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I’m a big fan of productivity bursts. Like choosing a task that will take 10 or 12 hoursa task you’ve long been putting off specifically because it will take 10 or 12 hoursand knocking it out in a single day. (Here are the eight steps to an incredibly productive day.) I’m also a big fan of using shorter bursts within a day. Generally speaking, a person can focus on any given task for only 90 to 120 minutes. After that, typically you need a 15- to 20-minute break to recharge and achieve high performance on your next task. (The Pomodoro Technique uses even shorter bursts: 25 minutes of work, five-minute break.) In so many words, productivity sprints are great. But they do not a work life make. Over the course of a month, much less a year, how much you get done on a consistent basis matters a lot more than what you can pull off for short bursts. For example, Stephen King, the best-selling author of nearly 70 books, doesn’t write a book in three or four hard-core weeks. For decades, he wrote for five or six hours a day, shooting for 2,000 words a day. These days, he works for four hours with a goal of 1,000 words. (That pace is still more than most authors manage, and King is 77 years old.) For Kingand for youendurance matters more than speed. More to the point, durability matters more than speed. Top Speed Versus Sustained Pace Imagine you’re a factory worker. You start the day full blast, producing 80 widgets the first hour. No other worker can match your speed; you’re the Usain Bolt of piecework. But then you start to fade. You manage 75 widgets the next hour, 70 the next. By midafternoon you’re down to 50. Over an eight-hour shift, you manage 505 widgets. The person next to you never managed to make more than 70 widgets in an hour, but because she kept that pace for her entire shift, she made 560 widgets. Sound a little too tortoise versus hare? Not really. As writer Brady Holmer notes in a recent Substack post, durability is not about how fast you can go when you’re fresh. Durability is about how little you slow down when fatigued. Bolt may have been fasterat an absolute speedthan everyone else, but he also could have slowed down the least. That’s especially true as race distances get longer. The 400-meter hurdle world record holder, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, may not be faster at top speed than everyone else. But she clearly slows down less over the course of a race. Why does that matter to you? Because your workday isn’t a sprint. Your work year isn’t a sprint. Workyour efficiency, effectiveness, productivity, outputis an endurance race. One where your ability to maintain a steady, consistent pace makes an exponentially greater difference than your ability (valuable though it may be) to occasionally crank out a chunk of work. The Big Three of Sustainable Output Let’s extend the running analogy a bit more. Most runners focus on the primary factors of endurance performance: running economy, lactate threshold, and VO max. Running economy is just what it sounds like: how efficiently your body uses energy to maintain a given pace. Biomechanics, coordination, strength, flexibility, and other factors all play a role. In work terms, less wasted effort, less unnecessary repetition, working smarter, not harder. (Although I’m a fan of working smarter as well as harder.) Lactate threshold is the highest intensity or pace at which your body can clear lactate from your blood as quickly as it’s produced. Go past your threshold and lactate builds up, fatigue kicks in, and performance drops. VO max is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during intense exercise. The higher your VO max, the more oxygen your muscles get, which in exercise terms means you can run, bike, swim, etc. faster and longer. Here’s where it gets interesting. A new study published in Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports found that runners who maintained a steady pace for 90 minutes experienced a 3% drop in their VO max, and a 7% drop after 120 minutes. Turns out VO max isn’t absolute; it changes with effort. So do other endurance factors. Work too hard for too long and your ability to keep performing at that level decreasesregardless of willpower, persistence, and determination. The cost on your bodyand, in workplace terms, on your mindof maintaining a fast early pace gets higher and higher until holding that pace becomes impossible. No matter how hard you try to keep grinding. That’s takeaway No. 1: Your pace, over the course of a day or week or month or year, needs to be sustainable. No matter how fast the start, producing a steady 70 widgets an hour over an eight-hour shift beats a reverse hockey-stick 63 widgets an hour. But you can also ramp up your steady, sustainable pace. Self-imposed limits Working economyhow efficiently you perform certain tasksis relatively easy to improve. (Here are 90 ways.) The less effort a task requires, the less hard you have to work, and as a result, the easier you can maintain a steady pace. Where improving productivity and overall output are concerned, streamlining and optimizing should always be the first steps. Then focus on your “lactate threshold” and “VO max.” Unless a solid chunk of manual labor is involved, your job likely doesn’t involve a high degree of physical fatigue. But every job involves mental fatigue. And every job feels like it has limits. You can only do so much until you can’t do more. Except you can. The 40% Rule is a concept popularized by former Navy SEAL Dave Goggins through entrepreneur Jesse Itzlers 2016 book Living With a Seal: 31 Days Training With the Toughest Man on the Planet: