At Google, I ran a daily team meeting tackling the onslaught of issues arising during a critical pre-launch period.  It was depressing. We all ended the meeting looking like we’d been hit by a bus. I knew I needed to change it, so added a standing intro agenda item — “F*ck Yeahs!”  We went around the horn and shared all the great things that had happened in the past 24 hours. Everything from signing a new partner to our favorite cheese being restocked in the micro-kitchens.  

Decluttering was a keystone habit for me — a habit that once unlocked, causes a domino effect of good habits throughout your life. We had a remote storage unit in NYC, and I was fed up with the amount of time I was shuttling stuff between it and my apartment.  I had the audacious goal of getting rid of it — getting all of our belongings (Christmas decorations and all) to fit in our small two bedroom NYC apartment. I read Marie Kondo’s Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, held e

There is something about getting dinner on the table that encapsulates all the stress of being a working mom. You want to feed your kids something nutritious that they will actually eat. You feel the time pressure of having to feed the kids before meltdowns begin. And, let's admit it, you just made it through a full work day and are exhausted. I love cooking for my family and us all eating together every night, so have experimented over the past couple of years to develop the

I’m a huge fan of celebrating micro-moments — cherishing the everyday moments and making them special.  My kids and I have ‘stop light dance parties’ during our commute. Each morning we blast our favorite dance music and break out the moves at each stop light, turning something stressful into one of my favorite parts of the day. Our lives are filled with many more micro-moments than grand ones. The power of them really hit me when I watched Gretchen Rubin’s “The Years are Sho

The biggest improvement to my mornings has been instituting a tip from my kid’s pre-school: Have them do what you want them to do before they get to do what they want to do. Here it is in action: Normally, we put on an episode of TV for the kids while we get ready in the morning. My kids love it. (Probably too much, but that is a topic for another post.). Our new rule: no TV until you are completely dressed. This has transformed our mornings.  Instead of having to fight my 4