Tag Archives: Work Smarter

How a food cart gig prepared this Googler to be a designer

When Conrad Bassett-Bouchard was interviewing for a product design job at Google, there was one question he didn’t think he could answer. “I was going through my final round of interviews and I was told they would ask me to talk about my ‘cross-functional collaboration’ experience,” he says. A grad student who hadn’t worked in tech before, Conrad didn’t think he had anything to talk about. “But my recruiter said to me, ‘Well, didn’t you work on a food truck?’”

Conrad had, in fact, worked on a food truck — well, actually a food cart. And it’s an infamous one, if you live in Portland, Oregon, like Conrad and me. The food cart, which closed in recent years, specialized in grilled cheeses of every sort, shape and variety. Instead of moving locations like the typical food truck would, the cart took up residence next to a converted bus that served as seating for customers. But Conrad learned more than how to make the perfect grilled cheese: I recently caught up with him to find out about how his culinary past helped him land a role at — and succeed within — Google.

Lesson 1: How to stay cool under pressure

As a UX designer currently working on the Google Fi team, Conrad’s job is to lay out what an app or other type of software will look like in a way that’s fun and engaging for a person to use. It’s a role that requires a lot of input, from research to product teams, so he knows what it’s like to balance various needs. “You’ve got lots of different people who have lots of different perspectives,” he says. “And my job is to synthesize these perspectives and understand what they’re saying, and ultimately use that to create something people will want to use.” There’s a certain amount of pressure that can come with his role — and his job in food service prepared him for it. He remembers that on the busiest days at the cart, hoards of people would be ordering, different requests would be thrown around and the crew would have multiple grills full of multiple grilled sandwiches…all grilling simultaneously. “We’d be taking in directions from every angle,” he says. “And…honestly, that was way harder than even my busiest days at Google!”

  • Three people stand at the window of a food cart, all looking out toward the camera.

    Conrad and some of his coworkers inside the food cart.

  • A grilled cheese sandwich with onions in a paper to-go bowl.

    This was Conrad’s final grilled cheese creation, which he made for his dad. The recipe calls for sourdough bread, red onions, pesto, avocado, three cheeses and…bacon.

  • An old school bus with the back doors open and stairs leading up to it. Next to it are wooden picnic tables.

    A look at the outdoor seating for customers at the food cart.

Lesson 2: How to get into a flow state when things are fast-paced

Speaking of those hectic days…Conrad sort of liked them. “The best part of working there was definitely when we were really busy and I was on the grill — which could fit 16 sandwiches at a time.” Conrad needed to know how grilled each sandwich was, what was on them, what lettuces or sauces needed to come next. “You would get completely in the zone, and everything would just be working out,” he says. “It was definitely an adrenaline rush.” In fact, he says it feels similar to the flow state he can get into when he’s designing — a sort of perfect work mindset where he’s able to get through tasks fluidly, moving from solving one thing to the next. It doesn’t mean that the work is easy, it’s just that all the tools to find the answers are right there, at the right moment.

Lesson 3: How to find your peers, purpose…and pods

“Maybe this makes me sound like a food snob…but Portland and Austin have food carts — they stay in one place, they’re stationary,” Conrad says. “Everywhere else, you’ve got tons of food trucks…but that’s a whole different experience.” The difference, he says, is community. At a food cart, for example, other food carts will pop up — maybe a beer cart, too, or maybe a brewery will take over the empty building next store. “Then you’ll see a clothing pop-up nearby, someone adds a fire pit and a roof cover,” he says. “A little community forms around a food cart pod.” (Again, as a fellow Portlander, he’s extremely right.) “People were just really happy to be there — it wasn’t just about picking up food and walking away,” he adds. That welcoming vibe is what made Conrad want to work there, and it’s something that’s important to him at Google, too. He also mentions that the food cart owner stood out among others in the food industry; he really cared about the people who worked for him. Likewise, Conrad says, the tech industry can be cutthroat, but at Google — and especially within his direct team — he’s always felt like there’s a sense that his colleagues and managers want to take care of each other.

