What I’m working on:
At work these days I’m mostly a project and people manager, so much of my day involves planning and producing special editorial packages (like this one) and checking in with members of my team to make sure they have what they need.
Right now I’m preparing to moderate a few upcoming events and starting the hiring process for our next class of editorial fellows. Throughout the year I also keep a close eye on our newsroom’s budget and expenses. Juggling so many different kinds of tasks can get chaotic sometimes but I enjoy working on a mix of stuff—it keeps things interesting and is a good challenge for me.
In my free time I’m working through this Generative AI for Everyone course on Coursera with both of my brothers, since we’ve all been talking about what this technology will change about our world moving forward. And that’s more fun to think about together.
Where I work:
We’re a hybrid newsroom with our main office on MIT’s campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I spend part of my time working from there and am often on campus for other events and activities throughout the week. I like being part of an academic community and having access to campus events and spaces—there’s always so much going on.
On days I’m not in the office, I work from my apartment in downtown Boston. Like many others, I invested in a standing desk and a separate monitor during the pandemic and am happy with my whole setup there. At the moment, though, I’m writing this from the Boston Athenaeum, which is a gorgeous space I’ve only recently discovered, so I expect I’ll be working from here more, too.
Daily routine:
If I’m going to the office, I usually walk in. That takes about 50 minutes but it’s a gorgeous commute—across Boston Common, through the historic Beacon Hill neighborhood, and over the Longfellow Bridge, which has stunning views of the Boston skyline and the Charles River. On the way I’ll listen to The Daily podcast. If it’s raining or bitterly cold, I’ll take the T (Boston’s subway system).
No two days are the same in my role, which is how I like it. Between meetings and calls, I work through a few immediate priorities and make sure to do at least one thing every day that moves a longer-term project forward.
Most productive part of my day:
Mornings, for sure. I think best and work most efficiently with a fresh brain. I try not to schedule early meetings and prefer to use that time to work through something hard that requires my full attention.
I’ve also been scheduling 1.5-hour blocks of focused work time with two of my colleagues on Monday afternoons. We check in at the start and share what we’re going to work on, and then set our Slack statuses to say we’re focusing so no one expects an immediate response. Having that dedicated time and accountability has been helpful.
Most essential ritual or habit:
Staying physically active is the best thing I do for myself. Boston’s a beautiful city and now that it’s warming up again, one of my favorite things to do before work is get a coffee and take a long walk along Boston Harbor. I also play as much tennis as possible—it’s a great sport that can be fun and relaxing or competitive enough to give you a real workout. And it’s just a wonderful excuse to get outside during warmer months. I recently started doing yoga, too, and have really been enjoying that.
Favorite note-taking techniques/tools:
If I’m working on a story like my recent look at global helium production, I keep two Google docs open at all times. In one of them, I collect all the relevant facts/stats/background info I can find on the topic, and in the other, I make a list of people I want to interview, organize my questions, and take notes during those calls.
When I’m feeling ready, I go back through both documents and bold all of the quotes and facts or stats I want to use in my story. Then I make a detailed outline and write the story by essentially filling in those bolded items and other context or framing as I go. This method helps me keep track of where I got certain information, which is useful later for fact-checking.
How I keep track of my to-do list:
I have a physical planner that sits on my desk that I use to make lists for the day and the week. I use various marks to track my workouts and reading goals—to make sure I’m being consistent. There’s a whiteboard in my office at home that I write longer-term goals and reminders on.
For little daily tasks, I write stuff down on a Post-it or make a calendar reminder to myself. Doing that instead of trying to remember a bunch of small details helps me mentally check out from work when it’s time.
Essential software/apps/productivity tools:
We use Airtable to track freelance assignments and DocuSign to send out contracts—both of which were easy to set up and configure for the team. I like Miro as a whiteboarding tool. We work in Google Docs, and I keep most of my notes there for various projects and events. I also use Google Sheets for budgeting and project planning. Our newsroom communicates mostly through Slack, and I use huddles for quick calls with my team. Since we’re a hybrid newsroom, I’m on Zoom lots too.
About a year ago we started tracking source diversity using a tool created by Chalkbeat and the University of Missouri’s Reynolds Journalism Institute, and that’s been really handy.
A random thing I like is the Color Tab extension for Google Chrome, which gives you a lovely pop of color every time you open a new tab (which I do … a lot). I’m fascinated by the people who use Notion to plan every aspect of their lives but am not personally on that level.
Favorite time waster/procrastination habit:
Playing with and taking photos of my cat, a British shorthair named Captain Meow who is a total goofball and loves to shred anything I dare to print.
My reading habits:
For news, I save and read stories across various apps (Pocket, Apple News, The Economist, and our brand new MIT Technology Review app). I like getting away from screens whenever possible so subscribe to the print editions of The Economist and The Wall Street Journal.
I’ve always loved reading books, but for a long time I fell out of the habit because I was forcing myself to read only nonfiction and it felt too much like work. Then I took a management class at Stern for my MBA with a remarkable professor named Dolly Chugh. She encouraged us all to read more fiction as a way to build empathy and consider perspectives other than our own, and assigned us each a book as homework.
That reignited my love of reading and I’ve been on a tear ever since. Right now I’m reading The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller and The Power Broker by Robert Caro (following along with the folks at 99% Invisible). Last year I read Dracula (which was much funnier than I expected) through the Dracula Daily newsletter, which kicks off again soon on May 3.
I have many, many books on my reading list and just keep adding more. Boston has a strong literary scene with lots of local bookstores and author events, and I love that about this city.
Sleep schedule:
I’m definitely more of a night owl than a morning person but am usually in bed by 11:00 p.m. or so. I like to end my day with a book.
