Have you ever found yourself feeling off but struggling to put your finger on exactly why? Perhaps it’s a mix of unease, worry, or frustration—yet defining the exact emotion seems like an elusive task. This is more common than you might think. Identifying our emotions can feel strangely complex, but understanding them can open the door to clearer thinking, better relationships, and greater peace of mind.

Why Is It So Hard to Pinpoint Emotions?

Part of the challenge is that emotions aren’t always simple or easy to name. We often experience several at once—think stress mixed with a hint of hope or happiness tinged with a touch of fear. Our inner lives are complicated, shaped by past experiences, present worries, and even societal expectations around “appropriate” emotions. So, when we ask ourselves, “How am I really feeling?” the answer may not come quickly or naturally.

Emotional awareness isn’t something we’re all trained in, either. Many of us are raised to value “strength” or “positivity” over vulnerability or introspection. And as a result, we’re not accustomed to checking in with our emotions, much less labeling them.

The Power of Naming Your Feelings

Research suggests that simply identifying and naming an emotion can have a profound effect on how we experience it. Psychologists call this “affect labeling.” When we label what we’re feeling, we shift our brain's processing away from the emotional centers and toward the more analytical parts. It’s a bit like saying to yourself, “This is sadness” or “This is anxiety.” In doing so, we distance ourselves slightly from the intensity of the feeling, gaining a clearer view of what’s going on.

Consider this: You’re feeling overwhelmed about an upcoming project. Naming this emotion—perhaps calling it “anxiety about meeting expectations” or “worry about time management”—gives you something concrete to work with. From here, it’s easier to ask, “What can I do about it?” rather than feeling swept away by a vague sense of dread.

The Unexpected Rewards of Emotional Clarity

Getting in touch with our emotions isn’t just about calming down; it’s about building a more fulfilling life. When we recognize what we’re feeling and why, we can act in ways that are truer to our needs and values. Here are a few benefits that may surprise you:

1. Better Decision-Making
   Emotions drive many of our choices, whether we’re aware of it or not. When we’re clear on our emotions, we can make more intentional decisions. Naming what we feel helps us weigh our options more clearly, avoiding impulsive reactions.

2. Improved Relationships
   Imagine trying to support a friend when you can’t identify how you feel or why you’re reacting a certain way. By understanding your own emotions, you’re better able to empathize with others and communicate openly. Relationships deepen when we can say, “This is what I’m feeling, and here’s why it matters.”

3. Greater Self-Awareness
   At its core, emotional awareness leads to a stronger sense of self. Each emotion we identify brings us closer to understanding who we are, what we value, and where we want to go. Self-awareness isn’t built overnight, but each small step—each emotion named—is a movement toward clarity and purpose.

4. More Resilience
   Life is full of ups and downs. When we avoid our emotions, we tend to build up stress, but recognizing and naming them helps us process challenges in real-time. Over time, this can make us more resilient, better able to handle life’s inevitable shifts and stresses.

How to Start Identifying Your Emotions

So, how can you begin this journey toward emotional clarity? Try these simple strategies to ease into identifying and naming your emotions:

• Practice Daily Check-Ins
  Set aside a moment each day to ask, “What am I feeling right now?” Let yourself sit with the question, even if an answer doesn’t come immediately. The more you ask, the more natural it will feel.

• Use an Emotion Wheel
  Emotion wheels categorize and break down complex emotions, helping you identify more specific feelings. Starting with a broad emotion like “anger” or “joy,” you can drill down into more nuanced terms—like “frustration” or “contentment”—that may better describe your experience.

• Jot Down Your Emotions in a Journal
  Writing things out helps us process feelings more clearly. Set a timer for a few minutes and simply jot down whatever comes to mind. You might be surprised by what surfaces when you give your thoughts a little space.

Embrace the Journey to Clarity

Recognizing emotions isn’t about labeling every feeling for the sake of it; it’s about developing a relationship with ourselves that’s rooted in honesty and self-compassion. Each time we take a moment to check in with our feelings, we gain a clearer view of who we are and what we need. This is a journey, not a destination, so embrace the process.

The next time you find yourself facing a tangled knot of emotions, try naming them. You might just find that with each word, you feel a little more grounded, a little more empowered, and a little closer to clarity.

Have you ever wondered why those brilliant ideas you jot down never seem to leave the page? We’ve all been there, filling journals with our dreams and goals, only to let life sweep us up at its busy pace. 

Journaling is a powerful practice, and studies show it can have profound effects on your mental and emotional well-being. But its true magic lies in its ability to help you take those dreams and ideas and turn them into action

Why Journaling Matters More Than You Think

Journaling does more than just help you unload thoughts. It provides a space for self-reflection, creativity, and, most importantly, clarity. A study by the University of Rochester Medical Center found that writing about your thoughts and emotions can significantly reduce stress, anxiety, and even depression. It helps you process emotions, making them easier to manage and understand.

But here’s the kicker, writing things down actually makes you more likely to act on them. A Dominican University study showed that people who write down their goals are 42% more likely to achieve them. Yes, simply writing your dreams and ideas could be the first step toward bringing them to life.

From Journal to Action: 3 Steps to Make Your Dreams Reality

So, how do you move from the pages of your journal to taking real, meaningful steps towards your dreams? Here are some practical tips to help you turn your reflections into reality:

1. Clarify Your Vision

So, how do you move from the pages of your journal to taking real, meaningful steps towards your dreams? Here are some practical tips to help you turn your reflections into reality: Journaling gives you the chance to really explore your ideas, but clarity is key. Instead of just jotting down your thought, use your journal to define your dreams in details. Ask yourself:

• What exactly do I want to achieve?

• What does success look like for me?

• How will I feel when I’ve accomplished this?

When When you articulate your dreams clearly, you create a vision that feels more tangible and within reach.

2. Break It Down into Small Steps

When When you articulate your dreams clearly, you create a vision that feels more tangible and within reach. Big Big dreams can feel overwhelming. But journaling is the perfect tool to break them down. Once you’ve clarified your vision, outline the steps, no matter how small, that will get you there. Whether it’s setting aside 10 minutes a day to work on your goal or sending that one important email, each action brings you closer.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” – Lao Tzu

3. Hold Yourself Accountable

When When you articulate your dreams clearly, you create a vision that feels more tangible and within reach. Here’s where journaling really shines. Use it as a tool to keep yourself on track. Set regular check-ins where you can reflect on your progress:

• What’s working?

• What’s been challenging?

• What’s the next small step I can take?

Write about your setbacks, too. Journaling helps you process those moments and find new solutions, rather than getting stuck. When you put your struggles on paper, they become less intimidating and more manageable.

The Stats Don’t Lie: Journaling is a Game Changer

If you’re still wondering whether journaling can make a real difference, the numbers speak for themselves:

• 15 minutes of journaling a day has been linked to improved mental health and stress reduction (Psychological Science, 2020).

• People who journal regularly are more productive and experience greater emotional clarity (Harvard Business Review).

• Writing down goals makes you nearly 50% more likely to achieve them (Dominican University Study).

Don’t Wait!

Get ready, Bosa is almost here, and we’re excited to bring you a tool that will transform how you handle life’s daily challenges.