A productivity expert’s tips for returning to the office

Two years ago, as many of us were thrown into remote work, I wrote a blog post about tips for working from home. Now, as many of us find ourselves returning to the office or preparing to do so soon, I wanted to talk about a few ways we can transition productively to (yet another) new (er, maybe old?) working environment where some of us are in the office, some aren’t…or some combination of the above.

Here are my top 10 tips for being productive in a hybrid work environment:

  1. Make sure people know where you are. Nothing screams inefficiency more than hundreds of emails and calendar invites (and invite changes) where everyone is trying to figure out who is where, when and on what days. Take the guesswork out of it by setting yourworking location and yourworking hours in Calendar, and RSVP to meetings with your location.
  2. Add other responsibilities to Google Calendar. Do you have commute time? School drop off? Moving to a different office campus mid-day? Add it to your Calendar now; consider making theseOOO events so they auto decline if they are scheduled over.
  3. Optimize your calendar for connection and focus. Chances are good that you either find it easier to focus at home or in the workplace. As you consider the hybrid work options available to you, think about where you want to get your best focused work done and build it into your calendar. Wherever it happens, minimize distractions (mute notifications, use noise-canceling headphones) and schedule Focus Time in your calendar so colleagues know that you’re heads down.
  4. Keep your “hot spots” and your “not spots.” Our brain makes associations with the sights, sounds and smells of places and when we do an activity in the same place regularly, it makes it easier to "get in the zone" each time we go back to that same spot. Keep “hot spots” in your house and at work where you do certain things. “I always code at my desk,” “I always answer customer emails from this cafe in my building,” “I always sit on my front porch to read industry news.” Your brain will associate those spots with those things and make switching between tasks easier. Similarly, safeguard your “not spots” — places you NEVER work. If you’ve never worked in a spot, like your bedroom, it’s easy to relax there because your brain only associates it with relaxation.
  5. Group meetings by type, content and location wherever possible. Many people think of their schedule like a puzzle: “Sure, wherever you find a 30-minute slot, throw a meeting in there!” But your energy and focus are changing (and challenged) when you bounce from a one one one meeting to a brainstorm to a project check-in…the list goes on and on . Be intentional about when you place meetings as much as possible. Group meetings of similar type and topic, especially given the new variety in location. Theme your days and minimize switching topics and types of meeting. Call Tuesday your “Project A” day, and place work time and meetings for that project on that day. If Wednesday morning is your manager’s staff meeting, block time afterwards to digest updates and trickle down information to your team as needed.
Two side by side images, one showing a calendar with various color-coded, unorganized meetings. This is labeled "what most people do." The other images shows all calendar meetings organized by color in blocks. This is labeled "time grouping."

6. Build in some things that happen every day. To give yourself some consistency, try finding 1-3 things that you do every day, no matter where you’re working. If you commute from 8:15 a.m.-9 a.m. into the office and listen to an audiobook, go on a walk and listen to your book during the same time period. If you always take a walk at home after lunch, do it at work, too. Always get an afternoon coffee at the office? Make yourself a latte at home. These signals help you keep your flow and make it a consistent “work day” no matter where you are.

7. Make adaily planevery night. At the beginning of the pandemic, I saw a surge in the use of the planning resources. People had gotten used to “showing up” in an office every morning, then deciding what to do with their time. Working from home required people to figure out exactly what they were doing and when. This type of planning is still important as you bounce back and forth to different work environments with different types of schedules. Fill out daily plan *the night before* to make the most of the following day. What you intend to do will marinate while you sleep and you’ll approach the day focused and intentional.

8. A new “season” of work calls for spring cleaning . A new schedule at the office, much like the New Year or a new job, is a great time for a “spring cleaning” of your work life. Do you need to keep that recurring meeting you set up two years ago to keep in touch with people you'll now see in the office? Should your team be meeting in-person on a different day given everyone’s locations? Do you need to lighten up your schedule to make more time for travel?

9. Write down three things you learned from working from home and take them with you. Working from home was a time of discovery for many of us. Let’s not lose those insights as we head back to the office. Maybe you realized you work best after a mid-morning workout, or that you get burnt out if you start work before 9 a.m. Take a moment to write down three things you learned and build them into your new schedule.

