Escape

PLUS: Dogs

May 13, 2025

For the next 5 minutes, let’s elevate your career.

In today’s email:

  • Escape

  • That’s a great idea!

  • Hyperefficient

  • Dogs

  • Leena Nair’s career wisdom

ON YOUR CAREER

Escape

We’re best to escape career ruts. This can be done while remaining with our long-term employer. Here are 5 ways we can keep growing:

  1. Pursue cross-functional projects

  2. Get a mentor who will challenge us

  3. Network outside our company and stay current with industry trends

  4. Take on side projects or volunteer work to broaden our perspective

  5. Commit to Kaizen - the process of continuous improvement

These actions help us to stay relevant, be promoted, and earn more money.

Do the hard things - throw yourself right in there - because they are the biggest growth moments you’ll have.

— Leena Nair
COMMUNICATION

That’s a great idea!

We strengthen relationships with colleagues when we acknowledge their useful ideas.

We should be generous. And explicit if their idea has changed our mind.

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

— George Bernhard Shaw
PRODUCTIVITY

Hyperefficient

Dr Mithu Storoni’s Hyperefficient (2024) explores how to optimize your brain at work. Here are 3 tips we derived:

  1. Leverage your cognitive gears. Understand your brain’s three “gears”:

    • Gear 1: Relaxed, creative state for subconscious problem-solving.

    • Gear 2: Deep focus for learning and critical thinking.

    • Gear 3: Reflexive, high-speed mode for urgent or routine tasks. Match your gear to the demands of your current task.

  2. Tailor your breaks to task intensity. Have longer, restorative breaks for demanding work. And shorter, energizing breaks for routine tasks. Walking, mindfulness, and napping can reset your mind and sustain productivity.

  3. Know Your “Gear Personality”. Identify whether you have “springy gears” (sensitive to distractions, thrive in calm settings) or “stiff gears” (require high-pressure or challenge to engage). Tailor your work environment and work schedule to suit your natural tendencies.

Creativity often peaks in the morning or late evening, so schedule tasks accordingly to make the most of these natural highs.

— Mitho Storoni
1 MINUTE TO LESS STRESS

Wake up

Source: GIPHY

My Instagram algorithm knows I enjoy the thoughts of entrepreneurs, comedians, and the escapades of animals. Wild animals inspire awe. Watching dogs play reduces stress.

Pet therapy in hospitals improves patient well-being. The pets trigger the release of “happy hormones” such as serotonin, prolactin, and oxytocin. These hormones reduce anxiety and depression. And feelings of loneliness.

Mutual gazing between dogs and their owners releases oxytocin. This mutual oxytocin loop mirrors the bond between parents and their children.

If we are feeling stressed at work, we can look at a video of puppies playing. It hacks our oxytocin stream.

You can learn so much from animals. They have this wonderful quality of being in the moment, and they help you spend time there.

— Emmylou Harris
CAREER WISDOM

Leena Nair

Leena Nair (1969 — ) was born in Kolhapur, India, and currently resides in London. She graduated as an electrical engineer from Walchand College and has an MBA from Xavier School of Management. Nair worked at Unilever for 30 years. She was global head of human resources and on the executive committee.

In 2022, Nair became CEO of Chanel. She is the first woman to lead the French luxury brand. Nair also served as a director of BT and the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Nair continues as a Steering Committee Member of the World Economic Forum. Some of Nair’s career wisdom:

Lift as you climb. Make it easier for those who come after you.

Don’t wait for the storms to pass; learn to dance in the rain.

Create learning loops. You will never get it right the first time. So ensure you create learning loops-build, measure, learn, repeat.