Back to the Inbox

Happy Sunday, friends!

I love work. I love work. I love work. Do you believe me yet? (More on why I’m chanting this in a minute.)

Last week I told you how good it feels to come home after time away. That’s still true. The not-so-great part? Going back to work.

Now hear me out. This isn’t me complaining about work… exactly.

But I won’t pretend the return to the inbox has been easy. Two weeks away was just long enough to truly disconnect. For me, that looked like slow mornings: waking up later, sitting with my coffee and staring out the window into the garden, and going for walks in the middle of the day just because I could. Above all, it meant planning my days exactly how I wanted, without a calendar reminding me to log on to my next call.

So this week, I want to share how I try to make the return to work feel a little less dreadful.

One thing you should know about me (and yes, I say this about a lot of things, but that doesn’t make it any less true): I listen to a lot of podcasts.

On one of them, I heard that doing hard things isn’t really about willpower or motivation. It’s about neuroplasticity. In plain English, you can rewire your brain through repetition until a new way of thinking starts to feel automatic.

Which brings me back to my little chant. I love work. No matter how jetlagged I am, and no matter how much I daydream about a more flexible schedule, I love work. Does it actually work? Ask me in a few weeks. Either way, I still have to show up on Monday morning, so here’s how I ease back in: