Monday Motivation Hack: Keep Moving Forward

Some people spring out of bed on Monday feeling fresh, relaxed, and eager to get back to work. But I’m not convinced those with boundless energy and enthusiasm are of this world. I woke this morning, dragged myself out of bed, showered in a half-dead daze, and made a beeline for my French press to brew some Sumatra roast. For most of us, getting back into the work week can be rough.

As annoying as it is to most of us, Monday has its purpose. It’s a great day to focus on self-improvement. If you take just fifteen minutes out of your morning to focus on a few ideas to put into action this week, you’ll feel less existential dread and more motivation as you start your day. Here’s how to spend those fifteen minutes.

Keep moving forward by ruminating less and noticing more.

We tend to get trapped inside our own heads a lot, ruminating endlessly about things that have happened or might happen. Unfortunately, that can mean getting in our own way, which leads us to feel stuck. Sure, there’s some value in reflecting on your performance and learning from it, or planning for the future. But self-reflection is only meaningful when it leads to positive outcomes. Reflection yields forward momentum when you stop ruminating and start noticing.

Rumination might have you thinking things like Last week was awful. I didn’t get enough sleep most nights, and even coffee wasn’t working for me. I made mistake after mistake!

Can you see any value in beating yourself up like that? I sure can’t. Try noticing what happened last week rather than rolling the events around in your head in a way that churns up negativity.

Here’s what it looks like when you notice rather than ruminate.

When I’m not mindful about getting to bed at a reasonable time, I’m tired the next day. Caffeine gives me a boost, but leads to an energy crash later. I’m more productive when I get enough sleep.

Aha! Now we’re getting somewhere. Instead of beating yourself up for last week’s lackluster job performance, you’ve identified a trend. You’ve noticed that your tendency to stay up too late causes you to rely on caffeine, which leads to a crash, which finds you making more mistakes. That’s something you can remedy by developing better sleep habits.

How to Break the Rumination Habit

We all ruminate. It’s a hard habit to break! Fortunately, being aware of your mind’s tendency to be your own worst enemy is the first step toward breaking the cycle.

One of the wisest people I’ve known frequently helped me keep my own rumination habit in check. Any time she caught me beating myself up, she’d ask, “Is this useful thinking?” It would snap me out of my funk and help me recognize that no, laying on a bunch of criticism targeted at myself wasn’t particularly helpful. In fact, it was detrimental.

Noticing, rather than ruminating, leads us to evaluate those tendencies that might be hurting our performance (or even our psyches) in a way that leads to self-discovery, not self-flagellation. If you find yourself ruminating, try these tricks to break the cycle.

• Learn to spot rumination. It’s important to know the enemy! If you’re lost in your own mind, beating yourself up over something in the past or worrying about the future, you’re ruminating.
• Ask yourself “Is this useful thinking?” If you catch yourself ruminating, take a deep breath and consider whether your thoughts are actually helpful. Odds are, they’re only making you feel bad about yourself.
• Practice mindfulness. Make a habit of being in the moment. Mindfulness is a powerful tool for creating peace and positivity. We talked about it a few weeks ago in our Monday Motivation segment on avoiding negativity.

When your tendency to focus on mistakes keeps you stuck, breaking the cycle of rumination can help you move forward. Treat yourself as you would a friend or family member—with kindness and understanding. Noticing the habits you’ve developed that aren’t working for you, rather than beating yourself up for the problems they cause, enables you to make a change for the better.

How to Write Ordinal Numbers Correctly

Is this your first lesson on ordinal numbers? Maybe the second? Or, perhaps it’s the third?

To put it simply, ordinal numbers are used to put things in order. This can be anything from an address to the position a runner finishes in a race.

She lives on 26th Street. He finished in third place.

Ordinal numbers indicate position or order in relation to other numbers.

Cardinal numbers, on the other hand, express a quantity of something.

He had three hot dogs. Her father had five dogs.

Ordinal numbers always have a suffix tacked onto the end; cardinal numbers do not.

• first (1st)
• second (2nd)
• third (3rd)
• fourth (4th)
• fifth (5th)
• sixth (6th)
• seventh (7th)
• eighth (8th)
• ninth (9th)
• tenth (10th)
• eleventh (11th)
• twelfth (12th)
• thirteenth (13th)
• twentieth (20th)
• twenty-first (21st)
• twenty-second (22nd)
• twenty-third (23rd)
• twenty-fourth (24th)
• thirtieth (30th)

Here are a few guidelines for determining which suffix to add to a number. 1. When a number ends with 1, the suffix at the end is -st. 2. When a number ends with 2, the suffix at the end is -nd. 3. When a number ends with 3, the suffix at the end is -rd. 4. When a number that ends with 0,4,5,6,7,8 or 9 uses the suffix -th (Including 10th, 100th, etc) 5. An exception to the rules above is when a numeral ends with 11, 12, or 13, which all use the -th suffix.

These rules and the list above should make it simple to determine which suffix you need to turn a cardinal number into an ordinal one.

Have fun forming your first few sentences with ordinal numbers.

As Well As Comma

The phrase as well as creates one of those situations where you may have to make a judgment call about comma usage. As a general rule, you don’t need a comma before as well as.

As Well As

As well as means “in addition to.”

Please proofread for spelling mistakes as well as grammatical errors.

The sentence above means that you should proofread for both spelling and grammatical errors.

You can also use as well as to make a simple comparison.

I don’t sing as well as Adele does.

This sentence means that Adele sings better than I do.