When your mind tells you that youre exhausted, youre really only 40% done. You still have 60% left in your tank. In short, you have more in you than you think. When youre doing something difficult and think you need to stop, you have more in you. Most of our limits are self-imposed. Over time, we’ve set those limits for ourselves. They don’t come close to lactate threshold, much less VO max. That doesn’t mean you need to squeeze out the remaining 60%. But you could try to eke out another 5%. The 40% Rule How long you’ll stick with a challenge before giving up and moving on? That’s not really a limit. How long you’ll stare at a whiteboard, trying to think of a way past a problem, before giving up and moving on? That’s not really a limit. How many calls you’ll make, emails you’ll send, proposals you’ll create, follow-ups you’ll make? Those limits only seem real. But they arent real. They’re just habits. Think of a time when fear helped you push past what you thought was a barrier. Think about a time when a huge incentive helped you push past what you thought was a barrier. Then, you could do more. Because it turns out your limit was only 40% of what you were truly capable of achieving. The next time you think youve reached your cold-call limit, make one more. The next time you think youve reached your employee development meeting limit, conduct one more. The next time you think youve reached your quality double-check limit, check one more order. Challenge yourself to see if you can endure just a little more. Youll find out you can. What’s more, youll realize that a limit you thought was absolute was only self-imposedand that you can accomplish a lot more than you once thought possible. Over a really long period of time. Without burning out. By Jeff Haden This article originally appeared on Fast Company‘s sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
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E-Commerce
If this week had a mood, it would be change is comingready or not. Across industries, big players made moves they hope will future-proof their businesses, while others scrambled to adapt to new realities. Tech leaders leaned into bold experiments, retailers weighed expansion against contraction, and the markets reacted with their usual mix of enthusiasm and side-eye. Policy shifts sent ripple effects through sectors that depend on global talent and international travel. In the corporate world, some companies are making high-stakes bets on emerging technologies, while others are dealing with leadership shake-ups, financial pressures, or both. And in between the serious boardroom decisions and billion-dollar strategies, there were moments that reminded us how unpredictableand occasionally absurdthe business landscape can be. Wells Fargo goes all in on AI with Google Cloud Wells Fargo is rolling out Googles Agentspace AI across its workforcefrom branch tellers to top executives. The bank says the tech will help speed up workflows, automate routine tasks, and deliver sharper insights, all while staying within strict compliance and ethical guidelines. Trump crackdown pushes international students toward the U.K. and Asia Stricter U.S. visa policies and heightened scrutiny are driving prospective students to universities in Britain, Hong Kong, and beyond, potentially costing the U.S. billions in tuition and local spending. Crypto exchange Bullish preps IPO despite steep losses Bullish plans to raise up to $629 million in its NYSE debut. Backed by BlackRock and ARK, the listing tests whether investor enthusiasm for crypto can outpace concerns about a $348 million quarterly loss. T.J. Maxx is opening 6 new stores this month The off-price retailer is expanding in Virginia, Connecticut, North Dakota, Utah, and Washington, D.C., even as tariffs loom over the retail sector. The news comes a little over a year after CEO Ernie Herrman announced the companys goal of adding 1,300 stores to its global portfolio of locations during a quarterly earnings call. At Home to close more stores amid bankruptcy The home furnishings chain announced this week that it will shutter six additional locations, on top of 26 announced earlier, as it works to manage $2 billion in debt under Chapter 11 protection. U.S. to require $15,000 visa bond for some travelers A one-year pilot program will mandate refundable bonds for visitors from countries with high overstay rates or limited vetting processes. On Tuesday, a notice from the State Department said travelers from Malawi and Zambia would be required to post the bonds. Other countries could be added to the list in the future. Claires files for second bankruptcy, eyes store closures Claire’s filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for a second time this week. The teen and tween retailer has identified 18 stores for likely closure, with more than 1,300 at risk unless a buyer emerges. Eli Lilly outpaces Novo Nordisk in weight-loss marketbut stock dips Mounjaro and Zepbound sales are surging, yet investors were underwhelmed by trial data for Lillys oral GLP-1 pill. Hulu brand to fold into Disney+ in 2025 Say goodbye to Hulu. Disney announced this week that it will merge Hulu content into its flagship streaming app, streamlining offerings ahead of its ESPN streaming launch. Duolingos “AI first” gamble pays off Despite backlash over replacing contractors with AI, the language-learning platform posted an 84% profit growth and a 24% stock surge. Trump calls for Intel CEOs resignation over China ties President Trump criticized Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tans past investments in Chinese chip companies, intensifying political scrutiny of Intels leadership.
