Work In Practice™
Make 2023 the year you plan for sustainability and satisfaction.
Tara McMullin
Author, What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting
Work has evolved.
The way we work has not.
Our work today is knowledge-based, care-based, or creative—and often, all three. And it requires a dramatically different approach when it comes to how the work gets done.
Yet our goals and expectations at work are still shaped by 20th-century management science. We prioritize efficiency and productivity. We optimize and quantify. We track and automate.
Today’s work doesn’t fit neatly into these metrics.
How we manage ourselves (and others) is outdated—and often harmful.
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According to Asana’s 2022 Anatomy of Work report, 51% of managers believe burnout is an inevitable component of success.
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The same survey found that 77% of workers were currently dealing with burnout or imposter syndrome due to their work.
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The U.S. Surgeon General’s Workplace Well-Being reports 84% of workers claim workplace conditions contribute to at least one mental health challenge.
We’ve learned to talk the talk. Now we to have the walk the walk.
You’ve seen the books and quotegrams that urge you to rest. To take things slow. To reclaim your time.
We wholeheartedly agree.
But many people struggle to turn these values into daily reality. Maybe you end up calling yourself “lazy,” or you push past your limits in the name of productivity.
The old ways of work have a hold on us. We need to dismantle them and rebuild a new approach to work in their place.
It’s time for a model of work that enhances critical and creative thinking. That’s Work In Practice.
Introducing
Work In Practice
Work In Practice™ is a 3-part workshop to help you recalibrate how you work to focus on practice rather than achievement.
Here’s what you’ll do:
- Identify your top priorities for the year, so your focus is clear
- Align those priorities to your capacity so you can be all-in without burning out
- Gather the resources you need to do remarkable work without spinning your wheels
- Build routines, habits, and plans that nurture creative thinking
- Acknowledge and work within your limits so you can calm your inner critic
- Create systems of care for yourself and others
What you won’t do is figure out how to get more done in less time. You won’t optimize anything. And you certainly won’t hustle or grind.
Session One: Sustain
How to do better work with less stress in 2023
Tuesday, January 10
12pm ET | 9am PT
Session Two: Plan
How to plan projects like a human
Tuesday, January 17
12pm ET | 9am PT
Session Three: Care
How to systems of care for yourself (and others)
Tuesday, January 24
12pm ET | 9am PT
Each session is approximately 2 hours long, with time for reflection, exercises, and questions. Each session is recorded.
Practice is resistance.
It reduces urgency, creates satisfaction, and reminds you that there is more to life than being productive.
— Tara McMullin, What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting
Work In Practice is for you if you’ve ever found yourself:
- spinning your wheels because you’re worried about choosing the “right” way forward
- fixated on metrics (even useful ones) and losing focus on what matters most to you
- wary of taking risks or experimenting with new ideas because you don’t know whether it’ll be “worth it”
- motoring through your to-do list only to wonder whether did “enough” at the end of the day
Practice is visionary.
Work In Practice™ is not a productivity system. It’s a new vision for work.
This workshop is designed for independent workers, small business owners, and creatives. If you’re a traditionally employed worker with a high degree of autonomy over your work, you’ll also find the workshop valuable.
Work In Practice™ is interactive. You’ll explore your own Work In Practice™ style in each session with reflection and exercises. Plus, you can ask Tara questions and chat with other participants.
There are three 2-hour live workshop sessions. Each will be recorded, and recordings will be available a few minutes after the session ends.
- SUSTAIN: Tuesday, January 10 at 12pm ET/9am PT
- PLAN: Tuesday, January 17 at 12pm ET/9am PT
- CARE: Tuesday, January 24 at 12pm ET/9am PT
Registration is currently closed
Want to sponsor team members or clients?
Work in Practice is all about transforming the way we work—not just for founders, solo entrepreneurs, or CEOs but for everyone.
- When you register for the Book & Workshop bundle, you have the option of adding on 1 seat for a team member or client for 50% off.
- When you register for Visionary Support, you have the option of adding up to 5 seats for team members or clients for 60% off.
If you purchase a workshop option that includes a book, you’ll be asked to supply a mailing address where you’d like the book delivered. You’re welcome to give the book as a gift!
We’ll attempt to fulfill all international orders, but if we can’t, we’ll either issue a partial refund or send a gift card so that you can purchase a copy for yourself.
About Tara McMullin
Tara McMullin is a writer, podcaster, and producer. For over 14 years, she’s studied small business owners—how they live, how they work, what influences them, and what they hope for the future.
She’s the author of What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting. The book challenges the lessons we’ve learned about goals and productivity through culture and proposes a radical shift: structuring our lives around practice rather than achievement. She’s the host of What Works, a podcast about navigating the 21st-century economy without losing your humanity. Tara is also co-founder of YellowHouse.Media, a boutique podcast production company. Her work has been featured in Fast Company, The Muse, and Quartz.
Praise for What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting
“Tara usurps the cultural codes that lead to toxic productivity and personal development tropes with clear-minded, field-tested frameworks and techniques that will help you become the person you truly want to be. Get this book, practice what works, and start finishing what matters most to you.”
“This book is impeccably well-written and thoroughly researched, and she brings together the context behind why our modern framework of setting goals and being successful is not going to work for most people. I’m a huge nerd, a huge fan of books, a skeptic of hustle culture, a lover of doing way too much, and an exhausted parent of two kids, and this book made me want to stand up and applaud from my living room.“
“What Works is a thought-provoking antidote to the overhyped productivity narratives keeping us stuck in shame and validation spirals. This book, and Tara’s oeuvre more broadly, serves as a brilliant guide for emphasizing presence and process over rigid metrics and external markers of success.”
Read to register for Work In Practice?
How much time should I set aside for Work In Practice?
We recommend attending each session live if you can—so that’s approximately 6 hours total.
You’ll be doing work live during the session. But we also recommend planning for an hour or so between sessions to integrate the work you’ve done into your plans for the year.
What if I can't attend the sessions live?
You’re welcome to participate asynchronously! Each session is recorded in our workshop space (Crowdcast), and the recording is typically available a few minutes after the sessions wrap up. Plus, the Q&A section is timestamped for easy reference. You can also submit questions before a session starts if you can’t make it.
Do I need to have read the What Works book to participate?
No. Work in Practice is self-contained. Some of the workshop will focus on implementing material from the book, and other parts of the workshop will extend ideas from the book into how we work and the working conditions we create for ourselves. But the book does make a great reference!
What accessibility accommodations do you have?
We’ll provide transcripts of each session, a PDF copy of the slide decks, and PDFs of all worksheets. We’ll also provide MP3 versions of each session so you can listen on the go or at a pace that works for you.
We recognize that this doesn’t make the workshop accessible for everyone—and we plan to add additional accessibility options in the future.
What's your refund policy?
Due to the live and interactive nature of the Work In Practice workshop, there are no refunds. Thank you for understanding.