If you’re someone who’s constantly “on,” Truvaga Plus is like having a pocket-sized calm button. It doesn’t require hours of meditation or a full wellness routine overhaul—just a few mindful minutes to help your nervous system catch up with your life. I’m not saying it’s magic (I still have my Type-A moments), but it’s one of the few wellness tools I’ve actually stuck with. And for something that fits in the palm of your hand, that’s pretty powerful.
If you’ve ever blamed your hormones for brain fog or slower thinking, you’re far from alone. Many women report feeling less focused or sharp during certain phases of their menstrual cycle. But new research published in Sports Medicine challenges that long-held assumption.
Orangetheory classes in Orlando are helping runners prepare for marathons by offering a comprehensive workout that combines running, rowing, and strength training to boost endurance and prevent injuries.Inside the class, the focus is on heart rate, hustle, and sweat, providing a full-body workout that benefits runners of all levels.”It’s really a full-body workout, which is great. You’re getting everything,” Orangetheory Coach Danielle Sisco said.”We break it all down and we’re really just trying to build a stronger body, build up your metabolism and have you leaving feeling fantastic, ” Orangetheory Fitness Coach Thomas Stoakes said. The workout split at Orangetheory includes running, rowing, and strength training, designed to enhance endurance, build strength, and prevent injuries.”One thing I’ve learned: runners love running, lifters love lifting. We do it all here. But those that just hone in on running tend to be more injury-prone. That durability you build on the weight floor goes miles out on the course,” Stoakes said. Stoakes, gearing up for his fifth full marathon, and Sisco, training for her first half-marathon, are among those benefiting from the balanced approach.”I feel like having been focused on lifting legs and getting my legs stronger and then strength training as a whole… It’s made me a stronger runner. I didn’t realize that I could be faster from lifting, but I do feel like that’s what happened for me,” Sisco said.The misconception that one must choose between strength training and running is dispelled in these classes, where cross-training in the Orange Room enhances every mile on the road.”My basis at Orangetheory, I wasn’t sure how great I was going to be running outside because I mostly ran here, but it’s translated so well. My training in here has really helped me with my training outside,” Sisco said.Every rep and stride in the class brings runners one step closer to their finish line, demonstrating the power of cross-training in marathon preparation.
WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. —
Orangetheory classes in Orlando are helping runners prepare for marathons by offering a comprehensive workout that combines running, rowing, and strength training to boost endurance and prevent injuries.
Inside the class, the focus is on heart rate, hustle, and sweat, providing a full-body workout that benefits runners of all levels.
“It’s really a full-body workout, which is great. You’re getting everything,” Orangetheory Coach Danielle Sisco said.
“We break it all down and we’re really just trying to build a stronger body, build up your metabolism and have you leaving feeling fantastic, ” Orangetheory Fitness Coach Thomas Stoakes said.
The workout split at Orangetheory includes running, rowing, and strength training, designed to enhance endurance, build strength, and prevent injuries.
“One thing I’ve learned: runners love running, lifters love lifting. We do it all here. But those that just hone in on running tend to be more injury-prone. That durability you build on the weight floor goes miles out on the course,” Stoakes said.
Stoakes, gearing up for his fifth full marathon, and Sisco, training for her first half-marathon, are among those benefiting from the balanced approach.
“I feel like having been focused on lifting legs and getting my legs stronger and then strength training as a whole… It’s made me a stronger runner. I didn’t realize that I could be faster from lifting, but I do feel like that’s what happened for me,” Sisco said.
The misconception that one must choose between strength training and running is dispelled in these classes, where cross-training in the Orange Room enhances every mile on the road.
“My basis at Orangetheory, I wasn’t sure how great I was going to be running outside because I mostly ran here, but it’s translated so well. My training in here has really helped me with my training outside,” Sisco said.
Every rep and stride in the class brings runners one step closer to their finish line, demonstrating the power of cross-training in marathon preparation.
If you were on your deathbed right now, what would your biggest regrets be? The answer can change the way you decide to live the rest of your life.
Thinking about death can change how we live our lives. Our time on Earth is limited, and this realization can completely shift our perspective. It puts our real values and priorities into sharp focus, causing us to step back and re-evaluate if we are living our current lives in the best way possible.
When I was going through a period of depression in college, I would take the bus to the local cemetery by myself with nothing but my camera. I’ve always been comfortable with solitude and doing things alone, but these cemetery walks were an especially meaningful and humbling experience for me. Walking among the graves and reading the names of people I’d never know showed me that life is much bigger than my ego. The realization that death is a necessary part of life sparked me to reevaluate and see the bigger picture behind my choices and actions.
These cemetery walks were a powerful reminder that I would be dead one day too – but not yet – and that filled me with a sense of power and responsibility so long as I’m still breathing.
How people think about death can have a profound effect on their psychology. Some people face the prospect of mortality by ignoring it and engaging in escapist behaviors driven by materialism (“buy more things”) or hedonism (“seek more pleasure”). Others embrace the prospect of death and recognize that it means they need to make the most of their time here before it’s too late.
In the popular book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing, Bronnie Ware documents her experiences in palliative care, working closely with those who had terminal illnesses or were approaching the end-of-life. She identified five main regrets of the dying based on conversations and confessions with those on their deathbeds.
This article will outline her main findings along with my personal thoughts on each one.
Deathbed Motivation: Top 5 Regrets of the Dying
According to Bronnie Ware, the five most common regrets shared by people nearing death were:
“I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”
It’s cliché but true: you only have one life to live.
Many people cave to social pressures to choose paths in life that are expected of them, such as what school to attend, or what career to pursue, or what types of relationships to cultivate. However, what brings one person happiness isn’t necessarily what brings another person happiness. If we only try to make others happy, we often end up neglecting our own needs, wants, passions, and ideals.
Understanding your core values is one of the most important steps you can take in life. Knowing what you really want will help you make choices that are harmonious with what you really care about, not just what you think you “should do” or “ought to do.” One interesting study published in the journal Emotions found that our most enduring and long-lasting regrets are usually “ideal-related,” such as personal goals and aspirations.
Our biggest regrets are often the things we didn’t do but always wanted to, like starting a rock band, or writing a book, or traveling to a place we always wanted to visit.
“I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.”
Most people don’t lay on their deathbeds thinking, “I wish I spent more time at my job.”
Work is important and it can be fulfilling, but many people in today’s world become myopically focused on advancing in their jobs/careers or making more money by any means necessary (sometimes even in unhealthy, destructive, or unethical ways).
We wrongly believe that wealth is the only real measure of value in life, and thus we get distracted from other important things like spending more time with family, taking care of our health, giving back to our community, or pursuing personal passions.
In our materialistic and consumerist culture, nothing seems more important than “working hard” and “making money,” but as the saying goes, “You can’t take it with you when you die.”
“I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.”
We often have trouble expressing our true feelings toward people because we see emotions as weakness or we don’t want to risk being vulnerable.
This is especially true when it comes to feelings of love, gratitude, and appreciation. There are some families, cultures, and couples where it’s rare to hear the words, “I love you,” or “I appreciate you.” The feelings are taken for granted, but they are never explicitly said.
It’s important that we learn to express love and appreciation toward others while we still can (including toward family, friends, loved ones, or mentors), because we will often regret it if we miss our chance.
Recently I wrote my mom a thank you letter for her birthday. It helped me communicate a lot of feelings that I’ve always had but were difficult to say out-loud. It felt like an emotional weight was lifted off my shoulders once I finally expressed my tremendous gratitude for her and everything she’s done for me.
There are also people I’ve lost in life whom I was never able to tell that I appreciated them. Those are regrets I’ll have to live with – the crucial lesson is don’t miss the opportunity to tell people you love them while you still can.
“I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.”
One common theme in life is that relationships come and go.
Our circle of friends often changes dramatically throughout high school, college, and into adulthood, especially when we move to new places or leave our hometowns. We tend to lose touch with people over time. Those who were once “best friends” we now go years without even speaking to.
In theory, it’s easier to stay in touch with people now more than ever; old friends and family are just a call, text, or email away, yet we rarely take advantage of these opportunities.
It’s never too late to check in on past connections. It can seem awkward at first to reach out to those we haven’t seen in years, but often they will appreciate the gesture and you both will enjoy reconnecting and reminiscing about your shared past.
