What I learned about leadership by observing how it was presented to me.

I’ve been working side jobs since I was twelve or thirteen. The very first one was a paper route in my local neighborhood. A friend’s sister needed someone to cover her round for one or two months. This was the first time I earned my own money, and it felt nice, even though I wasn’t working under any manager just yet.

Most of the other jobs did involve working under someone, those at the canteen of a local factory, at various restaurants, at a supermarket.

No manager is ever the same. Their management and communication style depends on their personality, what they believe is good leadership, company culture, the people the current team is made out of, and how they are performing. …

Learn to be aware of your cognitive biases.

What is the sunk cost fallacy?

When you invest time, energy, or effort into something, you want your investments to pay off. There’s a danger in continuing if the matter is destined to fail, and you continue pumping your resources into it. The more you invest, the higher the wasted investment will be if you quit, thus increasing the urge to carry on.

If we realize we should quit or pivot while halfway through a project, we risk becoming the laughing stock.

“If we decide to cancel a project halfway through, we create a contradiction: we admit that we once thought differently. Carrying on with a meaningless project delays this painful realization and keeps up appearances.” …

#10 You’re a kid. You don’t need to do things right or even care at all about doing anything right at all.

This era feels so far away. It was filled with lots of movie watching, Pokémon, and playing computer games. I also developed a strange interest in drawing out mazes from scratch on 1mm square grid paper.

At ten years old, I had moved abroad along with the family. I was just getting acquainted in the country that introduced me to flapjacks, baked beans, and jacket potatoes, among people from a different culture speaking a language I mostly heard only on television up until then.

I had gotten used to the fact that we moved houses often, sometimes nearly yearly. I didn’t know better. At that age, what option do you have but to adhere to the life your parents choose for you? …

#2 Make budgets and stick to them like it’s your religion.

I admire my grandma because of many things. One of them is her ability to manage money. She governs her household with an iron hand, and is able to live comfortably far into retirement, mostly thanks to the firm grip she has on her money.

In her younger years, she held a job as a typist at a governmental office. When she got married, it was more or less the norm to stop working. She left the office, and took on a new position as a stay-at-home wife and mother. Her husband was the one who brought home the paycheck.

Back in the days

In the 1950s, women were considered unable to work as soon as they married someone and had to hand in their resignation according to an “incapacity” law that was in effect in the Netherlands until 1957. By saying “I do”, women submitted to the husband’s legal authority. …

I saved up enough money to cover one year of expenses, then jumped ship when my job satisfaction levels dipped below the point of acceptability.

Although making a jump will require some preparation, I kept the execution fairly simple.

To job or not to job

Starting a new position is always exciting. What if your expectations are not met, several months in? Should you sit it out, or start preparing for a new chapter?

If the need to escape is that strong or urgent, you can always resign today.

I’ve had some side jobs in the past where the work suited me that badly, that I quit on the same day I started. One of those “managers” scolded me when I phoned them politely to let them know how I felt, and that I wasn’t going to continue as per now. Them scolding me was a confirmation that I made the right decision then and there. …

Making spontaneous connections with humans became difficult in 2020. Focusmate makes life more bearable (and productive).

Time spent in complete lockdown conditioned me to act with caution. Where it before was easier to engage in the occasional, random conversations with a stranger on the street, all of this is now avoided. No more “how are you” or anything. Instead, there are mutual looks screaming “stay away from me” or “don’t you dare breathe on me”.

What would happen if we have to deal with this for years to come? The situation has already caused a division amongst the people. Wearing a mask *properly* or not nearly turned into a reason to reject or mock the other.

Before 2020 it was much easier to travel back and forth between countries. Non-essential travel is now discouraged and more complicated due to newly imposed travel restrictions. That plan to play digital nomad and live a few months here and then there? …

And wrote for 14 weeks straight like I meant it (so far).

So you want to be a Medium writer?

This summer I decided to give writing a chance. A real one. A few random posts I published ages ago live on my Medium profile, but I hadn’t made the decision to put a serious effort into it yet.

To get good or better at anything, you need to practice.

My practice had thus far never been consistent. You won’t increase your stamina if you jog for 2 miles once per month. I will never become a better dancer by endlessly looking at dance gods online. …

Google Sheets is a great tool, if you know your way around it.

You don’t need to feel intimidated by the possibilities. No need to write complex queries to improve things either. If something works through a simple fix, why overcomplicate anything?

As I continue to tinker with Google Sheets, I’d like to share with you the following tips you can apply to your spreadsheets today.

#1 Resize columns to have equal width

When you’re been resizing your columns a lot, they’ll probably end up with uneven widths. I dislike how cluttered that looks and feels. The fix is simple:

Select the columns that you want to have evenly resized > right click > scroll down to “Resize columns”.

In the new popup, select the new column width in pixels. Reference: the tickboxes in the Habit Tracker template have a width of 23 pixels, just enough to have a little space around them. …