Remember, you’re not alone on this journey. Bosa is coming soon to guide you every step of the way.

Stay tuned for updates, and get ready for Bosa’s launch.

The level in which Americans are facing stress is alarming. Something has to change. Stress has become a defining feature of modern life in America with no off button. From your job, bills, to the challenges of maintaining the so-called ‘’work-life balance,’’ stress is affecting millions of Americans daily. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), more than 75% of Americans report experiencing physical or emotional symptoms related to stress, with many struggling to find effective solutions to manage it. 

Let’s be honest, stress is part of life, and it is not going anywhere soon. So, how do we deal with it?

Why Americans Are So Stressed

Well, the reason aren’t exactly news, but let’s break it down anyway:

1. Work-related stress

The pressure to succeed in a competitive job market, long working hours, and the lack of work-life balance have left many Americans feeling overwhelmed. According to a Gallup report, 55% of Americans feel stressed on a daily basis, often related to their jobs.

2. Financial Stress

In 2023, Credit Karma revealed that 66% of Americans stress about their financial future. With rising rent, healthcare costs, and student debt, it’s no wonder our stress levels are through the roof.

3. The Mental Health Crisis

The pandemic and the ongoing uncertainty it has created have increased rates of anxiety, depression, and burnout. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) reports that nearly 20% of U.S. adults live with some form of mental illness, many of which are exacerbated by stress.

The Hidden Consequences of Chronic Stress

Everyone experiences stress, but when it becomes chronic, it takes a heavy toll. Prolonged exposure to stress has been linked to a range of health issues, including:

• Heart Disease: Chronic stress raises blood pressure and increases the risk of cardiovascular problems.

• Anxiety and Depression: Unmanaged stress can escalate into serious mental health conditions.

• Burnout: Both personal and professional life can suffer due to exhaustion and emotional overwhelm, a state now recognized as occupational burnout.

So, what’s the solution?

It’s not about escaping stress, but learning how to manage it effectively.

Tips for Managing Everyday Stress

Bosa is a fantastic tool to help guild you through the chaos of daily life, but here’s a few additional tips you can start using now

• Mindfulness and Meditation: Setting aside just 5 minutes a day to breathe deeply and clear your mind can drastically reduce stress levels. 

• Exercise Regularly: Physical activity releases endorphins, your body’s natural mood boosters. Whether it’s yoga, jogging, or even dancing in your living room, find something that gets your blood flowing.

• Set Boundaries: Learning to say no is crucial. Whether at work or in your personal life, setting boundaries helps prevent overwhelm. Remember, it’s okay to put yourself first sometimes.

• Connect with Others: Talking about your stress with friends or family can help release emotional tension. If you’re struggling with deeper issues, consider seeking professional help.

Enter Bosa: Your Personalized Stress Solution

In the midst of the overwhelming stress, Bosa is re-launching this fall with a fresh new approach to managing stress. Using the latest in AI technology, Bosa helps you tackle daily stressors.

Here’s why Bosa stand out from other stress managing tool:

• Personalized AI Insights: Bosa doesn’t just listen; it learns. The app provides clarity through real-time feedback by identifying patterns from your journal entries and offering insights based on your personal growth, mental well-being, or daily habits. 

• Actionable Next Steps: Instead of generic tips, Bosa removes the guesswork and reduces overwhelm by providing actionable steps to help you make progress on achieving your dreams. For example, if you aim to boost productivity, Bosa might recommend time-blocking or prioritization based on your journal patterns, helping you stay focused and move closer to your goals.

• Multi-Platform Access: Users can journal across various platforms, making it convenient to stay engaged.

It’s Time to Take Action

Stress in America isn’t going away anytime soon, but how we manage it can definitely change.

Ready to start your journey towards a calmer, more focused life?

Stay tuned and be among the first to experience this.

Imagine technology as a vast web of interconnected devices and systems, much like a mesh made up of interwoven threads. In a traditional approach, like using WhatsApp or Canva, information flows linearly from one point to another, much like a single thread passing through the fabric. This is great when it comes to consuming or posting content, messaging or working on specific tasks like designing a flyer.

Now, consider a mesh approach to technology. Instead of relying on a single path, the mesh approach creates a network where each device or node is connected to multiple others. It's like having multiple threads intertwined, creating a resilient and adaptable fabric. Think of it as a conversation where multiple people are engaged, and the discussion doesn't depend on a single person. If one participant steps away or encounters an issue, others can continue the conversation, ensuring the flow of information is maintained. A mesh promotes collaboration, efficiency, and resilience, creating a technological landscape that can navigate challenges more effectively.

While mesh tech is made up of a web of devices, connectivity and communication channels, the mesh of our daily lives is woven of our careers, household responsibilities, personal goals and interests, and the broader world in which is live. Our lives are multifaceted, so the tools we use to manage them should be as well!

This is how we’re building Bosa, so tech fits into your life rather than you fitting your life to meet a tool. Here are a few examples of how this mesh approach works for you:

• Adding a goal quickly from your phone while you are in the middle of laundry and it comes to mind

• Asking Bosa via text about all your grocery related tasks while you are walking into the store

• Reviewing your and your partner’s completed and active goals and tasks for the day on your computer while you are starting your morning

• Seeing you partner’s requests for you in one place broken down by category, whenever and wherever

• Being reminded by the Chrome extension of things to buy while you are on Amazon.com

• Receiving an update via SMS that your partner booked the flights for your anniversary trip

Now that you have an idea of how you can use Bosa’s mesh, let’s unpack some of the benefits of this approach:

• Interconnectedness: Just as our lives are interwoven with various responsibilities, goals and relationships, a mesh approach to technology reflects a network of interconnected devices and communication channels. This interconnectedness mirrors the fluid nature of our daily experiences online and off.
  

• Adaptability to Change: Life is dynamic, with priorities and circumstances constantly changing. Similarly, a mesh approach in technology allows for adaptability. It accommodates new devices, goals, or challenges seamlessly, much like how we adjust our daily routines to accommodate changes in our personal or professional lives.

• Collaboration and Support: In our daily lives, collaboration and support are essential. A mesh approach to technology, with its emphasis on peer-to-peer communication and decentralized structures, fosters collaboration among devices. This reflects the collaborative nature of our interactions and relationships.
  

• Scalability for Growth: Life is a journey of growth and self-discovery. Similarly, a mesh technology framework is scalable, accommodating the addition of new devices and technologies. This scalability aligns with our ongoing personal and professional development.
  

• Versatility in Applications: The fabric of our lives encompasses various aspects, such as career, family, and personal interests. A mesh approach to technology is versatile and applicable in different scenarios at the same time. This versatility resonates with the multifaceted nature of our daily experiences and need for tools to support us across those different areas instead of managing one tool for work, one for home, one for personal and on and on.

• Holistic Approach: The fabric of our lives is a tapestry of interconnected elements. A mesh approach to technology takes a holistic approach, considering the entire network rather than relying on a single point. This mirrors the holistic perspective we often need to navigate the complexities of our lives.

