What I’m working on:
In this difficult media landscape, I wear many hats, depending on the crisis of the day: In just this past week alone, I’ve done everything from verifying a Cantonese-language source for a short video to editing a story for our recently departed intern, from creating the first database that shows the number of H-1B skilled workers in America’s top research institutions to scheduling social media posts, from discussing partnerships with other newsrooms to getting myself updated with the latest developments of ICE’s detention of Atlanta-area immigrant journalist Mario Guevara, and meeting potential funders. It’s a lot!
Currently, I’m expending a lot of my energy getting our newsroom to start on the right foot financially for the 2026 fiscal year. As a nonprofit, Gen-Z-immigrant-run news outlet, we’ve traditionally depended on major gifts and reader donations to keep the lights on, but like many others, we’ve had no luck with philanthropic sources lately. I’m figuring out how to beef up our sustainership model to make sure my colleagues are paid a living wage moving forward. I’ve been spending more time managing operations and development rather than doing science writing lately, but this is what I feel called to do, and I’m really motivated to make it work!
Where I work:
I currently work from my studio apartment with a panoramic view of downtown Atlanta, minutes away from the Georgia State Capitol and the Atlanta City Hall. I have an eye-level view of MARTA Rail, which is particularly helpful because I like trains and I report on public transit from a climate infrastructure angle. I have a trusty standing table, which my cat Hudson enjoys sitting on. My bed is inches from said table, which is convenient (perhaps too convenient) for a power nap.
Daily routine:
I keep West Coast hours on the East Coast for three reasons: Many of my colleagues at The Xylom work from Los Angeles, South Asia, and East Africa, so I need to make sure my awake hours overlap with them at least once during the day; I am the most productive late at night; and I just really, really need to stay up for West Coast basketball and college football games. Ideally, I would do a stand-up meeting at 9:30 a.m., eat breakfast before 10:30 a.m., lunch at around 2:30 p.m., and dinner at around 9:00 p.m., with breaks demanded by Hudson the cat in between, but I often don’t stick to this schedule. I’ve been working to build more consistency. Unlike most science writers, I never drink coffee or energy drinks; in 2025, I’ve aspired to drink more warm tea, it’s gentler on the stomach.
Most productive part of my day:
I am most productive by far after midnight. It’s just how my brain is wired, and I’m learning how to maximize my seven hours of sleep around that.
Most essential ritual or habit:
I’ve religiously observed the Friday fast, with only water during sunrise to sunset, since I was in college. It’s not easy in the summer, when it’s still bright in Atlanta past 9:00 p.m.! However, it really brings clarity and purpose into my life, allowing me an opportunity to reset before the weekend starts.
Favorite note-taking techniques/tools:
If I’m in the field, I default to my trusty Rite in the Rain all-weather notebook; I always take notes with a pencil, so that even if it rains, the ink doesn’t smudge. If I’m doing virtual interviews, I prefer to take notes through Google Keep, because I can meticulously sort them by color, and display them on a sidebar next to Google Calendar and Gmail.
How I keep track of my to-do list:
The Xylom has an internal editorial budget on Google Sheets. In addition, I take advantage of Google Tasks to keep track of things I need to do.
Essential software/apps/productivity tools:
I can’t live without Otter for transcriptions, Signal for secure communications, as well as Datawrapper, geojson.io, and MapShaper for data-visualization projects. This is also why I will always be a PC person, because Macs don’t support certain mapping software! As The Xylom quit Twitter in favor of Bluesky, we split our social media scheduling between Buffer and Linkin.bio. I also rely heavily on synchronizing my Google phone with my Google calendar to mute texts and notifications, so that I only receive the absolutely necessary ones through my Google watch. (I swear this isn’t an advertisement for Google!)
Favorite time waster/procrastination habit:
I am a big fan of live sports (shoutout the currently undefeated Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team!) I often put them on a second screen while I work!
My reading habits:
I was recently diagnosed with ADHD, so I recognize that I have the attention span of a goldfish. As a result, I prioritize the consistent and intentional act of reading just a few pages each time over forcing myself to spend an allocated amount of time reading every day. I prefer either lounging at our apartment’s rooftop deck on weekend evenings or reading in my bed right before I fall asleep as a way to transition away from screen time. I typically enjoy nonfiction books that are either tangentially related to science or graphic design (my mom is a visual artist!), or long narrative nonfiction articles. I’ve been reading Mary Roach’s Fuzz; I won a copy of the book while playing trivia when I was with the MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing, and I got to meet Mary in person in late May when she spoke at the Association of Healthcare Journalists conference in Los Angeles!
Sleep schedule:
I am most definitely a night owl. I typically go to sleep at 2:00 a.m. and I wake up at around 9:30 a.m. I’m a deep sleeper; I am unbothered even as I live next to active freight tracks and Hudson the cat has his 3:00 a.m. zoomies. My Loop earplugs are essential though; it helps create some consistency even when I’m on the road!