10. Take time to adjust. Two years ago, no one had any idea we’d be at home for so long. And during that time, many of us became great at being productive while working remotely. Others realized they definitely wanted to go back to the office. Whatever your preference, we gave each other grace. Let’s do the same this time as many of us transition yet again, and continue extending it to those who will remain remote.

A Google engineer’s tips for thriving amid change

When Chaitali Narla was in her 20s, she left her childhood home in India to fly across the world and study computer science in the U.S. “As a first-generation immigrant, this was a big moment for me personally,” says Chaitali. “Not only was I learning a new culture, lifestyle and vocabulary, but I was adjusting to a style of academia and work focused on exploration — all while also learning how to open potato chip bags the ‘American way,’” she laughs. (Which, FYI, means pull apart the top versus poking a hole in the bag.)

This monumental shift in her life motivated Chaitali to come up with a system to cope with major changes — and it’s become something she’s used throughout her life and career. “I’ve become willing to tackle major challenges and complex problems with the belief that you can conquer anything as long as you organize your life with a productive mindset.”

While finishing grad school in 2010, she took an internship as a software engineer with the Google Talk Video team (a precursor to Google Meet). “I was most excited to work for a company making a difference in so many people’s lives. I love making things more productive and delivering magical moments, and Google gave me the opportunity to do just that.”

More than a decade later, Chaitali continues tackling new, big challenges. “I’ve worked in Google+, Cloud, Chrome, Workspace…you name it.” Today, she leads the engineering productivity organization for Google’s real-time communication products such as Google Meet, Duo, Dialer, Messages and Google Voice. Along the way, she’s learned a thing or two not only about productivity tools, but how to thrive on change, instead of fearing it. Here are a few things she shared with us:

  1. Set your own boundaries.
     For Chaitali, taking charge of her mental health means setting a clear work-life balance and sticking to it. “When it’s family time, I switch off the flood of emails and calendar notifications to be present with my husband and daughter,” she says. “Work-life balance is what you make of it. Changing habits can be difficult, but it’s important to disconnect. Work will always be there when I’m ready to work.”
A photo of a couple sitting on a lawn in front of a park during sunset.

Chaitali Narla with her husband Vamsi Narla at Gas Works Park in Seattle, Washington.

2. Unpack your peak experiences.
“I encourage my teams to reflect on their ‘peak experiences’ — magical moments when you’re thriving, in flow, using all your learned and innate skills and abilities,” she says. “These peak experiences can help guide your personal and professional growth.”
One of Chaitali's peak experiences was mentoring recent college grads. “Reflecting on this taught me that I wanted to be a manager, which is the career path I took.”
3. Find sponsorship.
“Early in my career at Google, I didn’t even know what a sponsor was, but now I know the importance of people having your back for moments big and small,” she says. Sponsorship is more than just giving advice (like a mentor usually does). Sponsors actively support you and champion your cause.

To find a sponsor, Chaitali’s advice is simple: Just ask. “Speaking up and asking can be uncomfortable, but a skill I can’t recommend enough. Also, it’s OK to hear ‘no’ — but know that people want to help if your request is reasonable.”

4. Delegate.
At work, Chaitali doesn’t try to do it all herself. “Trusting your team matters,” she says. “Letting go not only helps you, but it helps the team and the company. Next time you have a project, instead of doing it yourself, consider how you can use this moment to teach, trust and empower others.”

5. Stay curious.
Chaitali says she first started nurturing her curiosity until she began grad school. “In India, we learn by practice and memorization while in the U.S., we’re encouraged to ask questions and explore. I’ve grown so much by embracing this growth mindset. At Google, I’m using my curiosity to not only find answers but to find the questions that haven’t been asked.”

Chaitali also stays curious through papercrafting, which she found while looking for a device-free hobby.

A photo of a letter with various paper elements.

“From creating Rangoli designs for festivals in India to making cards occasionally for friends and family, I always enjoyed creating ever since I can remember,” she says. “Papercrafting is my ‘me time’ where I can take risks and experiment. It’s not simply a hobby but a tool to help me look at my work in new, interesting ways to better engage my team and make connections in new ways.”