In essence, a mesh approach to technology aligns with the fabric of our lives by embracing interconnectedness, adaptability, collaboration, and resilience. It reflects the dynamic and multifaceted nature of our daily experiences, offering a technological framework that complements and enhances our way of living. And that’s the Bosa life.

In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, creating a strong foundation for your family is crucial. A Family Values Blueprint can be the compass guiding your decisions and actions, helping you build a cohesive and fulfilling family life and assessing whether your goals, tasks and actions are supporting the things that matter most to you. In this guide, we'll walk you through the steps to create your own Family Values Blueprint, ensuring it reflects the unique essence of your family.

Set aside a half hour (or more if you’ve got it), grab your partner, and let’s go!

Determine your starting point

The first decision is whether to start from scratch or use existing resources. Starting from a blank page allows for a fresh perspective and genuine exploration. This might be the direction for you if you have an idea of your values or have some words in mind already. On the other hand, using a premade list of values or resources can serve as a ready-to-use foundation. We’re big fans of the New Happy’s value wheel, which includes a full color printout for free.

Whether you create your list from scratch or work from a preset list of possible values, it’s incredibly helpful if both you and your spouse/partner need start from the same place.

Reflect individually

Family life is shared activity, and so is mapping your family’s values. But first, each of you will create your own list of values independently. This encourages personal reflection and ensures that both perspectives are considered. You’ll want to come up with about 5 or 6 top values that are meaningful to you on their own and as a collection. Write these down, and include any notes, examples or reasoning as to why you selected this value.

Some prompts to aid in this exploration:

• What short-term and long-term goals do we have as a family? How do these goals reflect our shared values?

• What activities do we enjoy doing together as a family? How do these activities align with our values?

• What family traditions do we hold dear? How do these traditions reflect our shared values?

• What are some positive and memorable experiences we've had as a family? What values were present during these moments?

• What values guide our expectations for each family member? How do we ensure that every family member feels included and respected?

• How do we support each other during challenging times? How do we celebrate each other's successes?

• How does our cultural background influence our family values?

• How do we contribute to our community or society as a family?

• What are our family's financial priorities and values?

Share, discuss & refine

Sit down and share your lists openly, noting both similarities and differences. Avoid trying to convince or sell your partner on your values; instead, focus on sharing your perspective and the reasons behind each value. Understanding each other's reasoning is crucial for effective communication.

Discuss the observed similarities and differences. If there are values in opposition, explore how they might complement each other rather than clash. For instance, stability and creativity can coexist to foster a balanced family environment.

As you discuss, you’ll come to a consensus on certain values. Create a new list for these, being mindful to decide on a final list that both you and your partner feel genuinely good about, not just okay. This ensures that the values chosen resonate with both of you, fostering a sense of unity and commitment.

For each value, discuss and add a practical example of how it might manifest in your current season of life. Whether it's spending quality time together, supporting individual interests, or cultivating shared hobbies, these examples bring your values to life — and action.

Assess & align with your goals

Use your new Family Values Blueprint to assess how you're currently spending time and energy. If you have a task app, shared calendar or to-do list or other tools to track your families activities and priorities, this is a great time to incorporate them in this process. (This kind of operating system is exactly what Bosa supports you with, in one single shared smart tool!)

How well do your current activities align with these values? Are they evenly distributed or are there areas that need more time and energy than others at this moment? How is the labor to support these activities distributed? Is one person bearing too much of the mental load? What values are not being acted on in your current goals and tasks? Remember, not all actions need to be shared across the whole family to map to your values — especially the ones for your personal growth and fulfillment.

Identify the areas where you are in alignment with your values and areas that might need adjustments. Write them down as well as any actions you can take to rebalance them. Then create a few new family goals or tasks that align with your values. Collaborate on making them happen, and consider using tools like Bosa to streamline the process. These goals will serve as milestones for putting your values into practice and reinforcing your family's unique identity.

Creating a Family Values Blueprint is an ongoing process that requires communication, understanding, and commitment. By following these steps, you can build a solid foundation for your family that reflects your shared values and promotes a harmonious and fulfilling life together. It may seem like this can wait until “things calm down”, but our experience is that taking the time to think about what values truly matter to you can help you make the time for the things that matter most even and especially when things get hectic.

Let’s face it: the majority of us feel like there’s never enough time. In fact, 80% of employed Americans report they "never had enough time"¹. Parents especially feel the pain from our culture of busyness, and the struggle to balance work, parenting, and personal aspirations often leads to burnout. A staggering 66% of working parents report experiencing burnout⁵, highlighting the pressing need for innovative solutions that go beyond traditional tools. With Bosa, our aim is not only to alleviate the mental load but to redefine how working families navigate the intricate balance of professional responsibilities and personal aspirations amid all the household needs.

For the 62% of working parents who admit that being a parent has been harder than expected — and the 26% noting it has been a lot harder² — Bosa offers a lifeline. Mothers, in particular, face additional challenges that come with more of the invisible domestic labor. (For example, mothers with children under 6 spent 7.5 hours on child care per day on average, while dads spent 5.3 hours³.) This underscores the need for a tool like Bosa that comprehensively supports the diverse challenges faced by families, going beyond the limitations of parent-specific tools and solving for just the mental load.

We can’t change the glorification of busy on our own, but we can build better solutions to ease the pain and create new space for parents and anyone with too much on their plate to move from surviving to thriving. We see Bosa as a solution to not only manage time better but to also enhance communication and collaboration between partners. By doing so, Bosa addresses the root causes of the time crunch, empowering working parents to reclaim their time for both personal and familial pursuits. To put it simply, if you share your life with someone, you need a shared tool that works for both of you to manage it.

Busy parents need solutions that address the reality of trying to juggle it all, including the pressure and friction it can put on relationships. They need transformative tools that not only eases the burdens of domestic responsibilities but also establishes a solid foundation for improved communication and collaboration. With Bosa, working parents have the power to break free from the cycle of burnout and reclaim their time, fostering a balanced and fulfilling life for themselves and their families.

At a time where more than 19.7 million US parents experience burnout^4,5, it’s more than time to go beyond traditional solutions to redefine partnership in the modern working family. With Bosa, working parents can aspire not only to manage the mental load but to thrive in all aspects of their lives, creating a future where balance, communication, and collaboration are the cornerstones of a successful and fulfilling family life.

1. https://hbr.org/2023/03/beware-a-culture-of-busyness

2. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/01/24/parenting-in-america-today/

3. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/05/09/facts-about-u-s-mothers/

4. https://wellness.osu.edu/sites/default/files/documents/2022/05/OCWO_ParentalBurnout_3674200_Report_FINAL.pdf

5. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/famee.pdf

We have all kinds of language to talk about business and career outcomes — goals, tasks, assignments, stakeholder, objectives, key performance indicators (KPIs), just to name a few. Yet when it comes to our aspirations outside of work, we’re left with terms like to-do, chore and duty to label our various goals and tasks. (Raise your hand if you are also guilty of saying the phrase “parenting duty”.)  

Let’s face it: when you’re busy, the words might not matter as much as taking action. We’ve been there ourselves. We also know how important clear communication is to any working relationship and to achieving the outcomes. Just think of how much weight the business world puts on terminology, documentation and interpersonal reviews! 

