. Guilford in 1956, divergent thinking is a creative thought process used to generate new ideas through free-flowing, unstructured brainstorming.

In a typical problem-solving or brainstorming session, people are often trying to find the most direct path to one “right” solution, often channeling “convergent” or “lateral” thinking. Divergent thinking, on the other hand, is unrestricted, judgment-free, and takes a meandering path to explore all viable (and some not-so-viable) options. There’s no right way to do it, and there are no wrong answers.

This approach offers a number of advantages:

It allows you to see a problem or concept from many perspectives and angles.
It produces more ideas to choose from.
It encourages creativity and open-mindedness, which often lead to even better solutions.

Paving the way for creative collaboration

Divergent thinking unlocks new ideas and even better solutions at work – but only if the team and environment support it. These tips can help prepare your group for a successful session.

Foster a sense of psychological safety

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Psychological safety, a term coined by Harvard researcher Amy Edmondson, is a shared belief held by members of a team that it’s safe to take risks. When people feel psychologically safe and know it’s ok to make mistakes, they’re more comfortable, more open to exploring new ideas, and more inclined to work together to find the best solution.

Set aside time and a new space

It can be hard for teams to be strategic and creative when they’re busy with day-to-day execution. Reserving a designated time for divergent thinking and changing up the environment – another conference room or even an off-site location – helps everyone get in the right mental and physical space to think differently.

Include 5 – 7 diverse collaborators

Approaching your attendee list like Goldilocks will help make sure the group isn’t too big or too small, but rather, juuuuust right. Research shows brainstorming sessions are most efficient when they include five to seven people: big enough to generate enough ideas, but not so big that it becomes unwieldy.

Inviting people with diverse perspectives can also help ward off groupthink, when people abandon their own beliefs to conform with the group. Diversity could be represented in the form of different disciplines (e.g., design or development), departments (e.g., Sales or Product), critical thinking perspectives (e.g., front-line, functional expertise, or creative/innovator), identities (e.g., culture or gender), etc.

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Set expectations for the team with mutual agreements

Divergent thinking is most effective when participants are focused, open, and collaborative. Creating mutual team agreements and expectations (e.g., put devices aside, share all ideas that come to mind, suspend judgment, and build on others’ suggestions) can support the group in being efficient and effective.

Start with a warmup

Like warming up your body before exercising, warming up your mind before brainstorming gets you in the right headspace and primes your brain for creativity. Warmups can be more structured, like these icebreaker activities, or more free-form, like listening to music or drawing.

where does ai fit in?

To maximize the benefits of divergent thinking, start without AI, so those initial ideas are truly yours – unanchored, a little weird, and definitively human. By keeping this early divergence tool-free, you’ll avoid bringing in model bias or sensitive info; build creative confidence; and keep everyone in “quantity over quality” mode when it really counts.

Then, when you’re ready to narrow, call on AI to group similar ideas, identify recurring themes, spot duplicates or gaps, write a short recap of what you explored, and draft a first-pass plan of action.

6 divergent thinking exercises for brilliant brainstorming

Now that the team feels safe, focused, and warmed up, it’s time to let their creativity loose! Here are a few exercises to help get started.

We’ll use the following example to see how each divergent thinking exercise would be applied in a problem-solving brainstorm.

Problem statement: “Registrations for our new grocery shopping app have plateaued. We want to increase registrations by 25% within one year.”

1. Freewriting

Freewriting is the ultimate free-association activity – you simply write words, phrases, sentences, diagrams, doodles, whatever without stopping, and without worrying about spelling, mechanics, drawing skills, or the feasibility of an idea. There are no wrong answers and no constraints (aside from time, if you choose to set a timer).

If your team works best with a bit more structure, you can try 6-3-5 Brainwriting, where six people each write three ideas on a sheet of paper as many times as they can during a five-minute round. Then, they pass their sheets to the next teammate, who spends the next five minutes adding to the other person’s ideas.

Freewriting in action: Each team member starts with the word “registration” and writes any words that come to mind, such as:

Sign up	Happiness	Smiles
Signs	Surprises	Rewards
Looking up	Excitement	Incentives
Optimism	Delight	Positive reinforcement

The team could then expand on certain ideas or themes for more specific solutions, such as ways you can add delight to the registration process or rewards you could offer for signing up.

2. Mind mapping

A mind map builds new ideas off one central concept or subject. After writing down the primary concept, teams brainstorm supporting ideas, tasks, and questions around it. Then, they repeat the process for each of the secondary concepts, then the tertiary concepts, etc. The result is an organized diagram that shows lots of new ideas and how all of them are linked.

Mind mapping in action:

With all of these ideas mapped out, the group could then converge and narrow down which ones should be prioritized based on the impact they could have on registrations vs. the effort they would take to implement.

3. Disruptive brainstorming

Disruptive brainstorming reveals new solutions by introducing hypothetical constraints. After brainstorming one set of ideas, teams use Disrupt Cards to look at the same problem or question from a new perspective. After diverging, each group converges on the ideas that are most achievable, supportable, and relevant, then assigns owners to investigate how to bring each one to life.

Disruptive brainstorming in action:

The team brainstorms one set of ideas for increasing registrations. Then, they pick the “Scarcity” Disrupt Card and brainstorm how they might apply scarcity to boost registrations even more, such as limiting signups to 100 per day and displaying the number available in real time next to the “Register” button.

Once the brainstorming session comes to a close, they cut the ideas that aren’t doable or aligned with the product strategy, and assign owners to the rest to begin the planning process.

4. Alternate Uses

Designed by J.P. Guilford in the 1960s, the Alternative Uses Test is a way to generate creative ideas and solutions from a single concept or piece of information. This approach can help look at something familiar from a new perspective.

Alternative Uses Test in action:

What might be alternative ways to learn about our grocery shopping app and sign up for it? (Wacky ideas welcome!) Sample answers:

Scanning a QR code in the grocery store
Mail a welcome kit to new parents with a promo code to try the app
App mascot hands out flyers outside dorms during college move-in days
Guerilla marketing campaign where we put stickers on grocery store doors that say, ”We could have saved you this trip.”
Professional skydivers spell out the app name above the Super Bowl (we meant what we said: no bad ideas)

Then, the team could either build on a few of the most promising ideas or filter some of the more granular concepts that might be more feasible.

5. Collaborative drawing and storytelling

Collaborative drawing and storytelling (also known as a “one-word story”) expand on others’ ideas spontaneously. One person writes one word or starts a drawing. Then they pass it to another person, who adds the first word or drawing that comes to mind, and so on. The team repeats this process until there are enough potentially viable ideas to begin narrowing down and planning next steps for the best concepts.

Collaborative storytelling in action:

We could increase registrations by…

Person 1’s answer	sharing
Person 2’s answer	3D
Person 3’s answer	video
Person 4’s answer	walkthroughs
Person 5’s answer	on
Person 6’s answer	TikTok (Sounds silly, but hey, we’ve seen stranger things go viral!)

Even if the team ends up moving forward with a scaled-down concept or alternative plan, going through the exercise is a great way to uncover outside-the-box ideas.

6. Yes, and…

A core tenet of improv comedy, “Yes, and…” encourages open-mindedness and exploration by accepting any scenario that is presented, then adding to it. When one person shares an idea, another person immediately embraces it and adds something that takes it to the next level.

“Yes, and…” in action:

Person #1: “We could show the average time the whole process takes on the first screen so users see it’s fast.”

Person #2: “Yes, and we could put a completion tracker at the top of each registration screen so they see where they are in the process.”

Person #3: “Yes, and we remove any unnecessary steps from each screen to make the process even faster.”

From naming babies with your partner at home to developing new ideas and solutions with your team at work, divergent thinking is a powerful way to stimulate creativity and uncover new possibilities. Like any new thought process or method, your team may feel a bit unsure about how to do it or where to begin. But just because divergent thinking is free-form doesn’t mean it’s a free-for-all. With a little preparation and a few exercises to get the momentum going, you can add just enough structure to a purposely unstructured process and set your team up for a brilliant brainstorm.

Ready to try it? Yes, and…let’s get started!

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How to use time-blocking to get more work done

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 22:17:31 +0000

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Most of our work calendars are chock full of appointments we can’t miss: Team meetings, project huddles, performance reviews – you name it.

But have you ever made an appointment with yourself, and treated it with the same level of commitment? That’s the idea behind time-blocking, the practice of reserving time on your own calendar to knock out specific projects.

This has two big benefits: First, it carves out space in your workday to accomplish important tasks that otherwise might get pushed to the sidelines. Second, it reduces the temptation to try to multi-task your way through a giant to-do list (spoiler alert: multi-tasking is impossible).

“You’re trying to curb the effect of bouncing from thing to thing. You don’t want to be a ping-pong ball trying to get through your day,” says Krissy Metzler, an executive function coach.

What is time-blocking?

“Time blocking is appointments with yourself to do specific work,” says Alexis Haselberger, a time management and productivity coach.

Think of it this way: In the same way you might have an hour-long time slot blocked for a Zoom meeting, you might reserve an hour on your calendar to prepare slides for an upcoming presentation. It’s about giving the tasks on your to-do list a specific time on your schedule where you will work on them (and nothing else).

Time blocks can be one-off and project specific, but they can also be repeating elements on your calendar. For example, you might create a recurring daily block on your schedule from 9-9:30am to catch up on your email.

The important thing to remember is that time-blocking only works if you treat these appointments seriously, allowing yourself the time to work on the task without being responsible to anything – or anyone – else.

Why is time-blocking effective?

Time-blocking works so well because it corrects for our tendency to get pulled in too many directions.

“We are hard-wired as humans to get distracted,” Metzler says. We have a desire to take care of things as soon as they pop up, playing whack-a-mole with every task during our work day.

Time-blocking helps you resist this temptation by giving everything its proper place. Metzler explains it this way: Imagine you’re in the middle of a time block working on a project for Client A, when someone pops by your desk to talk about Client B. You know you have a separate time block later in your day for Client B, so you can confidently say, “I hear you, I have time later to think about Client B,” which gives you permission to continue focusing on Client A without context-switching.

Time-blocking also has another benefit: It forces you to be more realistic with your to-do list, Haselberger says. That’s because time-blocking acts as a visual representation of how long tasks will take to complete, and might help you realize you’ve taken on too much. Over time, this awareness can prevent you from over-committing at work: Once your calendar is full, you know you don’t realistically have time to take on more tasks.

Two ways to incorporate time-blocking into your day

Depending on your needs and preferences, there are two ways you can incorporate time-blocking into your work life.

Put it right on your work calendar

This is the most direct way of time-blocking. When you need an hour to complete a project, add that as an event to the same work calendar that houses your other meetings. Your coworkers won’t be able to schedule over your time blocks, and you’ll show as “busy” during that time.

The benefit of this approach is that it truly protects your time blocks from being scheduled over, Haselberger says. The downside is that your coworkers might get frustrated if your calendar suddenly has a lot less availability for meetings.

Create a secondary time-blocking calendar

If you’re not feeling bold enough to make hard boundaries on your work calendar, you can create a secondary calendar that only you have access to. This “overlay,” as Haselberger describes it, would allow you to see your own time blocks, but wouldn’t show up on your official work calendar.

The benefit here is that it allows flexibility if someone does need to schedule a meeting with you. But that’s also the downside: Nothing is stopping your coworkers from booking over all your time blocks.

How to come up with time estimates

No matter the method you choose, any time-blocking system relies on accurate estimates of how long a task will take to complete.

