So I'm so excited to be here. Good morning, good evening, wherever you're calling in from. It's great to be in the Women in Tech Job and Career Summit today.And I want us to start this session thinking about this question. So what if taking care of yourself was actually the key to getting ahead in your career? Sounds like a pretty good deal. Right? And so that's exactly what we're going to dive into today. Over the next, like, thirty to forty minutes, I'll help you build a personalized plan for feeling and performing your best. And this isn't gonna be about adding more things to your to do list. It'll be focused on research backed ways to boost your energy, focus, and resilience or to reduce burnout and to really have you, make the most of your days. Alright. 

So before we we dive in, I will share a little bit about me. I guess most of it was covered in in the lovely introduction, but I'll share a little bit about what I do and and my background, before we go into the strategy. So I'm the head of UTM software engineering at Wing, so that's uncrewed air traffic management. Wing is Alphabet's drone delivery company. So we deliver, packages through our partners like Walmart or DoorDash, through small aircraft. So it's really, really exciting stuff. We currently operate in, Australia, multiple cities in The US, including Dallas and, Charlotte, and then, we do some demos in in Europe as well. So so that's what I do day to day. I've been there for about six, over six years now, and and it's been a really, really awesome time. 

Learned learned a lot as a manager, and a manager of managers as well. My educational background is, all at UC Berkeley, so go Bears. I studied computer science and cognitive science, several years ago for my undergraduate degree, And then I recently completed my MBA at Haas, also at Berkeley. And so that, that I did concurrently with working. So it was the evening and weekend program, which which was a really, really great experience. Definitely learned a lot. I guess more on the, like, maybe, like, fun side or outside of, like, the typical work things, I do write a sub stack called Empowerflow. So you can see the URL there. And part of that has blossomed into both coaching, so career coaching, as well as, yoga practice. So I teach yoga several days a week, through a local studio, but also through Empower Flow. 

So, that's been a really rewarding thing that thing that I do on this side. And then I also recently got married this year. So it's all, like, a great reminder of how important balance is throughout, like, all different areas of life. And my goal ultimately today is to help all of you, women in tech, right, really thrive both professionally and personally. And I truly believe that investing in your well-being can help you unlock your full potential. So let's go ahead and get started. Okay. So beyond the grind. I wanna start off by challenging a common belief. Right? I think traditionally, for so long, performing well, peak performance has had a incredibly, like, narrow definition or manifestation. So we often define it by how many hours we put in, how many tasks we check off a list, how late we're willing to work. Right? 

Like, how long are you sitting at your desk? Right? And it's this, like, hustle culture that tells us, like, if we're not constantly grinding, we're not doing enough. And so what what I like to challenge here today is this traditional view is actually limiting your potential. And achieving your peak performance isn't just about getting things done or putting in the most hours. It's about creating, like, high quality output and having enough energy in the tank to do truly great work. And that requires, like, sure, putting the hours in, but also, like, resetting, refueling so you can show up the next day ready to go again. Because, like, ultimately, can you truly do your best work if you're exhausted, stressed, and distracted? Probably not. 

And so we're gonna focus on shifting our perspective today and really anchoring on the idea that prioritizing your well-being isn't just a nice to have or a self indulgent act that you do after work, but it's a fundamental part of unlocking our sustained energy and focus that we need to excel both at work and also in our personal lives. 

Cool. So we're gonna dive into a lot of strategies, and I won't be, like, specifically citing all the science behind it. But I did want to provide some resources and and some recommendations to learn more about the science behind these recommendations. So this isn't like a hunch or, some soft science. There's a lot of research that's been done, in many of these strategies that that I'm about to share that, help us perform better. So these are a list of books. I'll kinda go through them really quickly, that I've read throughout the years that I've learned a lot from. And so I've learned a lot and either incorporate it into how I work or, pass it along to to members of my my team or people that I mentor. 

So the first one here is called why we sleep. But there's, like, links here as well, so you can always click and and learn more. But it really unpacks how crucial sleep is for our brains and our overall health. And and once you read this book, you're you're gonna want to make sure you're always getting eight to nine hours of sleep a night. It really talks about the short term and long term effects of of sleep on our our brains and our body. The next one here is spark. So this is the connection between exercise and our brain. It's it's quite incredible, that that connection there. And then, the third one here is four thousand weeks time management for mortals. This offers a really fresh and realistic realistic perspective on time management. 