Comma Before As Well As

Most of the time, you don’t need a comma before as well as. Using a comma turns the thing you’re talking about with as well as into an aside–information that’s less important than the rest of the sentence. That’s where the judgement call comes in. You have to decide whether the things you’re connecting with as well as are equally important or not.

Timmy, as well as Tommy, is a stickler about punctuation.

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In this sentence, as well as Tommy is an aside–something that could go in parentheses. Writing the sentence this way de-emphasizes Tommy and puts the focus on Timmy. Notice that you need one comma before the phrase and one comma after it.

Also notice that this sentence needs the verb is, not are, even though you mentioned both Timmy and Tommy. That’s because as well as is not the same as and. It can’t create a compound subject.

If the part about Tommy is important, the best thing to do is get rid of the commas and change as well as to and.

Timmy and Tommy are sticklers about punctuation.

When you’re making a simple comparison, you should never include the comma.

I don’t sing, as well as Adele does.

How to Write a Good Pitch

So you have an idea for a story that’s burning a hole in your brain, and you need to find it a home—ideally somewhere that will embrace and enhance your style, share your work with a broad readership, and pay you decently.

In other words, you hope to surmount one of the greatest hurdles that separates the writing world’s dreamers from its doers. No pressure, though.

If writing is your calling, there’s tough work ahead, but it’s doable. We’re here to help color in the details of how. This is what new(-ish) writers should know about pitching.

Where do I want to go?

You dream of someday writing for renowned newspapers and prestigious magazines. Pitch them. So long as you’re polite, the worst they can tell you is “not right now.” What’s to lose?

But as you reach for the stars, know that such dreams only rarely come true overnight. In the meantime, most writers hone their craft in more attainable venues. An ambitious young journalist who wants to cover a bustling statehouse for a daily newspaper, for instance, might not walk into that job straight out of college. Instead, she might get her start reporting on school-board or city-council races for the town’s scrappy alt-weekly.

Early in his career, John McPhee, the industrious pioneer of literary journalism, longed to find a place at The New Yorker. He eventually became an institution there, but the octogenarian tells The Paris Review he first spent a decade writing elsewhere:

The thing about writers is that, with very few exceptions, they grow slowly—very slowly. A John Updike comes along, he’s an anomaly. That’s no model, that’s a phenomenon. I sent stuff to The New Yorker when I was in college and then for ten years thereafter before they accepted something. I used to paper my wall with their rejection slips. And they were not making a mistake. Writers develop slowly. That’s what I want to say to you: don’t look at my career through the wrong end of a telescope.

Don’t be dissuaded from dreaming big, but don’t quit if you have to start small.

Who do I talk to?

Different publications have different pipelines and processes for bringing in outside writers. Some only rarely bother, while others do it all the time.

To land a pitch, start by researching the outlets you hope to write for. See if you can find a copy of their submission guidelines online, and study them carefully. What’s their style? What’s distinct about their approach? Don’t propose a sprawling feature to an outlet that traffics mainly in tight news articles.

It’s vastly easier to place a story when the editor you’re pitching knows you. Cultivate these relationships. Email writers and editors whose work you admire and introduce yourself. Such correspondences needn’t be epic in scale—these people are busy—but they can afford you an inside track on who handles pitches, what their budget is like, and what they’re hungry for.

Hal Humphreys, a principal at Pursuit magazine, private investigator, and erstwhile storyteller on national shows like Marketplace, recommends against a scattershot template-email approach. Instead, he advises, think like a spy.

The craft of building a network of clients and colleagues isn’t about casting a wide net. It’s about seeding real relationships. It requires time and calculation. It can even seem a bit creepy at times.

Be gentle, Humphreys says, and this approach, used in good faith, can spark not just useful professional connections but also earnest friendships.

What do I show them?

Landing a writing gig often centers less on your resume than on clips—recent samples of your published work. Your clips show editors what you’re capable of delivering. A journalist whose work has been picked up nationally can get more traction than a scruffy newcomer, but everyone has to start somewhere.

For students, this might mean building up a portfolio at the student newspaper or college radio station. For the rest of us out in adult-land, obliged as we are to put rent on the table, you may have to launch your work as a side-hustle. This is what Jesse Thorn means in his Make Your Thing manifesto when he says “start now.”

Stephanie Foo used to spend eight hours or more each day listening to podcasts while working as a graphic designer. “I got so obsessed that I was like, ‘I don’t know why I’m doing this with my life. I should be doing radio,’” she told Tape.

With dreams of being on This American Life, she made the leap outside her day job by starting her own show—a podcast that took her to weird events like a medieval battle reenactment and a porn convention. In time, that gave her something to share with Thorn, who knew a rising star in the industry, who connected her with an editor who would hear her pitches.

My first day there, I brought a notebook with 20 pitches in it. . . . I rattled them all off super fast, and he was just kind of stunned and was like ‘um, one of them seemed good.’

That was enough to get the ball rolling. Some years on, Foo is a producer at This American Life.

But what do I say?

A wise editor once said “brevity is the better part of valor.” Don’t force editors to scroll and skim to figure out what you’ll be writing about. And remember to focus by pitching stories, not topics.

Also, do your homework. You have to know what the outlet you’re contacting has written about your subject already, and articulate a fresh angle. Find a way to advance the story. Editors regard failure to do so as a common error, as Meg Guroff told The Open Notebook:

Another (common mistake) is presenting a story as something you’re dying to write, rather than as something our reader would be dying to read. Successful pitchers don’t lead with their own desires or credentials. Instead, they focus on what’s amazing about a story and how the story would fit into what the publication is trying to do.

It’s best to pitch editors after you’ve researched enough to be sure you can deliver on your premise, but before you’ve ferreted out every last detail, let alone written the thing. This matters because editors will often help fine-tune your idea early in the process.