The simple act of checking in on people on a regular basis (such as holidays, birthdays, reunions, etc.) can preserve our social connections over time and remind us all the positive relationships and social support we have. Each person you stay in touch with is another layer of meaning in your life.
“I wish that I had let myself be happier.”
People are too busy these days to be happy.
We get easily trapped in the hustle and bustle of daily life with work, school, chores, family, and other responsibilities and obligations. In the midst of all this, many forget the simple art of stepping back and finding happiness in the moment.
You don’t need to wait for something life-changing to be happy. Many people don’t realize that happiness is in their control and you can start finding it in little things, like savoring positive experiences, counting your blessings, having things to look forward to, and prioritizing positive activities. These are habits that are available to anyone no matter what their current situation is in life. You don’t need to be rich or famous; in fact, sometimes those people are the most distracted and least happy.
If happiness is a skill, then it’s something that’s worth learning. It isn’t magic, it’s a direct result of how you think, act, and view your world.
The Time That Remains
If you are reading this right now, then you still have power over how you live the rest of your life. Every new breath is a symbol of this power.
Which of the big five regrets do you relate to the most? Living too much by other people’s expectations, focusing too much on work, not communicating your true feelings, losing touch with old friends and family, or simply not finding time for more happiness?
These are important questions worth reflecting on. Take a moment to imagine yourself on your deathbed, which regrets would hurt the most? What can you still do about it?
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The sugar alcohol occasionally gives me digestive issues, even though it’s naturally found in small quantities of grapes, pears, and mushrooms. However, I didn’t notice any adverse side effects from drinking these elixirs (even the highly caffeinated Odyssey 222 line).
Let me describe a scenario. You’ve been looking forward to streaming the latest TV masterpiece everyone has been telling you to try. You finally find enough time to take in an hour-long episode and park yourself on the couch in front of the fancy 4K set in your living room. The screen gleams, you press play, and something looks a little … off. The top and bottom of the image seem sort of smeared.Are the edges of the frame out of focus? Did you screw something up in the settings? What’s happening here?
If any of this sounds familiar, don’t bother checking your warranty. As The Outer Limits used to say: There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. What you’re seeing is simply a hallmark of modern prestige TV. To paraphrase Norma Desmond, your screen is sharp. It’s the picture that got blurry. And that blur is by design. Welcome to TV’s era of the anamorphic lens.
Even if you somehow sidestepped every example of this trend until this year, you can’t ignore them now without suffering from FOMO. FX and Hulu’s Shogun is the most acclaimed show of 2024. It’s also one of the blurriest. And no, that’s not an accident. Like every other aspect of the meticulously plannedandproduced 10-episode miniseries, Shogun’s stylized visual language grew out of extensive consideration, conversation, and collaboration.
Early on, those three Cs involved cocreator and showrunner Justin Marks and the duo of director Jonathan van Tulleken and cinematographer Chris Ross, who would work on the first two episodes. When van Tulleken was pitching himself for the position of Shogun’s leadoff director, he put together a lookbook and mood reels that laid out his vision for the show. He took his cue from the scripts, which he says “had a texture … a strong visual voice.” On the page, Shogun “felt really bold and really like [it] had a strong point of view and a strong subjectivity.” Van Tulleken wanted to bring the same quality to the screen. And so, he says, “We started to settle on this idea of how to express this subjectivity, how to express [John] Blackthorne’s disorientation.”
While assembling the look book for Shogun, van Tulleken’s lodestars were movies that felt timeless and daring: The Godfather, Blade Runner, and, in particular, Apocalypse Now. Ross, who had teamed up with van Tulleken on previous projects dating back to Misfits, suggested several Asian influences—including Raise the Red Lantern and the work ofWong Kar-wai, Takashi Miike, and Yasujiro Ozu—as well as recent inspirations such as The Revenant and 2015’s Macbeth.
But both agree on the guiding light: Apocalypse Now, Ross says, was“a huge reference” for them. Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Godfather follow-up “has a point of view in its look and a point of view in its lens choice and in its framing, and it’s driven by story,” van Tulleken says, adding, “We really wanted to take some of that and create a world that was sort of intoxicating and also felt dangerous and sometimes disorienting.”
In applying that ethos to Shogun,van Tulleken and Ross adhered to the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi—essentially, that beauty and imperfection are inextricably linked and that one should seek to accept that tension. Shogun, van Tulleken says,is “a journey of acceptance,” particularly for the shipwrecked captive Blackthorne. “Everyone’s kind of a prisoner in the show, be it from culture, be it from their position in society, be it from politics, or literally a prisoner, in Blackthorne’s sense,” van Tulleken notes. The English sailor’s arc reflects “the acceptance of some of that and the acceptance of the things you can change and you can’t.”
Hence the evolution from the Blackthorne in Episode 4, who tramples on the moss in his house’s rock garden, to the Blackthorne at the end of Episode 5, who carefully smooths out the gravel surrounding a stone. Having heard Mariko’s message that “death can come for us at any moment,” and having learned the truth of that through an earthquake and the death of his gardener, he embraces the transience of beauty and life and learns to focus on the things he can control.
For the folks shooting Shogun, van Tulleken says, the challenge posed by wabi-sabi became “How do we take this very perfect thing in the digital cameras we use and also in these beautiful, austere sets and these incredible, rich costumes, and how do we break it so we’re not fetishizing it, we’re not turning it into a fantasy?”
Their answer: anamorphic lenses.
Anamorphiclenses were developed a century or so ago as a means of obtaining a wide-screen image from film and camera equipment with a non-wide-screen aspect ratio. (The lenses themselves horizontally squeeze the image, which is then stretched upon projection.) Compared to standard, spherical lenses, oval anamorphics enable a wider field of view, used in movie formats such as CinemaScope, which arose in the 1950s in response to the threat TV posed to the box office. Anamorphic lenses can capture the full sweep of stunning landscapes instead of lopping off a large part of the picture, but—for better or worse—in close-ups of characters, their shallow depth of field creates a stark contrast between the in-focus subject(s) at the center of the frame and the blurred background around them.
The anamorphic look came to be seen as “cinematic,” but the lenses fell out of favor in the 1990s thanks to the development of formats such as Super 35, which made up for some of the shortcomings of spherical lenses vis-à-vis anamorphics by offering additional horizontal film area. Not only did those newer spherical alternatives capture more of the upsides of anamorphic lenses, but they were also free of the downsides—the image artifacts and distortions that result from anamorphic compression and stretching: namely, elongated lens flare (see the prominent examples in the Playboy Bunny and Do Lung Bridge sequences of Apocalypse Now), an impressionistic, swirly bokeh (background blur), and obvious vignetting (darkened corners of the frame).
Assuming you see those as downsides, that is. In the digital era, van Tulleken says, cameras can be “very clean,” “pitiless,” and “ruthless.” That’s perfect for some projects—say, sports broadcasts—but with others, he says, “you’re trying to break that up” in order to “put an organic feel into that very digital realm.” In other words, wabi-sabi. Couple that desire with the enhanced light sensitivity of digital equipment, which has made it easier to meet the elevated lighting requirements of anamorphic lenses, and you have a recipe for a resurgence.
This impulse isn’t unique to Shogun’s creative team.The cinematographer Neil Oseman says that “ever since cinematography went mostly digital, filmmakers have looked for ways to undercut the clean precision of the images with some unpredictable characteristics. Introducing distortions, lens flares, [and] bowing in the horizontal lines, as many anamorphics do, is one way for cinematographers to achieve that.” Oseman, who blogged about the rise of anamorphic lenses on TV in 2020, says their use “has increased over the last five or 10 years” not only out of a desire for a more cinematic feel, but because “TV networks and streamers allow wider aspect ratios than they used to, so anamorphic lenses are an option where they weren’t before.” (Until about 20 years ago, most TVs weren’t wide-screen.) Anamorphic lenses are more expensive than spherical, but as Oseman notes, “TV budgets are high enough now for these expensive optics to be hired.”
Shogun’s budget was plenty big enough for the production to pair its Sony Venice cameras with Hawk V-Lite and class-X anamorphic lenses, whose bokeh boasts a “really interesting swirl,” according to van Tulleken. (V-Lites were used on the British crime drama Top Boy, an early small-screen anamorphic adopter that van Tulleken and Ross worked on.) As Shogun begins,Blackthorne arrives in a land that seems strange and somewhat barbaric to him. The Englishman seems just as strange and barbaric to those he meets. To capture that mutual alienation, the filmmakers leaned into their tools’ distortive effects. The aperture of a lens controls how open it is; the wider the aperture, the more light it lets in, and the more noticeable the bokeh. Early on, van Tulleken says, “We were wide open a lot on the [lenses] so that we could really have a natural, strong focus falloff behind our characters.”
