I recently hosted an event to share what I've learned through my experience working from home for the past 15 years with some of our MergeLane portfolio companies and some of the members of our fund 81 VC forum. I shared that if I'm honest with myself, I value productivity and efficiency above all else. It's no surprise that I focused the agenda on my tips for becoming more productive and efficient while working from home.
During the call, two of our MergeLane portfolio company CEOs shared that they actually have the opposite problem. Without that physical barrier between work and home, they have a really hard time shutting off. When I listened to the recording of the event, I realized that I failed to really hear what they were saying because I was so focused on my pre-determined agenda. This is a pattern I now recognize thanks to studying Conscious Leadership which my colleagues Sue Heilbronner and Leah Pearlman turned me onto (you can learn more about that at Leadership.Camp).
I'm posting this follow-up podcast episode: Turning It Off | Managing Anxiety and Workaholism While Working from Home to apologize to Bo and Allie, and to share some answers to the questions I glossed over.
I’ve spent most of my life learning how to turn off my passion for just long enough to eat and sleep. I’ve never had to learn how to turn it on. After a recent long stretch without that passion, here's my hypothesis as to why I think it is coming back.
Read more ➞I tried for many years to maintain a jam-packed schedule with zero margin for error, but life never seems to fit into perfectly scheduled boxes. After a straw-that-broke-the-camel’s-back moment, I’m learning to live off of the brink of disaster.
Read more ➞I've spent more time than necessary on our fund administration and reporting, in part because of some of the easily avoidable administrative mistakes I’ve made over my 10-year journey as a startup investor.
Read more ➞Over these past two months and throughout all of 2020, I've learned something that I want to record to make sure that I remember: My anxiety about the potential outcomes is almost always worse than the actual outcome.
Read more ➞