Anisa Purbasari Horton
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Writer + editor. Indonesian Kiwi. Forever culturally confused. Words @FastCompany @BBC_Worklife @businessinsider + more.
Articles by Anisa Purbasari Horton
I attempted to institute a ‘no-shame’ rule in my work, and it was a lot harder than I expected
When I’m having an unproductive day, I hear the most annoying and unhelpful voices rattling around in my head. It’s usually a variation of taunts about how I should have gotten up earlier or shortened my morning routine. Then it turns into how I better be “on it” for the rest of the day, and tonight I must get an early night’s sleep, because I’m way behind and the only way to get everything done is to be diligent about sticking to my calendar at all costs.
Agrupar tarefas funciona melhor que uma lista?
Quando o assunto é produtividade, não faltam dicas. Já experimentei muitas delas, mas, no fim das contas, acabei mantendo uma prática parecida: todos os dias, tenho uma lista de tarefas organizada da mais importante para a menos importante. Esse sistema funcionou bem o suficiente para mim. Ou pelo menos era o que eu pensava. Nos últimos dois meses, várias distrações da vida pessoal reduziram minha flexibilidade de tempo.
What I learned when I gave up my daily to-do list and tried ‘task-batching’
When it comes to productivity, there is no shortage of tips. I’ve tried many of them (some of which I’ve written about for this publication). But in the end, I’ve largely stuck to a similar practice: I have a to-do list ranked from most important to least important each day. This system has worked well enough for me. Or so I thought. The last couple of months, multiple life distractions have resulted in less time flexibility. This meant that I had to learn to be efficient with the time I did have.
What I learned when I gave up my daily to-do list and tried 'task-batching'
1 hour ago Executive functions are what allow us to translate ability into action. Below, Adrian Owen shares five key insights from his new book, Think Before You Think: Understanding and Mastering Executive Function. Adrian is a professor of cognitive neuroscience and imaging at the University of Western …
Os empreendedores que rejeitam a cultura da exaustão
Quando as pessoas pensam em empreendedores, costumam associá-los a expressões como "quem faz acontecer", "obcecados por crescimento" e defensores da chamada cultura da produtividade extrema. Embora muitos falem publicamente sobre a importância da saúde mental e do bem-estar, suas agendas geralmente contam uma história bem diferente, marcada pela falta de equilíbrio entre vida pessoal e trabalho. Não surpreende, portanto, que essa mentalidade frequentemente leve ao burnout.
Meet the ‘cozy entrepreneurs’ who reject hustle culture
When people think of entrepreneurs, they often associate them with words like “go-getters”, “obsessed with growth”, and proponents of “hustle culture.” They might talk about the importance of mental health and well-being in public, but their calendars often reflect anything but work-life balance. Unsurprisingly, this kind of attitude can lead to burnout.
Becoming an athlete helped this blind baseball player amplify her creativity
To say that the FIFA World Cup has been eventful would be an understatement. Over the last month, there have been upsets, controversies, and personality clashes on and off the pitch. But there’s a common theme that occurs in matches with a tight scoreline, or where one side managed to grind out a win despite not being the statistically better team: They had players who were creative in generating opportunities—and then exploiting them.
What happened when I engineered more boredom into my life
As a knowledge worker who spends a lot of time on the internet, I struggle with distractions and information overload. I’ve tried a lot of practices to stop doomscrolling, some of which have worked. For example, I now read a nonfiction book first thing in the morning and a fiction book before I go to bed. This means I no longer start my morning and end my day staring at my phone. But I was still struggling to stay off screens when waiting in line, commuting, or exercising.
What happened when I engineered more boredom into my life
As a knowledge worker who spends a lot of time on the internet, I struggle with distractions and information overload. I’ve tried a lot of practices to stop doomscrolling, some of which have worked. For example, I now read a nonfiction book first thing in the morning and a fiction book before I go to bed. This means I no longer start my morning and end my day staring at my phone. But I was still struggling to stay off screens when waiting in line, commuting, or exercising.