So when it comes to our non-work lives, it comes down to “tasks” and “goals”. Task is a great descriptor of the finite to-do items on our plates, things like running to the post office or completing insurance enrollment forms that make up a good portion of the mental load. Then we have our goals, like finding a new job, planning a family vacation and turning the basement into a home gym. These goals are the outcomes of a series of related, additive tasks. 

The words do their job, but we lack a good term to encompass both goals and tasks. Think about your big aspirations, those ambitions that often lack a clear beginning or end like being a present parent or making more environmentally responsible choices. While these are technically goals accomplished by a series of tasks, we don’t talk about them in that way in reality. And if we don’t know what to call them, can we effectively communicate the what, why and how? No wonder they get lost in the shuffle across urgent to-do items and more tangible goals. That doesn’t mean they should be destined to languish at the bottom of our priority list. 

Because if we can name these, we can better work with the people in our lives to make them happen.

If you’ve ever found yourself pushing your passions down to the bottom of the to-do list, this one is for you. The daily juggle of work, family and household responsibilities often leaves little room for the other things we love — creative pursuits, developing new skills, exploring big ideas or even the small but meaningful practices like a daily walk or morning pages. We know that nurturing our own passions and hobbies is crucial for maintaining a sense of self and overall well-being. You can’t pour from an empty cup, right? But knowing and doing aren’t the same thing…and helping you do the things that matter most is what Bosa is all about. We’ve got some practical ways to start getting you back into the to-do.

Put It In Writing

You can’t take action on what you don’t know. Start by writing down the goals, projects, ideas and activities that you wish you had more time for. Give yourself the space and the grace to freely write about them in as much detail as feels right to you. You don’t have to have all the answers or know all the steps to make them happen, but writing down your goals gives you a research-backed edge on achieving them. Plus, the act of writing about them can reignite your interest and passion for them — something that the day-to-day busyness can dim over time. 

Communicate and Share Responsibilities

There’s a reason Eve Rodsky is building an empire around Fair Play — we need healthy collaboration at home to make things work. Whether you want to follow Rodsky’s system for distributing domestic responsibilities fairly or come up with your own, the key is communicating and sharing the mental load. By establishing clear expectations and responsibilities, you can free up time for personal projects while also strengthening your relationship with your partner — and yourself. 

Spot Patterns — and Adjust Accordingly

Perfect doesn’t exist, but patterns do. Take a moment to reflect on your own or with your partner on the patterns in your life. What routines are working well? What gaps are you experiencing, and do they have anything in common? What areas of life feel like well-oiled machines? Which areas are being neglected? Give your Insights tab on Bosa a glance. What do you notice? Come to this from a place of observation, not judgment. Then adjust to shift the pattern. For example, you may observe that your goals are evenly distributed across your career, family and travel but that you have zero personal ones in the works. You might then have a conversation with your partner about having a dedicated “you time” for an hour on Sunday mornings to create space for you. 

Embrace Small Wins

Even if you’ve done all of the above, the game is progress and not perfection. Small wins are important to celebrate, as they are concrete evidence of progress and emotional fuel to continue. As you acknowledge your small wins, you might also spot new patterns, ways to share the load or new aspirations, creating a cycle of success even amid life’s inevitable curveballs. Remember that small moments can be potential small wins as well. In his book Getting Things Done, productivity expert David Allen introduces the 'Two-Minute Rule.' The idea is simple: if a task takes less than two minutes, do it immediately. Apply this rule to your personal projects. Whether it's jotting down ideas, sketching, or planning, capitalize on those brief moments between tasks or during breaks. By reframing small moments as opportunities for small wins, you can push back on traditional productivity traps that have you deprioritizing yourself in the first place. 

Finding time for personal projects and passions as a busy parent is undoubtedly challenging, but it's not impossible. Incorporating these practical tips into your routine can create a more balanced and fulfilling life. Remember, your personal pursuits are not just hobbies; they're an essential part of self-care and contribute to your overall happiness.

Share your thoughts and additional tips in the comments below!

There's a level of impossibility to dismantle the mental load on one's own. When you start to work on reducing the mental load in your own life and you live very closely with someone else, it’s nearly impossible without working with them.

It’s important to note that a partner isn’t limited to a romantic other half; it's anyone committed to supporting you and vice versa — a significant other, co-parent, or your life-long best friend. It could be siblings supporting each other in taking care of aging parents. All of those pairings are definitions of a partner. It comes down to a mutual commitment to shared responsibilities and outcomes. I believe the definition of a partner means sharing the load. While things may not be 50-50 all of the time, in successful and healthy partnerships there will be a seesawing of support most of the time. 

A recent Instagram  post framed the consistent imbalance of this shared load as a parasitic relationship. It was a purposefully hot take, but it got me thinking about the times that the balance feels more like 80-20. Whether it’s what we want or not, sometimes we can get comfortable with how things are. I think especially as women the burden of the mental load can lead us to say, “I got it. I'm going to do it myself.” That can sometimes come from a place of control, but it’s also connected to our cultural and narrative stereotypes around gender roles where women are supposed to be holding the family together and doing all of the things.  But the point is reducing the mental load, that takes both partners. If you aren’t sharing the load, you can’t reduce what you carry. And you can't unload something without having a place or a person to pick up that load…or it’s not getting done. There's real beauty in redemption, love, and an opportunity in reducing the mental load with your partner.

When communicated in a healthy, safe way, just the initial acknowledgment of the mental load that one person holds the majority of the time can be a powerful moment for both people. As the person who holds the mental load, being able to share that means your partner can hear what your thought process is like. The reality is that sometimes we just see that certain things get done, and the one not holding that piece of the mental load doesn’t really know what it takes. Making this a practice in your relationship can be a beautiful moment to connect, communicate, and even create collaboration. That communication is at the heart of truly reducing the mental load. By laying it out on the table, you can share your reality, the countless steps and the unseen effort. It's a vulnerable moment that can open a beautiful conversation.

Letting your partner know what you're going through also gives them the space to share how they can help. Sharing the load is a two-way street, and I see it paved with understanding, empathy, and, most importantly, grace. Maybe there's a task you've been handling that your partner is more equipped to tackle efficiently. Maybe there’s a different way you can approach certain tasks. Maybe there are things that can be set to the side after all. Embrace the power of partnership, start the conversation, and let the beauty of collaboration ease the weight. 

Reducing the mental load is a journey, and it's not a solo expedition. With regular communication, seesawing support and collaborating around your strengths and differences, you could even find joy in shared responsibilities.

We have two core values at Bosa. One is that “we are not Bosa”, meaning our careers are not the only aspect of our lives and identities. We really want to build Bosa from a place of service. My co-founder EJ and I see it as a calling, and we're just vessels to bring this work to pass.

The second value is “don't stay stuck”. We have to practice these values every day, but especially this one. This means figuring out how to unblock yourself and or leaning into community partners, other people who can speak into what is blocking you.

To uphold these values, Bosa has five other practices to bring these values to life. They’re all important, but today I want to focus on one of them — freedom. I think of freedom for our team as being experimental and having a place of joy to operate in. So when we're stuck, when we're bogged down, when we don't know where to turn, we don't know what the answer is or we're just having general blockers happening, we're not feeling that sense of freedom that we want and need to make meaningful progress.

