Last November, I saw a decline in my output at work, and my productivity was lacking. Every task was dragging and I couldn’t even get started on projects.

We all eventually hit burnout periods. Once you work so hard for so long, you eventually get completely exhausted. Every task feels daunting, and concentration and creativity are non-existent.

Once you reach this point, it takes some work to get back on track. I took a much-needed vacation over the winter holiday and came back fired up and ready to kill it once again. …

Losing weight is hard. Cutting out your favorite foods and drinks, giving up the couch potato lifestyle, and eating out less frequently sucks. But that’s what I did for the past two weeks.

I watched my mom struggle with diabetes and heart issues for most of my life. Now I am watching my health spiral as I sit on the line between pre-diabetic and diabetic. Which direction it tips is up to me.

You don’t have time to exercise, right? It’s all about carving out time in your already existent schedule. I am going to walk you through the various…

Staying productive while working from home can be an enormous challenge. I have been working from home three days per week for pretty much all of my last 2.5 years at my current company. When the pandemic started, this turned into 5 days per week.

It can be very easy to lose focus and motivation when you don’t have someone watching over your every move. But most managers will tell you they don’t pay for a butt in a chair. They pay for your output and productivity. …

Any way you slice it, books are expensive. There are more expensive hobbies sure but when you are on a budget, splurging on a new book can bring some serious guilt.

Often, we don’t even re-read our books so we could end up spending hundreds or even thousands per year on books that get read once, and then go to our bookshelves to die. Book hoarding is an expensive hobby.

There is nothing wrong with collecting books. We can find joy in curating and building a home library. …

During the pandemic and isolation, I got even more depressed than normal. This was a common problem for many people this year. I was missing meetings left and right.

My manager even put me on a performance improvement plan. These plans are often used to fire people. That was the road I was going down, and I didn’t much care. But my manager saw something in me and he wanted me to improve and succeed.

So I started therapy in January and started working with my therapist on establishing goals. I wanted to save my career. …

The Story

We first meet Elsa Wolcott in 1921. She’s a lonely twenty-five-year-old woman living at home with her parents. Elsa wants more from life. She wants to go to college to become a writer. In this time, people shunned women who wanted to educate themselves. Her parents think it’s preposterous.

One night, Elsa goes out on the town against her parents’ wishes. She meets Rafe Martinelli, and he turns her entire world upside down. Suddenly she’s being kicked out of her parent’s home, her reputation is tarnished, and she must marry Rafe.

The year is now 1934. Many Americans are jobless…

Your bookshelf tells your story and lets others have a look into your soul. If your books showcase clutter, disorganization, and mess, what does that say about you? Can you even find that one book you’ve been dying to reread?

One of the first things I do when I visit someone’s home is to check out their book collection. It gives me a rare glimpse into their mind, soul, and heart. What memories did they choose to showcase? Who are they really?

A bookshelf should include books, of course, but don’t forget to add a few personal items to make…

In 2020, I wrote about breaking genres in reading and why the concept is so important. Opening yourself up to other genres allows you to develop skills in that area to apply to your own writing. Reading various genres increases your vocabulary and allows you to process stories in that mindset.

For example, romance novels help readers to focus on connections between characters. For writers, this helps to create a more character-driven story. This is helpful in any area of writing or storytelling. Reading thrillers helps to create tension and stronger plot points. Every genre teaches us something different.

Genre Challenge

I…