Worklife
Learn about how you can achieve a better work-life balance, and check out the latest news about the world of work, including advancements on ideas like the four-day work week and universal basic income.
Why noise is an underestimated health hazard and what to do about it
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Most of the damage noise does to your body is preventable, and the tools you need are either free or already in your pocket. The missing piece, for most people, is understanding what counts as too much. Noise is an environmental health hazard that rarely Read More...
Soft productivity is the smarter way to work, and here's how to start
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM There's a kind of workday most of us know too well. You're logged on early, you barely step away for lunch, and by 6 pm you're not entirely sure what you have to show for it. The calendar was full. The inbox moved. But the work you wanted to get done? It's Read More...
Why managers struggle with coaching and what the research says to do instead
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Ask any organization whether they invest in coaching, and you'll almost certainly get a yes. It's a stated priority, a line item in leadership development budgets, a topic in management training. And yet, when researchers go to measure how managers perform Read More...
The Reddit-popular five-minute productivity rule that truly works for procrastinators
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Most to-do lists have two kinds of items on them: the real work you're managing, and the small things that keep getting moved to tomorrow. Reply to that email. File that paper. RSVP to that thing. None of them take long, yet none of them seem to get Read More...
The physical effects of heavy phone use (aka tech neck) and how to address them
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Cervical spine surgeon K. Daniel Riew at Och Spine at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center has started seeing patients in their 20s. That age group rarely appeared in his practice before. Americans now average about seven hours a day on screens, Read More...
Illinois found a smarter way to close the menopause care gap
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton set up a series of financial wellness conversations with women around the state. She expected to hear about rent, wages, and the cost of groceries. What she kept hearing about was menopause: what it was doing to their work, Read More...
Job instability is pushing people to rethink their lives, not just their resumes
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For years, the go-to response to career difficulty was optimization. If work felt stagnant, or a job wasn’t coming through, the prescription was the same: update your resume, sharpen your skills, find a better angle. The assumption was that the system was Read More...
What is an admin date? Why experts say it helps with productivity and loneliness at once
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM You probably have something on your to-do list that has been there long enough to feel embarrassing. An email you owe someone. A subscription that sneakily renewed again. A form you have been meaning to file since winter. Every week, it just sits there, and Read More...
Historic ILO vote gives gig workers labour rights for the first time
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For the first time, gig workers have binding international labour protections. The International Labour Organization voted June 12 to adopt a convention setting enforceable employment standards for platform workers in ride-hailing and food delivery. Four Read More...
5 habits that separate growing teams from stagnant ones
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM The strategy is fine. The team is capable. But at the end of the quarter, the needle hasn’t moved. Julie Turpin, Chief People Officer at Brown & Brown, says this pattern almost always traces back to the same thing: habits. “Results that stick are Read More...