Portfolio

I love writing about the career world, whether that's a piece on developing leadership skills, effectively setting goals, or integrating your career into your life meaningfully. I'm also slightly obsessed with time management and productivity tips because time is the only thing we can never get back, so we might as well make the most of it, right?

Below are some of my favorite pieces, or you can browse my full portfolio on Authory, which is embedded below. 

Workshop

Creating a Change Management Communications Plan: A Guide for IC and HR Pros

Managing change is one thing; communicating changes to others is another. It’s not uncommon for organizations to task their internal communicators (ICers) and human resources (HR) professionals with the ultimate challenge of communicating a significant change. That might be a company-wide restructure, the celebration of a new acquisition, major rebrand, or something else bound to shake the stable ground.
Clockwise
Mockup of a cell phone with calendars floating around it

Find a Meeting Time that Works for All Attendees | Clockwise

Years ago, I regularly scheduled group meetings for busy executives across congested calendars and different time zones worldwide. No matter how much I wanted to help, I can still recall what it felt like to have a CEO (or another leader) walk hurriedly toward my desk and say something like, “Can you find a time that works for everyone on this list to meet in the next couple of days?” My palms would immediately start sweating, and my heart rate would skyrocket as nervousness set in.
Clockwise
Person with headphones sitting at a table staring at their open laptop

How to Avoid Over-Scheduling and Improve Work-Life Balance | Clockwise

“Sure, I’ll add that task to my to-do list!” she says with a list that’s 30+ items deep. ‍“Yeah, I can attend that meeting; no problem!” he grumbles, as this will be his eleventh meeting this week. ‍“Let’s catch up over coffee this week!” I say, only to immediately panic because I have no idea where I’ll be able to fit in a coffee run. ‍Overscheduling in the workplace is a byproduct of our culture's championing of busyness, achievement, and success in the race to the top.
The Everygirl
Laptop sitting on a desk with a background from The Everygirl

This Productivity Method Could Be the Answer to Burnout

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where, despite trying numerous productivity hacks and maintaining effective self-care routines, you’re still striving for more and feeling utterly drained? In particular, knowledge workers (anyone who adds value to the workplace by providing knowledge and information, like engineers, accountants, marketers, and academics) and anyone else spending their time on digital devices are experiencing incurable busyness, constant distractions, and overwhelming levels of exhaustion.
Clockwise
Person sitting at a tabletop next to a plant smiling behind them

How to Politely Decline a Meeting Invite | Clockwise

Picture this: you’re merrily tapping away at your keyboard, cruising your way through your to-do list, crossing items off left and right with your favorite color highlighter when an invitation for a “Project Sync” pops up on your Google Calendar. You pause for a moment, feeling distracted and caught off guard. The meeting is in a few hours, and you need to be in the loop on the project your teammates will discuss, but is there a better way?
Clockwise
Partial screenshot of Gmail inbox window on a laptop

How to Streamline Email for Effective Communication | Clockwise

These are the types of emails that send me spiraling like Ron Swanson from the hit series Parks and Recreation:

Maybe this example is exaggerated, but you get the point.

I searched high and low for recent statistics on the number of emails the average knowledge worker receives daily, and I kept running into a McKinsey study from 2012. At the time, McKinsey reported that knowledge workers spent 28 hours each week writing emails, searching for information, and collaborating internally.
Clockwise
Person working on her laptop and smiling

Code Like a Boss: Personal Productivity for Software Engineers | Clockwise

The most effective and successful software engineers have one thing in common—they’re personal productivity pros! The engineering field has distractions, competing priorities, growing to-do lists, too many meetings, and other sneaky time thieves.

Insanely productive software engineers move things forward in magical ways. If you’re an engineer looking to improve your personal productivity skills, we’ve got you covered.
Clockwise
Illustration of three clocks to demonstrate time management

7 Tips for Improving Time Management Skills | Clockwise

On an episode of the television series “Shameless,” Lip Gallagher works in a kitchen restaurant while going to school. He asks his boss if he can leave early to study for his literature exam, but he denies his request. In a moment of tough love, Lip’s boss tells him that he sees other students struggling to balance their priorities all the time, and they get there with the help of three words — time management skills.
The Everygirl
Three people sitting at a table working with laptops and notepads

The Surprising Trait That May Be Affecting Your Productivity

Do you ever feel like no matter how many productivity hacks, time management tips, or The Everygirl desk essentials you buy, you still aren’t operating at your peak productivity levels?

We’ve all heard the same advice from productivity experts everywhere, “Wake up an hour earlier!” or “Have you tried [insert time management strategy here]? It’s a total game-changer.” We live in a world where productivity is always top of mind, but sometimes, something still feels off no matter how many strategi
Clockwise
Cartoon person juggling clocks, emails, and Slack messages

Context Switching: The High-Cost Productivity Killer | Clockwise

What would you say if I asked you to describe how your typical workday goes, start to finish? Not the perfectly smooth and organized day you plan on paper when you get to your desk first thing in the morning, but how your day actually looks.

I’ll start. I first look at my calendar and make a daily to-do list while I clean out my inbox. The day often begins quietly, and sometimes if I’m lucky, I’m able to dig into a project before I attend my first meeting.
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Lifestyle Portfolio

As an added bonus, here are a few of my favorite lifestyle pieces I've written. Enjoy!

Features

Here are some of the pieces I've been featured or quoted in. 

Blonde woman wearing a flower top and smiling at the camera

Meet Alyssa Towns | Freelance Writer & Content Creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alyssa Towns and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alyssa, what matters most to you?

As I continue to navigate my career journey and life path, time consistently sits at the top of my values list. Time is a scarce and precious resource, and how we spend our time and who we spend it with is all we can say we have in the end. It’s not your fancy job title, the amount of money sitting in your bank account, or material possessions that matter, nor
Woman wearing a hat and leaning over an outdoor stairway railing smiling

Meet Alyssa Towns | Freelance Writer & Content Creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alyssa Towns and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alyssa, what role has risk played in your life or career?

Growing up, I was never a risk-taker. The mere idea of taking risks and stepping outside my comfort zone was a concept I was unwilling to explore. I enjoyed operating and, more specifically, excelling within the confined bounds of my comfort zone. After college, I worked at a desk job that I loved but felt unchallenged by. For the first