So this this isn't, like, your classic, here's how to, like, grid your day a certain way, but it really makes you confront the realities of there's only so much time in your day and in your life, and so you have to prioritize things. You can't do everything that comes your way and and anchoring on some of those principles there. Then we have atomic habits. This is a practical way for building habits that stick. So how do you stack habits so that you get reminded? How many habits you add at one time? I think this is this is something I read a a year or two ago in January. Right? We write all of our news resolutions. So, like, this is a really good one for for not trying to, like, boil the ocean with a bunch of, habits. Okay. And then we have drive. So this is about what truly motivates us beyond external rewards. Right? Of course, you know, things like monetary incentives, like, those do to a certain extent, like, motivate us. 

But, really, it's like, how do you how do you get motivated as an individual? Right? Like, is it and and for each person, this could be different. Like, are you mission driven? Are you driven by, like, the people that you work with, like, the environment? And so that that book really explores that in in a concrete way. So these are just a few examples, and they really reinforce the idea that these well-being practices, like, aren't nice to haves. They're fundamental inputs into how we do our best thinking. We have creativity, and we have sustainability to continue performing at a high level. Alright. So let's go in to talking a little bit about burnout. Okay. So what what is burnout? Let's talk about the burnout trap. 

We hear the term burnout a lot, and it's a little bit more than just like I'm tired. Right? The World Health Organization actually defines this as a serious state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion that comes from chronic workplace stress that hasn't been managed well. And you typically see a few key signs if you're experiencing burnout or you're blazing towards burnout. So the first one is chronic exhaustion. It's not just the I need a nap once or twice a week type of thing. It's a deep pervasive fatigue that even good sleep doesn't seem to improve. Next, we have cynicism or detachment from work. So you might start feeling negative or disconnected from your projects or your own achievements. Like, you achieved something, but you're like, yeah. Like, whatever. It didn't really move the needle. 

Or you're just seeing the negative side to every everything that you're seeing with your work. And then this ties in nicely to, like, that reduced sense of accomplishment. So despite putting in the effort, you still feel ineffective or that you're not making a real difference. And so when we neglect our well-being, we are setting ourselves up for this outcome. And it's not just about feeling bad, right, and, like, dealing with the feeling of burnout, But it directly impacts your ability to grow in your career, to innovate, to lead, and to feel fulfilled by what you do. So it's really tough once you reach a state of burnout. It can be a tough cycle where, like, low energy leads to low performance, which then piles on more stress. 

And so recognizing that you're in this state is the first step. So bringing awareness to it and then building a plan to get your your way out. Okay. So now we're gonna talk about three pillars of how you can achieve your peak performance. And so I'll double click into each one, and then we'll go ahead and build a plan. Okay. So first, we have energy. Energy is a fuel for your focus, which, surprise, like, that'll be coming up shortly. So fueling your focus is about working with your body, with your mind, and not against it. And so this is an area where you'll see some, like, very tactical or small changes that you can make that can truly make a huge difference. 

So the first thing here is chronotype driven scheduling. This this sounds fancy. Like, chronotype sounds like a maybe expensive, like, test or study you have to do. You can Google it. There's, like, different ways of identifying your chronotype, but it ultimately is about understanding your natural energy rhythms. Are you a morning person? Are you a night owl? Are you somewhere in between? Identifying when you feel the most alert and creative. And it's not, it's not as much behavioral as it is, like, your natural circadian rhythm, right, that is is fueling this. So it's, an interesting thing to know about yourself so that you can work smarter, not just longer. And so we'll talk a bit later about how you can action on that. The next part is movement. 

So, well, it's great if you can hit the gym for an hour every day, but this is more about small movements throughout your day and micro breaks. So quick stretch at your desk, walking around the block during a call, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, even just standing up, like, literally get your blood moving. It's gonna help boost your circulation, wake up your brain, and get you out of a a potential slump. So that's movement. Then we have nutrition. So nutrition, there's, like, two things, what we eat and what we drink. Hydration is really important. Like, our bodies need water. And the question here is to ask yourself is, are you drinking enough water? And I'll say, I thought I was, and then I talked to my nutritionist. And the guidance she gave me, I was like, oh, I'm like, I'm really off. Right? Like, I was drinking. 