Creating these estimates is a skill in itself, Metzler says. It’s normal in the beginning for your estimates to be off, and it’s common for people to take longer than they expect to complete a task. Metzler suggests asking yourself these questions to create more accurate estimates:

Do I have all the information I need to start this task? (If not, you need time to gather the information)
Am I in a good headspace? (If you’re working with low energy, for example, this will impact your efficiency)
Do I have a clear vision of what needs to be done? (Or, put another way, is your team aligned on their goals?)

Then, after you complete a task, it’s essential to reflect on how long it actually took. Did it take more or less time than you expected, and why? Digging into the “why” is really important for understanding how to create more accurate time estimates in the future, Metzler says.

Once you get the hang of this, you can make your life easier by creating a “cheat sheet” for how long it takes you to complete common or repeating tasks. “Don’t store things in your brain rent-free,” Metzler says.

You might also find that you have a consistent “off-ratio” for time blocks, Haselberger says. For example, if tasks almost always take you 1.5x as long as you expect, you can add that 1.5x multiplier to your time estimates going forward.

Common time-blocking mistakes to avoid

Creating time blocks that are too vague: Time-blocking is most effective when we get specific about the tasks for each block, Haselberger. Don’t just set aside an hour for “deep work,” but rather name the specific task or project you want to work on during that time.
Overscheduling your day: You might be really excited to try time-blocking, but don’t overdo it. If you overschedule yourself by time-blocking every moment of your day with no buffers, it can actually become a barrier to productivity, according to Metzler. “That’s too much pressure on ourselves, and it’s not conducive to remaining flexible,” she says. Instead, she advises starting with three time blocks and getting used to those for a few weeks before you add more to your daily schedule.
Neglecting the necessities: Don’t forget to make time for things like checking email or taking lunch breaks. Those deserve a time block in your schedule, too, Metzler says. Because if you don’t reserve time to do those things, they can easily fall by the wayside. (Skipping lunch doesn’t help your efficiency or productivity, Metzler notes).
Getting pulled out of your time blocks for something urgent: This is a common pitfall, Metzler says, and calls for some reflection. She says that often we see things as “urgent” when they actually aren’t. They might be important, but could potentially wait until after your time block. When you get pulled away like this, think about whether you can handle it differently the next time something “urgent” comes up.
Not having any time to time-block in the first place: You might look at your calendar, chock full of meetings, and conclude there’s no open time to start time-blocking for other tasks. If this is the case, Haselberger suggests doing a “meeting audit” to try to free up some space in your calendar.
Deleting (or not honoring) your time blocks: As much as you tell yourself a time block is an appointment with yourself, you might still feel tempted to ignore it on a busy day. This is where Haselberger has a rule for herself: She’s never allowed to delete a time block, she can only move it. So instead of blowing past it, she’ll reschedule it and find a time to get that work done.

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9 neuroplasticity exercises to boost productivity

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 15:14:00 +0000

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By the time you finish this article, your brain will be different.

The reason for this cerebral shift is neuroplasticity _ the brain’s ability to change and restructure itself. Every time the brain processes new information, neurons fire, new pathways form, and the malleable brain alters its shape and structure.

In recent years, several researchers have posited that it’s possible to consciously direct neuroplasticity to optimize brain function, improve work performance, and even influence team performance.

What is neuroplasticity?

In a nutshell, neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to learn and adapt. Until relatively recently, experts believed that our brains were fixed by the end of adolescence and that, in terms of neurons, it was all downhill from there. But the latest research has proved the opposite: that our brains can actually grow and change throughout adulthood. That is, if we treat our neural pathways right.

“The main point of neuroplasticity is that you can actually form and reorganize connections in your brain,” says Dr. Marsha Chinichian, a Los Angeles-based clinical psychotherapist and the brains behind acclaimed mental fitness app Mindshine.

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“For a long time we thought that humans were born with a ton of neurons, synapses, and connections, and as we got older, they simply died off. But now we’ve learned that isn’t true. We can actually make changes to further develop our brains. We’ve learned we can actually rewire our brains.”

Dr. Chinichian’s enthusiasm is echoed by other leading cognitive experts around the world, including Natalia Ramsden, a business psychologist and founder of SOFOS Associates in London, the UK’s first and only brain optimization clinic.

“There’s something hugely empowering about the idea that we, as individuals, can actually change the structure of our brains for the better,” says Ramsden. “There’s so much we can do to develop their function, which in turn can dramatically increase our productivity in the workplace.”

Make better decisions and prevent cognitive fatigue

So how do we put neuroplasticity into action in our day-to-day working lives?

Imagine your brain as a colossal power grid. Billions of pathways light up every time you think, feel, or do something. Putting neuroplasticity into action means carving new pathways, while strengthening the best of the existing ones – and not reinforcing the pathways you’d rather avoid.

Neuroscientist Dr. Tara Swart, a senior lecturer at MIT and author of bestselling brain bible The Source, recently compared this process to road building.

“Think of it as going from a dirt road to a motorway,” Dr. Swart told European CEO. “I could say, ‘I’m going to work on that pathway, which is currently a dirt road. The more I use it, and the more I repeat activities, I can build it up to a motorway.’”

That newly-built motorway will not only able to help you process information faster, it will also be better equipped to stave off mental fatigue. That means less stress and fewer mistakes.

“It can help to think of your brain in terms of a muscle,” says Dr. Lynda Shaw, a chartered psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist who is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Medicine and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. “If you do enough bicep curls you’ll increase the size of your biceps. It’s the same process with your brain. If you exercise your brain correctly and often, neuroplasticity means it will become more powerful.”

From a remote working perspective – especially with companies like Atlassian deciding to make the arrangement permanent – experts say that neuroplasticity is an even more valuable tool, as daily office stimuli dramatically decrease, and new routines and rituals come to the fore.

“We need, as bosses, to encourage our people to embrace change and adapt by being innovative and creative,” says Dr. Shaw. “Neuroplasticity is a great way of doing that, and of teams staying ahead of that curve.”

Below, our experts suggest their top tips for harnessing the power of neuroplasticity for yourself.

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9 techniques to “rewire” your cognitive pathways

1. Feed your brain

Your brain makes up only a tiny proportion of your total body weight, but it uses up a quarter of everything you eat. If you want enhanced neural pathways, you’ll need an enhanced diet. According to Ramsden, that means grabbing snacks like walnuts, blueberries, and avocado during the day. Vitamin D and magnesium are top priorities if you want to promote neuroplasticity.

2. Take naps

Obviously a good night’s sleep (ideally between seven and nine hours) will always set you up for a better brain day. But a short afternoon nap of around 20 minutes will elevate your neuroplasticity potential even further. A short nap encourages the growth of dendritic spines, which act as crucial connectors between the neurons in your brain.

3. Don’t let the work day linger

Like muscle-building, neuroplasticity needs downtime in order to do its work properly. According to Dr. Chinichian, managers should embed and enforce a “close the day” ritual that prioritizes reflection and gratitude for small wins. An end-of-day Slack message saying “Thanks for the great ideas in the brainstorming session today, everyone. See you tomorrow,” can help the team feel valued. Putting a hard stop to the stresses of the day in a way that also boosts endorphins creates perfect conditions for neuroplasticity. Bonus: it also sends the signal that it’s OK to “leave” work and unplug for the evening.

4. Expand your vocabulary

Try to learn one new word every day. According to experts, this simple act will spark a multitude of new neural pathways, both visual and auditory. (Give it a few months and it’ll make you unstoppable at Scrabble too).

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5. Use the “wrong” hand

Non-dominant hand exercises are excellent for forming new neural pathways, as well as strengthening the connectivity between existing neurons. For instance, if you’re right-handed, try brushing your teeth with your left hand – and then try it while balancing on one leg for a double neuroplasticity bonus.

6. Learn to juggle

Juggling is frequently cited as an excellent means for improving neuroplasticity. Keep a small set of balls in your work drawer for a brain boost whenever you have a few spare seconds between tasks. The better you get, the bigger the benefits.

7. Play chess

Indulge your inner Beth Harmon by embracing chess – a game that has endless potential for neuroplasticity. Chess players have significantly more grey matter in their anterior cingulate cortex than those unfamiliar with en passant and castling. And you don’t even need another player or a board in order to reap the mental benefits. Simply log onto chess.com for a quick blast whenever you have a few minutes. (You don’t need to finish a game to get the neurological boost.)

8. Do mnemonic drills

Teaching yourself mnemonic devices, like formulas or rhymes, can enhance connectivity in your prefrontal parietal network, paving the way to new, positive pathways in your brain. Get started here.

9. Be mindful, as a team

Chinichian says that one of the best things you can do to promote neuroplasticity in a workforce is to incorporate regular group meditation. There are multiple online options available to get you started, like this and this. Not only does it help with the positive brain rewiring process (while expanding several useful parts of the brain), it also results in team members reacting to problems with an increased sense of calm, passion, and awareness. Neuroplasticity at its finest.

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The science of seasonal productivity

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 16:08:06 +0000

5-second summary

Research shows that weather impacts mood, focus, and energy. Seasonal Affective Disorder and disrupted circadian rhythms reduce winter productivity, while summer sun boosts mood but offers distractions.
Mindset matters: People with a positive view of winter stay more engaged.
Studies from Harvard Business School show people are more focused on rainy days, and that time of day and weather conditions affect ethical decision-making and performance.
Tips: Adapt workspaces and schedules to match the season, such as cozy, light-filled spaces in winter and flexible hours with outdoor breaks in summer to support different personality types.

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Not all productivity challenges are personal – some are seasonal. Whether you thrive in winter’s quiet or feed off summer’s energy, syncing your workflow with the weather might be the performance hack you need.

Let’s unpack how seasonal shifts in light, temperature, and perspective shape how we work – and what individuals and organizations can do to adapt.

The psychology behind seasonal productivity

Seasonal shifts don’t just change how we feel – they influence how our brains work. Changes in light and temperature impact everything from serotonin levels to sleep cycles, affecting mood, motivation, and mental clarity in ways that affect our ability to get things done.

Light, serotonin, and focus

Our exposure to sunlight influences serotonin levels, which play a key role in mood and motivation. In the darker months, lower serotonin and disrupted sleep cycles can lead to fatigue and brain fog, causing people to feel sluggish or unmotivated in winter.

Temperature and energy

Temperature also plays a significant role in our energy levels. Cold weather can discourage physical activity (not to mention commuting), while high heat can cause dehydration and mental fatigue.

“Cold weather can lead to sluggishness, while heat may cause fatigue and dehydration. Rainy days can increase focus, as fewer outdoor distractions exist. These seasonal fluctuations affect physical and mental productivity, as energy levels can dip in the winter and peak in the summer,” says Debra Wein, CEO of Wellness Workdays, a leading provider of measurable workplace wellness programs that help organizations improve employee health, well-being, and productivity.

Seasonal Affective Disorder

For some, these shifts stem from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a form of depression triggered by reduced sunlight. SAD can bring on low mood, poor concentration, and withdrawal from activities.

“Shorter daylight hours impact serotonin and energy regulation,” explains clinical psychologist Dr. Kelly Rohan on the APA’s Speaking of Psychology podcast. “This often results in lower motivation and focus during the winter months.”

Dr. Rohan developed a specialized treatment called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for SAD (CBT-SAD), which targets negative expectations about winter and helps people reframe the season as one that allows for rest, reflection, and different types of productivity.

Similarly, as psychologist Dr. Kari Leibowitz explains in her book How to Winter, people who adopted a “positive winter mindset,” particularly in places with long, dark winters like Svalbard, Norway, reported greater emotional well-being and life satisfaction. Rather than resisting the season, they embraced it as an opportunity for calm and focus.

