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The irony of modern work life hits you somewhere between your third consecutive hybrid meeting and the moment you realize you’ve been holding your breath for the past hour. We’ve engineered every process for maximum output, yet reports consistently show that workplace burnout is affecting us more than ever. As someone who followed the straight-A path from childhoodchasing perfect grades, moving from one goalpost to another through MBA to big tech product executiveI’ve witnessed this optimization obsession firsthand while shaping experiences for over half a billion users. But what if the solution isn’t another wellness program or time management technique? What if it’s something far simpler, and more subversive? What if the solution is putting aside your work and engaging in a little play? Research from Johns Hopkins University’s International Arts + Mind Lab, detailed in the 2023 bestseller Your Brain on Art by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross, shows that engaging in art reduces the stress hormone cortisol, no matter your skill level, with some benefits appearing in as little as 20 minutes. A 2025 study of nearly 2,500 people across five countries found that creativity can be reliably predicted by how often the brain switches between its default mode network (active during mind-wandering) and its executive control network (which handles focused attention and cognitive control). These brief creative interludes enhance productivity by allowing different brain networks to make new connections. Ive found that weaving micro-creativity practices into my days has increased my daily joy, aliveness, and overall wellbeing. At work, these creative breaks help me shake off the energy from difficult meetings, discover fresh perspectives when I’m stuck on problems, and connect more meaningfully with teammates who join me in these playful moments. Here are a few practices I love that you can use now to sneak a little play into your workday. 1. Become a Workplace Tea Alchemist Turn your coffee break into a micro-adventure by experimenting with tea combinations. Mix Earl Grey with chamomile, or green tea with cinnamon. Research the origins of different blendsdid you know Bigelow started as a small family business in 1945? If you’re more of a coffee drinker, create your own flavor experimentsadd a dash of cardamom or vanilla extract, or challenge yourself to draw a heart in your foam. (Wonky shapes count as art too!) This curiosity-driven exploration activates what psychologists call openness to experience, which correlates with better conflict resolution abilities and cognitive flexibility. 2. Replace To-Do Lists with ‘To-Doodle’ Lists Instead of writing “Review Q3 budget” in stark text, sketch it. Draw a treasure chest for budget review, a mountain for the challenging client presentation, or abstract shapes that represent your energy around each task. This isn’t about artistic skill; it’s about engaging the right brain’s pattern recognition while planning left-brain tasks. 3. Invite Random Hallway Interactions Ask one unexpected question to someone you see regularly but rarely talk to deeply, like “If you could teleport anywhere right now for lunch, where would you go?” or “If colors had personalities, which one would be your best friend?” The security guard who greets you each morning might have fascinating insights about the most interesting characters in the building. One such conversation led me to discover that Dolly Parton finds creative inspiration in graveyards, where she walks among headstones, finding sparks for her next song! 4. Open Team Huddles With ‘What I’m Saying No To’ Bingo Start each team huddle by sharing one thing you’re actively choosing not to do this week, but make it a game. Create a bingo card with common “no” categories like “unnecessary meeting,” “weekend work,” “social obligation,” and see who gets bingo first as team members share their weekly boundaries. This ritual normalizes boundary-setting, reveals hidden priorities, and creates psychological permission for intentional choices about time and energy. 5. Become a Workplace Note Fairy Write tiny, anonymous notes of appreciation and leave them where colleagues will find them: “Thank you for always restocking the coffee!” Your enthusiasm in meetings is contagious!” “Someone here gives the best hallway wavesthank you!” The act of crafting these small surprises shifts your brain from problem-focused thinking to wonder. One teammate told me that leaving weekly mystery notes became her favorite stress-relief ritual! 6. Go on Office Color Hunts Set a timer for three minutes and hunt for a specific color throughout your workspace. How many shades of yellow exist in your office? This micro-adventure forces you to notice your environment with fresh eyes and activates “attention restoration,” the mental reset that comes from shifting from directed attention to fascination. The beauty of these three-minute playful acts lies in their accessibility. Unlike meditation apps or wellness programs, they don’t require special equipment or cozy conditions. They work precisely because they fit into the existing structure of your day. More importantly, they address what organizational psychologist Dr. Christina Maslach identifies as the core drivers of burnout: lack of control, insufficient rewards, and values mismatch. These micro-creative acts restore a sense of agency, provide immediate intrinsic rewards, and reconnect you with the playful, curious aspects of yourself that often get buried under performative environments. The goal isn’t to become more creative in order to be more productive. It’s to remember that you’re human, not a productivity machine. And sometimes, that three-minute reminder is exactly what it takes to feel alive again in a world that has optimized everything except joy.