Tools to help you tackle your New Year’s resolution

You always hear the standard New Year resolutions: Work out more. Run a marathon. Learn a new language. For me this year, it’s to learn three new party tricks (I’m optimistically hoping for more social interaction in 2022!). No matter what the goal is, it often feels that by February, I’ve lost some steam. Resolutions take time, and new habits and skills are (let’s admit) hard to build.

So this year, my New Year's resolution is to stick to a New Year’s resolution. So I did a little digging, and found a few tools that I have at my fingertips to get that resolution to stick.

First things first: Write down your goal

Don’t justthink about your resolution — write it down. If you live by your inbox, schedule send a January 1 New Year’s resolution email to yourself. What better way to kickstart the new year than with an email to your future self?

If you’re not into email, Google Keep is a great way to jot down resolution ideas. If you’re on the go when inspiration strikes, you can even create a Google Keep note with your voice.

And don’t forget good ol’ pen and paper. Recording something on paper is easy, and the physical movement of writing something down can make it stick in a certain way. So write it down, literally.

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Next, create reminders

The hard part about keeping resolutions for me is changing my daily routine. So I decided to

break down my resolution into smaller goals, and set up check-ins on Google Calendar. Twice a month, I put aside time to learn a party trick (my first one is going to be rolling a coin across my knuckles), and half way through the year I set up a “dry run” performance with friends (whether that ends up being in-person or virtual) to keep myself accountable.

Aside from checkpoints, crossing items off a checklist also keeps me on track. So I further broke down my twice-a-month trick-learning efforts using Tasks. This means my smaller, bite-sized agenda items will show up everywhere, from Gmail to Google Slides (so I can’t ignore them!).

Screenshot of Google Slides with a right-hand side bar with the Tasks feature popped up.

If you wrote down your resolution on Google Keep, that’s also a good place to create a to-do list and hit your smaller target goals on your way to your resolution. You can even set up timed reminders for each of the items to make sure you hit your goals.

Build satisfaction by tracking your progress

You can track your progress anywhere, like Keep or even Google Docs, but if you’re looking for more, try AppSheet . With AppSheet, you can build custom apps without any coding required. Need a custom app to track your workout progress? Looking for a journaling app on the go? AppSheet has a few templates you can try — or you can build your own if you want to get hyper-specific.

Make sure to reward yourself along the way

New habits and skills are hard to build, especially when you don’t see immediate results. So celebrating mini-milestones along the way (practiced 10 sessions ☑...rehearsed for my dry run ☑) help me stay motivated.

How you reward yourself is up to you — maybe it’s taking a day for self care, or simply exchanging words of encouragement with your friends and family – a little kudos goes a long way. And if at any point along the way toward your goal you begin to feel a little weary, try some of the advice from our resilience expert at Google, who talks about breaking tasks into smaller challenges that are easier to tackle.

Here’s to 2022 — and sticking with our New Year resolutions.

From overcoming burnout to finding new opportunities

As a first-generation Vietnamese American raised by a single mother and a first-generation college graduate entering the workforce, I battled Imposter Syndrome when I was hired at Google right after graduating college. Despite an inclusive culture and welcoming peers, I worried that if I showed any signs of weakness, I would be “outed” as an imposter. 

I took on more and more work to constantly prove my worth. While trying to prove I  “belonged” at Google, I took on extra responsibilities and projects at the expense of my hobbies, family relationships and my physical and mental health. Despite promotions to more senior sales leadership roles, I never felt accomplished. 

I was also affected by childhood traumas: I struggled with depression and anxiety stemming from anti-gay bullying, and despite years of therapy, I carried this into adulthood. All of this led me to feeling emotionally, physically and mentally exhausted. I was experiencing burnout. 

So many people feel burned out, whether for personal or professionals reasons — or, like in my case, a combination of both. I was fortunate enough to have the tools at my disposal to work my way through my burnout, and even found new opportunities in the process. 