See, for instance, Blackthorne’s wraithlike crewmates in the premiere:
Or a couple of Blackthorne’s captors looming behind him, before he breaks down the language barrier:
Some shots show basic barrel distortion. Others evince an even more exaggerated fish-eye effect. And then there’s the vignetting, which van Tulleken and Co. opted not to crop out in postproduction. “In some places, to show that Blackthorne alienation and that disorientation, we actually left those in,” the director says.
These choices suited the aesthetic the creators were crafting. Following the leads of Apocalypse Now, Macbeth, and The Revenant, Ross says,“We wanted to be more visceral and more first-person, wanted to put the audience in the protagonists’ shoes. So that led us to think that we would be jumping into their sphere of influence, within 3 feet of the characters’ space.” The background blur encourages the viewer to, well, focus on the foreground characters.
In theory, these anamorphic artifacts can convey character dynamics, too. In some scenes, van Tulleken says, “There was almost a wrestle for who was in control of them, whose scene it was.” Accentuating or masking anamorphic effects depending on the scene or the speaker was one way to “play with those shifting sands of power within a scene, and who thinks they have it and who doesn’t.” Ross adds, “Every scene has a surface story, a surface plot, but at the same time … deep levels of character development and then, in hindsight, some form of revelation, because of betrayal or whatever.” Rewatching Shogun withthat hindsight and dissecting it on a shot-by-shot level might produce epiphanies about why certain scenes were framed the way they were.
This all seems somewhat adventurous, stylistically, for a series FX was making a big bet on. Were there any network notes?
“There was nervousness,” Ross says. “There’s nervousness about everything, which is totally understandable. It’s huge sums of money to spend and an enormous leap into the unknown.” Ultimately, though, “Everyone was super supportive of this idea.” Van Tulleken acknowledges that “different streamers have a different appetite for boldness,” but at FX, he says, “No one ever said, ‘Ah, I think this thing is too much.’ … It was always a sense of: How can we push the show? How can we live up to the ambition of the show? … It was an astoundingly supportive environment to make something in.”
The internet, naturally, is not always so supportive. Shogun, on the whole, has been rapturously received by critics and the public alike. The unorthodox cinematography, specifically, has drawn some measure of praise but also some consternation, judging by various Reddit posts and comments. Some spectators seem to have been alienated (or just plain confused) by Shogun’s visual depiction of its characters’ alienation.
The anamorphic backlash to Shogun and its ilk could be akin to two common complaints about TV: Shows are too hard to hear, and shows are too dark to see. Each of those gripes stems in part from the fact that the conditions under which TV is created differ from the conditions under which it’s consumed. In this case, it’s not that viewers lack the high-end speakers or screens to render a director’s vision faithfully; it might be that the audience lacks the visual vocabulary to grok what the auteur intended. Perhaps this fancy stuff slays with cinephiles, but it leaves the average viewer cold.
One of the problems with Hollywood today is that all the movie editors are now using HDR screens with 1000 nits brightness, and they don’t realize that they are making every movie and TV show way too dark to see.
Van Tulleken is not the kind of creator who claims not to read the comments. “I’ve read all the Reddit,” he admits. And he’s thought a lot about the balance between challenging and distracting viewers.
“You just have to go where you feel the visuals tell you to go,” he says. On Shogun, these decisions were“led by the story” and “came from a very, very well-thought-out philosophy. … And I think if you’re trying to go out there and make something interesting and make something that captures people’s attention, it is impossible to please everyone.” Every viewer “has the right to their point of view,” van Tulleken continues, but “there’s a world where we make the clean show and you shoot it very clinically, and you wouldn’t get the praise.”
Nor would a director like van Tulleken feel fulfilled if he shied away from following his anamorphic muse. “Anything, frankly, that makes people sit up and lean forward and pay attention to their screen, I’m all in favor of,” he says. In his view, it’s better to conduct an experiment that might make some viewers annoyed than to hew so closely to convention that no one feels anything. “Sometimes on set, you feel a little scared doing something, and you don’t know whether that’s failing or succeeding,” van Tulleken says. “But I’m always quite a fan of that feeling of going, ‘God, I don’t know.’ I think it’s better to feel a little bit scared when you’re trying to make some art than the reverse of feeling like, ‘Ah, I know this will work because I’ve seen it a million times.’”
Ross’s sentiments are similar. “Sometimes some people won’t agree with you and they don’t like the aesthetic,” he says. “But if you try to create an aesthetic that everybody loved, then you’d effectively create the image equivalent of Walmart. And although it’s a great shop where you can buy everything you need, you don’t get your bespoke suit from Walmart, you get it from Jermyn Street. You’ve got to fight the fight you feel you need to win in order to create the aesthetic that all of you believe in so strongly.”
Darcy Touhey, a director, producer, and camera assistant who worked as a film loader on Shogun, responded to some Redditors to defend the visuals from accusations of sloppiness—though he does share some viewers’ reservations. Via private message, he says, “It is 100 percent supposed to look like this. It’s incredibly intentional and had to go through a lot of channels in [preproduction] to get approved. So people thinking it’s a mistake are just wrong. Artistically, you could say maybe it’s a mistake. Practically? Absolutely not. … We had like 10-14 monitors at any given time on set. Everyone was seeing what the audience is seeing.”
Lens-wise, however, he has some notes. “I don’t necessarily agree with the decision,” he says. “I think the breathing and the vignetting is very distracting. … Those lenses just looked better when slightly longer, in my opinion.” Touhey believes that on some series, filmmakers may be shooting wide open more than they need to and under-lighting due to digital dependency and inexperience with vintage glass. Van Tulleken confirms that to make anamorphic magic, “You need a great crew, you need a great cinematographer, you need people who really understand those lenses. … You need a great focus-puller. You need a great [camera assistant]. The lenses break, they fall apart. … I don’t think it’s for the casual hand.”
But Touhey also asserts that “people are focused on the lenses way too much when considering the cinematography of [Shogun]. The cinematography shines in this show because of the intense commitment from every department towards realism and authenticity. The sets, both studio and location, were unbelievable. The attention to detail was astounding. … A good show looks good because of every aspect of production.”
Like Blackthorne, Mariko, and most other Shogun characters, I’m torn between competing preferences and loyalties. On the one hand, I admire the audacity and distinctiveness of Shogun’s visuals and the care that clearly went into them. On the other hand, I do find the heavy anamorphic effects distracting, in the sense that some part of my brain fixates on the fluctuations in focus, possibly at the expense of some immersion in the show. (This tendency is probably exacerbated by Shogun’s reliance on subtitles: The text draws the eye to—and, in my mind, kind of clashes with—an often out-of-focus segment of the screen.) Also: I want to see those costumes, sets, and scenery! There are ways to make a series’ cinematography stand out without making some subset of the audience want to pound the tops of their TVs, Fonzie style.
I’m most amenable to the out-of-focus, swirly look when it serves the story, as it does on Shogun. The Gilded Age uses anamorphic effects to draw a distinction between the milieus of “old” New York and “new” New York. Severance does the same to separate the characters’ “severed” lives at Lumon Industries from their outside existence. Homecomingused anamorphics to underline the off-balance nature of the narrative.
Not every series seems to have such clear reasons for straying from TV tradition. Even on streaming series less thoughtful than Shogun, though, directors don’t end up with anamorphic effects by accident. “I think it’s always very considered and deliberate,” Touhey says. “Shows in those budget ranges are doing camera tests well before shooting. They are doing lens projection, etc., to make sure everything is working as intended.” Some series are steering away from sterility; others are pursuing a “cinematic” signifier. “People want TV to be more like cinema now,” Touhey says, “so the use of anamorphic is becoming more prevalent because people associate that with cinema. … I wouldn’t agree again that it’s best for the medium, but it is an easy way to visually say, ‘This TV is more like a movie than TV.’”
