As a new year dawns, I always spend a lot of time thinking about what I worked on in the one that has just ended—the people I hired, the stories we broke, the experiments we tried.

Reflecting on 2024, it's also clear to me that how I work changed a lot. In some respects, my expanding job responsibilities and my family forced my habits to shift.

But I also believe the breaking point I hit in my productivity may be a bit more universal. The growing 24/7 always-connectedness of everything, coupled with the return to office life, has hit us all a bit hard.

So I did a lot of things that might seem ill advised for someone in my shoes: I started checking email less. I scheduled back-to-back meetings on days I was supposed to be catching up on writing and decision-making at home. And I tried new strategies to fight a pesky multitasking habit that hampers us all.