Recognizing the burnout

The first step for me was realizing and acknowledging that something was wrong. People formerly described me as charismatic and energetic, but I was becoming defined by exhaustion, stress, and lack of creativity. Activities I enjoyed — exercising, meeting with friends and mentoring others — no longer interested me. I slept less, felt more anxious and suffered a host of physical symptoms associated with underlying health issues. 

Don't be afraid to speak up

I knew I needed help and reluctantly decided to take a paid medical leave, a benefit offered by Google, for my health. This was a difficult decision, but my manager and team reassured me that everything would be alright. While I saw myself as weak for taking leave, my team saw me as strong and resilient for prioritizing my health and well-being. 

While on leave, I sought treatment for my pre-existing mental health issues and went through a program that taught me how to cope with stress, process my childhood traumas, and ultimately equip me with the tools to manage burnout. I rediscovered who I was and was reminded of my strength and passion for helping others. It was at this point I decided to pursue a career that focused on helping others also realize their greatness as well as how to avoid burnout.

Utilize your resources

My manager and colleagues were incredibly supportive of my career change. I was able to take advantage of "20% projects" at Google, an initiative that allows employees to work  on business related assignments that might have value to the company. I took courses on learning design and program management, offered by Google, and was able to transfer to a leadership role in Sales Enablement Learning & Development. 

The burnout and exhaustion I’d felt was replaced by inspiration, excitement and purpose. My success in building learning programs for employees to learn and grow led to a promotion, and now I’m leading a team while mentoring and coaching Google employees across the globe. I also decided to take advantage of Google's education reimbursement and student loan repayment programs to concurrently enroll in a doctoral program in workplace education and organizational change. Even though I spend more time studying and working than before, I have more energy than ever because I’m passionate about what I’m spending my time on. 

Prioritize yourself  

Shawn Sieu, standing in front of the android statue park on the Google campus.

Going through personal and workplace burnout and deciding to make time and space for my mental health taught me the importance of prioritizing my wellbeing. Not only did I do what was right for my health, I reassessed my priorities and passions. So if you’re experiencing all or some of these things, don’t give up. Prioritize yourself, because you will have nothing left to give if you don’t. 


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Tips from Google’s resilience expert on avoiding burnout

A college soccer player, Lauren Whitt was sidelined by two knee injuries that took her off the field during her sophomore and junior year. This was incredibly frustrating — she'd played soccer most of her life and had even won a Pan-American gold medal with the U.S. Youth National Soccer team. She realized she was going to need to find a way to cope. 

“I began to study the idea of resilience more,” Lauren says. “How it changes your body and your life. It sort of became my personal mission.” A few years later, it became the subject for her doctoral dissertation — today, it’s the focus of her work. 

Lauren is the head of global resilience at Google, a job that’s been crucial this last year. Even as vaccines become available, so many stressors remain: Searches for the term “pandemic fatigue” increased more than 300% during the past month in the U.S., and “job burnout quiz” was a breakout search over the past three months. These things are exactly what Lauren hopes to alleviate through her programs that help Googlers build resilience, deal with stress and develop skills to tackle new challenges. 

But resilience isn’t only about helping people cope with the negative; it’s also about giving them more room to experience the positive. Lauren wants to help Googlers feel creative and productive so they can thrive at work. “I’m so passionate about this work because I think that while I’m not personally making something that launches us all into the future, I can help the people at Google who are doing that be their best.”

First, though, it’s important to know what resilience truly means. Lauren describes it as the capacity to bounce back. “Resilience is the ability to respond and recover from stress. To feel successful it's important to be able to take on intense challenges, and then pause to reflect on what went well and what didn't, so we can go into the next project,” she explains. 

Being resilient on the job doesn’t mean working nonstop, but working smarter. She says it’s not a matter of endurance, but of focusing on a task and then taking a break to tackle the next challenge in your best physical and mental shape. “All of us are constantly in a position where we can cultivate resilience and strive to be mentally stronger, especially during those moments when we have to perform at our best, like a big work presentation or a sensitive meeting,” Lauren adds. “Showing up and being present is a challenge for everyone, so by cultivating resilience we get new tools, behaviors and mindsets to take on challenges in different ways.” 