In effect, television has adopted a technique that moviemakers pioneered to differentiate film from TV. One wonders whether the anamorphic lens’s association with cinema will last now that this look is becoming ubiquitous on TV. “Part of my job is to make sure that we’re trying to do things that are not just being repeated everywhere,” van Tulleken says. “I’m always taking note of the cinematographers and what is being done in the space and who is making bold directorial decisions. And you’re always [hoping] you’re not aping and [that you’re] progressing the medium.”
The good news is that the more familiar anamorphic effects are, the less off-putting they’ll be. For directors who want to reset the status quo, though, that’s also the bad news. At this rate, a sharp, pristine picture might go back to being the bolder choice. Alternatively, directors could keep cranking the anamorphic meter higher to top previous stunts.
“Arguably, Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina took it too far,” Oseman says. “They used Panavision Ultra [Speed Golds] anamorphics for scenes involving magic, which put a Salvador Dalí–esque blur on the sides of the frame. I thought it was a daring choice, but it was very noticeable, and I know it took some viewers out of the story.”
Perhaps that’s happened in Shogun at times, too. Then again, the slight discomfort and disorientation I’ve felt while watching Shogun are what its creators intended. Maybe it’s made me identify with the characters and enriched the experience in ways of which I’m not completely conscious. It’s tough to say: We can’t compare the Shogun we got to a version of the show that’s the same except for flawless footage shot with spherical lenses. What we can say is that the Shogun we got is good. And if the blur bothers some viewers, it can’t be a big impediment: Whether partly because of or partly in spite of the lens selection, people are watching (and largely loving) the show.
If your reaction to the initial lens look was closer to tolerance than love, you’ve probably been relieved to see those effects fade across the season. That, too, was part of the plan. The choices van Tulleken, Ross, and Marks made early on “set up a sandbox that everyone could then play in,” van Tulleken says; inside that structure, subsequent cinematographers and directors have had a lot of freedom to do their own thing. As van Tulleken concludes, “This show has an evolution, it has an arc, and I really believe in the grammar of shots, that they should show the escalating arc of a scene and of a story and a series. … We kept the same anamorphic lenses, we kept the same cameras, but not every scene needed what we were doing.” As Blackthorne learns the language and the lay of the land in later episodes, the disorientation is dialed down.
If you or someone you love is still struggling with the symptoms of TV’s anamorphic phase, at least you know now that you haven’t been hallucinating. Focus (so to speak) on the positive, and practice the eightfold fence. Maybe you’ll suddenly see the wisdom in this wabi-sabi of the screen. And if you still want to break up with blurry shows, don’t feel bad about it. It’s not you, it’s TV.
If you find yourself struggling to stay on top of text messages—or responding to them in a timely manner but at the expense of focusing on your other priorities—then it’ll be a relief to learn that there are a few strategies you can follow to handle modern communication expectations (while maintaining your beloved relationships).
It’s likely you’ve experienced this—you have a to-do list planned for your day. You start one task… Then, one or two more… And the next thing you know, it’s quitting time, and you’ve only gotten halfway through.
Let’s face it: humans are busy people. And in the span of 24 hours, we have plenty to do. Between work and family life, we’re lucky if we can snag a simple 15 minutes of downtime at the end of the day to decompress.
So, what can help with the chaos? Productivity tools.
The thing is, too much of our time is wasted on ineffective efforts. We are able to focus more, do more in less time if we’re better organized. It’s all about adhering to the task at hand, staying focused, and knowing in what direction we’re headed.
Productivity tools are exactly what they sound like: tools that help you be productive, a.k.a., organize and structure your time, stay on top of what needs to be done, and be as effective as you can be. You can find this in the form of software apps, services, or even physical methods, all of which help with:
Streamlining workflows
Automating repetitive tasks
Organizing information
Improving collaboration
Managing time
These tools offer quite a number of benefits, according to research. For instance, almost all workers (over 90%) in a 2023 survey by the Harvard Business Review said that using automation tools helped them get more work done. Plus, most of them (85%) also said these tools made it easier for their teams to work together.
The unfortunate thing is, we all complain about being too distracted, as Nir Eyal, a habit-forming expert and trainer of Mindvalley’s Becoming Focused and Indistractable Quest, points out. “But 99% of people can’t tell you what they’re being distracted from.”
But by changing the way you approach the things you’d like to get done, you’ll find it much easier to be more productive.
Undoubtedly, there are plenty of productivity tools out there to choose from. The question is, where do you start?
Here’s a list of the ones that have, so far, lasted the test of time:
1. Pomodoro Technique
This approach helps you tackle tasks in manageable chunks, breaking down work into 25-minute intervals of focused work with short breaks in between. Each interval is called a “pomodoro,” named after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer the creator of the technique used.
This method can help maintain concentration and prevent mental fatigue. Moreover, it can improve time management as well as boost motivation so that you don’t feel so burned out.
Here’s how you do it:
Choose a task.
Set a timer for 25 minutes.
Work on the task without distractions until the timer rings.
Take a short, five-minute break.
Repeat steps 1-4 for four cycles.
Take a longer, 15-20-minute break.
2. The Eisenhower Matrix
This is a simple decision-making tool that categorizes tasks based on what’s urgent and important. By doing so, you can reduce your decision fatigue, ensure you dedicate time to high-impact tasks, and prevent getting overwhelmed by trivial things.
Here’s how to use it:
Draw a matrix with two axes.
Put “Urgent” and “Not Urgent” on the x-axis, and “Important” and “Not Important” on the y-axis.
Place your tasks in the quadrants:
Urgent & Important: Do immediately.
Not Urgent & Important: Schedule for later.
Urgent & Not Important: Delegate or eliminate.
Not Urgent & Not Important: Eliminate.
Categorize tasks and schedule them based on their placement in the matrix.
3. The Ivy Lee Method
This simple yet powerful task management technique was developed by a renowned productivity expert, Ivy Lee. It helps you with “how to overcome tasks that pile up in your regular workday,” according to Vishen, the founder of Mindvalley and trainer of the Super Productivity Quest.
So let’s say you have six things you need to do for tomorrow. Using this method, you’d write down those six things in the order of the most important to the least. And what it does is help reduce overwhelm, promote laser-like focus, and boost your motivation.
Here’s how you use it:
Log whatever tasks come to you, whether it’s something you need to deliver or an idea that you want to turn into a proposal.
Give each task a ranking. It can be from 1–5 or 1–10, whichever works best for you.
Budget time in your calendar to accomplish your task.
Eliminate the most difficult task first.
Five minutes before the end of your workday, organize your tasks for the next day in terms of importance.
At the end of each week, check up on your progress and see how well you did (or not do).
4. Time blocking
Time blocking is a way to help you manage your time. It requires you to divide your day into specific blocks dedicated to specific tasks or projects.
For example, you block off one hour in the morning for focused writing. The next block would be for emails. And the next one would be for meetings.
This allows you to reduce distractions and use your time more effectively. And by having such control over your schedule, your anxiety can decrease and your overall well-being can improve.
“In order to live our values in each of these domains, we must reserve time in our schedules to do so,” Nir explains. “Without planning ahead, it’s impossible to even tell the difference between traction and distraction.”
Here’s how you can implement it:
List all your tasks for the day.
Allocate realistic time slots for each task.
Block out dedicated time slots in your calendar for each task.
5. Make a pact
According to Nir, there are three basic kinds of pacts: effort, price, and identity.
An effort pact prevents distraction by making unwanted behaviors more difficult to do. For example, installing an add-on that prevents you from browsing certain sites.
A price pact adds a cost to getting distracted. For example, “If I don’t go to the gym, I will burn this $100 bill.”
An identity pact is a precommitment to a self-image. For example, “I am indistractible.”
They’re essentially pre-commitments to help you overcome distractions and achieve your goals.
How to make a pact:
Identify your goals and distractions.
Choose the best pact type: effort, price, or identity.
Create a specific and clear pre-commitment.
Share your pact with others for accountability (optional).
6. Productivity journal
Few productivity planner tools are as effective as the productivity journal. There are countless calendars and planners out there, but purchasing a journal dedicated to keeping you organized and productive puts you a step ahead of the game.
By dedicating a few minutes each day to jotting down completed tasks, challenges faced, and areas for improvement, you gain valuable insights into your work patterns.
Here’s how you can use it:
Choose a notebook or app dedicated to journaling.
After each workday, dedicate 5–10 minutes for reflection.
