Money versus quality time, the key to managing stress, and more top insights

Hello there! David Gelles here as your guest editor today. I’m the Corner Office columnist for The New York Times, and am in regular dialogue with CEOs about what’s happening in the world of work. This Saturday edition of the Daily Rundown features some tips on working smarter, facing adversity and questioning authority. Read on and join the conversation.

What’s money worth if you don’t have time to enjoy it? Most of us spend much of our time working, believing that it will make us money and that money will make us happy in the long run. But we’ve got it all wrong, argues Harvard Business School professor Ashley Whillans. Research consistently shows that the happiest people use their money to buy time. “People who are willing to give up money to gain more free time — by, say, working fewer hours or paying to outsource disliked tasks — experience more fulfilling social relationships, more satisfying careers, and more joy, and overall, live happier lives,” Whillans writes. ? Here’s what people are saying.

The key to managing stress? Separating reactions from responses: Long hours, looming deadlines and challenging colleagues can conspire to make our time at the office a regular source of stress. In an article for Mindful.org, Tara Healey of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care offers suggestions on how to use mindfulness to become happier, more productive and less likely to become upset. Among her suggestions: Learn to respond, rather than react. “By decoupling what’s happening from your reaction to what’s happening, odds are you will prevent yourself from simply being carried along by the experience and instead will prove yourself capable of getting ahead of it,” she writes. ? Here’s what people are saying.

You Asked: “What are several healthy ways to cope with a job you hate?” — Aaron Mays, freelance publicist, writer, communications consultant

• “If you hate your job, it’s important to do something every day to relieve the feeling that you’re stuck in a never-ending slog. One possibility is periodically taking a break to immerse yourself in another world. When I had a frustrating job years ago, I’d bring a book with me to work every day and read for a half-hour during my lunch break. It was a way I could escape from the pressures of the day and steel myself for the afternoon. Another alternative is using your time — either during lunch or after work — to build your skills. If you’re taking action to improve yourself (for instance, by taking online courses), it’s easier to recognize that your current job is only a temporary situation that you’ll soon be moving past. Finally, you can use your off-hours to network strategically. Employing any and all of these strategies can help you take your mind off your present circumstances and give you momentum as you position yourself for your next career move.” — Dorie Clark, author of “Entrepreneurial You”
• Or, as New York Times styles editor Choire Sicha wrote in response to a disenchanted reader in a recent Work Friend column, “You should be looking for a new job. Opportunity is the only leverage that nonunionized labor has in a negotiation.”

Looking for career advice from the pros? Submit your questions in the comments with #YouAsked and we’ll take care of the rest.

Focus is a muscle, and it needs to be trained: Honing your ability to root out distractions is not just a matter of changing your habits, Georgetown University’s Cal Newport tells Bloomberg. Instead, it’s a skill that requires dedicated practice. How do you get started? Newport recommends a technique he calls “productive meditation,” which involves taking a walk and committing to focus on a single problem. Whenever your mind wanders, you gently bring your attention back to the task. “I think of productive meditation like pull-ups: It’s really hard at first, but it gives you really big results,” says Newport. ? Here’s what people are saying.

For married business partners, it’s all about staying in your lane: In the most recent Corner Office column, I chatted with Julia Hartz, the founder of Eventbrite. Julia took a big risk early in her career, co-founding a tech startup with her fiance at the time. They knew it would be tricky, but they devised a system to ensure they were never stepping on each others’ toes. “Divide and conquer,” Julia told me. “We just never worked on the same area of the business at the same time. If you’re working on the same spreadsheet, you’re going to be fighting over the mouse.” ? Here’s what people are saying.

One last idea:  Plenty of companies claim that they are doing their part to make the world a better place. But at big corporations, the right hand is often working against the left, author Anand Giridharadas recently explained at the BSR conference in New York. Instead of focusing on corporate social responsibility initiatives, Giridharadas suggests employees should gain a full understanding of their employer’s lobbying activities and demand accountability.

“In many many cases, there is someone in Washington, with maybe a nicer suit than yours, undermining everything you may be doing every day…. The best thing that the winners of our age can do is step out of the way, stop doing harm and stop lobbying against the very things you're doing by daylight.”

What's your take? Join the conversations on today's stories in the comments.

— David Gelles