Note that editors hate having to click through to an attachment just to read your idea. Put it in the body of the email. Use plain text for readability. And do email, by the way; editors vastly prefer written pitches over cold calls.

You can want to send a query to one place at a time, so be deliberate about pacing your efforts, and ask editors what works best for their timeframe.

Finally, be persistent, but not too persistent. While it’s a good idea to gently nudge editors you haven’t heard back from after a week or so, you don’t want anyone to feel barraged. Try and keep a fresh idea in your pocket, so if one pitch doesn’t stick, you’re not at a dead end.

The world is full of stories, after all, as well as places to tell them. Get yours out there.

OMG, LOL!: 5 Communication Faux Pas You’re Making at Work

Is it okay to text in the office bathroom? Should you use emoticons in your cover letter? In this age of enhanced communication, it’s hard to avoid the occasional faux pas. Consider these five unfortunate souls whose poor communication etiquette undermined their professional authority.

Tia the Texter

Tia is a twenty-something working in a firm of baby boomers. She waltzes through life with her smartphone glued to her hand. At least, that’s how some of her superiors see it.

About 50 percent of Terri’s co-workers roll their eyes when she hunches over her phone, thumbs flying a mile a minute. Tia’s texting euphemisms occasionally cross over to her work emails. She’s been known to throw out an LOL, OMG, and �� from time to time.

Plenty of baby boomers text now, but not all of them do. To those elders still separated by the digital divide, Tia looks like a positive flake.

Larry, the Low Self Esteem Guy

Larry feels uncomfortable when a potential employer asks, “Why are you the best candidate for this position?”

“I wouldn’t say I’m the best,” he stumbles. “I’m a nice guy, but my conscience won’t allow me to say I’m the best. If you want the best, you should hire someone from Harvard. I went to community college, and I didn’t even get straight A’s.”

Sam Shelley, a bi-polar survivor and author of the book I Don’t Dwell recently wrote a blog post for LinkedIn about interviewing while suffering from low self-esteem. Shelley says, you must behave “as if . . . you are the best person for the job” at a job interview, even if you don’t believe it.

Natalie, the Negative Emailer

Natalie’s boss recently loaded her down with an overwhelming amount of work.

As deadlines approach, Natalie panics. Instead of asking her boss for help, she complains to her co-workers about how unfairly he treats her. Some of these complaints find their way into email threads. Before Natalie knows it, her laundry list of grievances inadvertently lands in the boss’s inbox.

Emailing your frustrations to co-workers might bring temporary relief, but you should save the venting for your online journal, the one you protect with an encrypted password. It’s the one your boss will never see.

Gina, the Generic Resume Writer

Gina’s resume perfectly fits the generic template she found on the Internet. She’s sent the document to hundreds of potential employers, but her phone never rings.

Nick Corcodilos, a veteran headhunter in Silicon Valley, knows why. “Resumes are a weak, passive way of getting in the door,” he says. Instead of sending out resumes that look just like everyone else’s, Gina should craft a document that illustrates how she could improve life for a potential employer.

Corcodilos is talking about a pain letter, a type of cover letter in which potential hires explain how they could solve company problems. To write a persuasive pain letter, job seekers should place themselves in the shoes of the employer. Gina’s not a bad worker. She just needs a platform through which she can sell herself.

Connie, the Comma Criminal

Connie is a comma criminal. She admits that she doesn’t understand comma rules. She also admits that, in her mind, comma rules just aren’t that important.

Connie’s supervisor begs to differ. Run-on sentences make him cringe. If he gets another “Hey George good morning are we meeting in the board room at eight,” he’ll either go crazy or shell out the tuition for Connie’s enrollment in Remedial English 101.

Technology blurs the lines between our personal and professional lives. As we have seen, well-meaning people make embarrassing, funny, and horrendous communication mistakes all the time. Have you ever worked with a Tia, Larry, Natalie, Gina, or Connie?

Why You Don’t Get Anything Done After 2pm

Yaaawn. You were having a productive day.

This morning you were launching emails with the rapid succession of a fireworks display and smashing deadlines like an elite Whac-a-Mole champion who can see the future. It’s one of those magical days where you managed to titrate your coffee dosage perfectly—you were awake enough to contribute plenty during your team’s morning meeting, but not caffeinated to the point of jitters or psychosis.

Then the two o’clock slump swooped in like a dementor, sucking every hope of productivity from your mind. Now, sitting at your desk, you’re like a desultory teenager in shop class during the last two weeks of school: you’re not working on anything so much as just drilling holes. Would my coworkers notice, you wonder, if I were to slink down to my car, recline the passenger seat, and doze off for twenty minutes?

And anyway, why am I like this every afternoon?

We’re here to help unspool this mystery, and explore a few remedies for your afternoon power outage.

What’s that you’re eating?

Did you skip lunch? Wait, back up—did you skip breakfast? Being hungry at work is a recipe for diminished productivity, general crabbiness, and the faint sense that you should’ve gone to grad school. It’s wise to map out contingencies to avert such crises: pack a lunch (or breakfast) and keep emergency snacks in your work bag or desk drawer.

Alas, simply remembering that you have to eat is not where the struggle ends, but where it begins.

Here’s a quick biology lesson: as energy from food you digest makes its way to your bloodstream, your pancreas releases the hormone insulin, which cues your cells to absorb that energy. This can occur gradually, as in the case of slow-burning fibrous whole grains, or it can happen abruptly, in the form of a sudden spike from an influx of refined sugar.

