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jessa

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Everyday Stories, Lived

Work

  • Plan B

    Sticking to only one path while being in a complex system may be frustrating when things you don’t have control over start to change how things go. But by creating alternative courses of action, you allow yourself to be flexible with any of your identified scenarios. During our wedding planning, we already know the facts, Read more

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  • Fragrance as a cue

    Can you remember moments when you’ve associated memory with a scent? From What the nose knows: Smell and memory seem to be so closely linked because of the brain’s anatomy, said Harvard’s Venkatesh Murthy, Raymond Leo Erikson Life Sciences Professor and chair of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. There were even moments when Read more

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  • Leaving notes for our future selves

    If you are working on a project that takes time to finish, it helps to write down even random thoughts or ideas about a specific topic for later reference. As a habit, my colleague and I write notes we have for our academic paper in bullets. These notes consist of reminders and ideas we can’t Read more

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  • Finishing a pie (a project management story)

    My husband and I have worked on wedding planning and preparation for four months, and it’s incredible how we summed them all up into three boxes: one for the bride, the groom, and the reception. And as I looked at the boxes stacked up the night before the wedding, I was amazed by how everything Read more

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  • Equally important

    How to deal with equally important tasks? Sort them based on urgency. And if you have to choose between two equally important tasks but can only attend to one (because, of course, you can only attend to one at a time), delegate somebody who could properly represent you. The last thing you want to happen is to Read more

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  • Doing extra

    If you treat your work with disinterest and lack of dedication, it becomes difficult for you to empathize with people, especially when you do work that requires you to interact with the people you seek to serve. Because doing extra, like working with empathy, is something that the job usually doesn’t really pay for. So Read more

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  • One-hit-wonder

    Being a one-hit-wonder could make you feel good or bad about yourself, depending on what perspective you choose to stand. If making a hit is the only thing that keeps you working, then it may not sustain you in the long run because you might find it challenging to replicate your initial success. And if Read more

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