Briefly list completed tasks and projects, highlighting any significant achievements.
Note any challenges faced and potential solutions for future encounters.
Identify areas where you felt most productive and focused.
7. Dry-erase calendar
This method requires a reusable whiteboard or surface specifically designed to write and erase plans and events. When you have a calendar up that’s clearly visible, it’ll help you remember what needs to be done and when—it’s the whole idea of “in sight, in mind.”
It provides you with a clear overview of your schedule, deadlines, and appointments. What’s more, because it’s dry-erase, you can easily add, modify, or erase information as your plans change.
Here’s how you can use it:
Place the calendar in a visible location in your workspace or home, preferably in a high-traffic area.
Write down significant events, deadlines, and appointments. Use different colors to categorize events for easier organization.
Add new information and erase outdated entries as needed.
8. Mind mapping
Chances are, you’ve heard of mind mapping, the visual brainstorming technique that resembles a web or a branching tree. In the center is the main topic, with radiating branches to connect ideas and sub-ideas.
For instance, imagine you’re planning a party. The topic in the center might be “Party Planning.” Then, the branches could connect to sub-ideas like “food,” “guests,” “decorations,” and so on. Each of these sub-branches could further expand with more specific details.
Having a visual layout can encourage free-flowing connections between one idea and another. What’s more, it helps you see the bigger picture and spark new ideas and connections you might’ve missed with linear note-taking.
Here’s how you can do it:
Start with a central idea. Write or draw it in the center of a blank page.
Draw branches to connect the central idea to related topics or sub-ideas.
Write keywords or phrases on each branch to further elaborate.
Get creative and use colors, images, and symbols to enhance visual engagement.
9. Kanban boards
Falling under the category of visual workflow management tools, Kanban boards represent different stages of a task. This can be something like “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done,” where each task is represented by a card, and as you progress, you move the card across the columns.
With this method, you’ll be able to quickly see the status of all your tasks as well as track their progress. Then, you can prioritize what you need to work on and avoid multitasking, making your work more efficient.
Here’s how to use kanban boards:
Use a physical whiteboard, an online tool, or even sticky notes on a wall.
List the different stages your tasks go through.
Briefly describe each task on a sticky note or card.
As tasks progress, move them through the corresponding columns.
10. Two-minute rule
Baby steps is the name of this game. This technique, developed by productivity expert David Allen, suggests tackling any task that can be completed in two minutes or less immediately.
“When I really do not want to do something, I tell myself I’m only going to do it for two minutes, whatever that is,” says Florencia Andres, a mindset coach and trainer of Mindvalley’s The Champion Mindset Quest. “It could be like doing pushups; it could be working on an edit; it could be working on a script, whatever that is.”
By eliminating the mental hurdle of starting these small tasks, you’re more likely to get them done and dusted, avoiding a massive pile-up later on. Additionally, it can feel rewarding to check off something on your list, getting you to stop procrastinating when it comes to larger projects.
Here’s how to use this technique:
When you encounter a task, estimate what its completion time will be.
If it takes less than two minutes, do it immediately.
Nowadays, artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere. And undeniably, it’s changing the way we work, from individual efficiency to business operations.
Using AI-powered tools can truly help revolutionize your workflow. Here’s a list of 10 that you can explore:
11. Airtable
If you’re looking for an all-in-one organizer, Airtable’s your go-to. Up front, it looks like any typical spreadsheet. However, it’s got the power of a database.
So imagine organizing information in familiar rows and columns. Now, add in the ability to link data, add attachments, and create unique views, and you’ve got Airtable.
You can use it to:
Organize anything. Manage projects, track expenses, or plan events—Airtable adapts to your needs.
Boost collaboration. Share your Airtable bases (workspaces) with your team and work together in real-time.
Simplify complex workflows. Automate tasks, set reminders, and gain valuable insights from your data.
Cost: Free with basic features. There’s also the option of paid plans with additional storage and functionality.
12. ChatGPT
There’s no doubt that ChatGPT is an innovative tool. It can generate human-like text, translate languages, write all sorts of creative content, and answer your questions in an informative way. It’s as close to Iron Man’s J.A.R.V.I.S. as we’re at right now.
You can use it to:
Boost productivity. Generate content ideas, translate documents, and answer questions, freeing up your time for other tasks.
Spark creativity. Overcome writer’s block, brainstorm ideas, and explore new writing styles with ChatGPT’s assistance.
Gain insights. Ask questions and receive informative answers, gaining a deeper understanding of various topics.
Cost: Free with limited features. You can upgrade to premium plans to unlock advanced capabilities and priority access.
13. Conturata
Granted, using ChatGPT for the first time can be daunting. But even veteran users don’t fully know its full capabilities.
How do you prompt it so that it gives you what you’re looking for? Conturata has made this process so much easier for all of us.
You can use it to:
Be specific in your prompts. The clearer and more specific your prompts, the better ChatGPT will understand your request and generate the desired output.
Break down lengthy content into manageable parts with Conturata’s splitting feature. This makes feeding information into ChatGPT smoother and avoids overwhelming the system.
Unlock diverse content creation. Conturata provides pre-built prompts for diverse content types, empowering you to generate scripts, post descriptions, and more, all within the realm of ChatGPT.
Cost: Free
14. QuillBot
If you’re looking to refine your content, QuillBot’s a great tool to use. It uses AI technology to suggest different ways to express your ideas while maintaining their original meaning.
You can use it to:
Improve your clarity. It suggests alternative phrasing, synonyms, and sentence structures, making your writing clearer and more concise.
Enhance your creativity. Overcome writer’s block and explore new ways to express yourself by using the tool’s different rephrasing modes (e.g., formal, creative, etc.).
Boost your grammar and vocabulary. Identify and correct grammatical errors while discovering new vocabulary options to enrich your writing.
Cost: Free with limited features. However, the premium plans unlock additional modes, longer text processing, and more.
15. Calendly
Imagine this: You’re a busy professional. You’ve got things to do. Endless back-and-forth emails and finding a time to meet with someone shouldn’t be one of them.
With Calendly, all you have to do is share a link with the other person. They can see your available slots and choose a time that works for them, automatically adding it to your calendars.
You can use it to:
Save time and effort by automating scheduling tasks.
Provide a centralized platform for managing your calendar and appointments.
Offer flexibility. It provides options for different meeting types, like video calls or in-person meetings.
Costs: Calendly offers a free plan with limited features, while premium plans unlock additional functionalities like integrations and group scheduling.
16. Vocable
Vocable.ai is an AI-powered content management platform designed to streamline your workflow and boost productivity. It uses AI to assist with various content creation tasks, like generating content ideas, conducting research, gathering information, paraphrasing, and summarizing text, to name a few.
You can use it to:
Generate creative content ideas, overcoming your writer’s block.
Save time and effort by automating repetitive tasks.
Improve the quality and efficiency of your content creation process.
Costs: Freemium model, with a basic free plan and paid plans with additional features.
17. Jasper.ai
Shelling out content is a real big chore. But with an AI writing assistant like Jasper.ai, you can create all sorts of copy, like for social media posts, emails, and product descriptions.
You can use it to:
Generate creative text formats, helping you break through creative roadblocks and produce content efficiently.
Craft compelling marketing materials that resonate with your audience and improve your overall marketing strategy.
Save time and resources. You focus on core tasks while Jasper handles the content creation, saving you valuable time and resources.
Cost: Depends on the plan and features chosen.
18. Otter.ai
No need for a secretary to take down the minutes. Otter.ai uses AI-powered software to transcribe meetings, interviews, and lectures in real time.
You can use it to:
Capture every word, freeing you to actively participate and focus on the conversation.
Easily review key points and highlights later, thanks to automatic timestamps and speaker identification.
Share transcripts and recordings with colleagues to ensure everyone stays on the same page.
Cost: Free with basic features. However, the premium plans come with additional features like speaker identification and cloud storage.
19. Midjourney
If you’re looking to unleash your creative spark, try out Midjourney. It creates stunning and unique visuals that’ll spark your creative exploration.
What’s more, it can help make your work more artistic, should it need such appeal. For example, if you need visuals for a presentation or a social media post and you don’t want to spend hours scouring for the perfect stock photo, you can simply describe your vision in Midjourney (e.g., “a futuristic cityscape at sunset”), and it’ll generate stunning options for you to use.