And usually if you're staying stuck or if you're stuck in a place, you're not being experimental, right? So we really try to remind each other of that internally as we build Bosa, and as we support each other as a team. Ultimately, we hope that sense of freedom comes out in the product as well. We want people to feel a sense of freedom when they, as a result of using Bosa, actually live the lives that they want to live.

We feel like we don't have the tools to be who we want to be. Maybe we don't feel like we have the time or that perfect ideal moment to make some things happen in our lives. There’s a saying that it's always better to start now than worrying about starting too late. That's so, so true. Sometimes it is just really hard to start.

That reminder of our values with “don't stay stuck” is to simply put that first foot forward. Towards the end of 2023 we doubled down on living out, not staying stuck. This brought us into the new year with momentum, all by creating an environment of freedom to share ideas that don’t have to be fully formed yet. These aren’t half-baked in a bad sense, but the core initial thoughts that the team can collectively help each other move forward or ask questions to uncover more threads of greatness.

This approach also helps to get your creative juices flowing, to tap into the experimental side that we all have, but are often too bogged down by thinking things need to be one specific way or operate in a certain system, which can be true at times — but definitely not all of the time. Because most of the time it's best to press forward and explore what the simplest version of something might be. Ask yourself what is the smallest piece of something that can be done or the core of the initial thought.

Here’s a real-life, real-time example: a team member asked me to write an article about our values at Bosa (yes, this very article). She mentioned that if the blank page was a blocker for me to get my thoughts out to try making an audio note instead of staring at the blinking cursor. That was putting the value of “don’t stay stuck” into practice as a team, to help me feel unstuck. 

I was going to even make a reminder to write this post later thinking, “Oh, I don't have time! I'm in the midst of ramping back up to work after my maternity leave, and today has been a really rough day with the baby as well.” But in the practice of taking a small step, I was able to decide “Hey, let me turn on this audio recorder to just do it to unblock myself and to unblock our marketing and content strategist.” It also unblocks this message for our team and for our Bosa community, including you who are reading it right now and possibly days, weeks or months later.

I feel like “don't stay stuck” is one of those things that if we can just move the needle one little bit and be experimental and live in that freedom, so much more can come from that professionally.

More personally, “don't stay stuck” is definitely something that I've been trying to do the last few years. I’m not necessarily striving for something in particular, just striving for more freedom in my life, being more myself and not overthinking anything. Because again, “freedom” is one of our practices that underpins this value. For me, this means be yourself, take that first step, do that tiny thing that you said you would do. 

For example, I have a goal to start sewing. My sewing machine is in my basement, but I just wasn't going in my basement that often. While on maternity leave, I started to go down there more often while working out just to start getting myself comfortable with being down there regularly. It's a pretty straightforward basement and well-lit, so it’s not that going into the basement was a problem, but it was just an incremental change for me to change my mindset around something and again, not stay stuck on the whole big picture of the goal.

It’s not just me. I was talking to a friend around the New Year and she told me that’s how her brain works. She sees a whole big goal or mega-task, and while she can often easily execute on the small related tasks, if one part of the big vision isn't done, she feels so defeated. The vision isn't complete. This bogs her down and gets her down on herself, her progress and the goal itself. 

Here’s the thing: it's ok to have that big picture. It's ok as well to want to do just some of the tasks or even feel like you don’t want to start at all because you can’t fully complete all the needed steps immediately. But we have to take that first step.

That's the philosophy I've been taking in my personal life. I may not be where I want to be right now on some of my creative outlets or hobbies, but let me just do that small piece, let me figure out that one extra step that makes me feel more alive or helps me experience joy.

All this to say, the whole “don't stay stuck” value at Bosa isn't just a work or company motto — it's a way of life. Imagine it as a nudge to break free, be bold and shake off whatever's holding you back, whether in your job or your life outside of work. Like life, the practice of not staying stuck isn’t just about careers; it's about finding joy in serving others and letting your creativity run wild.

So take a moment to think about your own journey. Where have you felt stuck, unsure where to start? Well, that's the magic of “don't stay stuck.” It's an open invitation to embrace the freedom to experiment, make those small moves, and, most importantly, enjoy the ride. My basement anecdote? It's a reminder that even the smallest step — like shaking up your routine by spending more time in the basement near the sewing machine —can lead to a more vibrant, fulfilling life. Here's to breaking free, staying curious, and living your life, one unstuck moment at a time.

The juggling act of full-time working parents, especially those with children between the ages of 2 to 12, is a daily challenge that often goes unnoticed. The culprit? The overwhelming mental load that one person typically carries, leading to feelings of anxiety, resentment and stress. The other partner, often unaware of the magnitude of this mental load, experiences frustration and stress, further straining the relationship. It’s this impact of the mental load on the quality of life for these parents is what we’re most interested in solving, and there’s room for productivity solutions to make a real difference.

The Weight of Mental Load

For many full-time working parents, mental load is not a shared burden but a solitary struggle. One person is tasked with managing a myriad of responsibilities, from organizing schedules to researching products or methods to knowing everything from the kids’ current shoe sizes to the preferred schedule for babysitters. We call this the default parent. They’re the one keeping it all together with their knowledge and actions. The result is a heavy burden that can lead to burnout and negatively impact the overall well-being of the individual.

Good Intentions Stall Against Lack of Understanding

Compounding the issue is the lack of understanding from the other partner. Even in cases where the non-default parent truly wants to share the load, they might not fully understand of the situation, task or job-to-be-done. Often, that means the default parent just does it themself because it’s easier or faster than communicating all the information and context they know to their partner. This can further the divide. While the default parent is grappling with the mental load, the non-default parent might not comprehend the emotional toll it takes. This lack of awareness can breed frustration and additional stress, creating a cycle that hampers the overall quality of life for both individuals.

The Link Between Productivity Solutions and Mental Load

Productivity solutions are a go-to for alleviating the mental load for default and non-default parents. Those burdened with the load often turn to lists, calendars, and documents to organize their thoughts and relieve stress. Additionally, they handle extensive research to find optimal solutions. They repurpose project management tools like Asana and Trello to cobble together proxies to share what’s in their head and manage tasks in hopes that the mental load will level out.

Several productivity solutions aim to address the mental load challenge specifically. Platforms like Maple, Yohana, and Milo are designed to streamline task management, research, and communication between partners. Often, it’s the default parent finding, setting up and working in these apps, with the non-default parent having access but playing a much less active role. These apps can be really powerful in helping the default parent organize and manage their lives and communicating tasks and information to the other parent — but they aren’t designed explicitly to shift the mental load outside of the technology.

So while the productivity market may seem saturated, the fact that many individuals still grapple with the mental load shows that the right solution hasn't been found by everyone.

A Different Approach to Productivity Adoption

So why hasn't the mental load issue been fully solved for this group? The answer lies in the existing costs associated with productivity solutions:

1. High Setup and Maintenance Costs: Many apps require significant effort to set up and maintain, making them impractical for busy parents already stretched thin.