A mental shift in how we approach seasonal challenges can reframe winter as a time for focus and renewal rather than burnout.

*Note: We’re not mental health professionals. For struggles with SAD, consult a licensed clinician.

How personality types respond to seasons

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The seasons impact more than the weather–they shift how we feel, think, and work. As daylight, temperature, and energy levels fluctuate, so does productivity. For some, winter offers an environment for focus. For others, summer’s longer and sunny days spark motivation.

Winter thrivers: quiet season, big results

Introverts often find winter a natural match for their working style. With fewer social engagements, quieter surroundings, and permission to slow down, winter can create the ideal environment for deep, focused work. According to The HR Agency, introverts excel at tasks requiring deep concentration and thoughtful decision-making – conditions that winter naturally supports by reducing overstimulation and social pressure.

“Introverts tend to thrive in calmer, more solitary settings,” says Wein. “Tasks that require deep thinking or strategic planning often get done more effectively in the winter.”

Wein adds that cozy home offices, warm lighting, and reduced social obligations allow introverts to recharge and produce their best work.

Summer thrivers: why the warmer months can be energizing

Extroverts, on the other hand, may come alive in summer. Longer days, outdoor opportunities, and more social interaction energize them. The collaborative nature of summer’s social events can inspire new ideas and fuel creativity.

“People want to be outside, and that can be distracting – or energizing – depending on your personality,” says Wein.

Outdoor team-building, casual brainstorming sessions, or even walking meetings can help extroverts stay engaged and productive.

How to manage seasonal slumps

A few smart adjustments can go a long way, whether you’re managing a team or your own productivity.

For organizations

Companies can improve productivity by aligning policies with seasonal needs. In winter, this might mean offering remote options or staggered hours, curating well-lit, comfortable spaces, or promoting movement through gym stipends or mid-day breaks. In summer, embrace the season’s natural energy by scheduling outdoor meetings, offering flexible hours like “summer Fridays.”

According to ABL Recruitment, companies that formatted their workflow around seasonal energy patterns saw up to a 15% increase in overall output. This included scheduling data-heavy, analytical tasks like reporting, budgeting, or long-term planning in the winter months and reserving collaborative, creative initiatives for the summer when employees are often more energetic.

For individuals

Small changes can help you work with the season. In winter, light therapy, movement breaks, and cozy workspaces can help fight off sluggishness. In summer, block focus time early in the day, take short outdoor breaks to recharge, and stay hydrated.

Weather and seasonal changes influence energy, focus, and productivity. Adapting workspaces, schedules, and expectations to align with seasonal conditions – and recognizing when different personality types thrive – can help individuals and teams stay productive all year round.

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Science-backed productivity playlists to help you dive into deep work

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 22:00:00 +0000

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Here on Work Life, we kinda live and breathe the practices and strategies that make teams happier and more productive. And music, in its various iterations, has long been known as a key instrument, if you will, of that coveted flow state we’re all after.

We pored over the research on which sounds are best for productivity, busting some myths and adding tracks to our playlists in several genres. So plug in your headphones we have a feeling you’re about to find your next favorite productivity playlist.

Research and productivity playlists by genre

1. Classical

Maybe you’ve seen the countless “Mozart for babies” CDs claiming to make your newborn a genius. What’s with that? It’s known as the “Mozart effect,” a term that took off during the ’90s thanks to a single study published in the Nature journal in 1993.

In the research paper “Music and spatial task performance,” Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw, and Catherine Ky reported modest findings from their experiment with 39 college students: After listening to a Mozart sonata (K.448) for 10 minutes, the students scored significantly higher on spatial tests (they were asked to look at folded-up pieces of paper and guess how they’d look when unfolded). The effect—which the study authors did not call the “Mozart effect”—lasted 10 to 15 minutes.

These findings triggered a slew of inflated claims about Mozart’s music’s ability to increase intelligence. And while that’s a bit of a stretch, subsequent related studies do appear to show some promise.

For instance, a 2001 review of the literature found supporting evidence that listening to music by Mozart can improve short-term spatial-temporal reasoning, but not general intelligence. The researchers concluded that “an enhancement of spatial-temporal reasoning performance after listening to Mozart’s music for 10 minutes has been reported by several, but not all, researchers.” Further, patients with epilepsy have been shown to benefit from listening to Mozart’s K.448.

Mozart may not make you a genius, but it’s worth trying his genre of music next time you want to boost brainpower:

Mozart – Sonata for Two Pianos in D, K. 448:The sonata that started it all. This is the exact piece played to participants in the original “Mozart effect” study.
Mozart for Productivity: If you tire of K.448, this playlist broadens it to even more sonatas by Mozart.
Classical for Productivity: Why limit yourself to Mozart? This Spotify playlist includes more of the greats, from Vivaldi to Beethoven to Bach.

2. Coffee shop sounds

If classical music isn’t your jam, tap into the power of the coffee shop effect. While the visual novelty that cafe-hopping provides can boost productivity, some research suggests the gains also have to do with sound.

How? Through a process known as stochastic resonance, a certain level of background noise can enhance performance—but at too loud of a level, it can decrease it.

A 2012 study published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that a medium-level of ambient noise from a roadside restaurant improved creativity, but low or high levels of it decreased it. The study authors note:

“Our ﬁndings imply that instead of burying oneself in a quiet room trying to ﬁgure out a solution, walking out of one’s comfort zone and getting into a relatively noisy environment (such as a cafe) may trigger the brain to think abstractly, and thus generate creative ideas.”

The right levels and types of sound vary widely depending on the person, but it could be the reason you find that background hum of chatter and clanging cups at a cafe so enticing.

Ready to find your happy medium? Give each of these coffee shop playlists a shot!

8 Hours of Rainy Night Coffee Shop Ambience: Light rain, smooth jazz, and an aesthetically pleasing scene combine to make this one of my favorites to listen to (and watch!).
Coffee Shop Sounds for Study and Concentration: If you prefer a more lively atmosphere, this eight-hour track of real audio recorded from coffee shops is for you. Listen closely, and you might just catch humorous gems—like the guy at 4:29:50 who orders a “cold brew with nothing in it but 18 shots of espresso.”
Coffee Shop Ambience Cozy Rainy Day: Soft chatter, raindrops falling, and the occasional clattering of cups make this one-hour audio enjoyable without being overwhelming.

3. Ambient music

The relaxing beats and soothing tones of instrumental ambient music make it a favorite pick for people who need to focus. In a 2021 Spotify survey of 4,000 adults in the U.S. and UK, 69% of respondents chose ambient music as the best for studying, with 67% saying that the key ingredient is the slower beats.

At the time of writing, these are the three most popular ambient music playlists in the Spotify Focus Hub:

Deep Focus: “Ambient and post-rock music” to help you block out distractions and concentrate.
Lofi Beats: Moderate beats that are both relaxing and engaging with few words (if any).
Chill Lofi Study Beats: The name says it all. Instrumental easy-listening to keep your brain focused on deep work.

4. Upbeat tracks

Much of the research on the benefits of upbeat music centers around exercise. A 2020 study published in Frontiers in Psychology found that listening to high-tempo music (170-190 bpm) made exercise feel easier, and therefore, boosted performance.

Additionally, a 2003 study presented at an annual meeting of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation found that listening to upbeat music while pedaling on a stationary bike boosted participants’ exercise intensity; the faster the music, the faster they pedaled.

Could these findings from the exercise realm transfer over to desk-related tasks? Only one way to find out!

180BPM Instrumental: If you need high-powered music to boost productivity, this user-curated Spotify playlist brings the heat with a variety of instrumental tracks.
Damo Running 180BPM (Instrumental): Want to feel like the hero running into battle at the climax of a movie? This might be the playlist for you. It consists mostly of Spotify’s “Epic” songs that are fast-paced, intense, and grand—but no distracting lyrics!
190BPM for Runners: And if you really want to step up the tempo, this playlist has lyric-free songs, all at 190 beats per minute to keep you pumped up without distractions.

5. Nature sounds

Few of us are able to go forest-bathing in the middle of our workday. But thankfully, merely listening to recordings of birds chirping and leaves rustling might be enough to soothe frayed nerves so we can dive into deep work.

A 2015 study by the Acoustical Society of America found that the sound of a flowing mountain stream boosted mood and productivity in workers in an open-plan office. The sample size was small, however, with only 12 participants.

Further, a 2017 study by the University of Sussex found that nature sounds can help you relax if you’re highly stressed. Interestingly, for participants who were already relaxed, listening to nature sounds actually increased their stress levels. So maybe skip these playlists if you already feel calm!

Spring Morning Ambience with Lakeshore Water Sounds: A lake laps against the shore, and birds sing in the background in this relaxing eight-hour audio.
Bluebell Woods – English Forest – Birds Singing – Relaxing Nature Video & Sounds: This three-hour track features plenty of birdsong and leaves rustling in the wind.
Nature Sounds playlist by Spotify: This playlist has a variety of tracks with sounds from birds, rainfall, and rivers.

6. Pink and white noise

Noise colors refer to the power spectrum in a sound. White noise, for instance, plays all the frequencies at once at equal power, and it can sound more high-pitched than pink noise. Both noise colors may be beneficial for memory.

In a 2017 study published in Scientific Reports, participants who listened to white noise while learning new words had better recall than those who had learned the new words in silence. The researchers concluded that white noise might enhance the ability to acquire new words.

Pink noise has been shown to have memory-enhancing benefits, too. In a study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, older adults who listened to pink noise while sleeping showed better word recall in post-testing.

According to psychiatrist Dr. Suruchi Chandra, administering pink noise via transcranial brain stimulation has shown promising results for her patients.

“Many of our patients have experienced improvements in several areas, including mood, motivation, focus, sleep, and brain fog,” Dr. Chandra writes on her blog. “Patients have often described a lifting of their mood and feeling happier and lighter, generally after the first 4-5 sessions of pink noise brain stimulation.”

Keep in mind that the pink noise Dr. Chandra writes about was delivered via electrodes placed on a person’s head. While you may not have access to that specific kind of therapy, giving pink noise a listen on Spotify can’t hurt!

White Noise for ADHD, Focus, and Concentration: This Spotify playlist features more than just white noise. It also has brown noise (which has a deeper, rumbling quality) and airplane cabin noise (for those of us who miss travel!).
Pink Noise Spotify Playlist: Pure and simple: Just 10 straight hours of pink noise to help you work (or sleep!)

What Deep Work author Cal Newport says about listening to music while you work

Since the term “deep work” was made popular by Cal Newport’s best-selling book of the same name, let’s find out his take on music’s effect on concentration.

“What I’ve learned is you have to train or habituate yourself to whatever the music type is,” Newport said in an interview with Author Hour. As an example, Newport spoke of an author who wrote a million words in one year while listening to Metallica.

“I’ve found this again and again,” Newport continued, “people habituate the different types of music, and then the actual content of the music doesn’t really matter. It’s the ritual they built up.”

In the same vein, music (especially a specific song, playlist, or genre) can serve as a cue that triggers a habit. As described by James Clear, a habit loop consists of:

Cue
Craving
Response
Reward

Like Pavlov’s dogs, we can train ourselves to react in a desired way to a specific cue (in Pavlov’s dog’s case, the mere sound of a bell was enough to make them salivate in expectation of food). So, in the same way that a dinging sound prompts you to check your iPhone or lying down in bed makes you feel sleepy, a song or playlist that you consistently work to may prompt you to “get in the zone” and be productive.

Productivity music: It’s in the ear of the beholder

Sorry, but there’s no magic playlist that’ll turn you into a productivity machine. Regardless, surveys show that people, by and large, enjoy listening to music while working. An Accountemps survey found that 71% of professionals believe they’re more productive when music is playing at the office, and in the Spotify survey mentioned earlier, respondents named audio as the number one productivity booster.