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E-Commerce
Gary Chapman, long-time marriage counselor and author of The Five Love Languages, created the love languages model when he realized that romantic partners were expressing love in ways that were unnoticeable or unintuitive to the other. The change languages model offers a similar solution for addressing this same dynamic of miscommunication, but as it shows up in the relational, layered, and systemic work of change. A ‘MULTILINGUAL’ SOLUTION TO CHALLENGES WITH CHANGE Over the course of a year, I served as a member of a nonprofits strategic planning committee whose meetings were not unlike what I imagine some of Gary Chapmans marriage counseling sessions to be: confusing and dizzying at best, tense and threatening at worst. At first glance, this friction made no sense: outside of meetings, we had strong rapport, and we were all explicitly and thoroughly excited about the organizational change that this committee was tasked with realizing. But despite our shared commitment to the prospect of change, we struggled to talk about change in our meetings in ways that were mutually understood among the members: we couldnt carry the different needs and priorities that change surfaces. While on that strategic planning committee, I began building out the idea of extrapolating love languages into the domain of change. Similar to how Chapman drew connections across his counseling sessions, I drew connections across change efforts that had faltered or been miscommunicated during my 10-plus years in different roles: classroom teacher, professional development coach, nonprofit board member, union organizer, and organizational consultant. Each role and team always focused on organizational growth and transformation. After being pressure tested in real-world scenarios with clients and colleagues, the change languages were then put in tune to the insights of change-focused thinkers including Lisa Laskow Lahey and Robert Kegan (Immunity to Change), Adrienne Maree Brown (Emergent Strategy), and Damon Centola (Change: How to Make Big Things Happen). THE SIX CHANGE LANGUAGES The following definitions are intended not only to differentiate the six change languages, but also to help you identify which of the six resonate the most. Knowing which change language(s) you prefer to speak is prerequisite to noticing which of the six change languages are being spoken by other people. Big-picture clarity How we are at the small scale is how we are at the large scale. What we practice at the small scale sets the patterns for the whole system. Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent Strategy If your change language is big-picture clarity, you feel grounded when you know where and how change is heading from the high-level perspective of systems, as well as when you can foresee how youll fit within and interact with these changing systems. When making sense of change, you feel compelled to map out a wide perspective on the situationclarifying intended or potential systemic outcomes, selecting the change management models that align most with your current situation, and perhaps even considering how your experience of change fits within broader political, international, and environmental contexts. Personal security It is not change that causes anxiety; it is the feeling that we are without defenses in the presence of what we see as danger that causes anxiety. Robert Kegan & Lisa Laskow Lahey, Immunity to Change If your change language is personal security, your own well-beingand the well-being of othersare front of mind. You make sure that no one is left on their own to navigate the consequences of change. When making sense of change, you are driven by the fundamental question, After all is said and done, who is and isnt going to be okay? Youll figure out how change might impact your workload, positionality, pursuit of professional goals, and even baseline employability. You have a strong preference for changes that minimize personal risk. Values alignment Dont ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. Howard Thurman If your change language is values alignment, you feel most open to change when you and your team care about the same principles and are moving toward something you all believe in. Your inner senses of morality and purpose rationalize your negotiations with change. When making sense of change, you figure out how change can bolster (or interfere with) your, your teams, and your organizations pursuit of the mission at hand. (In fact, you probably have your orgs mission and/or vision statements bookmarked for frequent reference.) To you, change isnt worth pursuing if it isnt evidently aligned with your cause. Sense of continuity The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order. Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality If your change language is sense of continuity, you feel stabilized when present and future endeavors are clearly connected to past efforts. You prefer a sense of progress that builds on that past, rather than resets from it. When making sense of change, you listen to confirm that essential elements of the past will show up or matter in some recognizable future form. For example, if a team moves client meetings from an in-person to virtual format, you might want the same staff to be involved (for role preservation) or the tone of the interaction to stay consistent (for social-emotional familiarity). Otherwise, youll likely lose your bearings in the newness. Careful timing Both common sense and scientific evidence agree: repetition is a form of change. James Clear, Atomic Habits If your love language is careful timing, you feel most capable when change moves at the pace of trust and readiness: not too fast, not too slow, with space for inevitable relapses, mistakes, and misunderstandings. When making sense of change, even if you resonate with the rationale for implementing a particular change initiative, you might not hop fully onboard until you see a timeline for rolling out that initiative. You want to see change broken up into phases, each one providing time for you to absorb, mess up, learn, adjust, and eventually become ready to move onto the next phase. Fast-paced overhauls are one of your worst professional nightmares. Celebrating growth We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty. Maya Angelou If you speak the language of celebrating growth, you feel resilient when progress is affirmed, feedback is given compassionately, and making transformation feels joyful. You dont want change to feel like a chore or task, but rater a source of fulfillment and satisfaction. When making sense of change, you prefer to have a sense of what will likely signal that change is moving in the right direction, so that you can be on the lookout for those signals. When you are in the thick of change, you seek tasks that you want to do, rather than need to do, as well as encouragement that honors your effort, not just your output. When change isnt enjoyable or imaginative, you feel dramatically less committed. What I’m tryoing to say is Change languages stand to benefit all areas of organizational change, from project management, to leadership development, to conflict resolution. They help us move through change relationallyrather than alone, undignified, or confused. Instead of resisting the fact that different people inevitably become attached to different aspects of change, we can embrace these differences with clarity, and therefore strengthen our chances of arriving somewhere more grounded, more aligned, and ultimately more fulfilled than where we started.