When the amount of sugar in your blood spikes, what follows is a surge of insulin, and subsequently the metabolic crater of sluggishness and regret in which you now find yourself.

One solution is to avoid crash-prone foods—choosing a handful of nuts or some carrots instead of sugary sweets, for instance.

Another fix might be to forego the giant lunch that always leaves you longing for naptime and instead munch little by little throughout the day. Also, if you feel desperate for a coffee break but don’t want to keep buzzing past bedtime, consider an alternative like green tea, which has less caffeine.

And don’t forget to drink water, either. A little bit of dehydration can go a long way toward jamming up your afternoon efforts, so sip often.

Get moving

As much as your boss might like to pretend otherwise, you’re not an android; you’re a complex and dynamic organism sculpted by millions of years of evolution to live by moving frequently. Sitting for hours on end in perfect obeisance to the glow of your screen is a prescription for soporific indifference.

If you can, go outside—bright light cues wakefulness. Getting some sun during the day can also help you rest better at night. Taking a brisk walk around the block gives your mind a chance to reset, so when you return to your keyboard you may not only feel less inclined to put your face on it, but also unlock a fresh angle to attack whatever you’re working on.

via GIPHY

Even if going for a dedicated stroll isn’t realistic, you should make time to stand up and shake out. For your body, sitting still goes hand in exhausted hand with sleepytime. Take a moment to work on your downward dog, or ask that coworker who’s weirdly into CrossFit if you can borrow one of the resistance bands you know he keeps in his desk, and stretch out your weary shoulders.

Workers in cavernous office complexes are sometimes known to deploy a two-for-one strategy, serving the dual imperatives to hydrate and to get up and walk around a bit more, simply by taking a few extra steps to a water fountain in a different part of the building.

Pump up the jams

Listening to exciting music can also help keep you off the post-lunch nod. The kind of jams that get your feet moving on the dancefloor might take some weight off your eyelids.

If power metal is more your speed though, you might want to take a cue from journalist Jason Leopold and be mindful of your workmates. A tiff over the volume of Leopold’s music at the office once escalated to colorful language and near fisticuffs, costing him a job. Yes, really.

Ultimately, your mid-afternoon slump likely stems from an amalgam of factors. To change it, you’re going to have to tweak a variety of habits: what you eat and when, how often you stand up to get your blood flowing and refill your water bottle—maybe even your playlist.

Such changes may not come easily or happen overnight, but it’s all right to take some time figuring it out. In the end, we believe your work is worth staying awake for.

Monday Motivation Hack: Take a Break

Ah, motivation. Sometimes you can feel it coursing through your veins, and sometimes it seems as fleeting as snow in the spring. When you feel completely out of motivation, burned out, or exhausted, what do you do?

So far in our Monday Motivation Hack series, we’ve covered things that help you when you’re highly motivated, like to-do lists, morning routines, and mindfulness. But what about those days when getting out of bed seems like a struggle?

These are the days when it’s time to switch gears and do something radical—give yourself a break.

So today, I’m not going to write thousands of words on how to keep motivated. Instead, I’m giving you the space to take a breath, drink some water, and take that break.

If you want to read something while you take a break, consider one of these. If you just want to walk around the block or watch pandas on YouTube, that’s fine, too. You deserve it.

1 How to Take a Break Without Breaking Focus

2 7 Ways to Motivate Yourself When You’re Exhausted

3 How to Stop Procrastinating and Take Control of Your Life

Talk to vs. Talk with–Which Should I Use?

• Talk to and talk with both mean to converse with someone.
• In almost all cases, talk to and talk with can be used interchangeably.

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If you are having a conversation, are you talking to or talking with someone? Is talking to someone different from talking with someone? Let’s settle the issue.

When to use Talk To

Some feel that talk to should be used only for one-sided conversations—when a television host addresses the viewers, perhaps, or when a boss reprimands an employee. However, imagine that someone asks to talk to you. Would you remain completely silent, assuming that in the request was an implicit expectation for you not to respond? Probably not, because in everyday conversation, talk to is understood to mean “converse with someone.”

The employee became curious when her boss asked to talk to her in the conference room.

My wife hates when I interrupt as she talks to me.

When to use Talk With

Some people also feel that talk with should be reserved for discussions between two or more participants. Unlike the expression talk to, an interchange is implicit in the understanding of the preposition with. However, it’s rarely necessary to make such a strict distinction.

The toddler often talks with her teddy bears about her day.

Brent asked if he could talk withthe celebrity about his recent film.

Examples

To make America’s roads safer, cars should constantly talk to each other over a wireless car-to-car network rather than just relying on drivers to see what others are doing.

CNN

Now, scientists have discovered that the stunning creatures do this when they want to ‘talk’ to their fellow whales.

Daily Mail

CHI Health cardiologist Michael Delcore will talk with guests about the signs of a heart attack and when to call 911.

GO

Yesterday afternoon, I had the privilege to talk with Adams about his reaction when he heard about being traded, who were some of his favorite pitchers growing up, his pitch arsenal, and you will hear about some of the toughest hitters he has faced during his college and professional career.

District On Deck

How to Stop Procrastinating and Take Control of Your Life

Are you procrastinating? Is there an essay or a blog post you just can’t seem to get done? We could suggest:

Don’t put off until tomorrow what can be done today.

Though, it won’t likely help.

Why not? Professionals, students, educators, writers, and so on have all heard this advice, and we all feel compelled to follow it, but—let’s be frank—it’s not easy to just “stop procrastinating.” We don’t procrastinate for the sake of procrastination or laziness. There are emotional and psychological barriers that manifest behaviorally as “procrastination,” and it’s important to understand these before trying to learn how not to procrastinate.