So while scientific research is rife with conflicting studies about productivity-boosting audio, one thing is clear: Whether it’s Mozart, Metallica, or some mix of your own making – if it works for you, play it!

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Burnout isn’t just a “you” problem

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 22:08:32 +0000

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Burnout at work is nothing new, but it has gotten more attention since the height of Covid-19).

There’s no shortage of advice on how individuals can beat burnout, but there’s a growing understanding that burnout prevention also has a lot to do with systemic factors – like workplace culture – and not just individual coping mechanisms. Plus, some aspects of burnout overlap with symptoms of depression, which can have implications for how we treat it.

“We always focus on the professionals themselves. That is a very narrow-minded view,” says Yi-lang Tang, a clinical psychiatrist and associate professor at Emory University.

While we could all benefit from a good-old-fashioned stress-relief routine, a more impactful balm for burnout might come from higher up the ladder, from solutions that make working conditions more sustainable in the first place, and address the deeper causes of burnout.

Defining burnout at work

6 ways to bounce back from burnout

By Tracy Middleton In Productivity

Many mental health problems have clear diagnostic criteria. Something like depression, for example, has a standardized definition that makes diagnosis rather straightforward.

Diagnosing burnout is not as simple. One popular tool for assessing burnout is the Maslach Burnout Inventory. According to researchers Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter, burnout has three main components:

Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion
Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job
Reduced professional efficacy

While the Maslach Burnout Inventory has gained prominence in the field, academics still use a wide variety of criteria to measure burnout. A research analysis published in 2018 found that while most burnout studies “used a version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory,” there were “142 unique definitions” of burnout criteria.

Irvin Sam Schonfeld, a professor emeritus at CUNY, and colleague Renzo Bianchi argue for a slightly different understanding of burnout. Their research shows that the emotional exhaustion component of burnout in particular has a high correlation with symptoms of depression. “That’s the core of burnout,” says Schonfeld, who is the co-author with Bianchi of “Breaking Point: Job Stress, Occupational Depression, and the Myth of Burnout.”

This is not to say that burnout and depression are one and the same, but rather that there is significant overlap. As Schonfeld sees it, the correlation between the two is too high to ignore, which has implications for how we might prevent and treat it in the workplace.

A bigger picture of burnout

When we think about addressing burnout, we often think about individual workers learning to set boundaries or create a meditation practice, but ignore larger systemic factors.

Tang says a lot of early research into burnout had this bias, focusing only on the individual and their personal coping mechanisms. “That’s not enough,” he says, noting that research should also consider institutional issues.

Schonfeld echoes this point: The bigger picture of burnout shows that it’s often a product of the same toxic working conditions that can bring on depressive symptoms in the first place.

As Tang wrote in an editorial summarizing recent burnout research, “addressing systemic issues such as excessive workloads, lack of resources, and misaligned organizational values can significantly alleviate occupational stress.”

Take the example of a company where workers are given shifts that are too long or too frequent, leading to physical and emotional exhaustion. An individual could cope by eating healthy meals and getting quality rest when they’re off the clock. But the deeper solution here is at the level of management: Bosses who want to prevent burnout can change the workplace schedule that’s causing it in the first place.

The systemic issues can go even deeper than managing shifts. A 2024 study of burnout in healthcare workers illuminated the role of moral injury, which happens when individuals are forced into situations or actions that run contrary to their own values. The study showed that experiencing moral injury at work contributed to burnout among workers.

Sometimes moral injury can result from circumstances beyond the control of any one company. One example from the healthcare study was: “Politicization/misinformation about medical care by elected leaders.” On that level, global issues and political conflicts can also contribute to the stress and overwhelm of burnout. One study of Ukrainian academic staff found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the war in that country has led to an increase in burnout.

How to integrate big and small solutions to burnout

While the acute stress of the pandemic might be behind us, there’s plenty of burnout lingering in American workplaces.

A 2024 report from the American Psychological Association said that a whopping 67% of those surveyed “reported experiencing, in the last month, at least one outcome often associated with workplace burnout, such as lack of interest, motivation, or low energy, feeling lonely or isolated, and a lack of effort at work.”

That means a lot of our colleagues could benefit from a more nuanced and effective understanding of burnout. Considering the systemic factors that play a role in burnout can round out the solutions to preventing or addressing it. Tang argues for a “holistic solution” that includes institutional support and individual behaviors.

On the institutional side, for example, managers and employers can consider flexible scheduling that allows people to work a sustainable number of hours. For employees, it can help to fully disconnect from work when they’re at home or on vacation, giving their mind a real break. Managers can support this kind of rejuvenation by reducing excessive workloads and supporting paid time off.

Workplace leaders can also align workplace policies and practices with personal values to prevent moral injury. In the health care industry, for example, one source of moral injury might come from being “assigned too many patients to be able to provide adequate care.” Company leadership could solve that issue – and remove a contributing factor to burnout – by hiring additional staff to handle patient loads.

While big, systemic changes to prevent burnout might be a long-term goal, there are other ways that managers and employers can improve working conditions to reduce the risk of burnout. “We want to help [people] before their health gets compromised,” Schonfeld says.

This is where the more conventional advice can apply: Institutions can support individual coping skills by funding stress management training or workshops on relaxation techniques to help individuals cope with conditions at work that might be less than ideal. Tang says these types of individual skills can help workers build resilience to get through stressful situations.

psychotherapy and burnout

When a vacation or a relaxation technique isn’t enough, talk therapy might be a good tool for people who are already in the grips of intense burnout.

Schonfeld says that traditional psychotherapy (from a professional outside of your office) can be a great tool to help workers who are affected. Especially when you remember that burnout shares some characteristics with depression, cognitive behavioral therapy is a tried-and-true method that can help individuals get out of a slump.

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Why the power of habits might just live up to the hype

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 21:16:39 +0000

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There’s been more than a little buzz about habits lately. To take just one example: James Clear’s 2018 book “Atomic Habits” spent an eye-popping 260 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

Books like these – including the 1989 classic “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” – promise that habits are a key to transforming your personal and professional life. And they draw on our collective, perennial desire to form good habits (and break bad ones) as a way of optimizing our life.

But does the power of habits live up to the hype? Experts point to a deep well of neuroscience to show that habits are a potent way to make lasting changes in your life, but they’re not magic. Getting results from your daily habits takes intention, discipline, and a lot of time.

Let’s sift through the fanfare around habits, and get down to the advice that can truly improve your professional or personal life.

What is a habit?

Quiz: Which time management strategy is right for you?

By Kat Boogaard In Productivity

A habit is “a routine that repeats automatically in response to a trigger.”

That’s the definition from Ally Meyers, a certified executive and positive psychology coach, and Yale-certified expert in the science of well-being. It succinctly describes the “habit loop” that’s essential to understand. Let’s break it down.

The trigger, or cue, is something that prompts you to start a routine. This could be arriving at a certain location, being around a specific person, or seeing the clock reach a certain time of day.
The thought or action is what happens next in response to the cue.
The reward is the feel-good moment after the thought or action, which makes you want to do it again in response to that same trigger.

There are endless examples of habits and their attendant loops. You likely have a habit of brushing your teeth every night: You’re cued by the arrival of bedtime, you brush your teeth, and then you feel good for having done so. In a professional setting, you might have a habit of checking in with your boss every morning: You’re cued by your arrival at your desk, you pop into your manager’s office, and then you feel satisfied with getting your day off to a good start.

This works because your brain can effortlessly follow new paths as they become well-worn with repetition.

A habit, however, is distinct from something like an addiction. “An addiction is a habit that has spiraled out of control and is causing harm to either yourself or somebody else,” Meyers says. Major medical organizations describe addiction as a chronically relapsing brain disease, which again is a compulsion beyond a simple habit.

Why habits are important at work

Many of us want to accomplish big things at work. Maybe you aspire to a big promotion, or want to check an ambitious project off your to-do list. Accomplishing those things is often a result of habits, whether we realize it or not.

“Success, no matter how you define it, doesn’t come from one standalone act,” Meyers says. “It comes from daily routines, which are made up of all of your small habits. That’s what drives the ship.”

One example of this is creating a habit of a consistent sleep schedule. Getting a good night’s rest every so often is good, but unlikely to create a stable foundation for your work life. Making it a habit – getting eight hours of sleep every night, or at least most nights – can give you the consistent energy to tackle big projects at work over the long haul, or produce higher-quality results.

The limitations (and misconceptions) of habits

Habits are powerful, but they’re not inherently useful unless they serve a larger purpose. It’s great to build and successfully maintain a habit, Meyers says, but not for its own sake. They are a means to an end, so it’s crucial to reflect regularly and make sure your habits are aligned with your desired outcome.

Another misconception is that habits will automatically form in a certain number of days, for everyone in every context. The reality is more complicated. “The likelihood of success depends on so many moving parts,” Meyers says. For example, your environment can accelerate the timeline of habit formation (if people around you are forming similar habits) or lengthen it (if you’re surrounded by competing triggers).

In fact, your environment can do a lot to boost your own willpower, according to USC psychology professor Wendy Wood. It might be tempting to think we can brute-force our way into new habits, but adding helpful cues to our surroundings can go a long way. It’s the classic advice of leaving your gym bag packed, at the door, so you don’t have an excuse to skip the gym in the morning.

And one last thing: Despite what the DuoLingo owl might have you think, missing one day of a habit (i.e. “breaking your streak”) is not catastrophic, Meyers says. What’s more useful is to zoom out and recognize that completing, say, 27 out of 30 days in a month is still a success.

How do habits actually work?

The key to forming new habits, on a brain-level, is something called neuroplasticity. This term “refers to the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections in response to learning and behavioral changes,” according to Jessica Koehler Ph.D.

When you’re forming new habits, you’re taking advantage of that neuroplasticity. Meyers explains it using a metaphor: Imagine you come to the edge of a forest, and there’s no clear way through. You pick a random spot and start bushwacking, scraping yourself on branches along the way. It’s painful, but you make it to the other side. Next time you approach the forest, you can vaguely see the path you took, and you try to follow it – still getting scraped up a bit, but not as much. Eventually, the path becomes so well-worn that you can follow it easily and without effort.

This is, in a way, what happens when you form a new habit. It might feel hard at first, but as you repeat it, the neural pathway becomes stronger in your brain, and easier to follow automatically, Meyers says.

And remember that “cue-routine-reward” loop from earlier? That has a strong basis in neuroscience, too. “Over time, your brain associates the cue with the reward, and the behavior becomes automatic,” Koehler writes.

How to form good habits

5 tips to find your best morning routine

By Kat Boogaard In Productivity

There are plenty of good habits you might want to form in your professional life, like time-blocking for deep focus or doing regular check-ins with your manager. Here’s how to do it:

Identify the habit you want to create.
Choose a cue, or trigger, that will prompt you to start the habit loop.
Perform the action.
Feel the reward of following through. “It’s key to recognize you just kept that promise to yourself,” Meyers says.

Let’s say you’re trying to create that habit of deep-focus work sessions. Here’s what that could look like:

Cue: Each morning, before you start your work day, look at your schedule and identify a block of time you can use for focused work. Put this on your calendar.
Action: When the allotted time arrives, silence your notifications and work on your task, uninterrupted, for the duration of the time block.
Reward: You’ll get the sense of accomplishment for having made real progress on your project – and will be more likely to repeat the action in the future.

The steps are rather simple, and they can flex to meet your needs.