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E-Commerce
Lululemon Athletica‘s founder Chip Wilson said on Monday he had launched a proxy fight by nominating three independent directors to the company’s board, just over two weeks after the apparel maker announced the exit of CEO Calvin McDonald without a clear successor. Lululemon shares have shed nearly half their value this year as the company struggles to find its footing with younger and affluent shoppers, while battling stiff competition from fast-growing newer rivals such as Alo Yoga and Vuori, as well as pressure from activist investor Elliott Management. Wilson has nominated three director candidates to Lululemon’s board, including former On Running co-CEO Marc Maurer, former ESPN Chief Marketing Officer Laura Gentile and former Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg. The board installed Chief Financial Officer Meghan Frank and Chief Commercial Officer André Maestrini as interim co-CEOs while they search for a permanent replacement. Reuters had reported that Elliott Management, which disclosed a $1 billion stake in the company earlier this month, had been working closely for months with former Ralph Lauren executive Jane Nielsen for a potential CEO role. When asked whether Wilson was teaming up with activist investor Elliott in pushing for the board change, a person familiar with Wilson’s thinking said he was not working with any other investor. At the same time, Elliott’s campaign for a new CEO would not interfere with his plans, the person added, asking not to be named. Wilson had spoken to Nielsen, but any CEO selected by the company before board changes would not have Wilson’s support, the source said. “The recent CEO change announcement was the third total failure of board oversight, with no clear succession plan in place. Shareholders have no faith that this board can select and support the next CEO without input from a board with stronger product experience,” Wilson said in a statement. Lululemon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The company’s shares rose about 1% in morning trading. “Adding three new board members seems like something that Lululemon would be willing to do. It might keep Wilson from constantly attacking the board, at least. The nominees appear to be fine, although only one of the three (Maurer) has direct experience in Lululemon’s industry,” Morningstar analyst David Swartz said. Wilson likely did not ask for a board seat for himself as he owns a significant stake in Lululemon’s competitor Amer Sports, Swartz added. The Wall Street Journal first reported about Wilson launching a proxy fight against Lululemon’s board earlier in the day. Wilson’s history with Lululemon Wilson is one of the biggest independent shareholders of Lululemon, with a 4.27% stake as of December 2025, according to LSEG data. The yogawear maker’s founder had previously called for an urgent search for a CEO to replace McDonald, led by new, independent directors with a deep knowledge of the company to restore a “product-first” mindset at the company. This is not the first time Wilson has pushed for changes at Lululemon’s board. After founding the apparel company in 1998, Wilson withdrew from daily operations in 2012 and resigned as chairman a year later following a recall of see-through yoga pants that led to the departures of top executives amid a public-relations storm. He also quit the director post in 2015 after clashing with the board over strategy. However, a proxy fight was averted after Wilson agreed to sell about half of his 27% stake to private-equity firm Advent International for $845 million in return for two additional director positions. Juveria Tabassum, Sanskriti Shekhar, and Anuja Bharat Mistry, Reuters
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E-Commerce
The start of a new year usually brings new motivation to achieve goals like eating healthier or finally cleaning your basement. Many resolutions also focus on financial goals, such as paying off credit card debt, saving for a new house, or simply getting more educated about money. New Years is a really good time to review and realign your financial goals overall, said Erica Grundza, certified financial planner at Betterment, an investing and savings app. When building your goals for 2026, Grundza recommends focusing less on the past and more on an optimistic, yet realistic, vision for the future. She recommends that you focus on reestablishing the why behind your approach to money and how you want to make it work for your life. This can be as simple as saving $10 each week in a savings account, or a bigger goal like saving to buy a house in the coming years. Its all about your own journey. The Associated Press spoke with people who are making financial resolutions for 2026. Heres a look at what theyre planning and how you can draw inspiration for your own resolutions: Making achievable plans Resolutions can easily turn into unattainable goals that feel more like a dream, said MarieYolaine Toms, a coach and founder of Focused Fire, a financial coaching company. To avoid setting unrealistic expectations, Toms follows a no resolutions mindset and instead focuses on making an actionable plan. What I say every year is that I am not making resolutions, Im making plans that can be tracked forward, traced back, and tweaked until completion, Toms said. Recently, Toms encouraged her clients to check their credit report with the three credit bureaus and, based on their credit reports, make an attainable plan to start a savings account. For example, adding $25 to their savings account every week. Whether youre trying to pay off debt or save for a vacation abroad, the first step towards making a plan can be creating a budget. When making a budget, its best to find a technique that works for you, whether its the classic 50/30/20 plan or another budgeting style. If youre building a budget