So while it doesn’t boost task completion, you can use it to:
Generate visual ideas to overcome creative roadblocks.
Create visuals quickly and efficiently, saving time compared to traditional methods.
Use visuals to convey ideas and concepts.
Cost: Paid plans that offer varying levels of access and functionality.
20. Google Meet
Online calls use AI, too. Google Meet, in particular, uses this type of intelligence to enhance the user experience, contributing to a more productive, inclusive, and engaging meeting.
You can use it to:
Blur distracting backgrounds and minimize background noise, ensuring a professional and focused environment for your meetings.
Live captioning. This can be particularly helpful for deaf and hard-of-hearing users as well as those following along in different languages.
Adjust lighting and layouts for optimal video quality and group visibility.
Cost: Free, but some advanced features may require a paid Google Workspace subscription.
10 Best Productivity Apps
Your smartphone might seem like something that would be against your productivity. But what if it could actually become your performance powerhouse?
“Everything is a distraction when we don’t decide for ourselves what we want to do with our time,” Nir explains. And these top 10 productivity apps can help with just that.
21. Google Calendar
A great way to schedule events, set reminders, and stay organized is by putting them on your calendar. That’s where Google Calendar comes in.
It allows you to centralize your schedule in one place, accessible from any device. So even if you’ve used your desktop to put in an entry, you’ll be able to access it from your phone.
You can use it to:
Stay organized with the ability to view your schedule in various formats (day, week, month).
Boost productivity by scheduling tasks, setting reminders, and avoiding missed deadlines.
Collaborate effortlessly with colleagues and friends for seamless coordination.
Cost: Free
22. Cloud storage
Let’s say you’re working on a presentation on your laptop at the office. Then, you continue the dits on your phone during your commute home. That’s the beauty of cloud storage—it keeps your documents, photos, music, and whatnot accessible and synced across all your devices.
Whether you opt for Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive, or anything of the like, you best believe this digital locker eliminates the need for bulky USD drives or external hard drives.
You can use it to:
Access your files from any device with an internet connection, increasing flexibility and collaboration.
Automatically back up your files, keeping them safe and secure.
Share files and folders easily with colleagues or friends, streamlining teamwork and project management.
23. Slack
Slack is a cloud-based platform designed to centralize team communication. It replaces emails with channels for specific topics or projects, allowing for organized discussions and file sharing.
You can use it to:
Improve communication by fostering transparency and information flow.
Share ideas, documents, and project updates.
Increase productivity by streamlining workflows and reducing reliance on emails.
Cost: Free with limited features. The paid tiers come with additional functionalities.
24. Evernote
Evernote offers a central hub for all your notes, to-dos, and multimedia content. So, essentially, you can jot down a grocery list at home, add a research note at the library, and then seamlessly access both on your phone at the store.
You can use it to:
Organize your thoughts. Your notes, web clippings, images, and audio recordings are in one place, easily searchable for future reference.
Boost productivity. Create to-do lists, set reminders, and collaborate with others on projects, streamlining your workflow.
Access information anywhere. Sync your notes across devices, ensuring you have everything you need at your fingertips.
Cost: Free with basic features. The premium plans include additional storage and collaboration options.
25. Obsidian
There’s the form of note-taking we’re all familiar with. And then there’s Obsidian—a unique note-taking app that lets you connect your ideas freely.
Why would you want to do that, you may ask? Well, it creates a web of interconnected thoughts. So let’s say you’re researching a historical event. In Obsidian, you can create separate notes for different aspects (such as key figures, causes, timelines, etc.) and link them together.
You can use it to:
Organize knowledge. You can create notes on any topic, link them to related concepts, and build a comprehensive knowledge base.
Connect ideas and explore diverse perspectives, fostering deeper understanding.
Improve your writing by leveraging the interconnected nature of your notes to craft well-structured documents.
Cost: Free
26. Forest
If you’re the kind to get distracted by the constant happenings on your phone, then Forest might be the tool for you. It’s a gamified productivity app that uses positive reinforcement to help you stay focused.
Here’s how it works: Let’s say you want to write for an hour without checking your phone. Plant a virtual tree in the app. As you stay focused and avoid temptation, your tree grows. However, if you do pick up your device, the tree dies.
You can use it to:
Boost your focus and motivation and prevent distractions from hindering your progress.
Increase your self-awareness. Watching your virtual tree wither due to phone use creates a tangible reminder of the consequences of distraction.
Minimize distractions, so you can complete tasks more efficiently and achieve your goals faster.
Cost: Free with basic features. The premium plans include additional functionalities.
27. Freedom
“Why can’t I focus?” That’s what we often ask ourselves when we’ve got too many things taking up our attention.
Silence distractions on your phone, creating a distraction-free zone and allowing you to work uninterrupted.
Reduce procrastination, allowing you to stay on track with your tasks.
Increase productivity, so you can work more efficiently and achieve your goals faster.
Cost: Free on a trial basis. Then, paid plans are available.
28. Todoist
Juggling errands, work deadlines, and personal projects—so many things, so little time. Good thing Todoist can help you organize and manage your tasks.
Cleverly combining “to do” and “list,” this tool lets you create lists for groceries, set a reminder to pay bills, and even collaborate with your family on a vacation itinerary.
You can use it to:
Categorize and prioritize tasks, promoting clear focus and streamlined workflow.
Set reminders, track progress, and stay motivated, enabling you to achieve more in less time.
Share lists and collaborate with others, fostering teamwork and project transparency.
Cost: Free with limited features. The premium plans, however, unlock advanced functionalities like recurring tasks and labels.
29. Pocket
“In your pocket”—that’s the analogy that the Pocket app is named after. It’s essentially putting interesting articles, videos, and webpages you find online “in your pocket” so you can access them easily later, just like you would with physical material you save.
You can use it to:
Declutter your reading list, removing content you find interesting from your browser tabs or to-do lists.
Access saved content even without an internet connection, making it perfect for commutes or travel
Organize your content, making it easier to find what you’re looking for later.
Cost: Free with limited storage and features. A premium plan provides additional features like permanent storage and full-text search.
30. Canva
Need social media graphics for your next marketing campaign? A quick infographic for your meeting? A presentation deck?
Canva’s one of the best productivity tools out there that’s got all of it. There are templates and intuitive tools you can use to design eye-catching, professional-looking visuals in minutes, from your phone or computer.
You can use it to:
Create professional graphics like social media posts, presentations, posters, and more, even without design experience.
Save time and resources by using pre-made templates and avoiding the need for expensive design software.
Share your designs with team members for real-time collaboration and feedback.
Cost: Free with basic features. The premium plans, however, include additional features like stock photos and unlimited storage.
Fuel Your Future
Productivity tools can be a great asset in helping you achieve your goals. However, they can only take you so far.
The thing is, being efficient, organized, and productive is all about working smarter, not harder. And you can learn how in Mindvalley’s free Becoming Focused and Indistractable masterclass with Nir Eyal.
“The fact is, you can’t call something a distraction unless you know what it distracted you from,” he says. And in the 73-minute session, you’ll discover the secrets to becoming “indistractable,” learning powerful techniques to overcome distractions, boost productivity, and unlock your true potential.
Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.
Finding time to focus can take any professional time. One Phase Undock study found it takes some workers nearly 24 minutes to get focused on any task. Try focusing with a pair of Beats Studio Pro Wireless Noise-Cancelling Headphones that offer an immersive audio experience with active noise canceling and transparency mode, and they’re only $179.99.
No more distractions.
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These headphones are equipped with a custom acoustic platform and a 40mm active driver and deliver rich, stunning sound with increased audio fidelity. The integrated digital processor optimizes frequency responses for a powerful and balanced sound profile, ensuring crystal clear calls and wireless freedom for users.
Fully charged, these headphones could deliver up to 40 hours of audio, and music isn’t the only thing they do. The headphones feature on-device controls, so you can take calls, control your music, and activate Siri with multi-function on-ear controls. Additionally, they seamlessly switch between Apple and Android devices, ensuring compatibility with a wide range of tech devices.
The Beats headphones come in open-box condition, typically considered excess inventory from store shelves, and are verified to be in new condition before being repackaged.
Time to focus.
Give yourself the tools to laser focus on the tasks at hand, whether it’s powering through your inbox or listening back to the audio of a meeting.