As 6 habilidades que podem salvar sua carreira na era da IA
Parece que a mudança e a volatilidade são as únicas certezas no mercado de trabalho. Empregos e profissões que antes pareciam estáveis já não estão imunes aos impactos da inteligência artificial e de outros avanços tecnológicos. No mínimo, a IA está transformando a natureza das funções atuais e deve continuar fazendo isso em ritmo acelerado. Diante desse cenário, pode ser difícil saber como construir uma carreira sólida.
6 mindset shifts to improve your risk and failure tolerance
Thriving in an uncertain work future isn’t about knowing the most, but about being willing to learn, fail, and reinvent yourself as the circumstances require. [Source illustration: Muffinstock/Adobe Stock] Listen to this ArticleMore info It seems that change and volatility are the only things that are certain when it comes to the labor market. Jobs and professions that once seemed ‘stable’ are not immune to the forces of artificial intelligence and other technological advancements.
The most innovative human resources companies of 2026
Listen to this ArticleMore info As companies race to keep pace with rapid technological change, human resource leaders need to deal with the human impact of that disruption. Many now face the challenge of navigating (and helping organizations understand) AI and automation, all while having to deal with employee engagement, shaping company culture, upskilling, and also figuring out how to use AI in their own workflows so they can do it all.
The most innovative workplace companies in 2026
Listen to this ArticleMore info It’s a strange time to be working in the current landscape. On the one hand, uncertainty and volatility seem to be the norm; on the other, the very factors that are causing the lack of stability have also led to amazing innovations, opportunities, and products that are helping workers do their jobs better and make their lives easier. Artificial intelligence has been at the forefront of that change, yet its proliferation makes it hard to find quality AI products.
How to design a portfolio career that works: These Renaissance women show how it’s done
Gabriela Flax spent the first part of her career working in tech as a product manager. And while every day was different and varied, there were aspects of it that were causing her burnout. “I’ve always really enjoyed the product marketing aspect of my work,” she says. “I really like talking to end-users about ‘Hey, this is how this thing helps you’ and how to articulate that.” However, she wasn’t able to work on it as much as she would have liked.
Your company needs a neurodiversity coach
Before becoming a coach for neurodiverse individuals with ADHD, Justine Capelle Collis had a successful advertising career. She worked in Australia and the UK, and also across the US and Canadian markets. Her clients have included Fortune 500 companies and government agencies. And she achieved all this without realizing that she has ADHD. That realization came when she became a mother. Both of her sons were diagnosed with ADHD, and she started asking questions.
How goal-stacking got me out of a motivation rut
Motivation comes and go, but consistency is what will get you the results. That’s a principle I’ve tried to live by for as long as I can remember. For the most part, it has served me pretty well. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that being consistent while being unmotivated can be energy draining. And when mental and physical energy is lacking, it can be difficult to be consistent. Earlier this year, I found myself in a bit of a motivation rut. I’d had a very busy six months of work.
Becoming the CEO I needed: A journey of female leadership
Anisa Purbasari Horton|Published 25 minutes ago For most of my career, I looked around the room and saw male C-suite leaders. This was especially true in healthcare, even across companies that largely serve women. I came to realise that the industry didn’t have the CEO I was searching for. I was looking for a female leader who understood both the business and the experience of the patients that they served. At that moment, I decided that I would take on that role myself.
así puedes lograr aceptación en decisiones difíciles
Tomar decisiones difíciles es inevitable cuando tienes puestos de liderazgo. Y, a veces, estas decisiones son poco populares. Sin embargo, cuando requieren el esfuerzo y la cooperación de sus equipos, los líderes deben encontrar la manera de conseguir la aceptación de quienes se oponen a ellas. Esto no es fácil y requiere un equilibrio delicado.
Here's why Notion's avid users love the all-in-one productivity app
Notion is No. 14 on the list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2025. Explore the full list of companies that are reshaping industries and culture. We are awash with productivity tools. The simple act of choosing which note-taking app, digital to-do list, or project management planner to use is itself a task.
