Stop Giving up Coffee
The last time we collected our staff’s weekly updates , our editors gratefully kept a diary, creating the perfect sandwich and returning to our daily exercises.
This week we’re making our inboxes a little nicer, making room for everything (and everything in its place), changing our plans for the evening, and updating our headshots.
What updates have you made this week? Let us know in the comments.
Turn your inbox into a source of inspiration
We recently highlighted our favorite newsletters, but I realized there are many more, which makes me smarter and turns me on to new people, things, and concepts. Laura Olin has interesting links and job opportunities for writers and strategists, Jocelyn K. Gley (she also has a great Hurry Slow podcast) is all about living more consciously and filling her time with important things, and Molly Chen , the founder of BirchBox, has a super honest newsletter that gives advice on career, motherhood, unplugging, and more. They make my weeks so much better when they arrive in my inbox.
alisia adamchik, staff writer
Break the monotony of lunch with a subscription box
My girlfriend and I signed up for Blue Apron because we are both lazy remote workers who want everything to be brought to us. We were both decent chefs already, but it was a lot of fun learning how to cook simple recipes that are not part of our cockpit. This is also a fun activity for couples! We cooked glazed harissa drumsticks with vegetables together last night and it was delicious.
Patrick Allan, staff writer
Invest in professional headshots
I took some new photos for all my profile pictures and I feel 30 percent more professional, at least on the internet. Next time, I won’t wait another eight years to do this. One interesting thing: a photographer friend of mine sent me my picture in five different colors, just in case I get tired of yellow.
Michelle Wu, parenting editor
Add variety to your social circle
I had a drink with someone I met in a month “picking my brain” ; he works in technology, and we talked about tech addiction, podcasts, and friendship in adulthood. Sometimes my old friends and I get bored with our favorite topics of conversation with each other, so it’s nice to have someone new to talk to about all of this.
Nick Douglas, staff writer
Stop fighting your caffeine addiction
I’m not entirely sure if this counts as an update, but for me it was. After months of periodically trying to give up coffee, I realized something: coffee never hurt me, I didn’t feel much better without it (in fact, I felt worse and just resentful), and it was all a fruitless, erroneous attempt some vague self-improvement. So I started drinking coffee again, this time without any weird self-esteem. Not in massive quantities, to be honest, but adding a cup or two a day has improved my quality of life exponentially. I consider this a lesson in choosing battles.
Virginia K. Smith, Editor-in-Chief
Hang up your hat
Due to the recent inclement weather and my genetic predisposition to baldness, I began to wear a baseball cap when I go out. Unfortunately, my dog started falling asleep in the said hat when it was not on my head. He was clearly trying to teach me a lesson every time he slept, licked or dragged my cap on the floor: put your things away. So I bought an adhesive wall hook, glued it to the bookcase, and made a pretty cool place to store my cap conveniently. Everybody wins.
Patrick Austin, staff writer
Get the most out of your work travel
I’ve improved my life from the warm, lovely San Francisco Bay Area to the snowboard-filled streets of New York – but only for a week. While visiting Lifehacker’s headquarters, I tested all sorts of new ways to keep people from giving me flyers or harassing me about taking pictures of themselves in suits, and I researched various methods to encourage tourists to GTFO. I was unable to get Bernadette Peters to acknowledge my existence during my trip, but I was able to protect my wallet from the siren of every item in the Hamilton pop-up store.
David Murphy, Senior Technical Editor