2. High Cost to Progress: Completing tasks often involves levels of research and consideration, requiring the default parent’s valuable time and energy.

3. High Cost to Collaborate: Communicating findings or outputs to a partner can be challenging, requiring careful consideration of timing and context.

Every person has a different combination of these three that works for them. For some people, it’s most important to have the lowest cost of setup and maintenance. They’re the ones that flock to apps that help collect tasks and information, but they are often left to make progress and figure out collaboration on their own. Have you ever done the work to input your info in a new productivity tool just to lapse and have to do it all over again with the next app to promise you freedom from your to-do list? This is why. The same goes for solutions that successfully reduce cost of progress (virtual assistant marketplaces, for example) or high cost to collaborate (shared calendars or life management apps fit this category).

Further complicating things is the reality that what works for one partner might not work for the other. So if the default parent optimizes for reduced cost of collaboration, that solution may not deliver on the reduced cost of setup that their partner requires. It’s no wonder why the personal productivity space hasn’t been able to find a solution that works for everyone!

Harmonizing Productivity to Tackle the Mental Load

We believe the key to successfully helping busy parents (and really, busy adults of all kinds) lies in addressing all three productivity costs to meet you where you are. Bosa is flexible to mold to how you work best, and our focus on better collaboration with your partner means that the same tool can mold to how they work best too — all in a shared experience so you can better work together to succeed.

Easing the mental load for full-time working parents is an ongoing challenge, but the link between productivity solutions and alleviating this burden is evident. By addressing the root causes of the mental load issue, we’re confident Bosa can empower parents to enjoy a higher quality of life and strengthen their relationships at the same time.

Every year, it happens like clockwork — words like “resolutions” and “goals” trickle into our news feeds and conversations each December and carry us well into January.

We seem wired to be hopeful about the future. The potential of a new year to create new habits and achieve our ambitions is enticing, regardless of how successful we were with them the year prior. Enter a slew of solutions to all designed and for sale to help! From weight loss apps and gym discounts for people working on physical wellness to coaching programs, planners and vision-boarding — the human nature to dream big for ourselves has created an entire industry.

But one of the most effective methods to help you make your goals reality is actually the simplest: write them down.

This study led by Dr. Gail Matthews at Dominican University followed 267 participants across different methods of commitment, namely writing goals down and sharing them with others as a means of accountability. The results demonstrate how taking our goals out of our minds — out of our already busy mental load — and into something external is a powerful key to making progress. It also shows the power of interpersonal support. Those who sent their commitments to a friend accomplished significantly more than those who wrote action commitments or did not write their goals.

These findings are especially interesting given who is making resolutions and setting goals in 2024. GWI found that people experiencing life changes were some of the most likely groups to make resolutions in 2024, including expecting parent, first-time home buyers and people planning international travel:

Source: GWI Zeitgeist December 2023

They also found that the most common goals themselves span both life plans and aspirations, including saving more money, practicing more self-care, being kind to others, learning a new skill or hobby and spending more time with friends/family:

Source: GWI Zeitgeist December 2023

What these goals have in common is that they can’t be accomplished in one sitting. At their core, they are behavior changes. The only way to achieve your goal of being kinder to others is simply to be kinder to others, then do it again and again over the course of the year. And while you might use a fitness app to manage your physical wellness goal, the idea of having a standalone app or tool for each one of our goals seems a bit much.

We need tools that work across our goals. We need tools that bring the potential of technology into our lives, into the behaviors and environments that we’re hoping to change. We need tech that helps us manage our ambitions for our lives while allowing us to live our lives outside of a screen.

But before anything else, we need to write it down.

If you think about it, even our smallest tasks map to a higher level goal. Take a budgeting app like Mint — virtually no one downloads it thinking “Well, it'd be really fun to understand how all my billing works and organize all my transactions in one spot and keep track of it every day and keep it up to date.” People go to Mint with a goal of understanding their money, and usually with a goal like managing their budget so they can do things like travel more. The core motivation is a higher level goal (the financial freedom to travel) — that maps to their values (experience different parts of the world). Everything they do inside of that system is serving that end purpose, even if it’s as task-oriented as categorizing different expenses.

As technology makes it easier to do the sub-tasks of a bigger goal, it also establishes trust. That enables you to look at the situation from a high level — your overall budget versus a long list of transactions — to have more informed conversations and make more confident decisions. Decisions that support your values and broader life goals.

It's the same with Bosa. You may start off by entering all kinds of goals and tasks into Bosa — household to-dos, work projects, broad goals like getting in shape or living more green. But these are all in service of higher level goals and motivations: I want to provide a stable life for my family, I want to spend more time on creative pursuits, I want to leave the planet better than I found it. Much like managing your budget, a functional solution has to make it all managing all these tasks easier — so you can use your energy to focus on the most meaningful things.

That’s where Bosa AI comes in. You enter a few of those goals, including wanting to take a family trip to Disneyland or Paris or Virginia Beach. Then Bosa AI essentially take that middle part from you, generating suggestions and resources to kick start your planning, specific to the details you’ve shared in that goal and others in Bosa. Now you can jump from all that initial info gathering to actually having conversations about different travel plans or even making decisions. We make it so you can just focus on the beginning: telling Bosa your goals and the context around them (who’s going, when you’d like to travel, budget or activity considerations). And Bosa gets you across that chasm of inaction. You don't fall into the pit of productivity in the first place.

This personalization is the difference between using AI functionality in Bosa versus going straight to ChatGPT or another common alternative. A broad generative AI tool by itself doesn't know who you are. It doesn’t know your intentions. Because Bosa is where you are collecting your goals across all parts of your life, it’s already within the context of your higher level goals. So by intentionally putting AI in this part of the goal process, Bosa is able to build not just a bridge, but a personalized bridge. Because the suggestions it would build for EJ planning a trip to Disneyland would be different than it would for you. That will change per season, because we are all constantly changing and that’s reflected in the nuances we add when we enter goals into Bosa.

And this bridge will only get better. As we add more integrations, as we bring your in calendar, your email, it all helps personalize how Bosa can get you past that action gap. It’s smart tech that factors in your nuances, creating a pathway from A to B so it just feels like you're walking across with your partner instead of leaping over a gorge. That's a totally different experience that isn’t happening with productivity tools in general, and especially when you're talking about parents, couples and partners. We’re used to conforming how we operate to work with software. It’s time the software conforms to us.

Ultimately, tech is a tool. Bosa AI is proof that even buzzy tech like generative AI doesn’t have to be glamorous to be wildly effective. We’re not relying on AI to do tackle your goals for you. Acting on your goals? Making decisions on where to spend your time and energy Knowing what goals and values matter most in your life? Those are inherently human, and they’re inherently personal. But if we can use technology like AI to create a more efficient and effective process, then that creates more time and space for you to, well, do you.

A perfect gift for families from our friends at MILLU!

At MILLU, we love to spark fun conversations and deepen relationships between kids and parents. Our Uniqueverse Kit is all about embracing your uniqueness as a SUPERPOWER! Combining concepts from social-emotional learning and neuroplasticity, MILLU brings a playtime that not only creates fun memories but also shapes our character! 