Electronic Arts is laying off 5% of its workforce, or around 670 of the company’s workers. EA employed around 13,400 people by the end of last March, according to a regulatory filing. Sixty-five percent of those employees are located outside the U.S., it said at the time. Notifying impacted employees “has already begun and will be largely completed by early next quarter,” EA CEO Andrew Wilson wrote in a note to staff published Wednesday.
Wilson also said EA is “moving away from development of future licensed IP that we do not believe will be successful in our changing industry.” Instead, it’ll focus on “owned IP, sports, and massive online communities.”
“We are also leading through an accelerating industry transformation where player needs and motivations have changed significantly,” Wilson wrote. “Fans are increasingly engaging with the largest IP, and looking to us for broader experiences where they can play, watch, create content, and forge deeper connections. Our industry exists at the cutting edge of entertainment, and in today’s dynamic environment, we are advancing the way we work and continuing to evolve our business.”
No specific games were mentioned in Wilson’s note, although EA is currently developing several games based on licensed properties, like a reported third Star Wars Jedi game, along with Marvel’s Black Panther and Iron Man. EA announced in 2022 that Respawn was developing three separate Star Wars games, one of which was Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. The two others were unannounced; one of those games, a first-person action game, has been canceled, according to Video Games Chronicle. “As we’ve looked at Respawn’s portfolio over the last few months, what’s clear is the games our players are most excited about are Jedi and Respawn’s rich library of owned brands,” EA entertainment and technology present Laura Miele said in a statement to the publication.
The cuts come almost one year after EA laid off around 700 people, or 6% of its staff, in March 2023. Earlier in February of this year, The company also laid off “a small number of staff” earlier this week as it ceased operations on EA Sports MLB Tap Sports and F1 Mobile Racing. (These layoffs may be included in the 670 number announced Wednesday.) Those games are presumably part of the company’s plan to “sunset” several games, as Wilson noted in the letter to staff.
EA expects to spend $125 million to $165 million on these layoffs and other cost-cutting measures. Office space reductions will cost roughly $50 million to $60 million, while $35 million to $45 million is expected to go toward “costs associated with licensor commitments,” according to a securities document filed Wednesday. EA said it’ll spend $40 to $55 million on employee severance, which is on top of the $170 million to $200 million EA spent last year on its reorganization cost-cutting plan. (EA, at that time last year, expected to finish the actions related to those costs by Sept. 30, 2023. This time around, it expects to be finished by Dec. 31, 2024.)
Image: Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts via Polygon
In late January, EA released its recent financial results where it reported earning $7.6 billion in the past 12 months before Dec. 31, 2023. Of that, EA made $5.8 billion in gross profit. EA reported that its net bookings are up by 1% year-over-year — part of that is related to its live service success, where it earned a “record $1.712 billion,” 3% more than last year. “On a trailing twelve-month basis, live services were 73% of our business,” EA wrote. In particular, EA called out EA Sports FC for “outperforming expectations.”
“I understand this will create uncertainty and be challenging for many who have worked with such dedication and passion and have made important contributions to our company,” Wilson said in the letter, adding that the company will do its best to help affected workers find “new roles or paths to transition to other projects.” “While not every team will be impacted, this is the hardest part of these changes, and we have deeply considered every option to try and limit impacts to our teams.”
EA is, unfortunately, not alone in the worrying trend of increasing video game industry layoffs. On Tuesday, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced it was laying off 900 people, or 8% of staff. Insomniac Games, Naughty Dog, Guerrilla Games, and Sony’s Technology, Creative, and Support divisions were all impacted. This week alone, people have been laid off from studios like Deck Nine Games, Supermassive Games, and esports company ESL; there was also a production halt at Die Gute Fabrik as funding ran dry.
Roughly 8,000 people have been laid off in the first two months of the year in a worrying trend that’s quickly outpacing 2023, where around 11,000 people were laid off, per industry trackers. Why are these layoffs happening? A comedown after the pandemic is part of it, but not the whole story that includes increasing interest rates on loans, how expensive it is to make games, and a shift in video game industry business models. One important failure to consider is that executive leadership expected the engagement built during the pandemic to continue and grow; executives expanded their companies recklessly without a realistic long-term plan.
Passing each day with mental clarity and an even-keeled mood isn’t some pipe dream: It’s actually well within your grasp. Lifestyle factors including what you eat (like leafy greens and healthy fats), how you move, and even what you supplement with play an outsized role in helping your brain stay sharp and balanced.*
It just honestly seems like search engines are getting worse in general. Whether it’s the fact their primary focus is on ads, or maybe it’s the websites they link to just trying to show up, but it just seems like you can never actually find what you want when you search, just someone selling something.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Each summer, I take a few weeks off as CEO of Jotform, travel to my family’s farm in Turkey, and do my best to truly check out. Instead of tending to my inbox, I tend to our olive groves and go for long nature walks with my kids. As this time off unfolds, I inevitably begin to feel refreshed and re-energized. Upon returning to the office, this form of life hack produces thinking that’s reliably sharper, and I’m increasingly convinced that much of this has to do with the absence of noise, both internal and external.
Their grounding in the principle that “…natural quiet has become an endangered species and needs to be protected” (as Condé Nast Traveler writer Sarah Allard phrases it in a 2023 article on vacation trends), “silent retreats” are on the rise. And though many of these literally encourage no talking, it seems that their effectiveness stems from a lack of informational/digital noise. A fascinating El Pais story by Silvia López Rivas includes a 2011 observation by then-Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who pointed out that until 2003, humans had produced an amount of information equivalent to five exabytes — the same quantity generated every two days in 2011. It has been estimated that by 2025, we’ll be creating 463 exabytes of information every single day. In short, the sound of information, already deafening, is poised to get much louder.
Meditation retreats, even when they’re not totally silent, have been shown to deliver multifold benefits. One comprehensive study published in a 2016 edition of the Journal of Psychosomatic Research found that meditation retreats reliably reduced symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression, in part because of their ability to foster mindfulness — being fully present and engaged in the moment. It is, after all, virtually impossible to focus on creative work when your mind is racing. Mindfulness, meanwhile, leads to clearer and more innovative thinking.
Many retreat participants additionally report that an extended experience of silence helped produce a better night’s sleep, and it’s no secret to anyone reading this that rest is fundamental to sharp cognition. A telling 2004 study from the University of Lübeck involved asking subjects to complete math problems that relied on algorithms, with shortcuts hidden deep within formulas. About 25% of the subjects discovered them at the outset, but given the chance to get eight hours of sleep, that figure rose to 59%.
It’s challenging to quit noise cold turkey. That’s why silent retreat organizers approach the process gradually. For example, they recommend that participants, especially first-timers, ease into the practice by refraining from checking phones for a few hours before arriving.
Even if you’re not jetting off to retreat in a 16th-century castle in France, there are ways to proceed gradually into encouraging quiet, say by carving out just 15 daily minutes away from devices, emails, meetings, social media and news notifications.
It’s tricky for me to commit to anything that isn’t scheduled, so I make regular appointments to have silent time. For me, mornings work best before the day has a chance to catch up. When the appointment pops up, I’m not deciding whether or not I’m in the mood to be silent; I just switch off devices and begin.
Objectively observe your internal dialogue
Making time for yourself in this way is, on its own, an achievement that will deliver myriad benefits, but applying some actionable advice can help take the practice one step further.
During silent time at the office, I use some of the practices from Vipassana meditation — scanning my body from head to toe and paying attention to sensations. If my shoulders ache from a morning training session or my stomach grumbles after a skipped breakfast, I take note while tuning into what’s happening in my mind.
The key is to not react, just observe, as many have found that engaging in this discipline helps both body and mind better tolerate painful and unpleasant situations.
In our incredibly noisy world, sitting in silence can be jarring, and it’s not unusual to experience a knee-jerk need to escape from it. In a 2016 Guardian article, one journalist attending a silent retreat in New Zealand admitted to having the urge to run through the hall screaming. It’s perfectly natural to want to give up when you’re first engaging in this process, and that’s okay. The trick is to stop expecting perfection and learn to be with things as they are, which can reduce stress and anxiety and boost creativity and the need for productive connections with others.
Cannabis is the average co-ed’s drug of choice. While a lot of people encounter cannabis when they’re younger, it’s not until college the stoner persona solidifies. New college students are entering a stage where they’re able to smoke to their heart’s content without worrying about their parents or the smell of their rooms. It’s natural for them to want to smoke all the time. But is cannabis a study air, especially around finals?