for the first time, you can find some expert recommendations here. Paying off debt After losing her job as a magazine editor in September, Rachel Pelovitz, 33, had to take a closer look at her finances. Having acquired a significant amount of debt over the last few years due to her husbands year-and-a-half-long unemployment, Pelovitz explored several options to pay it off. Ultimately, Pelovitz and her husband chose to sell their house and work with a debt consolidation organization. Rather than rely on getting more debt, we are currently selling our house, Pelovitz said. Pelovitzs main goal for 2026 is to pay off half of her credit card debt. And, with some of the money from selling the house, start investing moderately. If youve also experienced a layoff, you can read expert recommendations to help you take care of your finances and your mental health here. Building a savings account For Jenni Lee, 27, this is going to be the year when she gets strict about building her savings account. While Lee considers herself generally good with money, over the last six months she has overspent and wants to rein it in. The long-term goal for her savings journey is for Lee to buy a house. Im now in my late 20s, Im starting to really think about where I pinch now so it wont hurt later when I finally decide to purchase and own a place, said Lee, a tech worker and lifestyle TikTok creator based in Chicago. As she saves for her future home and possibly a trip to South Korea, Lee wants to cut unnecessary spending on clothing items and eating out. Social media microtrends are a common influence on peoples shopping decisions, and this can lead to overspending. If youre looking to avoid spending money on microtrends, you can find experts recommendations here. Building an emergency fund If you are in a position to do so, having multiple financial goals youre working towards at the same time can be a great way to speed up your progress. For Worcester resident Melanie Duarte, 23, her New Years money goals include paying off her student loans and credit card debt while building an emergency fund. I made sure to include it in my budget, even if its something as small as like $50. I just want to make sure I still put something in (my emergency fund) so that it eventually multiplies, said Duarte, who owns a marketing agency. Duartes family didnt speak openly about finances when she was growing up. But, since she opened her own business, Duarte has been slowly working on rewriting her relationship with money. If youre looking to start an emergency fund or create better habits while you save, you can read some experts recommendations here. Finding balance Finding a balance between saving for your long-term goals while also making sure you enjoy your money is important, but it can also be challenging. After the death of her grandfather just a few years after retirement, Tiana Stewart, 26, felt that he didnt get to enjoy the fruits of his labor. So, this past year, Stewart decided to enjoy her life and travel. I do understand saving for retirement is important, but I also want to enjoy my life and the money that I work for at this time, especially being in my 20s, said Stewart, who lives in Maryland. But now, as she reflects on her financial future, Stewart wants to focus on paying off debt, saving, and investing. Having a healthy balance between enjoying life and saving for the future is what she wants to work toward. For some, participating in budgeting challenges such as the no-buy year can be a great way to set boundaries on your spending and set aside money towards your financial goals. Many people start such challenges at the beginning of the year and commit to keep going until the end, but others start with a no-buy month. __ The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism.
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E-Commerce
The Trump administration will award each U.S. state between $147 million and $281 million in 2026 under a new rural health transformation program aimed at improving access to care and service quality, a senior White House aide said on Monday. The initiative, authorized under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, will provide $50 billion over five fiscal years. It will make $10 billion available each year from fiscal 2026 through fiscal 2030 for all 50 states. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz said the fund is intended to improve rural health outcomes that have worsened over decades, while avoiding costly new construction. “This is a massive effort to change the unfortunate reality that has overtaken rural healthcare in America, which is that your ZIP code has started to predict your life expectancy,” Oz told reporters. He said the money will also support other pilot projects across the country. Officials said they will allocate half the funding equally among states, with the remaining $25 billion distributed based on factors tied to rural health systems, state policy actions, and initiatives states propose in their applications. Administration officials also said they will recoup funds if states fail to meet certain criteria or do not carry out pledged actions. “The purpose of this $50 billion investment in rural healthcare is not to pay off bills,” Oz said. “The purpose of this $50 billion investment is to allow us to right-size the system and to deal with the fundamental hindrances of improvement in rural healthcare.” The rollout comes as President Donald Trump faces weak approval ratings, with inflation and cost-of-living concerns dominating voters’ minds ahead of next year’s congressional elections. Trump performed strongly with rural voters, who made up about 36% of his voters in the 2024 presidential election, compared with 16% for his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, according to the Pew Research Center. Moderate Republicans, who are pivotal to maintaining