This is how and when you should show vulnerability at work
Executives and managers are traditionally reluctant to express any tender inner feelings from their teams and peers. Yet leaders who are willing to tap into the power of vulnerability are seeing benefits to their ability to connect, motivate, and lead teams.
Cómo evitar las alucinaciones en las reuniones de trabajo
La inteligencia artificial (IA) generativa transforma la manera en que trabajamos, pero sus efectos no se limitan a lo que puede hacer. También puede enseñarnos sobre el lenguaje y la comunicación. Generalmente pensamos en las alucinaciones como percepciones sensoriales (como un sonido o una imagen) que parecen reales en la mente pero que no ocurrieron en la realidad externa.
This is the key to running efficient meetings
Generative AI transforms the way we work, but its impacts aren’t limited to what it can do. It can also teach us about language and communication. We typically think of hallucinations as sensory perceptions—like a sound or image—that seem real in the mind but didn’t occur in external reality. In the era of Generative AI, the word “hallucination” refers to a large language model that produces incorrect or fabricated information.
Estes 4 mitos sobre alta performance estão totalmente errados
O alto desempenho é resultado de muitos fatores. Não basta contratar pessoas talentosas e colaborativas. Como uma empresa, você precisa cultivar um ambiente que permita que elas deem o melhor de si enquanto trabalham juntas para atingir um objetivo comum. Infelizmente, há muitas concepções equivocadas sobre o que leva à alta performance.
4 mitos acerca del rendimiento en el trabajo que son falsos
El rendimiento en un equipo de trabajo es el resultado de muchos factores, pero construirlo es aún más importante. No basta con contratar a individuos talentosos y colaborativos. Como organización, es necesario cultivar un ambiente que les permita dar lo mejor de sí mientras trabajan juntos para alcanzar un objetivo común. Desafortunadamente, existen muchos mitos en torno a lo que conoce del alto desempeño.
These 4 myths about high performance are totally wrong
High-performance is a product of many factors. Building a high-performing team is even more so. It’s not enough to hire talented and collaborative individuals. As an organization, you need to cultivate an environment that allows them to be at their best while working together to achieve a common objective. Unfortunately, there are many misconceptions around what leads to high performance.
How the world’s best memorizers remember things
How the world’s best memorizers remember things Hint: It involves more creativity than you might think. BY Anisa Purbasari Horton We’re living at a time when the act of memorizing isn’t a requirement to get through day-to-day life. Worried about forgetting someone’s birthday? Just set an automatic reminder. Don’t know the route you’re supposed to take to that restaurant you’ve only driven to once? Enter the destination on your GPS of choice.
Why some people are hiring a 'reverse recruiter' for their job search
It’s a tough time to be a job seeker, whether you’re early in your career or looking for a leadership role. Mass layoffs continue to be rampant in industries like tech, media, and finance. Companies are posting “ghost jobs” where they advertise for positions they have no intention of filling. And when you do find roles that are suitable for you, you’re competing against large numbers of candidates—most of whom possess similar (or higher) levels of experience and qualifications.
How the world’s best memorizers remember things
We’re living at a time when the act of memorizing isn’t a requirement to get through day-to-day life. Worried about forgetting someone’s birthday? Just set an automatic reminder. Don’t know the route you’re supposed to take to that restaurant you’ve only driven to once? Enter the destination on your GPS of choice. Forget about remembering your emergency contact’s phone numbers. In a 2023 survey of 423 respondents over the age of 16, 21% admitted to typing “What’s my own phone number” into Google.
6 women on what they learned about starting a business in midlife Original
By Anisa Purbasari Horton5 minute Read Entrepreneurship is often portrayed as the domain of the young. We hear countless stories of founders in their 20s and 30s raising millions of dollars, which creates the impression that the best time to start a business is at the beginning your career. But the statistics show otherwise.
Strategies for streamlining subscription management and optimizing spend
Banking engineered for startups One of the most common pieces of advice you’ll see in personal finance articles when it comes to saving money is to audit your subscriptions. Maybe it’s a streaming service you don’t watch often enough, or a gym that you don’t really step foot in to justify the recurring costs. It’s one of the easiest ways to save money because if you don’t pay attention to it, those seemingly small payments can add up to a substantial amount over time.