For example, Meyers recommends keeping the rewards mostly intrinsic (e.g. that hit of dopamine for feeling productive) rather than extrinsic (e.g. eating a bar of chocolate). But you might want to incorporate the occasional external reward to give yourself an extra incentive to keep up a daily habit, Meyers says.

How to break bad habits

Breaking undesirable habits works basically in reverse.

Identify the habit you’d like to leave behind.
Add friction to the undesired action.
Create a desirable alternative.
Recognize when you successfully avoid the undesired action.

Meyers did this in her own life with the habit of aimlessly scrolling on her phone. She recognized this was something she often did while bored, and wanted to stop. She added friction by turning off her phone in certain situations, or leaving it in the car when she was out. Then, she carried a daily planner with her to create a desirable alternative: In moments of boredom, she’d take out the notebook and reflect on the progress she’d made on her to-do list, which created a hit of dopamine similar to what she got from scrolling.

It’s not perfect: Sometimes Myers still grabs the phone in moments of boredom, but now she’s much more likely to go for the notebook, instead.

good habits menu

Not sure what kind of habits to incorporate in your life? Here are some that Meyers recommends:

Create a sleep schedule and stick to it: Meyers calls this a “keystone habit” that ensures you’re rested enough to tackle more ambitious habits.
Start each day with solitude: Having a moment to yourself in the morning helps you reflect and take care of your own needs.
Identify your top three goals for each day: Maybe in that moment of solitude, you can set your priorities for the day before distractions take hold.
Acknowledge your wins: Take a moment at the end of the day to celebrate what went well, and recognize your own progress.
Create a screen-free bedtime routine: Avoiding blue light from phones or laptops before bed can help you regulate your sleep cycle and get more rest.

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Team Playbook: Your AI teammate

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 19:25:42 +0000

Play details

Prep time	15 – 30 mins
Run time	20 – 120 mins
People	1
What you’ll need	Preferred AI tool that lets you build an agent (e.g., Rovo)

5-second summary

Come up with ideas for AI agents.
Build your first agent.
Test and edit your agent

Play resources

About this play

What is an AI Teammate play?	This play helps you understand the full potential of AI teammates by guiding you in building your first agent, specifically tailored to meet your unique needs and workflows, offering far more efficiency and personalization than a general AI chat. Your agents can serve as: – Creative and technical partners to brainstorm, iterate, and refine ideas. – Assistants to automate routine tasks, freeing up time for more strategic work. – Expert advisors to expand knowledge, enhance decision-making, and ensure your team can innovate and execute efficiently.
Why run the AI Teammate Play?	Creating a custom AI agent is like hiring a specialist to join your team who really excels at performing a certain task with a high degree of speed and quality. For example, when you build your own agent, you can tailor it to your unique needs, automating specific tasks and integrating it seamlessly into your workflow.
When should you run the AI Teammate Play?	The best teams align on what needs to get done and how the work will happen, and teams that include humans and AI are no different. However, unlike expanding your human team, expanding your AI team doesn’t necessarily mean consulting the rest of your team. You can create AI teammates anytime to suit your needs or collaborate and build with your team.
3 benefits of AI Teammates Play	By treating AI as a teammate and developing specialized agents, you can transition from a simple AI user to a strategic AI collaborator. This shift brings several advantages, including: 1. Improved Return on Investment (ROI): Strategic AI collaborators save more time on a daily basis compared to simple users. 2. Increased Productivity: People who treat AI as a strategic collaborator are more likely to reinvest the time saved to dive more deeply into their work, like learning new skills and generating new ideas. 3. Higher Quality Work: 85% of those who collaborate strategically with AI said their work quality improved over the last month.

Instructions

1. Come up with ideas for agents (15-30 minutes)

At the end of this week, spend five minutes reflecting on workflows where agents could have been useful. Focus on tasks that are repetitive, time-consuming, and involve text-based outputs, as these are prime candidates for automation. Ask yourself:

What tasks did you not enjoy that you’d rather outsource to a teammate?
What tasks took way longer than you thought that you might be able to speed up?
Looking at your calendar, are there any tasks that are repeated each day/week/month?

Here are some examples of when to build an agent vs. use general AI tools:

Repetitive tasks (that you can automate): If you’re performing the same task over and over, an AI agent can automate it for you.
Example: Automating data entry into spreadsheets or generating weekly sales reports.
Prompts that you feed AI over and over: When you find yourself repeatedly using similar prompts for specific tasks, an AI agent can handle those with less effort on your part.
Example: Consistently generating marketing content based on specific themes or product categories.
Problems you face every week: For recurring issues, a custom AI agent can handle routine problem-solving or flag challenges that need attention.
Example: Managing customer support tickets or automatically scheduling meetings based on availability.
Nuanced tasks where you want to store specialized knowledge: If a task requires knowledge that needs to be refined or specific expertise, an AI agent can store and apply that knowledge to make better decisions.
Example: An internal knowledge base for legal or financial compliance, where the AI pulls up relevant information based on the current task or question.

Once you have a few things on your list, block off 15 – 90 minutes in your calendar next week to build an agent to address one of these tasks.

Optional: Find an accountability buddy and plan to make a list of use cases together. Message your buddy with your idea for an agent and when you plan to try to build it. Research shows we’re likelier to follow through on intentions if we make an if-then plan for how we’ll do so.

2. Build your agent (15-90 minutes)

Now that you’ve identified a task that’s a prime candidate for turning into an AI agent, it’s time to start building your agent.

Outline the agent’s role: Define the problem you want your agent to solve Next, determine whether the agent will function as an assistant, a decision-maker, or a data processor. Here are some examples:
- Assistant agent: The agent is meant to communicate with users.
  Example: A customer support agent that can understand and respond to user inquiries in natural language, such as “What’s the status of my order?” and “Can you help me with a refund?” by processing text and generating human-like replies.
- Decision-making agent: The agent is meant to take action based on inputs.
  Example: A sales agent that uses decision trees to qualify leads. If a lead responds with “I’m interested in a subscription plan,” the agent might ask follow-up questions like “Which plan are you interested in?” or “What’s your company size?” to determine the appropriate next steps.
- Task automation agent: The agent is meant to automate a defined task.
  Example: An email response agent that automatically replies to common inquiries, such as “Thank you for your message, we’ll get back to you soon,” or schedules meetings by pulling available time slots from a calendar and confirming with the user.
Choose an AI platform: Choose your preferred AI tool like Rovo or OpenAI’s GPT.
Choose your approach for building the agent: Decide if you will duplicate an existing agent or build one from scratch. Many AI tools, like Rovo, include instructions for how to build new agents or use premade agents that you can tailor to your specific needs.
Write instructions for your agent: Whether you’re making a new agent or making a copy of an existing one, you’ll need to give your agent instructions on what to do. Instructions help define the agent’s tasks and guide its behavior, ensuring it responds accurately and efficiently to user requests. Consider the following questions when drafting these instructions:
- What will the agent do? (role)
- What specific goals or knowledge will your agent focus on? (context))
- What specific tasks or jobs will your agent be able to perform? (task)
- What tone and response style should your agent have? (tone/format)
- What constraints should be emphasized or avoided?

Tip: have your agent ask you questions

Tell your agent to ask you questions in the prompt one at a time and wait for a response before proceeding to the next question. That way, it won’t try to perform its job before you’ve provided it with all the necessary context.

Create conversation starters: Include suggested prompts or questions that help you begin a chat with an agent and guide them on how to interact. Try to use examples that show off the most common things you plan to ask the agent to do as shortcuts. If you leave the field blank, your agent will use generic conversation starters.
- Example: An agent that writes social media content for your brand might have the following conversation starters: “Write a short Instagram post,” “Create 15 hashtags I can use for this post,” “What’s a tagline I can use to get people’s attention on this post?”
- Example: An agent that helps you find subject matter experts might have the following conversation starters: “Who should I talk to about this work?,” “What team is responsible for this work?,” “Has anyone been working on similar subject matter to this page?”
Provide knowledge to your agent: This refers to the information and resources you give your agent to improve its accuracy and responses. While all agents have generic knowledge, adding specific sources, like Confluence pages, templates, examples of tone, specific expertise, or even Google Drive links, help optimize performance.

Tip: update your knowledge sources

Regularly update the knowledge sources linked to your agent to keep it current and accurate.

3. Fine-tune your agent

Once your agent has been created, testing and tweaking are crucial to identify and correct any inconsistencies or errors in its responses. Here are some ways to test and edit your agent:

Put on a different “hat” and try to “break” your agent. Ask unusual/strange questions and challenge its assumptions.
Ask a colleague to “break” your agent. Pro tip: Have them make a video, like a Loom recording, of them trying to break the agent so you can see the prompt and response.
Revise your prompt based on any strange or unexpected responses it gives to you or your colleague.

Tip: Keep your original prompts

Copy and paste your original prompt somewhere else (e.g., a Confluence page) so you can revert if your changes do not solve the problem—not all agent builders have version history.

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How to take ownership of your work (and why you should)

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 21:18:16 +0000

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In psychology, an internal locus of control is a key predictor of life satisfaction. People who see themselves – not external forces – as in charge of their life outcomes feel more grounded, fulfilled, and empowered.

This principle applies to our professional lives, too. But as an employee, it might feel like you don’t have much power to control what you spend your days working on. In her new book Managing Up: How to Get What You Need from the People in Charge, Melody Wilding demonstrates that we often have more self-determination than we think we do.

Managing Up gives readers a map for shaping their career by building a strong relationship with their boss or manager. Part of that strategy is taking ownership: seizing projects and opportunities that can move your career forward.

We sat down with Melody to unpack what it means to take ownership, what it can do for your career, and how to do it in an impactful way.

What does it mean to take ownership at work?

How to advocate for yourself at work

By Lauren Parker In Productivity

In Managing Up, taking ownership is the act of declaring that you’ll step in to resolve an issue or seize an opportunity – then following through on your claim. “Ownership is the courage to raise your hand and say you’ll take something on to make work better for everyone – even if it’s not in your job description,” says Melody.

Does this sound scary? Well, pivoting to a more proactive approach to work can be intimidating! But today, we’re explaining how to take ownership in exactly the right way.

By taking ownership of initiatives that interest you, you can take a more active role in building the career you want. You don’t need to wait around for someone to hand you that perfect project – you can start proving your abilities in the areas you’d like to expand into.

If you’ve ever heard the saying ‘dress for the job you want,’ taking ownership is like a more powerful version of that same strategy because you’re doing the work, not just dressing for it. Not to mention it’s better suited for 2025, when plenty of talented people log on to work in their pajamas.

Finding an ownership-ready challenge

Melody has a simple rubric for identifying opportunities that are ripe for the taking: look for a triple win. “What’s something that has a career benefit to you, will feel important to your boss, and will also have a positive impact on the organization as a whole?” she asks. “Ideally, you’ll take ownership of a challenge that’s at the intersection of these three things.”

You should also account for the working environment you’re in. For example, if you’re a new hire or your company is financially risk-averse, you may want to start by taking ownership of a project that would have fewer negative outcomes if you don’t succeed.

