An easy question that stumped me
Oh, hi friends!
Last week, at my musical theatre writing workshop, we were paired off in twos and told to answer the questions in front of us.
Some of the questions were basic: Do you have any pets, what’s the most impressive dish you can cook, etc. A few went a little deeper: When was the last time you cried?
But one of the questions stumped me more than all the others: What are three adjectives you would use to describe yourself?
A-whaaa?
I like words. I like adjectives. But I was boggled. What could I say that didn’t sound like bragging? What if I named a quality that I believed I had but that this other person didn’t think I had? I could barely think of any adjectives, period!
Finally, we sorted through them (am I funny…no…self-deprecating? Dry? Curious. Uh, actually I can’t remember the third).
But now I want to pose the question to you. What three adjectives would you use to describe yourself? You might learn something, even if that something is that you're equally as stumped as me.
No, but seriously, it's a hard question.
“Find the gaps in your day—a commute or waiting in line—and don’t look at your phone. I call this ‘opening a loop,’ which means you’re giving your brain the space to make new connections (shower moments!). When you answer emails or go to a meeting, you’re closing a loop. It’s important to find a balance, so if you say yes to every meeting, when do you have time to open loops?”
I found a lot of value in this interview with Google’s productivity expert. I’m always obsessed with closing loops, but naming these moments—open loops and closed loops—gives me a new perspective on why I should actually let my mind wander.
I'm Obsessed with This
I didn’t want to stare at a bunch of important emails in my inbox over the long weekend, so I used Boomerang—a Chrome extension for Gmail—and “boomeranged” aka resent all my emails to land back in my inbox on Monday. Because let’s be honest, once you’ve already opened them, they sit in the graveyard for a long while.
Do you like these daily emails? Please share with a friend!
Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara