If you’re like me, you spend a lot of your time in front of your computer screen.

I used to work with business professionals in companies. Although I spent a lot of time sitting in other people’s offices and meeting rooms, I did travel around a fair bit. That meant that I walked to and from my car several times a day. 😉

But today most of my work is online. And although I go out for an hour’s walk, swing on my bike or do exercises on most days, I often forget to get up and stretch every so often.

And there are so many benefits. Stretching removes tension in our bodies, can help us think clearer— and improves our postures and physical performance. I’m sure there are more.

So how can we best remember to stretch during the day? 

I’ve been thinking of setting an alarm or posting sticky notes to remind me.  

Do you have any tips or suggestions?

Look at the photo.

If I were to ask you where my glasses are, how would you reply?

Just take a second to form your sentence.

What I often hear is ‘in the near’. So if you wanted to say that my glasses are “in the near’ of the pool, I’d have to tell you that we wouldn’t normally say that in English.

So what is correct?

‘My glasses are near the pool’. Short and sweet!

You want to know where I live? In the near of Near Heinsberg! 😉

I hope that helps!

“Psychological safety is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes.”
Amy Edmondson

Amy was the first person to identify and study psychological safety, a concept you might have heard about again and again.

What can we do to help our online participants feel accepted and respected, so that they are willing to share their thoughts and opinions freely?

We can:

– try to promote openness by asking participants to share something they are grateful for,
– invite people to speak up and talk openly about their emotions,
– ask participants not to interrupt others,
– create breakout rooms, allowing smaller groups to talk more easily, and
– use polls, yes/no tools, and raise hand and chat features.

Do you have any ideas to add?

I see many people using the Latin abbreviations ‘i.e.’ and ‘e.g.’ incorrectly. So what’s the difference?

Of course, it’s easy for Latin scholars.

The abbreviation ‘i.e.’ stands for ‘id est’ and means ‘that is to say’ or ‘in other words’.

The abbreviation ‘e.g.’ stands for ‘exempli gratia’ and means ‘for example’ or ‘such as’.

Actually,  I try to avoid both abbreviations altogether. I prefer to write the words out!

Perhaps you’d like to, too?

Personality quizzes have been popular for years. Have you heard of The Difficult Person Test that went viral earlier this year?

Chelsea Sleep and her colleagues at the University of Georgia believe they can scientifically quantify the seven elements that constitute a difficult person:

1. Callousness – Abgebrühtheit
2. Grandiosity – Großspurigkeit
3. Aggressiveness – Aggressivität
4. Suspicion – Verdacht, Verdächtigung
5. Manipulativeness – Manipulierbarkeit
6. Dominance – Dominanz
7. Risk-taking – Risikobereitschaft

Are you curious about yourself? Are you self-aware enough to recognize your flaws (Mängel, Schwachstellen, Fehler)? Then do the test and find out if you’re easy or difficult to get on with.

(You can always use Deepl if you need to translate some words quickly.)

So how did it go?