Not sure where to look? Consider starting with:

Things colleagues consistently complain about or seem drained by
Areas where people are using inefficient workarounds
What leadership discussions are focusing on and where future budget is being allocated

5 challenges and opportunities to own

7 sneaky ways friction is making your work life harder

By Genevieve Michaels In Productivity

Bothersome bottlenecks: Inefficiencies that stress people out and slow down productivity
- It’s taking forever to onboard new hires, so you propose and lead the creation of a centralized knowledge base with self-serve onboarding workflows
Neglected needs: Unmet needs, projects, and priorities that are consistently being overlooked
- Your industry landscape has changed, and your company has spent months discussing new features that could help you stay competitive. You plan a series of cross-team prioritization discussions to start bringing them out of the theoretical stage
Feedback patterns: What do colleagues, customers, and stakeholders keep saying they need more or less of?
- Customers keep coming to the support team with the same kinds of issues over and over. You propose a new service management tool that will let you create automated responses to these persistent issues, and oversee its implementation
Upcoming projects: What priorities are coming up in the pipeline, and how can you proactively address them?
- Your organization is launching a full, rebranded website. You propose a launch strategy with industry influencers to get the word out and give your community context for this new direction
Innovation opportunities: How can your organization reimagine or evolve its work to create better results?
- You notice a skills gap in your organization, so you develop a training program or partner with a local university to train interns

4 steps to taking ownership

Storming into the CEO’s office unannounced with a bold new cost-cutting or money-making plan is unlikely to go over well. As you prepare to take ownership, here are four steps to build momentum around your idea, get stakeholders on board, and set yourself up for success.

Build buy-in with pre-suasion

You don’t want your boss or manager to be hearing about your project for the first time when you’re trying to get it approved. “Change makes people nervous,” explains Melody. “You’re likely to get immediate pushback if you haven’t tested the waters for your idea.”

That’s why she recommends using a technique called pre-suasion, a term coined by psychologist Robert Cialdini. “This isn’t about manipulation or planting an idea in someone’s head,” she says. “The goal is to lay the groundwork so when you make a request to move forward, it feels like a natural next step.”

Here’s how pre-suasion could sound in practice:

Ask for feedback on how your organization is currently addressing (or not addressing) the problem, before bringing up your new solution
Build urgency by talking about results competitors have created in the area you’re focused on, or why now might be the right time to act
Mention that you’ve been researching potential solutions or strategies, even before you have something concrete to share

Present your idea with the SCQA framework (Situation, Complication, Question, Answer)

It’s important to be concise and focus on value when you’re ready to present your idea. “Very often, people either lead with too much backstory, or they problem-dump and focus on the issue and not their solution,” says Melody. “Either way, you risk stressing out leadership and losing their attention.”

Instead, use the SCQA framework as an easy tool to make sure you’re sharing your idea convincingly. Here’s what it looks like in action:

Situation: Context to help your listener understand the problem or opportunity
- “It’s been years since we’ve had a healthy talent pipeline. Everyone feels like they don’t have the headcount to get things done, even though there’s budget to hire.”
Complication: Challenges or obstacles that stand in the way of taking action
- “Every department is doing whatever they can to find people – everything from posting multiple job boards to tapping personal networks to managers acting as informal recruiters. There’s no cohesion between job postings, and candidates we do attract are often unqualified.”
Question: Your hypothesis for a worthwhile solution
- “I think we need a more organized, centralized strategy that makes connecting with incredible talent an ongoing business process.”
Answer: How you propose putting that hypothesis into action to solve the problem
- “I’ve compiled this list of specialized recruiting firms that focus on our industry. Many are connected to local universities and other firms in our field. I think we should build a stable, long-term partnership with one of them and take finding candidates off managers’ plates.”

Bring others along

Even though you’re taking ownership, other collaborators will need to be involved to some degree. Taking ownership effectively is about striking a balance between individual initiative and maintaining a team player spirit.

“The goal is to include the right people, in the right ways, without creating extra work or adding to their cognitive load,” says Melody. That will look different at different stages of the ownership process.

As you work on your idea, consider bringing others along by:

Asking for input on initial strategy via surveys or brainstorming sessions
Inviting other perspectives with informal coffee chats as you develop the idea
Keeping stakeholders in the loop on outcomes via regular Slack updates or 1:1s

Pre-plan for challenges

Very few great ideas become reality without any unforeseen challenges. Hurdles and uncertainty shouldn’t be a dealbreaker – especially if you anticipate them. Melody recommends planning for both internal resistance and less-than-ideal project outcomes.

Reframe resistance and respond strategically

“Don’t take resistance personally. It’s usually related to peoples’ natural fear response, not the quality of your idea,” Melody says. “You can even reframe resistance as a form of engagement. People have opinions, and are actively pressure-testing your idea.”

Here are some possible ways you might respond to resistance:

Try opening the discussion with an even more ambitious idea, so you can find common ground together that’s closer to your original plan
Highlight how resistors’ own skills and talents could actually contribute to the outcomes you want
Don’t be afraid to keep bringing up your idea (tactfully), even if your manager didn’t seem open to discussing it at first

Play out and plan for the worst-case scenario

“What would happen in the absolute worst-case scenario, like your plans totally flop and you embarrass yourself?” asks Melody. “If you play this out, you can come up with a bounce-back plan. You’ll likely also get a reality check that a negative outcome isn’t as bad as you fear.”

Here are a few worst-case scenarios, and how you could plan for them:

Your manager is completely unreceptive and won’t even listen to your idea, let alone give you the green light
- This could indicate you may need to apply for other internal or external roles to get the growth you want, if that option is available to you.
Your initiative doesn’t get the results or ROI you promise, and you’ve wasted company resources
- You suggest easing into the project, and scaling up depending on initial outcomes. For example, you could start with a smaller budget or use freelancers instead of making a new hire
As soon as you launch a new feature, your competitor comes out with a similar but more comprehensive version
- Plan ahead for the new feature to be reassessed and improved after four months based on user and stakeholder feedback

Managing Up is available now. Connect with Melody Wilding on LinkedIn, and learn more about her books, programs, coaching, and speaking on her website.

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The post How to take ownership of your work (and why you should) appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian.

To-do list trickledown: How to stay organized and keep your team on track

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 15:21:16 +0000

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You’ve settled into your workspace, a steaming cup of coffee in hand, ready to dive into the strategic plan your boss eagerly awaits. But just as you begin – Ping. A Slack message from your finance partner: “Don’t forget to send budget requests by EOD.” You barely process this before – Ping. An email from your dentist’s office reminding you to schedule your biannual cleaning. You take a breath, but – Ping. Workday lets you know your direct report’s timesheet is ready for approval. In mere moments, your focus time spirals into chaos, your to-do list expanding with relentless urgency.

This barrage of notifications is more than just a minor inconvenience; it’s a plague on productivity. Just as we cross a to-do off our list, another one pops up. It’s no wonder that two-thirds of employees end their day with unresolved tasks on their to-do lists.

So, how are we supposed to manage to-dos flying at us from every direction? Which ones do we swat away and which do we prioritize? And, how are the people who seem to stay on top of it all doing it!?

We set out to find answers to these questions by conducting a survey of 6,000 knowledge workers across six countries about their to-do list practices. Let’s dig into what we learned.

A note on our survey methodology

The survey was conducted by Wakefield Research among 6,000 knowledge workers in 6 markets: US, UK, Australia, India, Germany and France, with a quota of 1,000 respondents per market, between December 20th, 2024, and January 12th, 2025, using an email invitation and an online survey.

State of the to-do list

Being organized is widely recognized as a significant advantage when it comes to managing tasks effectively. In fact, a remarkable 89% of workers believe that the most organized individuals are typically the ones who accomplish the most. Wanting to be part of this crowd, 82% of people have established a formal system to keep their to-dos organized.

However, these systems are like snowflakes – no two are exactly alike. Interestingly, over half (52%) of knowledge workers admit that their organizational methods may appear chaotic to outsiders, yet they firmly believe that these approaches work well for them.

Regardless of how different our to-do lists may look, we all share the satisfying feeling that accompanies crossing an item off the list. In fact, a striking 70% of professionals with a to-do list prefer the thrill of marking an item complete over receiving praise from a coworker.

Dueling lists: personal vs. work to-dos

We also surveyed individuals about how they organize their personal versus professional to-dos. We found nearly half (47%) of employees maintain two distinct to-do lists to track their personal and work responsibilities. In contrast, about a quarter (23%) opt to consolidate all tasks into a single to-do list, while 21% only keep a to-do list for work-related tasks, leaving personal reminders to rely solely on memory.

We also found that people are juggling their to-dos – both personal and work – in many places: calendars, notebooks, productivity apps.

So which is the best approach? Keep personal and work tasks separate, or together? Track tasks in one place, or several? While everyone has their own preference, our research suggests the more you use organizational systems and tools from your workplace to track all tasks, the better off you will be.

Individuals who use an organizational system they learned at work are 1.4x more likely to consider themselves organized than those who rely on a system they designed on their own. Furthermore, organized individuals are twice as likely to use tools from their workplace to organize their personal to-dos.

The disorganization domino effect

Within a team, individual productivity is part of a highly complex and interconnected web. You may have all your ducks in a row, but a disorganized colleague can halt your (and your team’s) forward momentum.

If you don’t consider yourself a particularly organized person, beware, as people have very little patience for their less organized coworkers. Almost 4 in 5 (78%) of respondents said they’d rather take on extra work than be forced to collaborate with a disorganized colleague. (Kind of like being the school group project member who throws their hands up and says, “fine, I’ll do it all myself.”) Furthermore, almost two-thirds of workers said they’d fire a disorganized team member if it meant improving overall results.

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise how resentful workers can be of a less-than-organized teammate. The lack of order can cause serious delays – and serious bad feelings.

Improve personal productivity in three steps

Tip #1: Timebox

An easy first step, we’ve found, to get a better handle of your to-dos, is to hone your ability to estimate how long a particular task is going to take. Then, set aside that time in your calendar, and do your best to protect it.

This technique is called “timeboxing,” and it’s especially useful for people who struggle with procrastination or who often find themselves haplessly attempting to make progress on multiple projects at once, in the same short window. (Spoiler: this rarely works out. Your attention span is only so flexible.)

Timeboxing is a tried-and-true technique for keeping productivity and alignment high. In a recent experiment with Atlassians, we found that 68% made more progress when they timeboxed their calendar, and goal clarity improved for 55%. The takeaway? When you orient your day around the most important tasks you need to accomplish, you’re – by design – identifying your most important work.

Better yet: make your calendar visible to your whole team so they can see what you’re working on, when you’re doing it, and the amount of time it’ll take for you to see it through.

Trello now includes a Planner feature that lets you move to-dos over to your calendar right from your Trello board – and vice versa.

Tip #2: Give your to-do list a makeover

Did you know that organized people are 1.4x more likely to delete items from their to-do list if they don’t complete them within a few days? Rather than letting tasks linger (and eventually end up on the chopping block), get in the habit of saying “no” earlier than later. And remember, if a task is neither impactful nor urgent, it may not need to be on your to-do list in the first place.With Trello, everyone can be freed from having to track down to-dos from multiple lists. All your captured to-dos land right in your Trello Inbox, where you can review, sort, and filter new to-dos and organize however you prefer.

Tip #3: Chart your daily “top to-do” – and follow it!

To-doing and timeboxing are all well and good, so long as you have a clear understanding of what you’re working toward. This is where the “top to-do” comes in.

At the end of each workday, take a few minutes to set a top to-do for the following day, and rejigger your schedule to ensure it’s set up to enable you all the time and space you need to get it done. The top to-do should be one (just one!) high-impact task on your plate that you can’t delegate or ignore – or quietly delete from your to-do list.

Starting small is key. Accomplishing ONE big thing every day gives you strong momentum. It’s easy for deep-working, task-accomplishing time to take a backseat to meetings, pings, and returning emails.

Real productivity means making way for real work; a top to-do is a surefire way of getting there.

Meet your personal productivity potential

Our to-do lists are as much of a work in progress as we are. As our assignments, teams, and work styles evolve, so should the systems and tools we have in place to organize it all.

