New Year’s resolutions? No, thank you. Radically rethink the way you set goals:
The Latest
Working Together: What Economics Can Teach Us About How Work Relationships Get Weird
Relationships are critical to our ability to do remarkable work. Even if you’re a hermit like me, the people who collaborate with you, inspire you, and support you are indispensable. That said, relationships are a source of stress, too—especially when it comes to...
Why Care Work is Critical to the Value of Information
Imagine that I had a set of instructions for making $1 million. My instructions fit on a single sheet of paper. Font size 12. Double-spaced. No funny business. Follow every step to the letter, and a million bucks would be yours. What would you be willing to pay for...
To Quit or Not To Quit Social Media: Opportunity Cost Can Help You Decide
To quit or not to quit social media—that is the question. Is it nobler to suffer the fear of missing out on internet fame (and the middling fortune that might come with it)? Or to take up some half-baked “strategy” and, by posting, end it? How do you make a big...
Think Differently about Work, Culture, and the Economy
It’s easy to lose your way in the 21st-century economy. The world of work and business is changing so rapidly that you might be focusing more on how to keep up than how to live a meaningful life. What Works is a podcast for entrepreneurs, independent workers, and employees who don’t want to lose themselves to the whims of late-stage capitalism. Tara offers a distinctly interdisciplinary approach to the discourse around business, work, and personal growth.
A Radical New Approach to Goal-Setting
What Works: A Comprehensive Framework to Change the Way We Approach Goal-Setting
“Nuanced, rigorous exploration. 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. A rich, hearty meal for the mind, I was only sad to put this book down when it ended.”
— Jenny Blake, podcaster and author of Free Time, Pivot, and Life After College
Humane Business
What Worked in 2022: 4 Insights From A Rebuilding Year
I typically don’t do a big “year in review” routine—only because review and reflection are a big part of my work in practice. But last week, when Sean and I sat down to record a “quick” rundown of our favorite things from the year for the podcast, he preempted me with...
Hustle Culture: How did we get here? And what do we do about it?
American culture is hustle culture. We place extraordinary value on productivity, efficiency, and the willingness to suck it up and squeeze more in. Our heroes are entrepreneurs and artists who put in the work. We are educated in hustle culture from the time we start...
You Can’t Grow an Audience Like You Used To (and That’s Okay)
You might have noticed that building an audience on social media doesn't seem as easy as it was promised to be. The truth is that things have changed. And that business influencer who is promoting their top tips for growing your follower count on Instagram? Well,...
Future of Work
How to Feel Good About Going Slow
My weekends revolve around baking. Well, baking and running. So really, my weekends revolve around patience. It wasn’t always this way. I like to go fast. When I was a kid, I’d rather finish my homework or even a test in record time than take the time to check my...
The Future of Work: A Vision for 2023 (and Beyond)
Work was in the news this year. Whether it was labor organizing at Starbucks and Amazon, layoffs at tech companies, the eyeroll-inducing “quiet quitting” trend, or the absolutely bonkers “productivity paranoia” scare, people who make the future of work their work have...
Persistent Stress: What Every Productive Worker Needs to Know
It’s one thing to be stressed out during a hectic season or a major change. But persistent stress? Work stress that’s ongoing with little or no relief in sight? That’s an entirely different thing. As the current year comes to an end and we look to what’s next, it’s a...
Culture & Economy
Working Together: What Economics Can Teach Us About How Work Relationships Get Weird
Relationships are critical to our ability to do remarkable work. Even if you’re a hermit like me, the people who collaborate with you, inspire you, and support you are indispensable. That said, relationships are a source of stress, too—especially when it comes to...
Why Care Work is Critical to the Value of Information
Imagine that I had a set of instructions for making $1 million. My instructions fit on a single sheet of paper. Font size 12. Double-spaced. No funny business. Follow every step to the letter, and a million bucks would be yours. What would you be willing to pay for...
To Quit or Not To Quit Social Media: Opportunity Cost Can Help You Decide
To quit or not to quit social media—that is the question. Is it nobler to suffer the fear of missing out on internet fame (and the middling fortune that might come with it)? Or to take up some half-baked “strategy” and, by posting, end it? How do you make a big...
Mindset & Identity
“But should you, really?” or, How to Challenge Your “Shoulds” and Get Back to What Matters
This is a should I can get behind. How many shoulds or supposed-tos do you utter in a day? How often do you put yourself down because you’re not doing something you believe you should be doing? And how many times do you think critically about whether taking those...
What Type of Goal-Setter Are You?
I've explored goal-setting and planning with small business owners, creatives, and independent workers for over 12 years now. That means I've observed many different types of goal-setters. Some confidently choose a new goal and get to work. Others rebel against...
What’s Your Type? Why Self-Knowledge is Big Business on Social Media
Two types of content dominate my Instagram and TikTok feeds right now. The first is users talking about different personality and developmental conditions. The second is all about personality types and astrology signs. I’m sure some of the prevalence of this content...
News & Recommendations
Making Media Social: 3 Ways We Behave Online
Twitter is a dumpster fire. Meta lays off 11,000 people while their ad product struggles and their metaverse product seems to be boring at best. Instagram continues to roll out TikTok feature clones. And TikTok continues to be owned by a Chinese corporation, raising...
Laid Off: What’s the future of social media?
When Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter finally became officially, he immediately fired the CEO and other top executives. That much is perfectly normal when a new owner takes over. But on Friday, half of Twitter’s workforce opened their personal inboxes to learn their...
READ: 3 Books for Remembering You Have a Body
“You have a body.” That’s the first principle of feminist business-building according to Jennifer Armbrust, founder of Sister and creator of the Feminist Business School. It might seem a strange way to begin a manifesto about business, but remembering that we’re human...