MILLU creates fun experiences to build up kids’ confidence, interpersonal skills, and relationships. That’s why we created an experience where all the materials and research needed are done for you! 

Our immersive kit experience includes an immersive story, crafts, games, and discussion questions for families with kids 6-11 years old. We hope your family has an amazing Christmas as you spend quality time together.

Use code BOSAFAMILY for 15% off all orders at checkout, no minimum!

There are two things almost everyone on the planet would appreciate more of: money and time. The entire productivity industry emerged from the desire to give us more of the latter, as if time was something that exists in greater supply to those who know how to hack it. (This approach did, however, generate a lot more money for some of the CEOs behind the movement to maximize our every moment.)

Productivity’s attempt to make more time available by helping us do more faster came from a well-intentioned place. Available time = what you have to do X the speed you do it. But it also requires people to buy into the belief that more is the answer. The more speed, the more available time. Straightforward, defensible, seemingly doable…until it’s not. Turns out we humans have limitations on both how much we can do and how fast we can do things.

Which brings us to the concept of pace, a steady and consistent speed of movement. It something that’s guiding our work at Bosa, both in what we’re building and how we’re going about the business of, well, building the business.

Like many industries, the default in startup-land is to work as hard and fast as humanly possible. Photos of product leaders sleeping in their offices, stories about founders missing family milestones, accounts of consistent 80 hour workweeks are shared like badges of honor, not a recipe for burnout. Productivity culture thrives here. Pursuit of rapid growth growth at all costs requires a pace akin to sprinting for an entire marathon. It’s an interesting culture to operate a company like Bosa within. Who would we be if we built a product to help people shift away from productivity culture by holding ourselves and our team to those very rules we’re trying to break?

We need to determine our pace. We get to decide what rate of speed is right for us, one that is meaningful and sustainable over time so we reach millions of people stressed out by the mental load without sacrificing ourselves in the process. If the problem we’re trying to solve with Bosa, results in more available time, what other variables can we consider outside of more speed and more to do? That’s what we’re in the midst of figuring out, and pace is a key component. It’s a constant in the equation, not a variable, and we get to name it.

This is true for you, too. You get to set your pace. You get to play with the variables in your equation. Are you willing to keep dialing up the speed or the quantity of things to get done? If that works for you, right on. But if you’re like us and millions of others, you already know that the threshold on one or both of these is real. You may have already learned where more becomes too much. Use this to think about what pace feels right for you — not too slow, not too fast, but just right. Your Goldilocks pace.

We’re excited to share more about our experiments with pace with you as we go. What we learn about pace as a constant, what new equations we may come up with and our personal perspectives as we take control of our speed rather than it controlling us. Doing more to do more? So last year. Doing what’s best at the best pace? That’s what the next year — and beyond — looks like.

When is school break? Did we send Grandma a birthday card? Can we fit in grocery shopping Friday night instead of Saturday morning so we aren’t in a rush before guests arrive? Where is the extra comforter? Maybe they need a fan in case the room gets stuffy? Do we have their flight number in case they get delayed? What will we do to fill the time if they are delayed?

If this train of thought is familiar, you know the mental load. Perhaps no one feels this weight like busy parents. The default parent — the one who’s responsible for organizing the family schedule, knowing what school activities or deadlines are coming up, managing relationships with teachers, babysitters and friends’ parents, shopping for clothing, setting up doctor appointments — carries so much in their brain. While many tech tools try to help us manage it through lists, reminders and productivity hacks, it’s still there, in our brains. The default parent can make a list to give their partner, but that’s one more giving them one more task to do. and doing.

The current productivity market has missed a huge opportunity to create more efficient ways to communicate, work together and actually share the mental load. They help us collect and delegate tasks, but how can we truly share the mental load if we aren’t fundamentally addressing how we think about everything required to keep a household, family and/or relationship going?

We need tools that help manage the load, but we more desperately need ones that help change how we think, communicate and collaborate across this invisible work. We need Bosa.

Collecting your goals and tasks in one central place is table stakes. It’s required before you can effectively communicate and collaborate across the mental load. That’s why we built goal collection features first, making it easy for you to add specific tasks as well as more vague aspirations to Bosa. The real magic is what you do next, including adding your partner as a collaborator on goals and tapping into our new ChatGPT-powered smart search and AI assistant to prioritize, find themes, and get ideas on where to start.

Because when you need support to get it done — including those goals that are just for you! — tools that only help you manage the load aren’t enough. It’s time for tech to start helping us communicate, collaborate and share the load.

Have suggestions? Let us know in the comments or reply to this email to share your perspective and ideas.

Holiday season officially begins this week, hurtling us toward the end of the year with high hope for festivities and quality time with loved ones. It’s peak memory-making time, but memories don’t make themselves. As much as the tradition-keepers and magic makers may love making things merry and bright, it’s work.

Holiday travel requires research, planning and booking but it also includes knowing everyone’s schedules, frequent flier numbers, full legal names and seat preference. Someone needs to know when the best time to arrive at your destination, factor in transportation to and from activities, consider food preferences and availability, pack for the weather and make sure everyone knows the game plan.

Hosting a holiday gathering? That’s planning, inviting, shopping, cooking, cleaning, hosting, entertaining, thanking, cleaning some more…all with consideration to dietary preferences, schedules, personalities and available space.

We could go on with the visible and invisible labor surrounding gifting (who has the job of knowing what size clothes the kids are wearing and whether or not they are still into Paw Patrol?), but you get the point. Holiday magic isn’t magic at all — it’s the work of people in your life who care. And that magic-making can take a toll.

Pressure to make the holidays or any special occasion perfect surrounds us. Our feeds are full of seemingly picture perfect birthdays, first days of school and travel adventures. The content machines are in overdrive during the holidays. A 2023 survey found Americans feel deluged with marketing content during the holiday season, with 58% saying it adds to their stress levels. It’s no wonder that another survey revealed 66% of respondents reported that they feel more stressed out during the holiday season.

It doesn’t have to be this way. This holiday season, we’re looking at how we might share the load. That can include delegating, distributing and deleting tasks. But it also means looking at how we’re communicating with our loved ones about expectations, goals and to-do lists. We want the holiday magic, and we want to be present to enjoy it, too.

The comments are open on this post so that you can chime in!

• Where might the holiday season hijack your goals and tasks? How do you manage the shift in your to-dos?

• What tips do you have to support the magic-makers in your life?

• And if you’re one of the magic-makers, how might you ensure you don’t burn out just to make someone’s holiday shine brighter?

The big bad guys here are societal and workplace problems but I can’t ignore that I play a role in setting myself up for burnout.  

How close are you to burnout right now? At this very moment, how did the suggestion of imminent burnout even make you feel? Let’s use an imaginary scale of 10, where 1 is the most relaxed, unburdened, anxiety-free version of you possible and 10 is undeniably, full blown Burnout City, population you. Got your number? 

Second question: what axis does your life rotate around right now? At this very moment, what matters most to you, as determined by how you’re spending your time and energy? Go with the first thought you had.

Final question: what’s the correlation between your number and your focus? Notice how this feels. I’ll go first — in a second, right after we dig into burnout a bit more. 

