Hi Reader, Daria’s here.

This email is more personal than usual.

With the conflict affecting so many countries in the Middle East, it's hard to stick to original plans. We're experiencing pressure psychologically, wrapped in missile alerts — you don't know when they will come, and you need to drop everything and go to the shelter.

That could happen in the middle of writing this newsletter, in the middle of a workshop planned two months ago, or at night. It's psychologically and physically hard to be abruptly cut off, to suddenly stop what you've been doing. There's no sense of flow. You may feel like you're failing your clients.

And this doesn't only happen during wartime.

It can happen when you suddenly get sick, when severe weather disrupts everything, or when something unexpected happens that is completely out of your control.

What do you do when you simply can't do what you planned to do?

Here's my personal strategy

Stop freaking out. Focus on what you can control and understand that this is not going to be your most productive moment. Some people find it helpful to think about resilience and strength. To be honest, that doesn't help me anymore. But the point is — we are where we are, and we can do nothing about it. So calm down and focus on what you can do, rather than being sorry for what you cannot do.

Shift the type of work. You probably have a backlog of things that have been waiting. Things like cleaning up your document archive, checking subscriptions and eliminating what you don't need, or building that AI agent you never had time to build. Find something that doesn't require a lot of brainpower — something you can start at any time, drop at any time, but still get meaningful work done.

Protect your energy and presence. Reschedule everything you can. Move meetings to a time when you can be fully present. This isn't failure — it's respect for the people you're meeting with.

Use two to-do lists. One list for low-effort, low-brainpower activities you can cross off and feel accomplished. The other list is for more complex things — break them into smaller chunks and work on those chunks one step at a time. This way, you see progress and understand that you're not stuck. You're still moving forward.

Enjoy what you've already built. This week, despite everything, two podcast episodes came out. One with Mary Kelly on why HR directors might be the best-prepared people for CEO rolesroles (it's about understanding people, regulations, and the relational complexity most CEOs fail on).

Another with Oksana Lukash on how people leaders can scale culture without copying what everyone else is doing.

Listen to the full episode on your favorite platform

My latest Forbes Coaches Council article also came out this week: The Decision Paradox: When More Information Makes Decisions Harder. And it's actually perfect timing.

When things are overwhelming, don't try to get clarity by consuming more information. Stop doomscrolling.

Focus instead on the design of your decision-making process. Focus on what you can and should be involved in, what you cannot control, and what you can delegate.

The most consequential decisions you make are often invisible: the decisions about how decisions get made.

That's where leadership shows up when complexity is unavoidable.

Have a safe and calm week, everyone.

See you next Thursday.

Daria

P.S. If you have your own strategies for dealing with high-pressure situations, I'd love to hear them. Just hit reply — I learn as much from you as I hope you learn from me.