What Is Procrastination?

Though we all have experience with putting things off, that doesn’t mean we necessarily understand it. Simply:

Procrastination is a state in which one is delaying work on or completion of a task or project.

It’s important to note, however, that there is good procrastination and bad procrastination. Good procrastination helps you get more done while bad procrastination just makes you miserable with little to show for it. It is possible to procrastinate the right way and reap the benefits. Let’s assume, however, that you want to avoid the bad kind of procrastination (who doesn’t?). Here’s how.

Why Do People Procrastinate?

It may be useful for you to think for a few minutes about why you are postponing a given task. Often, the cause of your procrastination differs according to the task. What are the top reasons for procrastination? Generally, they are:

• feeling overwhelmed
• confusion
• boredom
• lack of motivation
• distraction

When writing, for example, procrastination normally comes from confusion or feeling overwhelmed. When I have to do the dishes, it comes from boredom. It’s important to understand the enemy before it can be defeated. Isolate the root(s) of your procrastination.

We’ll address methods of dealing with confusion, feeling overwhelmed, being bored, lacking motivation, and being distracted.

Ways to Stop Procrastinating

While it does take time to plan and organize for productivity, it will pay for itself over the life of your project or goal. Avoid procrastination with these eight tips.

Coping with Confusing and Overwhelming Tasks

1Make Written To-Do Lists

To-do lists are a tried-and-true way of getting your bearings and keeping yourself from getting overwhelmed. They also help you organize your thoughts and can prevent confusion. It’s ideal to make a new list at the end of each day to prepare for the next day. Keep in mind, however, this tip won’t help much if you over-plan or set actionable tasks that cannot be completed in less than half an hour. If a task takes longer than thirty minutes, break it up into smaller tasks.

2Start Each List (and Day) With One Important Task

Uncertainty about how to manage all the steps of a larger task can feel overwhelming. The antidote? Organization and proactivity. Accomplishing something toward your goal is a great way to empower yourself to take on the next step or to free up your energies for other tasks throughout the day. Choose one task or group of tasks each day that you should complete in order to feel productive. Do these tasks first.

3Seek Information and Support

When we are overwhelmed or confused by how to move forward with a task, it can come from feeling inadequately prepared for taking on the task. If this is true for you, work in some time (and tasks on your list) for seeking guidance. For example, if you are confused about an essay or writing task for school, a good place to seek guidance is from your professor, your adviser, or a writing center tutor.

How do you cope with confusing and overwhelming tasks?

Coping with Boredom, Lack of Motivation, and Distraction

These particular causes of procrastination are common among students writing for a mandatory course or among professionals obliged to complete reports and documents regarding the mundane aspects of their work. This is especially true when the project isn’t something you have chosen for yourself. Luckily, not only are there great ways to get motivated, but there are also some helpful ways to avoid procrastination.

4Establish a Purpose

It is difficult to pick a route if you haven’t yet determined a destination. Many people are not creative when thinking about their “destination.” More often than not, if your sole reason for doing something is simply to finish it, you will succeed, but miserably. Remember those midnight sessions writing drafts of your dissertation, hours before it was due? Yes, the drafts were completed, but under great stress. Wanting to finish a task isn’t enough to stave off procrastination. Purpose matters. Be creative with your goals. Try to establish a broader purpose that you are passionate about and fit the task at hand into your plan for progressing toward that goal.

5Don’t Take On Too Much

This tip is also something that can help with feeling overwhelmed. Often, if you have taken on a huge task and have not allotted enough time to complete it in smaller bite-size chunks, the lack of progress can result in boredom. A huge task can also induce a sense of inferiority that leads to lack of motivation. To prevent stagnation, boredom, and sureness-sucking lack of motivation, work in small chunks over a longer period of time. The sense of accomplishment that will come from this habit will kill the dullness and incompetence you may have felt otherwise.

6Break Up Unpleasant Tasks With Pleasant Ones

This may be seem obvious because it is so simple; however, many people are gluttons for punishment and continually create situations where they immerse themselves in unpleasant circumstances without taking ownership for their ability to improve their situation. If you are sick of doing something (inevitably, at some point or another, we all will be), take a productive break and do something refreshing. A short diversion is worth more than the time it costs. Rewards for achievements foster productivity. Incorporate these activities into your written lists during your organization process.

7Create an Ideal Environment

Distractions arise when your environment is imperfect for your work. If distractions are a real issue for you and organizing your tasks does not relieve the impulse to procrastinate, it is vital that you take a look around and find out what is blocking your productivity. Distractions can range from background noise to a stiff chair, from a cluttered desk to Facebook. Do what you need to do in order to remove or avoid these elements. Many of us are distracted by the Internet. (“I’ll watch just one more cat video.” Yeah, right.) Develop the discipline to work in a space without Internet connectivity or build idle Internet browsing into your schedule (see tip three).

8Stop Procrastinating and Just Start

Like jumping into a cold lake, the anticipation and initial dive into a project are the most difficult and unpleasant. Once you start, you acclimate and the process becomes tolerable, sometimes even enjoyable. Once you get over the first “hump,” accomplishment, inspiration and confidence have room to motivate your work.

These suggestions are aimed at addressing some of the primary sources of anxiety and discomfort that lead to dilatory habits. There are various tips and tricks for overcoming procrastination, which can vary greatly according to a person’s individual needs. While all of these tips may not fit your particular situation, starting at step one—determining the root of your procrastination—will give you all the direction you need for finding the ideal solution for you.

How do you avoid bad procrastination? Which of these strategies works well for you?