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E-Commerce
Historical period dramas are not only highly entertaining but also can serve as bigger metaphors for modern audiences. Wrapped up in the elaborate costumes and stylized language, there are lessons to be learned. So it is with Julian Fellowess HBO series The Gilded Age, which has much to say about the complexities of innovation and capitalism. The series has been scoring record ratings ahead of its much-anticipated Season 3 finale, which airs August 10. Let’s take a look at what all the fuss is about. If you’re not up to date on the series, beware: There are spoilers ahead! First, some background Before we get into the dollars and cents of it all, heres a quick refresher. The Gilded Age premiered in January 2022 on HBO despite being slated to air on NBC originally. The plot follows Marian Brook (played by Louisa Jacobson), a newly orphaned young adult who is forced to move in with her old-monied aunts in New York City in 1882. Residing across the street from her new home are railroad magnate George Russell (Morgan Spector); his wife, Bertha (Carrie Coon); and their two young adult children, Larry (Harry Richardson) and Gladys (Taissa Farmiga), who are looked down upon because of their “new money” status. The title of the show refers to the time period in which it is set. Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner are credited for naming this moment in history in their book The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. These authors’ social commentary remarked that the period looked beautiful but it was all just a patina or facade built on an ethically questionable foundation. So what can audiences learn here? Capitalism needs regulation While George Russell is a fictional character, he has historical precedent in the likes of Jay Gould and Cornelius Vanderbilt. George made his fortune by being a ruthless railroad tycoon. When the old guard doesnt accept his authority, he muscles his way in. In Season 1 he manipulates the stock market, causing Patrick Morris (Michael Gill), a city alderman, to lose his fortune and take his own life. George isnt afraid to pressure politicians to achieve his goals of railroad expansion. He threatens to pull his business from the representatives districts, and offers bribes and political favors. He bullies entire towns by promising to bypass certain cities if his demands are not met. George does not care about the human impact of his business dealings. Audiences are shown a softer side of the robber baron in Season 2 when he agrees to negotiate with striking railroad workers, but even then George makes sure the final deal favors his interests instead of the working class. Ultimately, the character serves as a cautionary tale, warning against unchecked capitalism (though last weeks cliffhanger suggests we may see him have a change of heart). It’s lonely at the top Jack Trotter (Ben Ahlers) works as a footman in the Van Rhijn household. On the side, he labors to invent a reliable alarm clock and ultimately sells it with Larry Russell for $600,000. Overnight, Jacks whole life changes. His take is worth around $9.5 million in today’s dollars, according to Vulture. While this achievement gives Jack options, he is forced to leave the only home hes ever known. He is now a man who doesnt fit in anywhere, straddling the world of aristocracy and his former working-class roots. Its interesting to ponder whether or not money bought Jack happiness. Money opens doors Bertha Russell is an ambitious woman who spends much of the series determined to win the approval of society’s most elite circles. Her wealth gets her in the door, but it does not buy her immediate acceptance. Bertha is snubbed by the Van Rhijns and Mrs. Astor (Donna Murphy), denied a box at the opera, and gossiped about relentlessly. Eventually, she makes her own mark in societybecause all money talks, even if it’s new. There will be ups and downs Capitalism is volatile, as experienced by many of the characters in The Gilded Age. This includes Oscar van Rhijn (Blake Ritson), who was born to privilege but loses it all with one bad real estate investment. Thankfully, his Aunt Agnes (Christine Baranski) reluctantly saves the day. Ditto for Mr. Collyer (Michael Cerveris), who was once a successful banker. When he loses his money, his father-in-law gets him to agree to divorce his wife and abandon his child. He changes his name to Watson and finds employment in the Russell household as a valet. The Russell family fortune is dependent on the railroad industry. Because this is new technology in the 19th century, it can be a highly speculative enterprise. When profits are king, entrepreneurs like George Russell run the constant risk of becoming over-leveraged, having to defend their wealth in morally questionable ways, and maybe even losing it all. The latest season of The Gilded Age focuses in part on the real-life panic of 1893, which “threatened the solvency of the entire