Focus is my word of the summer ↓ Welcome to this week’s edition of Sustain – short essays about work and our relationship to it. Years ago, I became fixated on solving a problem we all feel but are paralyzed to do anything about. Our phone usage. After reading titles like How to Break Up With Your Phone I started a peer group of people that took the 30-day challenge with me to be more intentional about our phone usage. The goal was to control how we used our phones, not the other way around....
11 months ago • 4 min read
The best work doesn't happen at a desk ↓ Welcome to this week’s edition of Sustain – short essays about work and our relationship to it. Somewhere in the mountains, Summer 2022 It’s a sunny Friday afternoon. I find myself on a dusty trail through Washington’s Cascade Mountains where trains rumbled through in another time. Now it’s me on my bike rumbling through. At least that’s what I tell myself. It’s more like a gummy bear sugar-aided tootle with heavy breathing. Many of the train stations...
about 1 year ago • 4 min read
Rubbing shoulders ↓ A few annoying pieces of conventional wisdom blossomed about work coming out of the pandemic. None was more under the radar than this fact. 👉 The idea that you can’t grow in your career outside an office. Without ‘rubbing shoulders’ with those you could learn from. I know this to be true based on many articles written. You’ve probably seen them. Early in my career amazing talent was blocked from promotions simply because they worked at a satellite office – not the...
about 1 year ago • 2 min read
How to get a job in this market ↓ Happy April and start of Q2. I often consider Q2 the real start of the year once plans, budgets, and people’s acts are finally together. Wishing you well this week! I just completed the hiring process to bring a marketing campaigns lead onto my team (yay!). It’s an unreal job market. You likely don’t need me to tell you that 🫠 Today, I wanted to share a few tips & thoughts having completed both sides of it in the last four months. I applied to dozens of jobs...
about 1 year ago • 4 min read
What's high-impact work? ↓ I hope you’re having a lovely week ✌️ I have four rules for work. They are designed to help you do the best work of your career and give you the confidence to log off more (deep dive on the four rules). Do great work Not too much Socialize it Log off Implicitly stated in Not Too Much is a prioritization activity. If you’re going to do the best work of your career, you can't do it all. You must do the highest impact work at the highest quality level. But how do you...
about 1 year ago • 2 min read
New job ick ↓ Happy Spring, Sustain Friends! ✌️ This is my first newsletter of the year written outside since we just had a super nice Pacific Northwest weekend (coffee view pictured). The writing process goes that much better with some late winter/early spring gentle breeze (still cold) hitting you on the side of the face. Keeps the words flowing! Last week, I shared 7 red flags you shouldn’t ignore while weighing where on the toxic range your job is. I’m leaning into the spirit of March...
about 1 year ago • 3 min read
7 work red flags ↓ Hope you’re having a nice week and the clock change didn’t mess with you too much 😵💫 Quick reminder - I launched @GrantIsOffline last week on Instagram. If you want to follow all my work, I post 3x/week on LinkedIn, 1x/week on Instagram, and here on Sustain every Thursday. I love connecting and watching this community grow 😌 I’m a little over a month into my new job. I’m feeling more energized about work than I have in a while. It’s a good mix of feeling challenged and...
about 1 year ago • 3 min read
Imposter syndrome ↓ Happy March, Sustain Friends ✌️ Before we get into it – I’m jumping onto Instagram. I made it a 2024 goal to start an Instagram page for this work and now that it’s March I figured I should do that 😂 I will post a reel every week over at @GrantIsOffline. Give a follow if you like 👏 I was chatting with a junior colleague I mentored at a previous job. It was during a particularly difficult stretch at that job. The culture was struggling. The executives were doing more...
about 1 year ago • 2 min read
I have the pleasure of serving on the University of Oregon Alumni Association Board of Directors which took me last week to Oregon for a meeting. There, I got to chat with students about finding work-life balance and what life is like in the corporate/tech space. These students filled me with optimism about how intentional they will be with how they work. As part of the meeting we heard from the Director of Behavioral Health for the Oregon Athletic Department. He has a regular caseload of...
about 1 year ago • 2 min read