5 LGBT Authors Who Have Made an Impact

It’s no secret that some of the finest pieces of literature ever written were authored by members of the LGBT community. From the poetry of Walt Whitman to the landmark plays of Tony Kushner, it’s impossible to overstate the impact LGBT authors have had in American literature. In honor of Pride Month, here are five of the most important and influential LGBT writers of all time.

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde, a prolific Irish author whose poems, essays, and plays remain relevant more than 100 years after his death, wrote just one novel, “The Portrait of Dorian Gray.” The novel provoked a public outcry over what was perceived as a stunning lack of morality. Wilde, perhaps Britain’s leading proponent of the Aesthetic Movement, defended his novel in its preface, stating, “ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style.” Later, he wrote, “Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art.”

Wilde was arrested on charges of public indecency for his open homosexuality and served two years in prison. He died at 46, penniless and in exile in France.

Tennessee Williams

Born Thomas Lanier Williams in 1911, Tennessee Williams is considered one of America’s best playwrights of the 20th century. His iconic “Streetcar Named Desire” earned Williams both a Pulitzer Prize and a Drama Critics Award. Other important successes include “The Glass Menagerie,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” and “Orpheus Descending,” which was made into a movie (“The Fugitive Kind”) starring Marlon Brando.

Williams was openly gay, even suffering a hate attack in Key West in 1979. The author lapsed into a period of alcoholism and drug use and was found dead in 1983 at the age of 71.

Virginia Woolf

Woolf’s most famous work, “Mrs. Dalloway,” earned the bisexual author a prominent role in contemporary American literature; in 2005, Time magazine placed it in the top 100 English-language novels of the past century. Woolf suffered sexual abuse early in her life at the hands of half-brothers; her battle with mental illness and depression throughout her life influenced her work. “Mrs. Dalloway,” written in mesmerizing prose, raises emerging social issues, such as feminism and homosexuality.

Woolf ultimately succumbed to her depression and committed suicide at the age of 59 by filling her pockets with stones and walking into the River Ouse.

Alice Walker

A committed social activist, teacher, and lecturer, Alice Walker’s prolific writing career spans more than four decades. Her works encompass novels, short stories, children’s books, poems, and essays; she is most famous for the groundbreaking and critically acclaimed “The Color Purple,” which earned Walker a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. Many of Walker’s works promote themes of the black feminist movement and explore issues related to race and gender identity.

Other highly influential works include “The Temple of My Familiar” and “Possessing the Secret of Joy.”

Chuck Palahniuk

This author’s pointed, minimalistic writing style has earned both praise and criticism and his works often explore controversial themes such as morality, sexuality, and religion. His most famous work is “Fight Club,” a novel that was made into a movie starring Brad Pitt; his widely acclaimed novel “Choke” was his first book to make the New York Times best seller list.

Palahniuk’s writing is influenced by giants such as Albert Camus, Michel Foucault, Thom Spanbauer, and Bret Easton Ellis. He is also a freelance journalist and essayist.

While not all LGBT authors write about sexuality and gender, the classic works mentioned above reflect the uniquely valuable LGBT perspective. Do you have a favorite LGBT author or work that deals with LGBT issues?

 

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June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month. Celebrate human rights, tolerance, and equality with us throughout the month! #PrideMonth

Which Slice of Pie Are You?

5 Word-Related Car Games for Your Next Road Trip

Stiff legs. Sore behind. “Are we there yet, Mom?”

It doesn’t matter whether you’re going to Aspen, New Orleans, or Disney World. Long car rides bore the best of us. One of the fastest ways to bust boredom is to keep your mind active. Pack these nifty word-related car games in your overnight bag the next time you hit the road.

Character Sketches

Choose another car and take a good look at its passengers. Each person makes up a backstory about the passengers in the other vehicle and shares it with the others.

If you’re stumped, start by answering these questions about the folks in the other car:

1. Who are they? 2. Where are they going? 3. What are their hopes and fears? 4. What are their flaws and strengths?

Fiction writers use character sketches to spur their creativity. These thumbnails often morph into the fascinating characters we meet it books. You can do it, too – on wheels.

License Plate Decoding Game

What if every license plate harbored a secret meaning within its letters and numbers? That’s the premise behind the License Plate Decoding Game. The game works especially well when you’re caught in traffic because you have plenty of time to peruse and “decode” the license plates around you.

For example:

“PTA 247” becomes “Peanut butter tastes awesome to 47-year-olds.”

“YHB 711” becomes “Your hair looks bad seven days a week, eleven hours a day.”

License Plate School

If you’re traveling with little ones, consider using license plates to reinforce geography and phonics lessons learned at school. Edmunds.com suggests that children “collect” plates from the different states or try to find all the letters of the alphabet – first forwards, then backwards.

Related Words Game

The Related Words Game requires each player to brainstorm a list of words that relate to a specific starting word. The subsequent list must bring the topic back full circle. Whoever creates the shortest list wins.

For example, Player One might create a list like this:

• noodles • delicious food • cake • birthday cake • presents • wrapping paper • ribbons • strings • noodles

Player Two might create a list like this:

• noodles • yellow • egg yolks • chicken • chicken noodle soup • noodles

Because Player Two created the shorter list, he/she wins. You can play as many rounds of the Related Words Game as you like, but if you wish to limit the game, choose a random word like PIG. Each time someone loses a round, they take one letter of the word. For example, Player One earned a “P” for this round. Whoever spells the word “PIG” first loses the game.

Round Robin Story Game

Teachers have used round robin reading strategies in the classroom for decades. In this game, car riders use the round-robin style to create a groupthink story. Each rider contributes one word at a time. The entire story lasts four or five sentences. If possible, choose a scribe to write or record the words as they are generated.