At Google, Lauren says we’ve even seen that people with higher resilience have lower possibilities of burnout. Fortunately, resilience is something anyone can develop. Here are six tips Lauren uses in her work here at Google:

1. Establish a morning routine.Starting the day consistently grounds you and gives you certainty and security.“Whether you're working from home or from an office, it’s that consistent routine of how you start your day that prepares you for what’s to come,” Lauren says.

2. Take mental recovery breaks throughout the day.Choose moments to reset instead of jumping to the next task or issue immediately. “Whether it’s ending a meeting five minutes early or taking a 10-minute walk, these intentional breaks are important to help you reconnect and recover,” Lauren says.  

3. Stick to a sleep schedule. Sleep isn’t just about recharging, but also gives you consistency every night. “Our sleep routines are the best opportunity to reach into our minds and be able to recover from any of the stressors of the day.”

4. Be intentional with the stories you tell yourself. “Consider what you tell yourself and the meaning you give to your activities. Stop listening to things that aren’t intentional, because our thoughts are not always helpful or true. Instead, start talking to yourself with thoughts of positivity, optimism, hope or gratitude.”

Illustration explaining the "T.E.A." check-in.

5. Plan ahead.“Plan that things are going to go well, but have contingency plans in place in case they don't,” Lauren says. Instead of being surprised by a problem, thinking about things that could go wrong helps manage stress better if you need to react.

6. T.E.A. Check.At Google we use a daily exercise to be aware of our thoughts, energy and attention. Notice how your resilience is changing over the course of the day, and turn your focus where it needs to be.

A recipe for productivity

Dr. Kapil Parakh is a Medical Lead for Google Fit and a practicing cardiologist at the VA in Washington, D.C. During the week he splits his time between seeing patients, developing technology that improves wellbeing and staying active with his family. And if that wasn’t enough, he’s even picked up a new hobby to cope during quarantine: baking baguettes. 


Every day, Kapil draws on his unique background to help people live longer and healthier lives. Before coming to Google, he completed medical school in Zambia, trained at Johns Hopkins in cardiology, public health and epidemiology, and served as a White House Fellow.


His long list of roles and responsibilities makes me wonder how he finds time for it all — so I asked him. Kapil says it boils down to what he considers his ingredients for success: get the most out of everything you work on, use the rule of thirds and have a rock-solid support system. 

Maximize the output of your work. 

Kapil’s consistent advice to others is to find a way to take what you’re working on and expand it into something bigger — with minimal extra effort. A few years ago, Kapil helped develop Heart Points for Google Fit, an activity goal based on recommendations shown to impact health. He then used that body of work to help educate personal trainers, cardiologists and people working in general medicine. It was the same context, repurposed for different groups. 


Similarly, before joining the Fit team, Kapil worked on Google Search for three years. In his day-to-day work he thought a lot about how people searched for health-related content online and how Google could surface helpful information in return. As a result of his team's work, you can see health knowledge panels, information boxes on search results pages that help you quickly find medically accurate information about common symptoms and conditions.


That work could have ended when Kapil left the Search team. Instead, he took what he observed and turned it into something more: a book about how to find and use medical information online. That book, Searching for Health, was just published today. 


“We all have limited time,” Kapil says. “We need to try and maximize our output.” To do so, he suggests taking a single project that you’re working on, and consider how you can turn it into more formats for more people. 

Remember the rule of thirds.

Of course, this can’t apply to all of your work, all of the time. You aren’t going to be able to publish a book based on every work project. This is where Kapil’s rule of thirds comes into play. Roughly speaking, work can be broken down into three buckets: short-term work (like requests from others that pop up in your inbox or administrative tasks that require immediate action), mid-term projects (like creating a training or presenting your work at a conference) and long-term projects (like publishing a book). Those last two buckets are where maximizing your output comes into play.


“It’s a matter of being cognizant of all the things you’re working on and how they fit together toward your goals,” Kapil says. “It’s kind of like rock climbing, you have to be aware of the footholds. The way up isn’t straight up like a ladder, it’s more amorphous.”

Find support — whether it’s in relationships or a bag of flour. 