I have my Stanley Cup now with me at every meeting. I was drinking, like, one and a half of these a day, and I was, like, crushing it. And turns out, like, for me, I need to drink two and a half of these a day. I also need a supplement with electrolytes. Right? And so, setting yourself up for success with hydration is is just fundamental to, like, how our bodies work and perform. And so if you're unable to get enough water throughout your day, thinking about how you can bring water in with you for your meetings, how you can have it accessible. What type of things do you like to drink? Like, maybe you wanna drink warm water instead of cold water, or ice water instead of hot water. Up to you. Right? It's about making it easy and, like, something you like. And then next around the food, right, is how can you do smart snacking. 

So when we're hungry, we kinda wanna reach for whatever is near us. Right? How can we ensure that that's not like a sugary pick me up that's gonna bring you up and then drop you down? But can it be something a bit more nutritious like nuts or fruit? Something that that will provide some, like, protein or some healthier fiber, right, that can build some sustained energy instead of, like, a peak and a fall. Okay. So that makes a big difference. And then finally, sleep. Right? Sleep is foundational. And it's not just the amount of sleep you're getting, eight to nine hours. Right? It depends on the person, but also consistent sleep times. And that's something I've been working on, to varying degrees of success. 

But, you you know, if you can generally go to sleep and wake up around the same time every day, even weekends, right, then then you're gonna see, a boost in your energy the next day and over time. So this is incredibly important. Prioritizing sleep is, like, giving your brain a full recharge every night. So the key takeaway here is, like, through some small shifts, none of this is particularly, I would say, particularly hard. And sometimes that makes us, like, makes it hard to commit to because we're like, well, it's so small. Like, is it really gonna make a difference? I challenge you to try it, and you you can tell me. Okay. Next, we have the second pillar, which is focus. Right? So we're talking about how do you have enough energy so you can focus. So this is about steering your day. 

I know we have self driving cars now, but generally, you steer your car. Your car does not steer you. And even if it is self driving, you tell it where you wanna go. And what happens a lot of the time is you wake up, you have a list of meetings that people put on your calendar for you, and you open your laptop to a bunch of emails and chats. And that's kinda your day. You're like, well, the chat I need to go respond to, the email I need to respond to, and the meetings I need to go sit in. And I want you to challenge that. 

And before you open your laptop, before you open your calendar, like, write down, like, what are the things you actually need to do to move the needle forward for your job today? Right? Like, what are the most high important tasks? Right? And then find the windows to go do that and prioritize things against that. So here are some strategies for steering your day and taking control of your day. So we have time blocking. Right? We can use our chronotype to figure out where we want to put a time block in to do heads down work. Right? You have meetings to go achieve things, but you need to set a meeting with yourself to go do the work that you need to do. So time blocking is really important and can also reduce context switching. So that's what we'll talk about also batching tasks right now as well. 

So if you can batch similar activities together, then you're gonna minimize your cost for context switching, which is a huge drain on your focus. Like, you can think about context switching as, like, doing two different tasks, right, like, back to back, and there's, like, an expense to, like, reengaging with a task from a distraction. So, batching tasks together. And for both of these two, like, go put your phone away, close your chat for a minute, right, and, like, focus on the task at hand. Okay. And then we have the power of saying no or not right now. And this can be really tough, especially for a woman in tech, but it's incredibly important to protecting your focus. 

So saying no to nonessential meetings, new commitments, or distracting like distractions. Right? And this allows you to say yes to the things that truly matter for your goals, like, that you need to achieve. And, ultimately, it's better for the business, right, if you're able to stay focused on the top priorities. And then we have mindfulness breaks. So this can be just like when you hang up a Zoom call between, right, taking, like, three deep breaths, being present before hopping into your next call. Or if you're walking between conference rooms, maybe taking a moment to just, like, drop the meeting you were in, clear your brain, not thinking yet about what's next. And then when you enter the room, you go into what's next. And then the physical environment. So a cluttered space often can lead to a cluttered mind. 