Like most things marijuana, it is complicated and there isn’t a significant amount of data to support it is a big benefit. School performance while under the influence depends on a variety of factors, mainly whether or not the student actually studies while high, and the ways in which their body responds to the drug, which is affected by method, dosage and personal experience.
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Like enegery drinks, it is a mixed bag of results and has to do with factors like late night studying, stress, and the amount consumed. There is an assumption marijuana helps with the creativity process, which for projects could be helpful.
Depending on the dosage and strain being consumed, marijuana could help users narrow their focus of the topic they’re studying or provide new ideas students. It might make the topic at hand more engaging and entertaining, putting people in a better mood when starting to study. If the user tends to feel anxiety when studying, marijuana might help curb those impulses.
When it comes to group study sessions, marijuana might facilitate deeper conversations and more engagement from the group, it works if the user enjoys learning alongside others and talking out problems and topics.
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The way in which cannabis is consumed plays a pivotal role as well. While edibles are discreet and powerful, they might be too strong for a relaxed study session; vaping and smoking flower might be the safest options to try out at first. Microdosing might be an option to test the waters, producing results which are not distracting and don’t derail from the user’s original purpose.
Still, since there’s not a lot of scientific data out there, it’s important to go slow. Users should monitor their dosage and pick the right occasion to consume. For instance, a school topic they enjoy will work better than one they don’t, and a low stakes situation, like a quiz or a group activity, will definitely be more manageable than a midterm.
Attending a class while super stoned doesn’t sound like the most pleasing experience, but a little toke won’t hurt anyone, especially if the class is large or if there are friends around that could provide some support and peace of mind.
As always, for better recommendations, it helps to visit a dispensary and to talk with an expert, who might recommend a product that’s manageable and suitable for creating a focused mentality. Most importantly, the biggest piece of advice would be to be careful. While marijuana can be creatively stimulating, it can also make people’s brain feel hazy and paranoid. Studying with weed might not be for everyone, and it’s up to the user to figure out if they can manage the side effects.
Limited research has shown that marijuana’s negative effects on attention, memory, and learning can last for days or weeks which could have a rough impact on test results.
As a full-time novelist, I used to feel completely focused some days, and pages flew from my fingers. On other days, however, every word felt like a chore, and my wit seemed to be lost. With the good days making me feel so accomplished, and the bad days feeling like a waste, I went on a search for something that could help me make every day a good one.
I tried many different supplements, nootropics, and a variety of different forms of caffeine, but none delivered the “magic” effect they promised, and some left me even more distracted. Too much caffeine would impact my sleep and mood, so that didn’t work either. When I mentioned my challenges to a fellow health enthusiast with a master’s degree in nutrition, she recommended I try targeted supplementation with mindbodygreen’s brain guard+.
brain guard+ has become a staple for me over the last year. I always take it first thing in the morning, even while traveling (I pack it with me wherever I go).
I used to only take the supplement on work days, but I like feeling sharper on weekends, too. So now I take it six or seven days a week and order a three-month supply at a time.
I love how it doesn’t hurt my sleep, how it has no weird ingredients, and how I can take it on an empty stomach without making it upset (even after a night out). Most importantly, I love having more good writing days.
Just like any supplement, it’s not a miracle pill. I still need to maintain healthy eating, exercise daily, and get enough sleep to be at my best. brain guard+ just gives me an extra edge on top of those things.*
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Innovation has become synonymous with success for modern business leaders. Industry landscapes shift faster than ever due to technological leaps, and leaders must quickly adapt to better meet the challenges of today and tomorrow alike.
While real-world experience is invaluable to gaining knowledge specific to your field, I have found that reading the right books can rapidly transform my perception — and ultimately enhance my ability to lead teams through even the most challenging circumstances.
As an estimated four million new books are released annually, it can quickly become a slog of a job in itself to find the gems among the rubble. The following books challenged my perception of innovation and left me a more effective leader. The information within them can improve anyone’s ability to innovate and steer their brand toward true and lasting success.
For a team to fully flourish and innovate, they must first find the ability to focus deeply. This is easier said than done in the age of distractions, though. Since 2000, the average adult attention span has plummeted by 25%, leaving it at a paltry 8.25-second average.
“Deep Work”steps in to challenge conventional norms about productivity and reevaluate habits, communication and accessibility. Newport leads the reader through how to best approach complex problems that require long periods of focus to overcome.
All modern teams face significant obstacles between themselves and performing their best work. This book provides a framework to clear the mind and truly focus on what matters in the moment, creating the best setting possible for innovation to occur.
Sometimes, the best way to learn to lead isn’t from straightforward advice but by following the story of someone who experienced unprecedented success. “Shoe Dog”chronicles the rise of Nike from the early sixties into the digital age. From humble origins to an annual revenue of almost $19 billion, Knight led Nike with a series of daring, innovative moves that bucked the trends of his time.
His choices and ability to lead led to the creation of an iconic brand recognizable around the world, and the lessons from this rise are readily applicable beyond the footwear world. If you’re looking for a book about how to succeed and lead with grace, then “Shoe Dog”is a near-perfect fit.
3. ‘Going On Offense: A Leader‘s Playbook for Perpetual Innovation‘ by Behnam Tabrizi
Far too often, after a business achieves initial success after early innovation, it rests on its laurels. This gives competitors time to catch up while their lead diminishes, squandering an opportunity to cement themselves at the top of their industry.
In “Going on Offense: A Leader’s Playbook for Perpetual Innovation,” Tabrizi outlines exactly how to not just innovate once but to ingrain creativity throughout your business. For businesses looking to regain their innovative stride and reclaim their spot at the top of their industry, Tabrizi’s work is essential reading.
Based on a comprehensive seven-year study that covers trends of industry leaders like Apple, Facebook and Amazon, Tabrizi’s work gives the precise knowledge base and actionable insights modern leaders need to continually innovate and improve past initial success. There are few works as fitting or relevant for those looking to set themselves and their team up for long-term, sustainable innovation and success.
4. ‘The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses‘ by Eric Ries
This book provides a methodology for entrepreneurs to create and manage startups effectively. It emphasizes the importance of experimentation, customer feedback and rapid iteration and advocates for the development of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), which is then tested with customers to gain real-world data and insights. The concept of “validated learning” is central, encouraging entrepreneurs to gather data as quickly as possible and make data-driven decisions.
The business model canvas helps entrepreneurs refine their business models, while customer development focuses on understanding the target market through continuous interaction. Agile development advocates for a flexible and iterative approach to product development.
Through real-life examples like Dropbox and IMVU, the book demonstrates how startups have successfully applied their principles to achieve innovation, growth, and market success. Overall, The Lean Startup is a valuable guide for entrepreneurs navigating the uncertain landscape of innovation and seeking to build sustainable and successful businesses.
5. ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People‘ by Sean Covey
Both positive and negative habits shape every decision and day throughout our lives. In this classic read, Covey systematically notes how to view your personal habits with objectivity so you can then improve them and become an easier individual to work with.
While some of the concepts within, like “Win-Win,” might seem old hat at this time, there’s a reason this book has maintained relevance and steady sales since the 80s. It’s a timeless approach to accepting responsibility not for yourself but for how you interact daily with others. Covey provides a proven system that doesn’t just lead to efficient productivity but more effective leadership skills that work under virtually any conditions.
A quality book can be a transformative experience that imparts the lessons of a lifetime within the few hours it takes to read. The advice from these industry pioneers leaves a reader with a more nuanced understanding of both business relationships and their personal ability to lead.
Give them a read, and I’m confident you will find relatable insights that can help further fuel your ability to innovate and thrive.
Our brain is only able to retain a certain amount of information at any particular moment—this is called our “cognitive capacity.” Different cognitive tasks require different amounts of our brain’s cognitive capacity.
Our cognitive abilities and restraints are determined by the availability of our attentional resources—such as working memory (i.e., the amount of information we can mentally hold at any given time) and fluid intelligence (i.e., the ability to solve new problems).
The thing is, attentional resources are limited, and using them for one cognitive task leaves fewer available for other tasks (and, in turn, reduces available cognitive capacity). Given the overwhelming abundance of information at our fingertips and our brains’ limited capacity to process that information, we need to be incredibly selective with how we’re allocating our attentional resources.
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