While Kapil’s advice is all about finding patterns and connecting dots, he doesn’t hesitate to take on completely new things — like baking bread. Last year Kapil was grieving the loss of his father in the midst of the pandemic. To help him cope, his wife handed him a recipe for baguettes. If nothing else, she thought it would be a good distraction. The result was both delicious and therapeutic — and Kapil is still churning out bread from his kitchen. Most importantly, it was a reminder to Kapil of how important his support system is. 

A loaf of bread shaped like a heart.

“It’s this type of support that allows me to balance so many hats,” he says. “As an immigrant and a person of color, I honestly wouldn’t be where I am today without the tremendous support of my family and mentors.”

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A recipe for productivity

Dr. Kapil Parakh is a Medical Lead for Google Fit and a practicing cardiologist at the VA in Washington, D.C. During the week he splits his time between seeing patients, developing technology that improves wellbeing and staying active with his family. And if that wasn’t enough, he’s even picked up a new hobby to cope during quarantine: baking baguettes. 


Every day, Kapil draws on his unique background to help people live longer and healthier lives. Before coming to Google, he completed medical school in Zambia, trained at Johns Hopkins in cardiology, public health and epidemiology, and served as a White House Fellow.


His long list of roles and responsibilities makes me wonder how he finds time for it all — so I asked him. Kapil says it boils down to what he considers his ingredients for success: get the most out of everything you work on, use the rule of thirds and have a rock-solid support system. 

Maximize the output of your work. 

Kapil’s consistent advice to others is to find a way to take what you’re working on and expand it into something bigger — with minimal extra effort. A few years ago, Kapil helped develop Heart Points for Google Fit, an activity goal based on recommendations shown to impact health. He then used that body of work to help educate personal trainers, cardiologists and people working in general medicine. It was the same context, repurposed for different groups. 


Similarly, before joining the Fit team, Kapil worked on Google Search for three years. In his day-to-day work he thought a lot about how people searched for health-related content online and how Google could surface helpful information in return. As a result of his team's work, you can see health knowledge panels, information boxes on search results pages that help you quickly find medically accurate information about common symptoms and conditions.


That work could have ended when Kapil left the Search team. Instead, he took what he observed and turned it into something more: a book about how to find and use medical information online. That book, Searching for Health, was just published today. 


“We all have limited time,” Kapil says. “We need to try and maximize our output.” To do so, he suggests taking a single project that you’re working on, and consider how you can turn it into more formats for more people. 

Remember the rule of thirds.

Of course, this can’t apply to all of your work, all of the time. You aren’t going to be able to publish a book based on every work project. This is where Kapil’s rule of thirds comes into play. Roughly speaking, work can be broken down into three buckets: short-term work (like requests from others that pop up in your inbox or administrative tasks that require immediate action), mid-term projects (like creating a training or presenting your work at a conference) and long-term projects (like publishing a book). Those last two buckets are where maximizing your output comes into play.


“It’s a matter of being cognizant of all the things you’re working on and how they fit together toward your goals,” Kapil says. “It’s kind of like rock climbing, you have to be aware of the footholds. The way up isn’t straight up like a ladder, it’s more amorphous.”

Find support — whether it’s in relationships or a bag of flour. 

While Kapil’s advice is all about finding patterns and connecting dots, he doesn’t hesitate to take on completely new things — like baking bread. Last year Kapil was grieving the loss of his father in the midst of the pandemic. To help him cope, his wife handed him a recipe for baguettes. If nothing else, she thought it would be a good distraction. The result was both delicious and therapeutic — and Kapil is still churning out bread from his kitchen. Most importantly, it was a reminder to Kapil of how important his support system is. 

A loaf of bread shaped like a heart.

“It’s this type of support that allows me to balance so many hats,” he says. “As an immigrant and a person of color, I honestly wouldn’t be where I am today without the tremendous support of my family and mentors.”

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How Google tools can help you work smarter, and advice from Googlers on how they get it done.

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A mini kudos gives a major boost to motivation

When it comes to feedback, Cambridge-based software engineer Jeff Gaston wishes real life was a little more like video games.