Like, do you ever, like, clean your space a little bit and you're like, I feel like I can think again. Like, that is a that is a real thing. And so this can be like your desktop, like your physical desktop. It can also be the number of tabs you have open on your computer. Right? So just getting clean and organized is gonna help you focus and, like, eliminate distractions or things that are muddying your your focus. So the ultimate takeaway here is you are not only responsible for your day, but you are in control. And so take that control. Right? You steer your day. It does not steer you. And then the third pillar often overlooked, is what I call the inner game. So this is cultivating your mindset and your resilience. So there's a few ways we can unpack this. The first that I like to talk about is self awareness. 

This is bringing awareness to your own thoughts, your own feelings, and your reactions. So sometimes, I don't know, you're in a meeting, and you get wound up. You're stressed. Right? We we experience a feeling, right, like the high and low, but I want you to bring awareness to it. Right? And not necessarily calling yourself out in the meeting, but, like, just privately to yourself. Like, okay. My stress levels are going up. What what's triggering it? Right? What is it like, putting a label, what is it that I'm feeling right now? And then in the reverse, right, like, if you're feeling really energized and really excited in a situation, Recognizing, okay, what is what about the situation is making me energized? Is it the people that I'm working with? Is it the projects? Is it the challenge? Right? 

And so understanding your own patterns and strengths and triggers is the first step towards making intentional choices that support your well-being and performance. And then we have the growth mindset. So when we experience challenges or setbacks, we could think of them as failures. Like, that that's an option. But if you wanna think about it differently, right, it's actually an opportunity to learn and grow. And I think this is something that, like, I myself as a hiring manager, and I'm sure many hiring managers, that I've that I've interacted with, right, value this as well. We don't expect you to know every single thing when we hire you, especially as an engineer. We expect you to have the toolset and the mindset to go learn. Right? And so the growth mindset shifts from thinking I can't do this to I can't do this yet. 

But I can learn how, and I'm confident that I have the ability to use my resources to learn how. Right? And this mindset fosters resilience and encourages you to take on new challenges, which is gonna increase your skill set and impact your career growth. And then we have social support. So humans, we're not meant to do everything alone. And so having, connections, I hesitate to say connections, but, like, having colleagues. Right? Like, friends, family. Right? People around you that you trust and having them there to be your sounding board and going to different people for different things you might need. So it can be a quick chat. It can be sharing a win. Right? If you just want someone to be like, heck yeah. Like, that's awesome. Like, congrats. Right? Sharing a win or venting about a tough day. So maybe not problem solving, but just sharing it out. Or maybe you want advice and you say, hey. 

I'm in this scenario. What would you do? Right? I'm thinking this. What do you think? Right? And so don't underestimate the power of using human connection to to build your resilience, right, and to learn. Right? You can learn a lot from other people's experience. And then lastly, we have optimism. Optimism isn't like a naive, like, I believe that the world is a great place, and therefore, this project will magically get done. Right? It's, like, can't be unrealistic. Right? But it's a realistic hopeful outlook. So it could be something like, hey. We have a good team. We have an aggressive plan, but we have a clear plan of what we need to get done. And I believe we can do this. Right? Instead of poking all the holes into all the negative aspects. Right? 

It's like taking a focus towards, like, what you can control and what the positive lessons are even in difficult situations. So cultivating a gratitude practice is, like, something we'll talk about in a bit. And yeah. So ultimately here, your inner voice shapes your outer performance. Okay. Awesome. So now we're gonna develop a personalized plan. You can go to this link here, empowerflow.substack.com/p/resources. And there, you will see, a link to some resources. There's two bullets at the bottom there, design your plan for peak performance worksheet. So that's just, like, a few of these slides. If you want the complete slides from this workshop, you'll hit the level up your career workshop slides at the bottom. So I will I don't know if I can send a link here, but I'll leave this up for a minute so folks can can do that. 

And then before we dive in, I want us to practice mindfulness together. So we're gonna catch our breath, and I promise this is not gonna take more than one to two minutes. But I want you to experience, like, one of the many strategies, like, for yourself. Alright. So we're gonna practice a technique called box breathing. This is used by, a lot of people, including Navy SEALs, to calm the nervous system and to sharpen the focus. So you can really check-in. And it's a really great tool if you're feeling scattered, if you're about to present, you're feeling nervous, or you just need to reset for your mind. Okay. So, I want you to find a comfortable position so you can sit with your feet flat on the floor or stand, whatever feels good, and then gently close your eyes. 

