Aruna Gobalan's Blog

My coworkers expect me to show up at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday to answer questions on Zoom. Mortgage and credit card companies expect me to pay my bills on time. The elderly seniors who live with me expect me to have their meals ready on time every day. These are expectations borne out of social contracts—with […]

The post Learning to Release Expectations appeared first on Partably.

Forced to replace our car during Covid, we ended up buying an overpriced Tesla. Yes, this was back in the early days, before the world’s first trillion-dollar payout man went full Bond villain. And yes, I bought the stickers earlier this year to avoid the public shaming of being seen in a Tesla. When I finally […]

The post Learned Helplessness: Why We Give Up Trying appeared first on Partably.

I enjoy doling out free (often unsolicited) advice far more than receiving (or acting on) it. One suggestion I routinely toss around is to encourage people to volunteer at local running events, even if they have no interest in the sport of running. Aside from the good karma, spectating at endurance events, especially longer ones […]

The post How To Keep Going When There Is No End In Sight appeared first on Partably.

My private integrity is a highly confidential matter. Don't ask questions, and I won't tell you any lies. Anonymous.We push our chairs back after we’ve dined at a restaurant, we roll our shopping cart back into the corral instead of abandoning it in the parking lot, and we hold the door open to let another […]

The post Private Integrity: Who We Are When No One is Looking appeared first on Partably.

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” I now understand the meaning of this old proverb. With good intentions, I sat down to write this very post, but only managed to have a staring contest with a blank screen. It ended in a tie, since neither of us blinked for a long time. Eventually, […]

The post Mini-Sprints: The One Habit that Quietly Changed How I Work appeared first on Partably.

Quick question: are you a better-than-average driver? If you said yes, you’re in good company. Almost everyone does. In one of psychology’s classic studies, researcher Ola Svenson asked students in the U.S. and Sweden to rate their driving skills compared to others. The results? A whopping 93% of Americans and 69% of Swedes claimed they were […]

The post Average, at Best: How to Deal with Illusory Superiority and Overhype appeared first on Partably.

One of the more useless skills I’ve recently developed is the ability to tell time without needing to look at a clock. Sure, in terms of utility, this ranks somewhere between being able to recite the first 23 decimals in Pi or knowing the entire lyrics to the Beatles song I am the Walrus. Still. […]

The post Creatures of Habit: Why We Need to Mix Things Up appeared first on Partably.

It was supposed to be a three-minute task. I log on to the website to cancel my landline service (a term that may only be familiar to people of a certain age). Of course, the “Cancel Service” menu option does not exist, so I initiate a chat session. Soon, I’m told, “You need to call customer […]

The post No Free Lunch appeared first on Partably.

For those, like me, who are suckers for productivity hacks, this isn’t another article about how to do more. Instead, it’s a grown-up acknowledgement of why some (most?) of the tricks and tips on how to live more efficiently haven't always worked for me, and why, in the spirit of trying something different, I’m committing […]

The post Five Productivity Shifts for the Perpetually Overcommitted appeared first on Partably.

I’m in awe of the creative things people can do: writing goosebump-inducing literary prose, shaping the most exquisite objects with their bare hands, or conversing with their plants so lovingly and knowledgeably that the plants respond with the most beautiful flowers and juiciest fruits. Blessed they are. I’ve always felt creatively stunted when it comes […]

The post Embracing Uncertainty: Taming the Klesha Mara appeared first on Partably.