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2025-10-10 08:30:00| Fast Company

I dont know if urbanism is science or art, but I do know its outcomes are best with a dose of creativity. Theres plenty to learn from the giant leaps in art and science to improve your urbanism advocacy. Happy, healthy communities aren’t made from being stuck in a bygone era. The value of fog Impressionist painters didnt discover fog. It was always there, but it wasnt something people were discussing much in the early 19th century leading up to the impressionists and tonalists. Each of those artistic movements created illusions of reality with familiar scenes. James McNeill Whistler was an influential figure and one of the original tonalists. Heres what he had to say about finding inspiration from natural elements previously left off the canvas: {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"","headline":"Urbanism Speakeasy","description":"Join Andy Boenau as he explores ideas that the infrastructure status quo would rather keep quiet. To learn more, visit urbanismspeakeasy.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.urbanismspeakeasy.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}} And when the evening mist clothes the riverside with poetry, as with a veil, and the poor buildings lose themselves in the dim sky, and the tall chimneys become campanili, and the warehouses are palaces in the night and the whole city hangs in the heavens, and fairy-land is before usthen the wayfarer hastens home; the working man and the cultured one, the wise man and the one of pleasure, cease to understand, as they have ceased to see, and Nature, who, for once, has sung in tune, sings her exquisite song to the artists alone. Claude Monet is probably the most famous of the impressionist bunch. Monets focus shifted from clear objects to the effects of atmosphere and light, after he stumbled into the London fog. Critics would argue about deeper meanings, whether impressionism was creating a dreamy or nightmarish mood for London, angelic or demonic. But the meaning (or lack thereof) isnt what got me thinking about these 19th-century art movements. Its the idea that something was always there and it took artists to draw the attention of normies to it.  Claude Monet, The Houses of Parliament (Effect of Fog), circa 1903 [Photo: Szilas/Wiki Commons] The influence of gravity  Some 300 years before Monet and Whistler, Nicolaus Copernicus was making the shocking case that Earth and other planets revolved around the sun, rather than Earth being the center of everything. He didnt get everything right. Copernicus had no concept of gravity, so he wasnt clear on how the celestial blobs swirled around each other or why they all orbited the sun. Not many decades later, Isaac Newton watched an apple fall out of a tree. He organized his math homework and philosophy into laws of gravity that were eventually used to describe planetary motion.  In hindsight, it seems almost childish to talk about major leaps in art and science because the advancements seem so obvious. Of course this foggy picture with shadowy figures in motion makes me feel uneasy. Of course gravity makes things fall to the ground.  Great leaps forward Generations ahead of us will probably read stories about our era that begin like this: Once upon a terrible time, Americas most educated city planners were convinced that cities optimized for motor vehicle traffic would be the safest and most prosperous. Things that dont even cross our minds today as possible outcomes will be boring in their obviousness later. Consider space: In 1960, science fiction was the only reasonable place for stories about a group of humans traveling beyond our atmosphere, circling the globe, and returning safely in their ship. In 1961, Project Mercury launched multiple such voyages, making all sorts of discoveries about how people and machines function in weightless environments. Consider music: In 1965, anyone interested in hearing a new band had to either listen live to one of a few radio stations or suffer through a friends attempt to sing. In 1966, the portable cassette recorder was introduced, making it possible for anyone to make and play recordings without cables and microphones. Consider city planning: In 2022, land use planners and politicians still worked under the assumption that the social and physical harms of zoning were necessary and would always exist.  In 2023, a brave local planning department liberated its community from the crushing burdens of zoning, becoming a model for others to follow. (Maybe.) Theres no reason to always be operating from a yesteryear mindset with issues like affordable housing, traffic engineering, parks planning, and intersection design. Challenge what others take for granted. Open your eyes to the hidden potential of your block, your street, your neighborhood, and your city. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"","headline":"Urbanism Speakeasy","description":"Join Andy Boenau as he explores ideas that the infrastructure status quo would rather keep quiet. To learn more, visit urbanismspeakeasy.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.urbanismspeakeasy.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}}


Category: E-Commerce

 

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2025-10-10 08:00:00| Fast Company

