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work
Attach the file before you write the email
One small thing you could do
Next email that needs an attachment: add the file first, then write the message. The “sorry, forgot the attachment” follow-up retires today.
When work is grinding you down
Your worth is not your job, and not every hill is worth the climb.
Or change what feels heavy:
Pick as many as fit.
- Money is tight
- Something’s wrong where I live
- Work is grinding me down
- I feel alone
- Being around people is hard
- A relationship is wearing me down
- My mind won’t stop
- I don’t feel like enough
- I can’t get started
- I want a new habit to stick
- Everything fell apart
- I need a longer view
- Someone I care about is struggling
No cookies, no account, nothing saved — what you pick lives in this page and goes when you leave.
More that helped here
- wellbeingCriticism needs credentialsA saying people keep handing each other: before criticism gets a room in your head, ask one question — would you go to this person for advice?
- workMatch your loyalty to theirsAn employer's loyalty runs precisely as far as its need for you — no further. Not a reason for dread: a permission slip to stop over-sacrificing.
- workNot knowing yet is the jobThe first months of a new job have a secret job description: not knowing. The two-month trough is normal, questions are the work, and it turns.
- workTell the new one they're doing fineNew people hold no power, no friendships, no map — and never forget who was kind right then. Say it's normal to wobble; say when they've done well.
- wellbeingAsk them how they did itThe move that ends it, from people who tried everything else: go to the person you envy and ask for the method. It’s hard on the pride and it works.
- wellbeingConfidence follows competence“Just be confident” fails because there is no general skill. There’s confidence at the piano and confidence at your job — each built by getting good.
- workBreak the To field on purposeReplies come with the address pre-loaded — so jam the mechanism: type nonsense into the To line, and the email physically can’t leave until you remove it.
There’s a path for this: The email tripwires — 6 small steps, in an order that builds →
25 small steps in this library sit under this feeling. Browse them all →