Or you can soften your gaze down towards your your desk or the ground and take a moment to simply arrive, noticing your body supported by your seat, your feet connected to the ground. So connect with your natural breath, then I'll search to transition us towards box breathing. So you can imagine a box with, like, four edges, equal sides. And the idea here is we're gonna be inhaling and then holding our breath and then exhaling and then holding that exhale for four seconds on each side, so equal sides. Let's begin. So gently exhale all the air out of your your lungs. Seal your lips. Breathe in through your nose for four three two one, and then hold your breath at the top for one two three four, then exhale slowly through your mouth for four three two one. Then hold your lungs completely empty for four three two one. Seal your lips and inhale for one two, three, four. Hold at the top. Two, three, four. 

Exhale slowly through your mouth. Four, three, two one. And then hold it at empty for one two three four. Now let your breathing return to its natural rhythm. We only did two rounds of this breath, but just notice how your body feels in any shift in your state. Maybe a little bit more calm, a little bit more clear. You can leave anything that you're feeling in the comments. And just know when you're ready to to continue, right, you can slowly open your eyes and bring your awareness back to to the room. And just know, like, this simple practice is always here for you. Right? It it can be before a meeting, after a meeting. I don't know. Before you walk into your house at the end of the day, just a few rounds of this breath. Right? 

It's gonna it's gonna tell your it's your breath telling your mind that it's okay, and you can be calm and relaxed and reset. Okay. So now I want us to focus. We have about ten minutes left, a little bit less. So now I take you from mindfulness to a buffet. So this is our peak performance buffet. These highlight the three pillars that we just discussed, energy, focus, resilience. And the sub bullets underneath talk about it's kind of like your cheat sheet of what we just discussed. And it has some ideas for some action items you can do, and this is like a buffet. Right? So the idea here is that you'll, like, pick and choose some of the the options. And you'll see in the, the resources that that you guys navigated to. 

Also, if you need the link, it's, it's right underneath the header here. There's this worksheet. So you can make a copy of the slides and fill in, like, these sentences. Right? This is kind of like brainstorming actions you can take underneath each header. So I will give folks a couple minutes to make a copy and to start jotting in their ideas. Maybe try to get at least, like, two to three per section, and then I will, regroup the group in in just a minute or two. Okay. So in the interest of time, I will bring us back, but definitely grab some time after this session to continue brainstorming and filling this out. And then what you'll do from here is pick one from each pillar and write them down here. So you write, like, I, Tara, Rezvani flowers. Right? 

Commit to following to the following actions for the next two weeks. Right? So you make a commitment to yourself. You pick two or one from each of these pillars. You write them here. And then, honestly, I would encourage you. I know it's, like, very archaic to print something, but print print this out. Honestly, hang it up on your desk or on your bathroom mirror and sign it. Right? Like, you're committing to yourself. This is gonna help accountability. We're often more accountable to others than to ourselves. So, like, help set yourself up for success. And if after two weeks, right, you feel like you've implemented those three things, you can pick three more from your brainstorm or brainstorm some more. But the idea here is, like, we don't wanna boil the ocean, so we don't wanna do, like, 20 new habits or 20 new things at once. 

Like, let's pick a targeted few, give a couple weeks for it to stick, for us to embed with it, for us to see if it's working and tweak, and then we can build on top of that. Okay. So if you wanna dive in deeper, I've also included in addition to the books at the start, I've also included links here to different empower flow articles that focus on the three pillars. So some some sharing of my experiences, some advice I've I've gotten from the books that I've read, some of the classes I've taken from my MBA, synthesize into these articles. Yeah, there's some fun ones like, the energy one. There's some things around bedtime revenge bedtime procrastination, which is something I didn't know existed, but that I definitely had, right, where where it's like this endless scrolling or need to, like, procrastinate going to bed to feel in control of your day. 

Another one I really like is, like, the yoga philosophy and how it can enhance your leadership skills, the accountability gap, so why we're more accountable to others than ourselves. So just like more resources, these are links you'll find, in the in the slides. And then if you want more contact or, content, I would encourage you to follow the Substack. We get a few articles out every month, and you can kind of have a consistent reminder in your inbox of of some of the things we talked about and also new ideas.