How to Let Go of an Old Life, or Neil Hughes and the Fiery Death of the Phoenix

Readers of How To Be Everything—Emilie Wapnicks’s guidebook to life—will be familiar with the Phoenix Approach, which describes how people occasionally reinvent themselves like the legendary phoenix rising from its own ashes.

This sounds exciting—and it is. But it turns out burning up and rebirthing out of the remains can hurt.

Is It Best to Work a Little Bit Every Day, or in Bursts of Dedication?

When it comes to productivity, some say you should focus on one thing only, working on that sole project for many hours a day, for as long as it takes. Others believe in small daily progress over a longer period of time (maybe with more variety and additional projects that you shift between).