STAY OR GO?
CAREERS | ADVICE You're feeling stagnant in your career, so you apply for an interesting new job. Several screening calls and interviews later, you have an offer letter in your hand. You hand in your resignation letter, and your manager asks to see you. Rather than conduct an exit interview, they come back with a counteroffer with terms that are much better than those offered by your new job. You're not sure what to do.
How millennial managers should lead Gen Z to prevent conflicts
By Anisa Purbasari Horton3 minute Read Millennials have grown up, and many have ascended to managerial ranks. According to a survey that workflow-automation platform Zapier conducted in 2020, more than three in five millennial employees say they manage direct reports.
What to do when your counteroffer is better than your new job offer
You’re feeling stagnant in your career, so you apply for an interesting new job. Several screening calls and interviews later, you have an offer letter in your hand. You hand in your resignation letter, and your manager asks to see you. Rather than conduct an exit interview, they come back with a counteroffer with terms that are much better than those offered by your new job. You’re not sure what to do. It seems like every HR consultant and career coach advises against accepting a counteroffer.
What to do when your counteroffer is better than your new job offer
You’re feeling stagnant in your career, so you apply for an interesting new job. Several screening calls and interviews later, you have an offer letter in your hand. You hand in your resignation letter, and your manager asks to see you. Rather than conduct an exit interview, they come back with a counteroffer with terms that are much better than those offered by your new job. You’re not sure what to do. It seems like every HR consultant and career coach advises against accepting a counteroffer.
What to do when your counteroffer is better than your new job offer
By Anisa Purbasari Horton5 minute Read You’re feeling stagnant in your career, so you apply for an interesting new job. Several screening calls and interviews later, you have an offer letter in your hand. You hand in your resignation letter, and your manager asks to see you. Rather than conduct an exit interview, they come back with a counteroffer with terms that are much better than those offered by your new job. You’re not sure what to do.
How to quit being a manager, without taking a salary hit
By Anisa Purbasari Horton5 minute Read In a corporate environment, progress and seniority are often intertwined with managing people. The higher up you are in an organization, the more people you typically have reporting to you, and the more careers and livelihoods you hold in your hands. But managing others is a wholly different skill than honing a specific talent—or doing the work that likely got you promoted in the first place.
‘Portfolio careers’ are becoming more popular. Is it just rebranding hustle culture?
Taylor Elyse Morrison has two and a half careers. One career involves a well-being and self-care app called Inner Workout, which she is preparing to launch soon. Then there is the corporate consulting role, which sees her working with Google and other companies as a facilitator. The last “half” part of her career is a small coaching practice.
‘Portfolio careers’ are becoming more popular. Is it just rebranding hustle culture?
By Anisa Purbasari Horton4 minute Read Taylor Elyse Morrison has two and a half careers. One career involves a well-being and self-care app called Inner Workout, which she is preparing to launch soon. Then there is the corporate consulting role, which sees her working with Google and other companies as a facilitator. The last “half” part of her career is a small coaching practice.
Why can’t we stop ourselves from procrastinating?
Two weeks ago, on what seemed like a typical Wednesday, Brex cofounder and co-CEO Henrique Dubugras discovered something curious: a “weird” amount of inflows to deposits, as Brex’s enterprise customers moved cash onto the platform. Brex, a six-year-old startup worth $12.3 billion, offers spend management solutions for businesses, including cash accounts that can be used to pay bills and fund payroll.
How to deal with stress and anxiety
Adobe announced that Samsung Galaxy S23 series smartphones globally will use Adobe Lightroom as the exclusive default photo editor for RAW photos, supporting Samsung’s addition of an Expert RAW photography mode to its Galaxy camera application. The Expert RAW app, available exclusively on Samsung Galaxy, enables DSLR-style image shooting and editing in RAW and JPEG. Once downloaded, Expert RAW app functionality can also be accessed through the native Camera app on the Galaxy S23 series.
