As social restrictions lift, we are likely to find ourselves facing difficult decisions more often. Should we reject invitations to in-person events from friends and family? And if we do, should we communicate our concerns, or keep them to ourselves?

In times of crises (as this is) Dwight Eisenhower, former US President and WW2 General focused on two criteria – importance and urgency. Covey popularized a matrix using these criteria which can be adapted for current conditions. On one axis is importance, and on the other is urgency. When you need to prioritize your assignments, this matrix can help you decide when you can delegate, eliminate, or postpone the less essential in order to focus on what is mission critical.

Gaining greater clarity of mind on how we maneuver new territory will help us all. Here are some ways that will help you enter the post-Covid period with less anxiety and more clarity.

There is no adequate word to describe the life of a working parent. Busy doesn’t cut it. The stay-home-and-work-while-teaching-your-children-and-feeding-everyone-multiple-meals-a-day Tilt-A-Whirl that resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic caused many of us to stop and reassess. And, as a new school year begins and some of us return to our offices for at least some portion of the week, how do we get started without getting back on the too-much-to-do treadmill? Having a family mission statement may help.

As a manager, leading in this era of change, urgency, and accountability requires so much. You need the energy to be fully present even as you’re fretting about the 72 emails piling up in your in-box. You need the patience to be empathetic when facing resistance from your employees. You need the wherewithal to be creative instead of defaulting to tried-and-true approaches. You need the self-control to be open and vulnerable without losing your team’s confidence. And you need the endurance to be present, patient, creative, and controlled day after day and week after week. In sum, you need tremendous fortitude.

For some activities, like a required weekly company meeting, you need to show up even if you don’t feel like it. But for those optional activities where you have a choice and where you might have already drifted away, it could be time to make a clean break.

Do you have a feeling in the pit of your stomach that you and you boss just don’t click? Are you flummoxed about why your manager seems to interact so effortlessly with your colleagues but then avoids you or acts like you’re not there? Do you worry that they don’t trust you or, even worse, don’t like you? Before you work yourself into a frenzy, take a moment to assess what’s really going on and identify what’s causing the strain in your relationship. Once you do, you can build a targeted plan for how to make things better.

Spending weekends or holidays working undermines one of the most important factors that determines whether people persist in their work: intrinsic motivation. People feel intrinsically motivated when they engage in activities that they find interesting, enjoyable, and meaningful.

Most of us assume our best response to a stressful situation is to force ourselves to calm down. Yet, behavioral scientists from Harvard Business School have found that’s a bad idea. They note our stress often stems from worrying bad things will happen—even if they're unlikely.

Understanding how others experience us is an important tool for change. That’s true in the workplace and especially at home, where we’re often so busy being parents and partners that it’s easy to overlook the impact we have on others. How can we measure how we’re doing as parents? What work tools might we adapt to use at home? Following the best practices you’d use in the workplace to solicit upward feedback from your children can help you identify areas to improve as well as positive behaviors to continue.

Life was hard enough for the one-third of Americans who had wrestled with anxiety prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the disease that has killed more than 100,000 in the United States, left millions unemployed, and socially distanced many people from friends and family continues to cause fear, isolation, and financial distress—a mentally toxic combination for many.

Assemble trusted advisors for every aspect of your life.

We’re all feeling anxious about it.

“Can I get a hug?” It’s a simple question for a simple act that’s been especially missed because of COVID-19 distancing. But even as restrictions have started to loosen, there are no clear-cut answers on personal interactions between adults.

Stop aiming for perfection, and start aiming for happiness.

Starting out your career is a formative, fragile time — in the best of circumstances. It’s even more challenging during the intersecting crises we’re living through. Many young women are navigating work relationships and cultures without strong networks, sponsors, and other kinds of support that take time to build. So we’ve pulled together perspectives and practical advice for women who are new to the workforce or entering it now.

"In this moment, people don’t feel empowered to talk about looking for new work or about personal issues as opposed to collective issues,” said Laura Huang, an associate professor at Harvard Business School. “They’re almost ashamed to talk about what they’re personally going through.”

Summer is upon us, and for many teens in this country, school’s already out. Now what? There is a general sense of uncertainty about what the coming months will bring, and higher levels of worry in cities and states that struggled with many cases of COVID-19. This is going to be a very different summer than usual for many teenagers and their families. As the weather heats up, here are four tips to guide parents in helping their teens plan for the months ahead.

Five ways to better take care of yourself.

A five-step plan, based on research.

It’s easy to fall into catastrophic thinking — especially when you’re working remotely.

You’re going to negotiate with your kids today, probably multiple times. According to one informal survey of 2,000 parents, we negotiate with our children an average of six times a day (lasting about eight minutes each, or 24 hours a month). Imagine how much these numbers have escalated under the circumstances many now find themselves — working at home and being with their kids 24/7.

Five questions to ask yourself.

During stressful periods, people look for support from their partners more than ever, but personal space is important too. A Harvard expert on healthy relationships offers advice for the COVID-19 lockdown and beyond.

While we’re all experiencing greater job and family stress in this new normal, recent research has found there are steps that employees can take to protect their well-being.

Are you leaving your organization during a critical time? In this bonus episode of HBR’s advice podcast, Dear HBR:, cohosts Alison Beard and Dan McGinn answer your questions with the help of Shirli Kopelman, a negotiations professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and the author of Negotiating Genuinely: Being Yourself in Business. They talk through what to do when you’re planning to give notice during the coronavirus pandemic and can’t train your replacement.

How will this pandemic change our career paths — and what new opportunities will it open up? The hosts talk with Bozoma Saint John, CMO at Endeavor, about how we can write new scripts to succeed during and after this crisis.