Pairing a flexible to-do list tool like Trello* with the strategies outlined in this post will set you on your way toward a more organized version of yourself. Embrace the process!

Check out our Product blog for all the nitty-gritty details on the all-new Trello!

Read the blog

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The post To-do list trickledown: How to stay organized and keep your team on track appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian.

Quiz: Which time management strategy is right for you?

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 20:05:30 +0000

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5-second summary

Time management strategies are specific frameworks or systems to maximize your time and energy
We’ve gathered five time management strategies that put you in the driver’s seat of your tasks, schedule, time, and energy, each in a different way.
Take our one-minute quiz to find out which strategy will be the biggest difference-maker for you.

Where the heck did the day go? Time slipped right through my fingers. Next week, things will calm down.

Every single one of us has had those exact thoughts about our workdays. But here’s the harsh truth: You won’t magically find or manufacture more time. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not when that big project is wrapped up. So, according to the laws of physics, you need to make the most of the time you already have.

That’s where time management strategies come into play. These models go beyond the daily war with your to-do list, helping you execute meaningful work in an efficient and fulfilling way.

Jump to the quiz

How do time management strategies help?

Time management strategies are specific frameworks or systems to maximize your time and energy. Put another way, they help you overcome several common time management roadblocks.

Multitasking: Research shows that the human brain is incapable of doing more than one thing at once (unless you count autonomous tasks like breathing). When you think you’re multitasking, you’re actually context switching – rapidly jumping between various tasks. While it might make you feel like you’re dominating your to-do list, this constant switching of gears is a drag on your productivity. Time management strategies help you stop juggling and start focusing.
Fires and emergencies: You know the feeling. Your intentions for your workday are quickly sidetracked by the latest three-alarm emergency that lands in your inbox. While time management strategies won’t keep these red alerts off your desk entirely, they will help you better discern what actually deserves your immediate attention, rather than continuing to play inbox whack-a-mole.
Information overload: Meetings. Emails. Notifications. Calls. Documents. Requests. Day in and day out, you’re inundated with information. That cognitive overload (which is what happens when the volume or complexity of incoming information exceeds your ability to absorb it) causes us to be less effective by seeking out low-value tasks, overlooking important details, and overall just feeling stuck. The right time management strategy can help you filter through the relentless noise to find your starting point.
Energy depletion: Everything we’ve already mentioned – from the last-minute requests to an information avalanche – quickly drains your tank. Time management strategies allow you to be more mindful of not only your time but also your energy levels. With the right approach in your toolbox, you’ll be better equipped to schedule work more strategically and avoid running yourself ragged.

There are plenty of hurdles that time management strategies will get you over, but they’re not a fix-all. If you’re struggling with an unmanageable workload, bona fide burnout, or other mental health challenges, the right time management hack probably isn’t your answer. Those more complex issues require conversations with your company leadership and/or a trusted mental health professional.

The fundamentals: 13 time management best practices that always hold water

There are several specific time management strategies you can use to make better use of your work hours. We’ll get to those frameworks in a minute. But, regardless of which of those you try, there are a few general time management best practices that are always a good idea – and a good place to start.

Audit your time: Want to make better use of your time? You need to know where you’re starting. Whether you use an automated time tracker or a simple notepad, keep track of your work hours and what you get done. Do this for at least a couple of weeks so you can spot trends and identify improvement areas.
Set goals: Your ultimate objective is to manage your time better, but that can feel broad and intangible. Instead, set time management-related SMART goals to encourage and monitor your progress, such as signing off every weekday by 5PM, or spending the first 15 minutes of every morning making a to-do list.
Stop procrastinating: Procrastination is one of the biggest culprits eating away at your precious work hours, but it can be tough to overcome. Set a timer, enlist an accountability buddy, or find another hack that nudges you to just get started.
Break down big tasks: Intimidation could be behind your persistent procrastination. So, break that big undertaking down into more manageable tasks and milestones. It’ll feel less daunting and also give you regular intervals to recognize and celebrate your progress.
Incentivize yourself: When you reach a milestone or cross off another task, treat yourself. Whether you go for a quick walk or grab your favorite snack, even small, seemingly insignificant rewards can encourage you to keep moving forward.
Prioritize: Time management is about focusing on your most important work. To do so, you need to parse out the meaningful from the mundane. Strategically ordering your work based on criteria like impact, deadlines, and effort required serves as a good foundation for any time management strategy.
Schedule breaks: Even the most productive people need adequate time to rest and recharge. No time management system should be synonymous with constant, dogged work. Your brain quite literally needs breaks – brain activity research says so.
Limit distractions: Even the best time management strategy will suffer if you’re consistently waylaid by pings, pushes, and drop-bys. Try your best to minimize distractions, especially during times when you’re doing deep work.
Check your environment: Your work environment has a direct impact on your productivity. Sitting on your couch in the dark while hunched over your laptop isn’t conducive to peak focus. Find or create a quiet space with some natural light and at least a somewhat ergonomic setup to support your best work (and, you know, your back).
Get organized: Searching for what you need isn’t the most efficient use of your time. Get a decent organization system in place so that, when you’re ready to work, you can jump right in.
Avoid multitasking: Even if you think you’re a whiz at doing several things at once, you’re doing your brain a disservice by trying to multitask. Instead, pick one task to focus on at a time. You’ll get it done better – and faster – than if you had simultaneously juggled it with two other to-do’s.
Understand your peaks and valleys: You know you best, so think about how your energy tends to ebb and flow throughout the workday. Paying attention to when you’re most focused and energized will help you make the most of those energetic hours, like saving your morning for deep work and cleaning out your inbox after lunch.
Delegate: You can only do so much with the hours you have. But there’s good news: You don’t have to do it all alone. Knowing what you can delegate (whether you hand tasks off to technology or another person) is one of the best ways to buy yourself more time and reserve your focus for your most meaningful and impactful work.

Night owl or early bird? Discover your circadian personality

By Tracy Middleton In Productivity

5 time management strategies to maximize your time and energy

Now that you’re schooled on the basics, let’s take a look at four widely used time management frameworks.

1. Eisenhower Matrix

What it is: A four-quadrant chart that helps you categorize all your tasks based on their urgency and their importance or impact

How it works: Draw a square and separate it into four even quadrants. Along the y-axis, label those boxes with “important” and “not important.” On the top x-axis, label those boxes with “urgent” and “not urgent.”

Next, categorize each task on your to-do list. Is that slide deck important and urgent? It goes in the top left box. Is your expense report not important but urgent? It goes in the bottom left box. Once everything is sorted, you can approach each category like this:

Urgent and important: Do these first!
Urgent and not important: Delegate these if you can. Otherwise, tackle them next.
Not urgent and important: Schedule time for these in the coming weeks.
Not urgent and not important: These can fall off your to-do list entirely.

Also called a “prioritization matrix,” this handy tool helps you filter through a lengthy task list and pull out the items that require your immediate attention.

From the Playbook

Allthethings Prioritization Matrix

Run the Play

2. 80/20 Rule

What it is: A principle positing that 80% of your results come from only 20% of your efforts.

How it works: Since time management is about getting the most meaningful work done, this strategy (also called the Pareto Principle) focuses on finding the highest-impact tasks on your list – with the idea that those will generate the biggest outcomes for your workday.

You’ll likely be drawn to the low-hanging fruit and quick wins on your to-do list, but this guiding principle forces you to look at your tasks through a new lens: Which ones will have the biggest impact?

Cleaning up your inbox probably won’t lead to a substantial result. However, compiling all the data that another team has been waiting on for days will.

3. Time blocking

What it is: A method that involves splitting your day into segments of time and dedicating each one to a specific task.

How it works: Remember when you were in school and you knew what to expect during every moment of your day? At 11am you’re in chemistry class, at noon you have lunch, and so on.

Time blocking is a lot like that. You’ll create blocks of time on your calendar and assign certain tasks or groups of tasks to that specific spot on your schedule.

For example, maybe you’ll address your emails from 8am to 9am, meet with the design team from 9am to 9:30am, and draft copy for a project from 9:30am to 11:30am.

It might feel overly prescriptive or rigid. But this level of detail helps you take a more proactive approach to your workday, rather than letting emails, requests, and other people control your entire schedule.

4. Pomodoro Technique

What it is: A strategy that breaks your workday into smaller chunks of time (usually 25 minutes) separated by five-minute breaks.

How it works: Your workday might feel daunting, but you could likely do pretty much anything if you knew it’d only take 25 minutes, right?

That’s the concept behind the Pomodoro Technique. The gist is that you’ll set a timer and work for a period of 25 minutes. When the timer goes off, you take a five-minute break. After doing that cycle (called a “pomodoro”) four times, you take a longer break of about 20 minutes.

It’s helpful for a few reasons. For starters, it can amp up your focus by instilling a greater sense of urgency. Most of us are naturally competitive, so you’ll likely challenge yourself to get as much done as you can in that 25-minute chunk before your timer goes off.

Plus, the Pomodoro Technique has built-in breaks. As counterintuitive as it seems, those regular opportunities to step away can give a major boost to your energy and productivity.

5. Not-to-do list

What it is: A documented list of time-wasting tasks and negative behaviors you’ll consistently and reliably avoid

How it works: You’re familiar with a to-do list, but this is the exact opposite. Rather than making a list of all of the things you want to get done, you’ll write a list of the things you won’t do.

What are the vices or bad habits that consistently distract you from your work? Or the tasks that you’ve supposedly delegated but still manage to find you anyway? Or the things you know you should say “no” to but have a hard time resisting?

Those are the types of things that go on your not-to-do list. While it might sound like a silly exercise, writing things down is powerful. This simple activity can help you gain clarity about the areas where you need to be careful and resist falling into old, unproductive patterns and routines.

Which time management strategy should you try?

These five time management strategies put you in the driver’s seat of your tasks, schedule, time, and energy, each in a different way. But that doesn’t mean you should roll out all of them at once.

You’ll see better results if you pick one. Not sure how to figure out which one will be the biggest difference-maker for you? This one-minute quiz will point you in the right direction.

Once you know which time management strategy is best suited to you and your goals, test it out and see if it makes a noticeable difference. If it’s the right fit, you shouldn’t just get more done – you should feel more fulfilled and energized by what you’ve accomplished.

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The post Quiz: Which time management strategy is right for you? appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian.

Don’t underestimate the outsized impact of short-term goals

Fri, 10 Jan 2025 17:40:00 +0000

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Whether you realize it or not, you probably already set quite a few short-term goals for yourself.

You want to sort your to-do list before your morning meeting. You want to go for a walk over lunch at least three days this week. You want to land five speaking opportunities this quarter.

Throughout your day, week, month, or year, you set small-in-scope, attainable finish lines that give you a little boost of forward momentum. Those are short-term goals. But what exactly makes these bite-sized objectives so helpful?

Let’s explore the power behind short-term goal-setting – and how you can hack these goals to boost your own motivation and sense of satisfaction.

What is a short-term goal?

A short-term goal is exactly what it sounds like: it’s something that you want to accomplish in the relatively near future.

Simple enough, but it’s worth digging a little further into the mechanics of this type of goal. A short-term goal:

Can be accomplished in a short timeframe (most experts say within a year or less)
Details a specific action to take or target to accomplish
Supports a broader vision for your career or life

Here are a few short-term goals – both personal and professional – to get your own wheels turning:

Short-term career goal examples

Complete company’s three-month leadership training program
Lead a cross-functional project this quarter
Provide praise and positive feedback to at least one employee per week this month

Short-term personal goal examples

Stretch every day this week
Read two books this month
Pay off car loan by the end of the year

Long-term goals vs. short-term goals: What’s the difference?