How to deal with stress and anxiety
By Jeff Beer1 minute Read Over the past month or so, OpenAI’s generative AI chatbot ChatGPT has gone viral for its ability to not only answer simple questions, but write essays or debug code, all in humanlike text. Generative AI analyzes huge amounts of data and trains models that can generate new things. Feed a generative-AI program millions of pieces of art, and it learns how to produce art, like OpenAI’s other viral sensation DALL-E.
Why can’t we stop ourselves from procrastinating?
If we can take away one positive from the pandemic, it was that it inspired companies to fast-track their use of technology. This digital transformation is fundamentally changing the way firms operate, from how they produce goods to how they fuel growth and spark innovation. Perhaps the most important part of this, however, is how it is helping to supercharge collaboration—both inside companies and through partnerships and mergers with other firms.
How Upskilling Can Build a More Diverse Workforce
Building (and maintaining) a diverse, engaged, and loyal workforce takes work. And in a market where companies are downsizing their workforces and conducting hiring freezes, as the economy enters a period of uncertainty, it’s crucial that the employees they retain are adaptable, nimble, and able to keep up with constantly changing demands.
How to deal with stress and anxiety
Times are tough, headwinds are strong, and uncertainties lie ahead. The economic climate is shifting in real time and will continue to shift in the coming weeks and months. But what hasn’t shifted—and won’t ever—is the need for innovation, and the role that intentional narrative plays in business success. Intentional narrative is agnostic to market trends. In periods of growth, it has the power to elevate a brand: becoming a category leader or a category of one.
How to deal with stress and anxiety
We’re living in a time of uncertainty. No matter where you are in the world, it’s likely that COVID-19 has upended every aspect of your life. It’s an unprecedented time, and as a result many have had to make drastic changes to their day-to-day lives, sometimes at a moment’s notice. Not surprisingly, stress and anxiety levels are high for many.
Why can’t we stop ourselves from procrastinating?
As far as obstacles to productivity go, procrastination is a challenge that many run into over and over again. Add in the uncertainties caused by COVID-19 and tackling any task that requires brainpower can feel downright impossible. That’s because, as my cohost (and Fast Company assistant editor) Pavithra Mohan and I discuss on this week’s episode of Secrets Of The Most Productive People, procrastination—at its core—is about our unwillingness to deal with unpleasant emotions.
Why can’t we stop ourselves from procrastinating?
As far as obstacles to productivity go, procrastination is a challenge that many run into over and over again. Add in the uncertainties caused by COVID-19 and tackling any task that requires brainpower can feel downright impossible. That’s because, as my cohost (and Fast Company assistant editor) Pavithra Mohan and I discuss on this week’s episode of Secrets Of The Most Productive People, procrastination—at its core—is about our unwillingness to deal with unpleasant emotions.
How to recover from burnout if you can’t change jobs or take time off
It seems like everyone is burning out from work. The backlash against hustle culture, the trend of “quiet quitting,” and the Great Resignation indicate that more and more employees are unwilling to make their careers the center of their lives. The pandemic caused many to reevaluate what they want out of life. Some started businesses, others took career breaks or pivoted to a different one altogether.
This is the most humane way to lay off a virtual worker
Layoffs are an unfortunate but regular occurrence in an uncertain economic climate. But in recent times, several companies have landed in hot water for the way they’ve chosen to conduct terminations. Better.com, Klarna, and The Wing are just some companies that have conducted mass layoffs via Zoom in the last couple of years. These layoffs generated a lot of controversies and raised several questions: Will massive virtual terminations become the norm?
8 Steps to Inclusive New Hire Onboarding
Most new employees understand the importance of first impressions. But are companies placing as much importance on the employer’s first impression? According to Gallup, only 12 percent of employees strongly agree that their organization does a great job onboarding. An SHRM report found that 50 percent of senior hires from outside fail within the first 18 months, while the same percentage of hourly workers leave a new job within the first two months.
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