To help her time management coaching clients maintain and regain energy, the author has been working on ways that they can reduce or eliminate technology throughout their day. Here are a few strategies that have been most effective.

It can blur the line between work and life.

Even on a tight schedule, you can connect through shared experiences.

The Anxious Achiever Host Morra Aarons Mele speaks with Elise Loehnen, Chief Content Officer at Goop, about her own experiences with anxiety at work, how she manages employees and their mental health, and what self-care really means.

How can we best take care of ourselves while we get through this pandemic? And how can we set ourselves up to thrive afterward? The hosts talk about the importance of sleep, meditation, and more with Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of Thrive Global.

People who regularly attend religious services tend to have a lower risk of alcohol poisoning, drug overdose, and suicide, a Chan School study finds.

Harvard experts discuss ways to ease the rising sense of isolation and feel more connected.

The shift to remote work is highlighting domestic inequity in many households.

Five strategies to get your head in the game.

Is the Covid-19 pandemic messing up your career plans? In this episode of HBR’s advice podcast, Dear HBR:, cohosts Alison Beard and Dan McGinn answer your questions with the help of Scott Galloway, a professor at NYU Stern School of Business and the author of The Algebra of Happiness: Notes on the Pursuit of Success, Love, and Meaning. They talk through what to do when you’ve been laid off with a promise that you’ll be hired back eventually, your goal of moving into management has stalled, or your employer’s inflexible work-from-home policy is forcing you to look for other jobs in a difficult market.

As businesses and schools are shuttered, economic uncertainty encroaches, and a pandemic rages worldwide, there is plenty of anxiety to go around. We’re watching our healthcare system be pushed to its limits, but the grief and trauma we’re seeing presages a second wave of need: Before long, our mental healthcare system is going to be stretched to the breaking point as well. As physical distancing continues, we need to make sure that we help alleviate the isolation, loneliness, depression, anxiety, and other mental health impacts that will result, driving a potentially system-overwhelming curve of their own. And now is the time to head off this second crisis.

Unexpected events or shocks disrupt our habitual routines, jolt us out of our comfort zones, and lead us to ask big questions about what matters and what is worth doing. It’s no wonder, then, that during the current pandemic, many people are rethinking their careers. But is this really the right time?

As working parents with a seemingly endless array of responsibilities, it can be hard to make space for yourself. The tendency to focus all your energy on work or family and put your own needs on hold is the norm. And this has only become more difficult with the current crisis. But the benefits of taking care of ourselves, whether that’s physically, emotionally, spiritually, or mentally, are undeniable.

Vivek Murthy, former U.S. Surgeon General, says that even before the Covid-19 pandemic, we were facing another health crisis: loneliness. Studies show that, around the world, more people have been feeling a greater sense of social isolation, which has many negative affects, including increased blood pressure, reduced immune response, and decreased engagement and productivity at work. But organizations can be a place where people find a greater sense of belonging. Murthy wants us to take loneliness more seriously and focus on fostering the types of authentic connections — face-to-face and virtual — that we need to combat it.

The pandemic is taking a toll on mental health as people shelter from coronavirus, and each other, says a Chan School professor of psychiatric epidemiology.

My decades of research show that stigma harms the mental and physical health of people with disease. Stigma can take the forms of social rejection, gossip, physical violence, and denial of services.

While it’s commendable to want to excel to the highest extent possible (and show your boss and coworkers that you can), obsessing over mistakes can do more harm than good.

The lines between work and non-work are blurring in new and unusual ways, and many employees who are working remotely for the first time are likely to struggle to preserve healthy boundaries between their professional and personal lives.

Rituals, it turns out, are a powerful human mechanism for managing extreme emotions and stress, and we should be leaning on them now. A Q&A with HBS professor Michael Norton.

Social distancing and being forced to work remotely due to the coronavirus has us feeling a range of emotions every day, from happy or sad, to anxious, nervous, disconnected, and sometimes even grief. Professor Arthur Brooks shares tips to help you remain positive during such uncertain times.

With millions of people wondering what to do in the face of an actual or potential job loss, I polled several human resources experts and executive coaches about the questions they recommend asking should they receive a layoff notification during the global pandemic.

For these working daughters and sons, setting boundaries, employing technology and routines, asking for flexibility (and some forgiveness), and managing well-being will be critical.

With no clear division of labor between paid work and housework, dual-career couples are facing a host of new and unfamiliar challenges. How can both partners work productively under the same roof? Who gets to use the home office, and when?

Although part of our capacity to deal with the unknown is innate, a larger portion is learned. Those who develop this “uncertainty capability” are more creative, more successful, and better able to turn uncertainty into possibility.

When it comes to stress, there is good news: We’re not helpless. Understanding how negative emotional contagion works increases your awareness of it — and is a form of prevention in its own right.

If we can name it, perhaps we can manage it. We turned to the world’s foremost expert on grief, David Kessler, for ideas on how to do that.

Readjusting to the new normal may be challenging, but maintaining routines, creating modified schedules, and swapping in new ways to do old things can help relieve stress and increase productivity.

The news about the spread of COVID-19 is changing fast — and people are trying to make decisions about everything from whether to cancel vacations to how to best protect themselves and their communities. There are several psychological reasons why you may find decision-making difficult right now.

Coronavirus has forced many organizations to suddenly take the plunge into remote work with many unanswered questions. Professor Tsedal Neeley and CMCO Brian Kenny use Zoom to discuss everything from creating a routine and connecting with colleagues to using virtual presentations and flex work time to make the most out of working from home.