When announcing her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, on the New Heights podcast, Taylor Swift said, You should think of your energy as if its expensive. . . . Not everyone can afford it. She was encouraging people to have a healthy relationship with social media and not get sucked into online drama and endless scrolling.  As a working mom with three kids, this hit me deeplyabout much more than social media. I have spent a good portion of my adult life talking about productivity, apps, and tools to save time. But Swift used a different word: energy. I can do dozens of things to save time in my day, but if I dont have any energy left, what have I really gained? If you want to treat your energy as if its expensive, you should think about how youre spending your time and what things drain too much of your finite energy resources. Heres how to get started. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/04\/workbetter-logo.png","headline":"Work Better","description":"Thoughts on the future of work, career pivots, and why work shouldn't suck, by Anna Burgess Yang. To learn more visit workbetter.media.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.workbetter.media","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}} Audit how you spend your time Think of a block of time in your daymaybe for a meeting or picking your kids up from school. What drains your energy far beyond the amount of time on the clock? Years ago, I was part of a book club that I really enjoyed. But then the group started fighting about everything from the books we chose to the members we accepted. As much as I loved the people I met through the group, it was draining too much of my energy. So I left. A good way to audit your time is to ask yourself: What is taking up too much space in my brain? If you get sucked into work drama, youll probably find yourself upset or stewing hours later. A 30-minute meeting ends up absorbing much more of your time and energy. Things that take up too much of your energy leave you feeling drained, defeated, or exhausted later. Identifying these is the first step to setting boundaries. Reframe your priorities Next, youll look at the demands on your time and energy. Figure out what is required and how you can cut back on things that are too expensive. A meeting with your boss might require a lot of your energy, but you have to do it because its part of your job. Volunteering for a local organization might require a lot of your time, but is low energy or something you enjoy. Break down your time into four quadrants: high-priority + high-energy, high-priority + low-energy, low-priority + high-energy, and low-priority + low-energy.  High-priority + high-energyHigh-priority + low-energyLow-priority + high-energyLow-priority + low-energy Low priority + high energy is not a good combination. If you treat your energy as expensive, those are things you should cut back on. Low priority + low energy might be something you can cut altogether, unless its something that can give your brain a reprieve and doesnt interfere with your high priorities.  Reclaim your energy for what matters the most While you cant necessarily get rid of high-priority + high-energy demands, you can try to protect yourself. Keep the interactions or work to the bare minimum. I used to work with a group of people who were very high-drama. Meetings turned into battles, and the disagreements would continue in long strings of emails. I couldnt escape the interactions, because it was part of my job.  But later in the day, I would complain about the group at dinner with my family. I would stew over the interactions while I was driving around. I let the drama absorb way more of my energy than it deserved. With effort on my part, I learned to say, Nope. Im going to leave work at work.  You can also find ways to recharge your energy, whether its a walk, a nap, or locking your phone so you dont get sucked into an endless doomscroll.  Recharging isnt a luxuryits essential, especially when youre locked into a lot of high-priority + high-energy work. If youre not careful with how you spend your time, its a quick path to burnout, feeling frazzled, or lacking the energy for things that matter in your life.  {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/04\/workbetter-logo.png","headline":"Work Better","description":"Thoughts on the future of work, career pivots, and why work shouldn't suck, by Anna Burgess Yang. To learn more visit workbetter.media.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.workbetter.media","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}}


Category: E-Commerce

 

2025-10-10 06:00:00| Fast Company

When I first entered the workforce, my mantra was simple: Do whatever it takes. So when I was organizing and running programming for an event early in my career and the need for visitor transportation came up, I didnt hesitate. Thats how I ended up behind the wheel of a 12-person Sprinter vandoing pickups, drop-offs, and general schlepping in between running the actual event. Saying yes to every extra task doesnt make you indispensable. It makes you exhausted. And worse, it raises the question of your value as an employee. Are you just duct tape slapped over a leak when needed, or is there real substance and strategy to your role in the organization? A stretch project that builds skills or visibility? Now, thats worth stepping up for. But, extra work that adds no upside except more caffeine paired with a shot of anxiety? Not so much. Ah, but theres always a catch, and in this case, its a tricky one. We want to keep our jobs, impress our managers, and ideally get promoted. This is, after all, our careers were talking about. So the question becomes: How do you say no to extra work without looking like a slacker?  It comes down to communicating boundaries in a way that demonstrates clarity, professionalism, and commitment to outcomes. Anchor in Your Priorities The first strategy is to make your no about what you are doing, not what you arent. The fastest way to get labeled not a team player is to just say no. This isnt D.A.R.E. The smarter move is to show what youre focused on and why it matters. Try framing your response around impact instead: Id love to help, but I need to stay focused on delivering X by the end of the week. If this new task is a priority, lets discuss what gets shifted so that can happen. Youre not avoiding responsibility, youre managing it. By being clear about your workload and bandwidth youre reminding your manager that resources are finite. And, by anchoring in your priorities, youre signaling that you know how to make thoughtful choices, not frantic ones. Offer an Alternative Sometimes a no can feel harsh. Thats where the second strategy comes in: redirecting. Offering an alternative shows youre flexible without overcommitting. This could look like offering to take on a smaller piece of the work, proposing a revised schedule, or simply extending the timeline: I cant take this on right now, but I can jump in next week once I wrap Y project. And heres the bonus, because we all love a little lagniappe (that lil something extra, as they say in New Orleans): Offering alternatives doesnt diminish credibility. It builds it by showing youre thinking like a problem-solver, not a martyr. (See my article on workplace martyrdom for more on why that mindset is so dangerous.) Zooming Out: The Big Picture And finally, zoom out. The third strategy is to reframe boundaries not as personal preference, but as organizational protection. The biggest fear people have about saying no is how it will look. But, and this is a big ol but, theres a difference between looking like a slacker and actually being a slacker. You were hired to do a job, and that job likely came with a description and a somewhat defined scope. There wasnt (I hope) an expectation that you were signing your life away with an open tab on your time.   Theres also a ripple effect when people keep saying yes: It convinces leadership that no extra resources are needed, or worse, that priorities are clear when theyre not. Overflow work gets absorbed, masking the fact that the team could use more support. Ironically, saying yes to everything can keep your company from making the very decisions that would help everyone succeed. Boundaries arent laziness: theyre strategy. They signal that you understand the value of your time, and that youre willing to protect it. I still cringe when I think about that Sprinter van. But it was the lesson I neededand like many early-career professionals, not one I learned quickly. Heres hoping youre a faster learner than I was. 


Category: E-Commerce

 

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