I’m Beth Skorecki, Editor of Lifehacker Health, and This Is How I Work
Every week, we share shortcuts, workspaces, and productivity tips from our favorite experts. This week we take a look behind the scenes at Lifehacker. I’m Beth Skoreki, and this is how I work.
Name: Beth Scarecki (oh well, those are easy questions) Location: Pittsburgh, PA Current Job: Health Editor at Lifehacker Current mobile device: iPhone SE because it’s the only phone that fits in my tiny lady’s pockets Current computer: The MacBook Pro that Lifehacker sent me. I still use my old Dell XPS13 (running Ubuntu) for my spare time. One word that best describes the way you work : cozy
First of all, tell us a little about your past and how you got where you are now.
I majored in biology because I thought I would become a veterinarian. Then I got distracted by programming and web development, moved to bioinformatics, and then one day I left and said that I was going to become a science writer instead. (Career tip: Don’t do this.) I worked as a freelancer for almost ten years before I got into Lifehacker.
Tell us about a recent work day.
I have to get all three children out of the house by 9 o’clock. Sometimes I wake up early to get an hour or two head start before my kids get up – it depends on what my schedule looks like for the day. In the mornings, I discuss story ideas on our Slack channel, check my email, and maybe write a message if I have one soon.
My older children get on the school bus, and I send the younger ones to kindergarten, and then I sit in my home office all day. I try to exercise every weekday, either in the morning if I have time, or during my lunch break. (Favorite workouts: running, crossfit, and whatever is Lifehacker’s current fitness challenge .)
The rest of the day I am in a cycle of researching, writing and then testing social media as a break / reward after I finish posting. But then social media gives me ideas of what I should write about next. I’m not sure if this is an ingenious way to increase productivity or a vicious circle that keeps me trapped for all eternity.
What apps, gadgets or tools, besides your phone, can’t you live without?
I always have a notebook next to my computer, and this is something like a swap file in my brain. I write down everything that I need to remember in the near future, but now I cannot keep it in my head, because I need to hold on to something else inside.
How is your workplace arranged?
I work in a finished space in an attic with a sloping roof and cedar paneling. It’s so cozy! I like it! Attached to the wall in front of me are these things:
- A calendar, nothing written on it, just a visual display that I can look at and think, “Okay 22nd Saturday …”
- Health News Review criteria for basic information should always include.
- Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists.
- A list of words that cannot be used in names with a capital letter: “a, an, the, at, by, for, in, of, on, to, up, and, as, but, or, & nor”.
- Roy Peter Clark’s Quick 50 Writing Tools : Tips such as Organize words to highlight. Put strong words at the beginning and at the end. “
- A small cartoon (source unknown, possibly Austin Cleon ?) That says, “It doesn’t matter if he’s good now. He just needs to exist. “
What’s your best shortcut or life hack?
I … I think I wrote about everyone.
Okay, here’s one thing I don’t have: I keep telling myself about something. If I find a tweet or article somewhere that makes me think, “Hmm, should I write about this?” I share it with Slack, but not through any of our work channels – just as a direct message from myself to myself. Then, when I run out of story ideas, I see what I have in my DM story and ponder if I’m interested in promoting it. I started tweeting myself about non-work-related links or ideas I want to remember. It’s easier than running everything through Pocket or Evernote.
Tell us about an interesting, unusual, or challenging process you have at work.
When I read a research paper, I often do it in a different order depending on what I’m looking for.
The cleanest and probably the most correct way is to start with materials and methods: what did they actually do? And then move on to the results: what was the original data? Then you form your own opinion before reading the rest of the article.
But most of the time, I start reading an article because I am trying to determine if it deserves attention. So I start with a news article or press release if there is one: what are people saying about this newspaper and why are they so excited? From there I go through the article annotation and metadata: where are they from? Is this an observational or experimental study? Do I recognize any of the authors? I am interested in such paper?
I then read a discussion that explains what the authors thought of their experiment and an introduction that explains why they were looking into the matter at all. The context of an article is so important – this is what makes it the subject of publication. Often, as I read the introduction, I realize that this article is a boring footnote to a more interesting story, and I’ll go after it instead.
Gathering all this information, I make a mental list of questions and red flags. Basically I come up with tests by constantly asking the newspaper, “Are you still interested?” Often the first thing I do is hit ctrl-F and look for the word “plural” on the page, because if you do multiple comparisons and mess up your statistics, the whole article could be junk. And I will search the page for headline keywords to see if the newspaper actually studied them or not. This is how I noticed that the highly publicized study of yoga mats did not actually concern yoga mats at all .
Who are the people who help you achieve results, and how do you rely on them?
Daycare is life-saving . You might think this goes without saying, but I keep meeting people who think that “working from home” means I have kids who bore me all day. Haha, no.
We have a great team of editors, fellow writers, freelancers, video and social media specialists and many more. The ability to exchange ideas is a great thing and I am fortunate enough to work with such smart and cool people.
What’s your favorite side project?
I create bots that write (or write) stupid things. There is @botcocktails on Twitter who composes drink recipes several times a day and creates a custom one for you if you ask. It’s also on Mastodon as @ cocktails @ botsin.space .
Setting up new bots on Mastodon is easy, so I have a few more to tinker with:
- @wordbot has created a bunch of new words with the neural network and is typing one every hour.
- @legendarycreatures will tell you about mythical creatures from all over the world. He just reads them from a list I found on Wikipedia .
- @fakelegends is similar, but I fed the “real” legendary creatures to the neural network and asked them to come up with some new ones. For example: “Chromacon – Used demon or fish.”
My latest project is Tragic 8 Ball, which answers your yes / no questions with lines from great literary tragedies such as King Lear and Anna Karenina . This is on both Mastodon and Twitter .
What are you reading now or what do you recommend?
This summer I read a new translation of The Odyssé by Emily Wilson. I thought I just wanted to watch it, but I got addicted. It’s so readable! Complete page dragging with many shocking, sharp or funny parts.
Who else would you like to see to answer these questions?
Looking forward to Nick’s answers! He (presumably) reads all of How I Work and has probably got some great advice. I also expect it to be a pleasure to read, as it knows from experience what makes the How I Work interview readable and enjoyable. No pressure, Nick.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
The concept of emotional “temperature” has always been with me since I read this guide to moderating online communities . The higher the temperature, the more opportunities for arguments and insults, even if these are positive emotions, for example, people who are really excited about something. Dirty comments can cheer you up, as can simple facts such as the presence of a known intruder in a room or a moderator who endures (justifiable!) Punishment. Better not even let it get that far.
So I think about temperature whenever the troll gets mad at me in the comments. I want to raise the temperature of the comment section? Or do I want to use my words and actions to keep things quietly simmering? The concept is more subtle than just “don’t feed the trolls,” and more like the principles of de-escalation .
This is also just a good rule of life. Think about the temperature the next time your child is on the verge of hysteria.
What problem are you still trying to solve?
All the writer’s emotional roller coaster. You get excited by an idea, and then despair comes when you realize you don’t know what to say. You move between these states for a while, until you finally finish the work and feel for a moment pride in it, and then get ready for a reaction – maybe people like it, maybe you will receive an inbox full of hate letters … And then you need to start a new cycle before the first one ends, because the time frame.
I don’t think this is a problem that any writer can completely solve; mostly you just get used to it. But I love hearing advice from other writers about thought productivity and coping strategies!