Working from home and the isolation nobody schedules for
Offices supplied company nobody planned — kettle queues, overheard jokes. Working from home removed it without replacing it. What to put back, and how.
Mental health 🐾
9 articles on this topic. Or jump to another:
Why looking after something helps when you feel alone
Caring for something — even a small virtual pet — can ease the feeling of being surplus when you are alone. How that works, and where the help runs out.
Loneliness and solitude are not the same thing
Solitude is aloneness you chose; loneliness is aloneness that happened to you. How structure and small presence can tip an empty room from one to the other.
How loneliness quietly erodes concentration
Loneliness runs in the background and spends the attention you meant for work. How lonely focus gets harder, and the small levers that may help.
Rejection-sensitive dysphoria and apps that judge you
Many productivity apps use guilt and broken streaks as the motivator. For rejection-sensitive dysphoria, that design is actively counterproductive.
Streaks are stressful: a kinder way to track consistency
Streak counters are supposed to motivate you. For a lot of people they do the opposite the moment one breaks. What the research says, and a better design.
What the science says about caring for a virtual pet and focus
The real psychology behind why a fake creature can create genuine caregiving feelings — and what that has to do with getting work done.
Coming back after a bad week
The hardest part of a bad week is the return. How to pick tools that greet you instead of auditing you, and why one small session counts as coming back.
Can a virtual pet actually help with loneliness?
An honest look at whether a virtual pet helps with loneliness — the narrow company it can offer, what it can never replace, and why it still counts.