So how do short-term goals stack up against long-term counterparts? It’s easy to think about them in terms of duration – short-term goals impact the near future and long-term goals look further out. But to get a more nuanced handle on the difference between short-term and long-term goals, it’s better to think about their intent:

Long-term goals reflect your overall values, beliefs, and desires.
Short-term goals are the specific actions you take to pursue those broader ambitions.

If your short-term goal is to complete your company’s leadership training program, that might feed your long-term goal of moving into a management position. Or your short-term goal might be to pay off your car loan because your long-term goal is to be debt-free.

Why bother setting short-term goals?

If you have your sights set on a faraway finish line anyway (whether that’s a promotion, financial independence, or something else), what’s the point of making pit stops along the way? Short-term goal setting is beneficial for a few important reasons.

1. Short-term goals are more motivating

Use motivation theory to inspire your team’s best work

By Kat Boogaard In Leadership

Anybody who’s ever set a New Year’s resolution (and then kissed it goodbye come February) will admit that it’s tough to muster the gumption to actually achieve a goal. Fortunately, short-term ambitions can give your motivation a much-needed boost.

You can thank the neurotransmitter dopamine for that. While it’s typically thought of as the feel-good brain chemical that’s released in response to a reward, research shows that it’s actually closely tied to motivation too. Dopamine is what pushes us to seek the reward in the first place.

Your brain knows that it feels good to accomplish things – it wants to cross that finish line. So, you’ll not only get a dopamine spike when you set the goal, but also when you’re close to achieving it.

Basically, your brain would much prefer an immediate celebration over delayed gratification, and short-term goals offer a more instant reward.

2. Short-term goals make the process feel more manageable

What feels easier? Going for a 30-minute walk today or training for an entire marathon? Even elite runners will likely admit that the walk requires a lot less sweat (both literally and figuratively).

Pursuing our goals often requires changing our behavior, whether that’s in big or small ways. And even on a good day, altering our habits, attitudes, and actions is tough. Short-term goals make it all feel a little more doable, not by changing your lofty and intimidating goals, but by dividing them into more attainable guideposts.

3. Short-term goals give you an action plan

It’s easy to figure out where you want to go – getting there is the hard part. While setting a long-term goal pinpoints the target, it doesn’t actually fuel your journey.

That’s why you need short-term goals too. They detail the smaller behaviors and actions you need to take to move toward your long-term objectives.

If long-term goals are the destination, short-term goals are the roadmap.

4. Short-term goals allow for regular reflection and adjustments

Much like your desires and values, your goals will change over time. In addition to short-term goals serving as milestones when you can celebrate your progress, they also provide an opportunity for reflection.

How do you feel accomplishing this goal? Is it as rewarding as you thought it would be? Why or why not? Does it still align with your overarching vision?

That’s not to say you need to sit yourself down for in-depth self-analysis every time you check something off your list. Sometimes it’s just a gut check that occurs naturally.

If you finish that leadership program and feel drained rather than energized? That’s an indicator that you should reevaluate if you want to move into a management position at all, or if perhaps your aspirations have shifted somewhere along the way.

Better to change course now than when you’re at the end of the road.

How to set motivating short-term goals

How to write SMART goals

By Kat Boogaard In Productivity

Short-term goals are more action-oriented than your longer-term objectives. But then what separates them from all of the tasks that you frantically scribble on your daily to-do list?

Short-term goal setting requires a little more thought and intentionality than jotting down every task you need to check off that day. One of the best ways to ensure you’re investing the right amount of planning is by using the SMART goal framework.

In case you haven’t heard of SMART before, it’s an acronym to help you remember that your goals should be:

Specific: Be clear about what exactly needs to be accomplished. In the case of short-term goals, this should be an explicit action you want to take.
Measurable: Include a quantifiable benchmark so you’ll know when you’re successful.
Achievable: Especially since your short-term goals don’t stretch on forever, you need to confirm that they’re realistically attainable in a shorter time frame.
Relevant: Remember that your short-term goals are intended to support something bigger, so they need to be relevant to your overall vision.
Time-bound: Every goal needs a deadline—and that’s especially true for short-term goals. What’s the end date for when you need to take that action?

Most of the short-term goal examples we listed above already incorporate elements of the SMART framework, but we can expand on them further to provide more helpful details. Here’s what that could look like:

SMART short-term career goal examples

Complete company’s three-month leadership training program this May
Kick off a cross-functional project involving at least three teams by the end of the quarter
Provide praise and positive feedback in-person or in writing to at least one employee per week this month

SMART short-term personal goal examples

Stretch for at least 10 minutes every day this week
Read two books (one fiction and one non-fiction) by the end of the month
Pay off remaining $4,000 balance on car loan by the end of the year

Short-term goals might not look years down the line, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worthy of some careful thought and planning. The SMART goal framework will help you set meaningful targets, rather than hollow or trivial to-dos.

Short-term goals: So much more than quick wins

Yes, short-term goals are objectives you set for the near future – but they’re so much more than low-hanging fruit you can grab for some instant gratification and a quick hit of dopamine.

Short-term goals give you a detailed action plan to realize your bigger ambitions and values. And they give you plenty of opportunities to reflect on whether the path you’re on is the one you actually want to stay on.

That’s a pretty big impact for a supposedly small goal.

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The post Don’t underestimate the outsized impact of short-term goals appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian.

Happy circle-back season, to those who celebrate

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 21:15:32 +0000

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The holidays are approaching, and suddenly everyone’s scrambling to wrap up projects before taking a break. What should be a time for winding down and holiday parties becomes a sprint to the finish line, bringing a calendar full of meetings, shifting priorities, an overflowing inbox, and a voice in your head whispering, “just one last email before you log off…”

That’s when mounting pressure gives way to the stark realization that you’re running out of time, and we start to hear a familiar phrase:

“Let’s circle back on that next year.”

As the end-of-year crunch fast approaches, Atlassian partnered with YouGov to survey 6,000 knowledge workers across six countries (US, France, Germany, UK, India, Australia) to unpack the circle-back phenomenon.

Spoiler alert: On average, 1 in 5 projects (19%) will be pushed to 2025. One-third of those unfinished projects will be abandoned entirely in the new year.

Why do teams circle back?

The end-of-year scramble can be tough on everyone, and our research shows that “circling back” has become a collective coping mechanism. Sixty-eight percent of knowledge workers say at least some projects will go unfinished, with shifting priorities (34%) and unexpected challenges (32%) serving as the main reasons why.

Avoiding burnout is a big motivator too, but one person’s blessing is another’s burden. While 18% of knowledge workers push projects back and pick them up in the new year to avoid year-end burnout, 22% say they avoid those kinds of delays to ensure a lighter January workload.

Yet workers seem to be missing a bigger opportunity. What if instead of scrambling to complete a laundry list of tasks, we use this as an opportunity to evaluate what really matters?

Mark your calendars

We’re calling it: December 17 is World Circle Back Day! By mid-December, 71% of workers will either have all tasks wrapped up or push them into 2025.

Circling back or spinning wheels?

Shared understanding: finding the “why” behind the “what”

By Ingrid Blake In Leadership

For many, the notion of “circling back” brings a deceptive feeling of relief. But pushing out projects – while an inevitable reality for some items in the December dash – might not result in the intended outcome. When it comes time to actually circle back, a mere 26% feel confident they can easily resume postponed projects in the new year.

Most workers have the best intentions for picking up their stalled projects, but it’s harder than it sounds. Who can remember an important action item shared verbally in a one-off meeting from last year? Or a small but mission-critical piece of client feedback in an email that’s now buried deep in your inbox?

Without documenting these decisions and touch points, teams work slow at best and ill-informed at worst, or end up running fast at the wrong priorities. And those tasks left on the back burner in December can quickly start to feel overwhelming in January, leading to delays – or worse, projects that drop entirely.

When important projects fall off the radar, it not only disrupts the flow of work, but also negatively impacts team trust and accountability. Suddenly your December dash turns into wasted output for the entire team.

Circling back(wards)

It’s hard to pick back up where you left off. Part of the problem is that workers tend to say they will circle back on EVERYTHING this time of year, instead of using it as an opportunity to get super clear on your team’s priorities and realistic about what does (or doesn’t) move the needle.

Some projects struggle to regain momentum after the holiday because they don’t have a big impact in the long run. These projects can feel tedious – we often call them “zombie projects” – technically “alive,” but failing to progress, draining resources and morale. The reality is that it might be time to scrap those zombie projects altogether. And that’s okay! The end of year is a great time to reevaluate your priorities, get clear on what matters, and come back prepared to make a meaningful impact with great focus (just make sure your team knows you’re scrapping it, too!).

So what about postponed projects that are mission-critical and worth circling back on? There are ways to set yourself up for success so your future self will thank you.

Disrupting the spin cycle

How to excel at asynchronous communication with your distributed team

By Jaime Netzer In Communication

A little time getting organized now can make a big difference in the new year. To pick up where you left off, teams need to document their important work, including up-to-date statuses and easy-to-find sources of truth with important context about each project.

These information sharing practices – often called asynchronous work – not only help you pick up where you left off, but make it easier to disconnect knowing your team has what they need to move work forward without you. This is especially useful during the holiday season, when mismatched PTO schedules, competing priorities, and fluctuating energy levels can make it tough to coordinate, risking delays or stalled progress. And no one wants to be on the receiving end of an angry ping asking where something is while on a holiday break.

what is asynchronous work?

Asynchronous work is teamwork that happens without needing everyone present, online, and available at the same time. Teammates can move work forward when it’s convenient for them, as long as the work is clearly documented, context is readily available, and there is clarity on expectations and deadlines.

Try these async work practices this circle-back season so your team can pick up right where it left off in 2025:

Capture context now for clarity post-holidays: Async work requires clearly documenting progress, decisions, and next steps in accessible formats like written documents, videos, or voice notes. Before you head out on PTO, publish a Confluence page (check out this OOO plan template) or record a Loom video that provides updates, suggested next steps, and context so team members can make progress while you’re out. Doing so means you can disconnect knowing you set your team – and your future self – up for success.
Time is of the essence, so think async first: When the pressure to complete projects mounts, it’s easy to default to scheduling a meeting. But meetings are time-consuming, and often not as productive as intended. Before scheduling a meeting (or accepting one!), think about what you’re really trying to accomplish. If it’s a status update, relaying information, or an FYI, keep it async and send your teammate a Loom instead.
If it’s not worth circling back on, scrap it now: Most people try to do too many things at once, which slows them down and lowers the quality of their work. Use this moment to let go of low-impact projects and focus on the work that truly matters. For tasks deemed circlebackable, reflect the new deadline on your planning pages, Jira tickets, and shared calendars so everyone is on the same page.
Be realistic about your calendar: As the year’s end approaches, timebox your calendar to make sure you have enough focus time to get your most important work done. Pick a few important things to see over the finish line (rather than trying make a little progress on everything).

pro tip

Record a “Loom to my 2025 self” to help jog your memory on where you left a certain project and suggest where to get started when you are logged back in.

New Year’s resolution: Work on what really matters

While this time of year can feel overwhelming, it’s also an opportunity for a fresh start. The beginning of the year is a great time to reevaluate your priorities, set new intentions, and get reenergized about your work.

If teams can change their mindset, they can turn the chaotic year-end rush and sluggish start to the new year into a seamless flow of highly effective teamwork. Breaking the circle-back cycle can be challenging, but the rewards – renewed focus, a smoother transition into the new year, and greater impact on team goals – are well worth it.

Visit the Atlassian Community to take part in the circle-back challenge!

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The post Happy circle-back season, to those who celebrate appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian.