Dear friends,
These are hard times. The suffering in Palestine and Israel is devastating, and it's hard to go about our lives knowing it is happening. Please seek out the support you need and give yourself grace.
Climb Every (Career) Mountain
If It Ain't Broke, Fix It!
Dear friends,
Well, the new (school) year is here, and it’s time for fresh starts and new ideas! Wishing you well as work picks up after the summer. I recently took on a new role at work, leading a successful program with a long and illustrious history. I’ve been really excited about this new gig, partly because I think the best time to make change is when things are going well. When we decide not to fix things because they’re not broken, we fail to reach our potential.
Go And Stop
Dear friends,
Hope you’re enjoying the last long days of summer! I am in that pre-vacation rush, fighting to get as much done as possible before I leave. I’m going on a hiking trip, and I have been training for the last couple of months to get ready physically. In increasing the duration and intensity of my exercise, I had two realizations that apply to intellectual work as well.
TGIF
Dear friends,
Hope this message finds you being kind to yourself amid all the tumult in the world right now. Can you believe 2023 is half over? I find myself thinking that time is too short to spend on trivialities. Let’s keep committing to the work we are called to do, every day, in the second half of 2023.
Fun Or Fundable
Dear friends,
Summertime is here! Can you believe it? For a minute there I wasn't sure I would make it through the always-hectic month of May. I hope all of you have time away planned this summer. I've written before about how important it is to pay attention to, and align our work plans with, seasonal rhythms that affect our body and mind.
Don't Follow Your Instincts
May is upon us, and it’s still raining in San Francisco! The weather is reflecting my mood as I am still trying to shake off the cold, dark, long winter. I hope all of you are embracing spring and seeing some wildflowers. My recent travel to the American College of Physicians meeting last week inspired this post. At the meeting, I had informal and impromptu discussions with two midcareer physicians who are interested in working at UCSF.
Guilt Doesn't Mean Guilty
Satisfied Or Maximized
How are you? I am looking optimistically towards spring, and I hope you are too. This month I am going to talk about buying towels. Not kidding! I promise there’s a career lesson in my recent quest for new linens. In discussing this purchase with my spouse (scintillating conversations in my house, I know!), he suggested that it would be more efficient to buy towels online. While I saw his point, the idea of sitting down in front of my computer to search made my heart sink. Our contrasting approaches made me want to dig deeper.
Whack-A-Mole
Here we are, February 2023. I am sending solidarity to all of you as we contemplate mass shootings, anti-Asian hate, and the terrible police-perpetrated murder of Tyre Nichols, among other injustices and crises. There are no words- just remember that you are not alone. Reach out to me anytime, be kind to each other, and be patient with yourself. Everything going on in the world continues to make it hard to focus on work.
Resolve To Do Less
I hope all of you had an opportunity to take a break at the end of 2022 and are as well as possible. This time of year, with cold weather and short days, can feel challenging. For me, it is not a natural time to make resolutions or feel motivated. I feel out of sync with the culture- everyone is packing the gym or setting out to maintain their daily meditation streak, and I just want to read in bed with a cup of tea.
Rest Please
It’s December, and if your workplace is anything like mine, everyone is scrambling to meet year-end deadlines and hand over work to colleagues before heading out to winter break. In past years I have tried to manage this increased workload and stress by asking mentees to send me work earlier in December, by blocking off meeting-free time, and by planning way ahead for time-consuming holiday tasks like addressing Christmas cards. This year, I am opting out. I recently read Rest is Resistance, by Tricia Hersey, and it has given me a new understanding about incessant work demands.
Worth a Thousand Words
A Little Help From My Work Friends
What's Your Superpower?
Happy September! Every fall feels like the start of the new year for me. We are still in tough times, and I hope you’re finding optimism in some corner of your life. In August I shared that I did not realize until I went on an extended vacation how much my workload was affecting my brain and body. I've been experimenting with reduced working hours for the last month, and I will report back to you in a future post about whether I can keep it up.
Vacation Revelation
I hope you found time for rest and fun this summer! I'm back after an extended vacation- the longest one I've taken in over 20 years. It was surreal to be completely disconnected. I didn't check email for six weeks, and I did not do any work whatsoever. We had wonderful family adventures, and the most meaningful experience was spending uninterrupted time with my teens.
Summer Reading
I am writing this post far in advance, before my extended, much-postponed travels. I fervently hope that when these words reach you, we are not reeling from more collective trauma. The fatigue and grief have been real. As I prepare for my trip, I’m keeping in mind the words of poet Toi Derricotte, “joy is an act of resistance.”
The Eighth Time's the Charm
I am sending solidarity to all of you in these challenging times. Soon I’ll be leaving my routine, taking six weeks away from work to travel with my family. The last time I took this much time off was back in the twentieth century! I hardly know how to feel. Today I want to share the long and winding road that led to our latest funded grant. I’m putting in some NIH inside baseball, but there are broader lessons too.
Don’t Power Through
The days are getting longer and brighter, and I hope your mood, like mine, has been lighter of late. I’ve embraced a new hybrid schedule. It feels amazing to be together in person as a team, and I love running into people unexpectedly at work. I appreciate my remote work more as a quiet contrast to the office, so my entire work experience has improved, for the first time since March 2020. I wish the same for you.
Don't You Forget About Me
I hope spring is bringing you some peace and optimism as our challenging times continue. This month I want to share some advice that I gave a colleague who is going on sabbatical. Like many of you, this person excels in their work and loathes the idea of self-promotion. We have talked about bragging effectively and using peer amplification to get the word out. I thought of another strategy for staying top of mind that felt acceptable and feasible: the AWARE Share. And yes, it's an acronym (Awareness of Work and Achievements through Relevant Emails). Consider sending quarterly updates to key stakeholders who should be aware of you but are not in your immediate mentoring circle. Here are my tips.