the party’s razor-thin majority in Congress, face added pressure as the House has not extended enhanced Affordable Care Act premium subsidies, leaving many marketplace enrollees projected to see higher premiums starting January 1. Andrea Shalal and Sriparna Roy, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Robots have long been seen as a bad bet for Silicon Valley investors too complicated, capital-intensive, and boring, honestly, says venture capitalist Modar Alaoui. But the commercial boom in artificial intelligence has lit a spark under long-simmering visions to build humanoid robots that can move their mechanical bodies like humans and do things that people do. Alaoui, founder of the Humanoids Summit, gathered more than 2,000 people this week, including top robotics engineers from Disney, Google, and dozens of startups, to showcase their technology and debate what it will take to accelerate a nascent industry. Alaoui says many researchers now believe humanoids or some other kind of physical embodiment of AI are going to become the norm.” The question is really just how long it will take, he said. Disney’s contribution to the field, a walking robotic version of Frozen character Olaf, will be roaming on its own through Disneyland theme parks in Hong Kong and Paris early next year. Entertaining and highly complex robots that resemble a human or a snowman are already here, but the timeline for general purpose robots that are a productive member of a workplace or household is farther away. Even at a conference designed to build enthusiasm for the technology, held at a Computer History Museum that’s a temple to Silicon Valley’s previous breakthroughs, skepticism remained high that truly humanlike robots will take root anytime soon. The humanoid space has a very, very big hill to climb, said Cosima du Pasquier, co-founder of Haptica Robotics, which works to give robots a sense of touch. There’s a lot of research that still needs to be solved. The Stanford University postdoctoral researcher came to the conference in Mountain View, California, just a week after incorporating her startup. The first customers are really the people here, she said. Researchers at the consultancy McKinsey & Company have counted about 50 companies around the world that have raised at least $100 million to develop humanoids, led by about 20 in China and 15 in North America. China is leading in part due to government incentives for component production and robot adoption and a mandate last year to have a humanoid ecosystem established by 2025, said McKinsey partner Ani Kelkar. Displays by Chinese firms dominated the expo section of this week’s summit, held Thursday and Friday. The conference’s most prevalent humanoids were those made by China’s Unitree, in part because researchers in the U.S. buy the relatively cheap model to test their own software. In the U.S., the advent of generative AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini has jolted the decades-old robotics industry in different ways. Investor excitement has poured money into ambitious startups aiming to build hardware that will bring a physical presence to the latest AI. But it’s not just crossover hype the same technical advances that made AI chatbots so good at language have played a role in teaching robots how to get better at performing tasks. Paired with computer vision, robots powered by visual-language models are trained to learn about their surroundings. One of the most prominent skeptics is robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks, a co-founder of Roomba vacuum maker iRobot who wrote in September that todays humanoid robots will not learn how to be dexterous despite the hundreds of millions, or perhaps many billions of dollars, being donated by VCs and major tech companies to pay for their training. Brooks didn’t attend but his essay was frequently mentioned. Also missing was anyone speaking for Tesla CEO Elon Musks development of a humanoid called Optimus, a project that the billionaire is designing to be extremely capable and sold in high volumes. Musk said three years ago that people can probably buy an Optimus within three to five years. The conference’s organizer, Alaoui, founder and general partner of ALM Ventures, previously worked on driver attention systems for the automotive industry and sees parallels between humanoids and the early years of self-driving cars. Near the entrance to the summit venue, just blocks from Google’s headquarters, is a museum exhibit showing Google’s bubble-shaped 2014 prototype of a self-driving car. Eleven years later, robotaxis operated by Google affiliate Waymo are constantly plying the streets nearby. Some robots with human elements are already being tested in workplaces. Oregon-based Agility Robotics announced shortly before the conference that it is bringing its tote-carrying warehouse robot Digit to a Texas distribution facility run by Mercado Libre, the Latin American e-commerce giant. Much like the Olaf robot, it has inverted legs that are more birdlike than human. Industrial robots performing single tasks are already commonplace in car assembly and other manufacturing. They work with a level of speed and precision thats difficult for todays humanoids or humans themselves to match. The head of a robotics trade group founded in 1974 is now lobbying the U.S. government to develop a stronger national strategy to advance the development of homegrown robots, be they humanoids or otherwise. We have a lot of strong technology, we have the AI expertise here in the U.S., said Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for Advancing Automation, after touring the expo. So I think it remains to be seen who is the ultimate leader in this. But right now, China has certainly a lot more momentum on humanoids. Matt O’Brien, AP technology writer Associated Press journalist Terry Chea contributed to this report.
Category:
E-Commerce