banking system,” according to Federal Reserve History. New industries change society The railroad was a disrupting force in 19th-century America, analogous to the modern tech industry. Trains not only changed how people traveled but also how products were distributed and wealth was made. These days, Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos fundamentally shift society with entities such as Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon. Like the Russell family, they also have amassed enormous wealth, and they exert their power across business, culture, politics, and philanthropy. If George Russell were alive today, he might be ushering in the latest version of ChatGPT instead of building a new rail line. Oscar van Rhijn might have lost his fortune on crypto or NFTs. While the final word might lie in future episodes, The Gilded Age doesnt fully condemn or endorse capitalism. It holds a mirror up to human nature and lets the audience draw its own conclusions, via petticoats and top hats.
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E-Commerce
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Between summer 2021 and summer 2024, the U.S. saw a substantial upswing in net international migrationmuch of it coming through the southern border. As of July 2024, the U.S. population stood at 340.1 million, up 3.3 million from 336.8 million in July 2023. Of that population increase, 2.8 million (or 85%) came from net international migration. That international migration burst, of course, is behind us now. Recently, border crossings have plummeted. The updated forecast by researchers at AEI expects that net international migration in 2025 will be somewhere between +115,000 and -525,000. [Chart: ResiClub] We assess the macroeconomic implications of the observed and expected changes to immigration policy during the second Trump administration,” wrote AEI researchers in July. “We project that net migration in 2025 will be between 525,000 and 115,000, reflecting a dramatic decrease in inflows and somewhat higher outflows. Net migration may be reduced even further in 2026 before rebounding in 2027 and 2028. Below is a ResiClub chart that shows just how large a share of overall population growth comes from international migration. [Chart: ResiClub] What does this international migration slump mean for the U.S. housing market? All else being equal, in my view, an immediate and direct housing impact of fewer immigrants coming through the southern border is lower aggregate rental demandspecifically, at the lower end of the marketthan if that burst had continued. Rental markets likely to see the biggest impact are in metro areas that have experienced the most international immigration in recent years. In particular, major markets such as New York City, Miami, and Houston could feel the greatest effects. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}})}(); Many economists, including those at the AEI Housing Center, believe this pullback in international migration could dampen U.S. total employment growth and reduce overall U.S. economic activity. Heading into 2025, many analysts speculated that a sharp pullback in immigration through the southern border would quickly put upward pressure on builders’ labor costs. However, so far, dampened residential construction activity has more than outweighed any of those pressures. “Labor also seems to be more available in our markets, potentially stemming from slower multifamily construction and reduced starts in the industry, Hilla Sferruzza, CFO of Meritage Homes, said during the builders July 24 earnings call. Americas largest homebuilder, D.R. Horton, shared a similar take with analysts. From labor availability, it’s plentiful,” D.R. Horton CEO Paul Romanowski said during the company’s earnings call on July 22. “We have the labor that we need. Our trades are looking for work. And that’s why you’ve seen sequential and year-over-year reduction in our cycle time. Because we have the support we need to get our homes built. And, you know, given those efficiencies, reductions in stick and brick [costs] over time. Some of that is from design. And efficiency of the product that we’re putting in the field. And som of that is just from the efficiency of our operations.” One other thing analysts should keep in mind is that international immigration, in particular, through the southern border, greatly exceeded pre-pandemic norms between summer 2021 and summer 2024. Even if net immigration were to go flat or slightly negative, itd still take awhile to offset / smooth over the recent surge. That pull-forward in international immigration, coupled with currently softening aggregate residential construction activity, is another reason why the recent sharp pullback in international immigration might take longer than some anticipated to tighten the residential construction labor market. Well continue to keep an eye on it.
Category:
E-Commerce
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