If a player thinks a sentence sounds complete, any passenger can insert punctuation by shouting “Period!” or “Exclamation point!”

Here’s an example of an opening sentence created by a four-person car load:

Person 1: Once Person 2: upon Person 3: a Person 4: time Person 1: I Person 2: ate Person 3: twenty-six Person 4: frogs Person 1: and Person 2: turned Person 3: into Person: 4: a Person 1: wombat. (PERIOD)

No matter how silly the story gets, each word must make grammatical sense in the context of the story.

Vacations are essential for happiness and well-being, but getting to your vacation spot can be tedious. How will you break up the monotony during your next long car ride?

Top #SummerReads for 2013

Summer has simmered down and school is back in session. What better way to keep the summer spirit alive a little bit longer than by encouraging you to pick up some of the top #summerreads from the Grammarly community?

In early September, we asked our Facebook, Google+, and Twitter communities which books they would most recommend from their summer reading lists. We simultaneously ran a survey to get more information about summer reading. Of more than 450 survey respondents across all channels, we found that:

The majority of people identified themselves as female.

• 81.7% Female
• 16% Male
• 2.3% Preference not given

So, with the leaves turning and cool weather on the way, why not settle in with a hot cup of tea and start a new book? Below you’ll find favorites from our community.

Who’s heading to the library? What book are you going to read first?

4 Interview Tips for Introverts That Will Make You Comfortable in Any Setting

Introverts are energized by solitude rather than social activities. We value deep connections. We’re better listeners than we are talkers, at least where chatty small talk is concerned. Unfortunately, job interviews require us to be gregarious, make only a superficial connection, and chit-chat. About ourselves. The horror!

I was well into adulthood before my extroverted dad admitted that, despite my preferring solitude and books over people, I turned out pretty okay. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been told that I should “just be more social.” Although one-third to one-half of the population are introverts, Western society tends to value the gregarious over the observant and introspective.

The pressure to act as though we love social interaction intensifies when it comes time to interview for a new job. Introverts disdain small talk and are uncomfortable in the spotlight, and job interviews require us to manage both those things with flair. Fortunately, we can use the power of introversion to not only survive the interview process but crush it.

1Fake it.

Okay, at first blush this advice may sound like I’m asking you to deny your true self. But that’s not quite what I’m suggesting. It’s more a matter of getting a foot in the door at a time where first impressions matter. A lot.

There’s some value in the expression “Fake it till you make it.” It’s possible to act more confident than you feel, and it’s also possible to seem more extroverted than you are. Before your interview, remind yourself that, despite your preference for deeper conversations with people you know well, you’re actually good at “peopling.” Do you smile and make eye contact with cashiers when you go shopping? Do you return a friendly hello when someone greets you? Can you engage in a conversation with a random stranger? If you’re like most introverts, you manage all these things just fine.

Odds are, you’ve already found yourself pretending to be more extroverted than you are. So, when it comes time to interview, remind yourself of your chameleon-like ability to blend in and act like a people person even when you’d rather be home reading or watching a movie. Once you’ve proven that a preference for solitude doesn’t mean you can’t interact with people (it’s a commonly held myth that all introverts are shy), you can let your introvert flag fly with pride.

2Be prepared.

When I lived in a tornado-prone part of the country, our local TV weather team had a motto I loved: “Be prepared, not scared.” The head meteorologist believed that information, rather than hype, was necessary to help local viewers ride out the storms. As a weather buff, I was a huge fan.

We have a tendency to generate a lot of hype in our own minds when we’re working our way up to an event as significant as a job interview. Hype is the enemy because it generates anxiety. Preparation is the only way to vanquish it. Before your interview, research the company. Write down anything you may want to ask the interviewer. Give thought to how you’ll answer some of the most common interview questions. Here’s some advice to help you get started.

Organization can help, so bring notes and a professional-looking portfolio. It can even be useful to do some scouting before your interview. Drive to the location so you know where you’re going. Do your best to get the name of the person who’ll be interviewing you and see if you can do a little research into that person’s background. The more you know, the less anxious you’re likely to feel.

3Reference introversion as a positive.

The world is full of introverts, and science shows that we’re pretty darn smart. Sixty percent of gifted children are introverted, as well as seventy-five percent of those identified as highly gifted.

When my son was little, I gave him a coin to drop into a fortune telling machine. The fortune teller (it reminded me of the famous carnival machine in the Tom Hanks movie Big) spit out a card that read:

A wise old owl sat on an oak. The more he heard, the less he spoke. The less he spoke, the more he heard. You’re just like that wise old bird.

It fit. My son is as introverted as I am. And hey, we introverts are like wise owls—we speak less and listen more. We take time to process things. We’re generally very creative when given a quiet space in which to work. We’re awesome.

Talking about your tendency toward introversion can play to your favor during a job interview. No only might the interviewer share your tendencies (or at least closely relate to someone who does), but you can help him or her recognize introverted traits as positive. Here’s a great example:

Let’s say the hiring manager asks, ‘What’s your greatest strength?’

You can reply along the lines of, ‘As an introvert, I’ve discovered that I’m a natural listener and observer. It’s second nature for me to seek out pain points or obstacles that others are facing. Once I’ve gathered enough information, I’m ready to make a thoughtful and impactful contribution.’

—Aja Frost for The Muse

4Know that you’re not alone.

Consider that up to half the population are introverts, many of whom act a lot more extroverted than they are due to societal pressure. You stand nearly fifty-fifty odds of sitting right across from a fellow introvert at your interview.