I saw myself in those paragraphs above. Along my journey to and through burnout, I’ve pushed for societal and workplace changes. I got my company involved in the US pilot of the 4-Day Week. I shared my experiences with burnout in countless workshops, interviews and 1-1 meetings. I turned off social media notifications on my phone. As much as all that helped — and it absolutely did — nothing worked as well as it could until I addressed the me in the room. Because the coping mechanisms I’ve developed created habits that made burnout a constant threat. It was like living 100 feet from an active volcano and only talking about fire safety instead of considering living anywhere else. I had to think about burnout differently. I had to think about work differently. I still do.  

Back to my initial questions: right now, I’m at a 6 for burnout, and my axes are work and family. I feel pretty good about that, since I’ve been working hard to unlearn that my worth is connected to outcomes, especially professional ones. For me, the more that axis becomes singularly and unhealthily work (and only work), the higher that number climbs. It was only learning where burnout connected to my habits and beliefs that helped me change the equation. And Peterson experienced a similar thing:

I don’t have a secret or framework or online course I can direct you to. But I can tell you that we see you at Bosa. I can remind you that you have and deserve multiple axes for your life. I can share that we’re building a product to support you across these, from your career to family to health to creativity and on and on. I can say that we want your burnout number low, and your life axis value as high as you desire. Because the goal isn’t fixing burnout — it’s creating new systems of working, thinking and living where it isn’t possible in the first place.

Tech is making our lives busier, not easier. That busy-ness is messing with our wellness, leaving us without the energy or means to work out, eat well, spend time with friends or support our overall mental health. We need a combination of physical, emotional and connection inputs to thrive. Our productivity obsessed culture often glorifies sacrificing some or all of these, and it’s making us worse for it.

This is not the typical take from a tech company, especially one that can be grouped in the productivity space like us, but it’s where we stand. It’s also part of our approach. We believe productivity shouldn’t degrade our wellness. It’s a means, not a goal. It’s a mechanism with the sole purpose of helping the person achieve higher level of wellness. Like all tools, it comes down to how it’s used.

The problem often isn’t “I don’t have time for a run.” It looks a lot more like “If I block of time to go for a run, then I’ll have to come up with another plan for dinner tonight, and my significant other doesn’t know what we have in the pantry and I’ll have to give them a recipe, and I was planning on multitasking while making dinner to call my dad to talk about our visit for the holidays…it’s just so much easier to skip the run.” This example isn’t a failure of productivity habits — it’s a symptom of a culture of packing every moment as full as possible with no room to fail.

So what if we used productivity to reconnect with wellness? That means an intentional shift away from the default of adding more to-dos or increasing the pressure to do it all. What if we flipped our approach to productivity to one that focused on our holistic wellness across our activities, family, work, health, travel and urgent needs? Imagine how conversations about the mental load could shift within couples who can more easily communicate their goals and tasks — all of them, not just shared or household-related ones.

We believe this change is possible. By creating one central place for all your goals and tasks with tools to share — not only delegate or distribute — the load, and insights to help better manage your efforts. Tech that works with the rest of your life, instead of speeding it up or trying to take the place of it? That’s Bosa. The resulting ease, collaboration and wellness? Well, that’s the Bosa life.

It's been a minute and many new signups since we introduced ourselves: we're Anastasia & EJ, and we're the co-founders of Bosa.

You should also know that we’re:

• best friends who met in college (shout out Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology!)

• former college athletes

• children of West African immigrants

• both parents of young children

• people of faith

Why share all that? It’s part of what makes us us, and it’s part of what led us to found Bosa. Maybe you grew up with the adage that it takes a village like we did. Yet as we became adults and our careers took off, our village didn’t magically materialize. Individualism, productivity culture and technology splintered us further, contributing to an epidemic of loneliness and creating the burnout generation. Despite all the tools, talk and tips to get it all done, we were moving further from the goals that fulfill us. Instead, we were all left to manage task lists that were too full.

It didn’t take long until we witnessed our teams, colleagues, friends and families struggling to make it all work. We saw human potential being limited and lost, all around us. After many conversations where these same themes came up time and time again, we knew we had to do something about it. That’s where Bosa began. A few years into building, our beliefs around why the world needs Bosa are strong as ever.

We believe productivity is a means, not the goal. Productivity shouldn’t degrade wellness. It can be used as a mechanism with the explicit purpose of helping you achieve a higher level of wellness across your life. This requires more than technology, though. No app alone can change your fundamental relationship with how you spend your precious time, effort and spirit. It requires a reframing of productivity and redefining success and achievement for yourself.

Our commitment is for Bosa to help you make this shift. That means building a great tech product, and it also means throwing away the conventional startup ideology that tech alone is the solution to a complex human problem.

Like us, you are a combination of unique and shared experiences and perspectives. Your list of qualities likely looks different than ours, and that’s more evidence that there isn’t a single magic tool that can work for everyone. We believe that isolation is the enemy of impact, and no technology can solve the productivity problem without people at its heart. We believe Bosa can bring us together across our goals, tasks and dreams to be a single source of truth for what you really want to achieve in life — and that village that we were all promised.

Like so many Millennials, I grew up under two strong influences: the belief that productivity was a direct reflection of one’s worth and the ascendance of the best-selling American girl group of all time — TLC. And I only recently realized a connection between the two.

If you know TLC’s hits, you know the song Waterfalls. (If you don’t, witness the iconic music video below. Thank me later.)

It’s pretty bleak for such a bop, telling the tale of two unrelated characters who come to similar sad ends in their pursuit of money and pleasure. The lesson is repeated in the catchy refrain — don’t go chasing waterfalls, stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to. You see, waterfalls are appealing but dangerous, magical but high risk. It’s safer to stay where you are, stick to what you know.

In the context of the song, its sound advice. Inarguable, really, as the lyrics directly speak to the illegal drug trade, gun violence, sexual health and HIV/AIDS and indirectly the oppressive systems that contribute to these complex and inequitable issues. I recognize my privilege in how the song didn’t reflect the waterfalls I was more likely to chase. But as I aged alongside the track and nostalgic discourse led to understanding the metaphor itself (teen me cared more about learning the dance than unraveling the meaning), I realized that chasing a waterfall might be exactly what so many of my generation need.

The Bosa team is stacked with stats on Millennial burnout. We trade articles like playing cards, comparing depressing statistics with conflicting senses of understanding and abhorrence. Memes appear on our Slack messages and texts, full of harried parents, peers emailing through overlapping global disasters and comic scenes of adults resorting to emotional support beverages just to make it through the day. The rivers and lakes that we’re used to? They’re poisoned with the idea of productivity as the measure of our worth. And we’ve been swimming in ‘em our whole lives.

So let’s have our waterfalls. Let’s chase them, knowing that if we fail to find them we’ll at least have gotten a nice hike in and maybe touched some grass. And if we make it? If you pivot careers, or let go of the pressure to do it all so you have time for that couch to 5k, or drop the ball on having a perfectly styled house so you can make music regularly…you’re sitting as pretty as T-Boz, Left Eye and Chili in that metallic water, my friend.