“They give fast, clear feedback about your performance,” he says. “If I could compute a score for how my life is going, I think it would be helpful to keep me focused on impactful things.” This idea inspired Jeff to develop a mobile app for himself that measures his efficiency in completing daily tasks. These efficiency estimates are shared in graphs with encouraging words and helpful suggestions for the future. Through using this little app he discovered that a single instance of feedback in his app gave him about 60 minutes of motivation. 


Jeff took that learning and started offering something similar to his coworkers to motivate them: sharing same-day, meaningful feedback. At the end of every work day, he identifies his favorite thing that happened since the previous day and sends a thank you email to the person responsible. He calls this practice “mini kudos.”


For example, Jeff’s team recently noticed some of their builds were getting slower. Ivan Gavrilovic, who works on an adjacent team, looked into it. He reviewed performance metrics, identified potential causes, and reached out to other Googlers who could help come up with solutions to fix it. “It probably would have taken me a while to identify what was going on,” Jeff says. “So I was super happy for the help and emailed Ivan my mini kudos for that day.”


Ivan was grateful for the message. "Jeff's email really made my day," he says. "I get satisfaction from helping others, across locations and teams, but this sign of appreciation makes it even better."


Over the past few years, Jeff has sent these emails to fellow Googlers for suggesting improvements to his code, sharing entertaining stories, listening, giving him the opportunity to be helpful, sharing impactful information, and much more. These kudos are even more motivating as teams work from home, and by Jeff’s estimates each mini kudos email provides a short-term boost of motivation. 


Jeff hopes sending these emails makes his teammates happier and keeps them informed about what behaviors are helpful to him. “I also hope it helps people find meaning and motivation in their work,” he says. “And that it inspires others to send daily kudos! If each person sends an average of one kudos per day, then each person should receive an average of one kudos per day too. Doesn’t that sound nice?”

More from this Series

Work Smarter

How Google tools can help you work smarter, and advice from Googlers on how they get it done.

View more from Work Smarter

A mini kudos gives a major boost to motivation

When it comes to feedback, Cambridge-based software engineer Jeff Gaston wishes real life was a little more like video games.


“They give fast, clear feedback about your performance,” he says. “If I could compute a score for how my life is going, I think it would be helpful to keep me focused on impactful things.” This idea inspired Jeff to develop a mobile app for himself that measures his efficiency in completing daily tasks. These efficiency estimates are shared in graphs with encouraging words and helpful suggestions for the future. Through using this little app he discovered that a single instance of feedback in his app gave him about 60 minutes of motivation. 


Jeff took that learning and started offering something similar to his coworkers to motivate them: sharing same-day, meaningful feedback. At the end of every work day, he identifies his favorite thing that happened since the previous day and sends a thank you email to the person responsible. He calls this practice “mini kudos.”


For example, Jeff’s team recently noticed some of their builds were getting slower. Ivan Gavrilovic, who works on an adjacent team, looked into it. He reviewed performance metrics, identified potential causes, and reached out to other Googlers who could help come up with solutions to fix it. “It probably would have taken me a while to identify what was going on,” Jeff says. “So I was super happy for the help and emailed Ivan my mini kudos for that day.”


Ivan was grateful for the message. "Jeff's email really made my day," he says. "I get satisfaction from helping others, across locations and teams, but this sign of appreciation makes it even better."


Over the past few years, Jeff has sent these emails to fellow Googlers for suggesting improvements to his code, sharing entertaining stories, listening, giving him the opportunity to be helpful, sharing impactful information, and much more. These kudos are even more motivating as teams work from home, and by Jeff’s estimates each mini kudos email provides a short-term boost of motivation. 


Jeff hopes sending these emails makes his teammates happier and keeps them informed about what behaviors are helpful to him. “I also hope it helps people find meaning and motivation in their work,” he says. “And that it inspires others to send daily kudos! If each person sends an average of one kudos per day, then each person should receive an average of one kudos per day too. Doesn’t that sound nice?”

More from this Series

Work Smarter

How Google tools can help you work smarter, and advice from Googlers on how they get it done.

View more from Work Smarter