But even if you find yourself face-to-face with an extrovert instead, the chances of that person knowing and caring about an introvert are higher than you may think. Just because introverts prefer solitude doesn’t mean we’re alone in the world. It also doesn’t mean that there’s any reason to be ashamed of being introverted just because the more gregarious people seem to get all the attention.

Many hugely successful people identify as introverts. They include Bill Gates, JK Rowling, Barack Obama, and Mark Zuckerberg. Even Dr. Seuss, according to Susan Cain (author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking), “was afraid of meeting the kids who read his books for fear they would be disappointed at how quiet he was.”

We are here, we are here, we are here! And we’re quietly awesome.

Three French Phrases English Loves to Borrow

For the third day of LitMas, we’re offering you three French phrases English speakers love to borrow. There’s something kind of glamorous about sprinkling foreign phrases into your conversations every now and then, don’t you think?

1 Joyeux Noël

’Tis the season of wondering what noel means. In French, Noël simply means Christmas. If you’re not sure about joyeux, go ahead and take a guess—you’re probably right. Joyeux means happy. So joyeux Noël is the French way of saying merry Christmas. Now you have something magnifique to say to your Francophone friends!

2 Amuse-bouche

Hosting a fancy holiday dinner party? Don’t forget the amuse-bouches. They’re like hors d’oeuvres (hey, there’s another French phrase!), but amuse-bouches are typically served as bite-size morsels. Amuse-bouche is French for “mouth amuser.” Feel free to amuse your guests with this fact.

3 Canard

OK, this one takes a little bit of explanation. Canard is French for duck. To English speakers, a canard is a hoax or an untrue rumor. Huh? The meaning comes from the old French idiom vendre des canards à moitié, to half-sell ducks (or, in other words, to trick someone). This may be the word you’re looking for if you get stuck listening to Uncle Carl pontificate about conspiracy theories at dinner.

And, no, we don’t know how one goes about half-selling a duck. If you figure it out, let us know.

Bonus phrase: RSVP

Speaking of parties, do the right thing and RSVP to that invitation. Your host needs to know how much ice to get! RSVP stands for répondez s’il vous plaît, meaning “please respond.”

Which French phrases will you trot out this holiday season?

4 Infuriating Work Habits and How to Avoid Them

Considering all the time you spend at the office, it’s no surprise that your workspace, coworkers, and overall approach to everyday tasks have a big influence on your morale. We’ve all been there: you’re chatting with colleagues and you get a little heavy-handed with the emojis, or you’ve got an update most of your team will enjoy so you pop it into the general chat. It seems innocuous enough, but as it turns out, these—and other—little tendencies can really get under others’ skin. We polled our community to see which behaviors are the worst. Here are four irritating work habits that we’re all guilty of and tips on how to avoid them.

Emoji Overload

Despite how it might feel sometimes, it is possible to overuse emojis—especially at work. When we asked our community, 54 percent said that excessive emoji use was worse than noncommittal one-word replies (46 percent). Emojis are suboptimal because they have layered meanings, and as such aren’t necessarily inclusive. Furthermore, certain emojis or too-frequent use of emojis can seem unprofessional. Here is how to get your emoji use under control.

How to Avoid It

Obviously, the best way to stop emoji overload is not to use them. But it’s not always necessary to completely eliminate emojis. Try identifying people and situations that you should not use emojis with. Conversations with managers and new professional contacts, mass emails, or large group chats are all iffy situations for emojis. Furthermore, it can be helpful to know that some emojis are too casual or even borderline offensive. Stick to the oldies: smileys and thumbs up.

Giant Group Chat

These unwieldy group chats usually have too broad a scope, too many members, or both. At one time or another, we’ve all been guilty of sharing too much or too often in a general chat. Our community even voted this peeve worse than sending work messages way too early in the morning. Here are some helpful tips for deciding what and when to update in the general chat.

How to Avoid It

Though one person alone cannot tame the beast that is “Giant Group Chat,” you can make things easier on your co-workers by:

• Highlighting or formatting important general updates so they are easier to find in the chat.
• Tagging the most relevant stakeholders so they are more likely to get updates.
• Duplicating very urgent or important messages in another channel—like email.
• Messaging people directly if the conversation isn’t relevant to the whole group.

Boss CC Sneak Attack

A sneak attack is when someone adds your boss to a thread to intimidate you or encourage a specific outcome. This peeve significantly beat out excessive forwarding with more than 65 percent of poll respondents voting in favor—one of our most strongly supported peeves in the series. Including the manager unnecessarily is decidedly uncool. Here’s how to tell when to CC your boss.

How to Avoid It

Sometimes it can be difficult to know for sure if your boss needs to be looped in on certain issues. Make sure to think about your motive. If you are adding your manager to a chat or email thread because she needs to be abreast of what’s happening or you need her insight, it’s a great idea. If you are adding the boss to get attention or sway team members to behave a certain way, don’t do it. It’s passive aggressive and makes teammates resentful.

Background Noise on Calls

There are already too many frustrating ways that video conferencing and conference calls can go wrong. Background noise is understandably one of the worst because it’s largely preventable. Sixty-one percent of our poll respondents rated excessive background noise worse than unhelpful message updates. Luckily, there are a number of simple troubleshooting tips to prevent feedback on your calls.

How to Avoid It

Background noise during conferencing isn’t completely preventable, but you can make it less of a nuisance by:

• Finding somewhere quiet to take your call.
• If calling from home, alerting others in the house before you start your call.
• Using headphones so the microphone doesn’t pick up feedback from your speakers.
• Muting your microphone as needed.

Which of these bad work habits bother you most? What other peeves do you have? How would you fix them?