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The Asthetic of Jess

Smart ways to live and work, so you have time for the things you love

Author: ContentbyJess

  • Digital Fluency & AI: What I Learned, What Unsettled Me and Why I’m Not Buying the Hype

    Digital Fluency & AI: What I Learned, What Unsettled Me and Why I’m Not Buying the Hype

    Part of The One-Person Renaissance: A 12-Month Blueprint to Becoming the Most Educated, Empowered Woman

    I was scrolling on Social Media and everywhere I looked it was a new Claude feature here and a new AI Assistant there. And I sat there with my phone, my very human brain and that particular autistic mix of hyper focus and delayed emotional response. It felt like the floor shifted a few millimetres under my chair. Not enough to make anyone else look up. Enough that my nervous system noticed. It was not panic. It was not outrage. It was the quieter thought that scared me more. Things are changing and fast.

    I work in HR. I have a law degree. I have spent years learning how to read people, how to write policy, how to live inside the gap between what organisations say they value and what they actually do. And here are people handing there most personal data and thinking to a machine.

    And it made me realise: If I do not understand what this technology is, I will be making decisions about it with no real way to push back.
    That was the day I stopped treating AI as someone else’s specialist topic and started treating it as part of my actual life.

    January in the One Person Renaissance series was about economics and finance and that month showed me that the systems shaping our money are not neutral at all. February took that same lens and turned it toward technology. Specifically artificial intelligence. What it is. What it costs. Who it serves. What it means for women like us who are trying to build careers and lives on purpose instead of on autopilot.

    This is not a post from a tech person. I am not a tech person. I am an autistic, burnt out, rebuilding person who decided that staying ignorant was no longer an option.

    Why This Is Not Optional Anymore, Especially If You Are a Woman in a Professional Career

    Here is the part that does not get said in polite meetings.
    AI is already involved in your career. Not as a future scenario. As a present tense fact.

    It screens your CV before a human ever scrolls. It scores your performance data. It flags patterns in how you communicate. It is used to predict who might leave, who is a high performer, who looks like a good bet. And the people building these systems are, statistically, not people who look like most of us or live lives that feel like ours.

    We already know there is a pattern of AI systems absorbing the bias in their training data. Amazon scrapped an internal recruiting tool in 2018 after they discovered it was quietly pushing down CVs that included the word “women’s” — in things like women’s chess club or women’s leadership programme. The model learned from ten years of past hiring. Ten years of mostly hiring men. The machine copied the humans. The humans had a bias. The machine scaled it up and sped it up.¹
    Understanding AI is not about becoming a programmer. I have zero interest in writing code. This is about basic fluency. Enough that when someone in a meeting says an algorithm made a decision, you know what to ask next. Enough to know when to say no.

    For women in professional careers, that fluency is not an extra confidence skill. It is self protection.

    What AI Actually Is, Translated Into Real Life

    I spent a lot of February pulling jargon apart, because jargon is one of the neatest ways to make people feel stupid and shut them out of the conversation.

    So here is how I now explain it when I am talking to friends who also do not feel like tech people.

    The Short Version

    When most people say AI right now, they are talking about systems trained on huge piles of data (often intelectual property of people who did not give liscences for it) that learn to spot patterns and then use those patterns to produce something. Text. Images. Recommendations. Scores.
    The tools you probably use already fit this description. Autocomplete in your email. The recommendations on your streaming service. The chatbot that appears when you are trying to get a refund. They all do their own version of the same move. They look at past data, find patterns and guess what should come next.
    The newer wave, the large language models like ChatGPT, are trained on staggering amounts of text from the internet. They learn the statistical relationships between words. When you ask a question, the model is not sitting there pondering like a tiny digital philosopher. It is predicting, in very fast detail, what a plausible response looks like given everything it has seen before.

    That matters. It is not conscious. It does not understand your question the way a human does. It is extremely good at pattern recognition and at stringing words together. That is not the same thing as intelligence, no matter what the branding suggests.

    The Longer Version

    Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Nearer argues that we are moving toward a point where AI will surpass human intelligence in most areas of life and that this will happen faster than most people expect.
    Reading him felt like sitting with a brilliant, relentlessly optimistic uncle. He has big timelines. Big confidence. Some of his earlier predictions have been uncomfortably accurate, which makes it harder to roll your eyes and move on.
    Max Tegmark’s Life 3.0 felt different. Less like a prediction, more like someone saying, “Here are the questions we should probably ask before we press go on this thing.” Tegmark treats AI development as one of the most consequential things humans have ever done, and argues that what happens next depends heavily on choices we are making right now, not in some distant future we can leave to our grandchildren.

    Neither book is light. I did not sit in the bath with a scented candle and casually absorb them. But both gave me ways to think about AI that went far beyond the usual “will it take my job” panic. Which, I learned fairly quickly, is the wrong question anyway.

    The Critical Thinking Lens: AI Is Not Neutral

    The most dangerous thing about AI is not that it might become smarter than us. It is that we might hand it authority before we have asked who built it, what it was trained on and whose interests it was designed to serve.

    This is where most of my February energy went. Also the part that is almost totally missing from glossy AI conference talks and LinkedIn posts.

    AI systems are built by humans, trained on data created by humans and rolled out to serve the interests of whoever is paying for them. None of that is neutral. All of that shapes what the system does and who it harms.

    Nick Bostrom’s Superintelligence is dense and academic and at points I had to put the book down and go for a walk. Not because of science fiction scenarios, but because he is describing real structural risks that serious researchers are genuinely worried about.
    His central obsession is alignment. How do you make sure a powerful AI system pursues goals that are genuinely good for humans, rather than goals that look correct in a narrow technical way but clash badly with our actual values. It is the difference between “technically correct” and “this ruins lives.”

    Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows looks at something smaller and closer. Not future superintelligence. Just the internet we already have and what it is doing to our brains. He writes about how the constant flood of information and the way digital media is structured changes how we read, think and focus. His argument is that we are trading depth for speed. We skim instead of sit. We snack instead of cook. The cost of that trade is slow. You do not notice it on a Tuesday afternoon, but over years it adds up. And I do believe we see the first results already, one only has to look at teenagers today.

    Reading Carr alongside Kurzweil and Tegmark created this odd tension in my head. Some people are looking at civilisation level change. Carr is looking at what happens in your nervous system every time you grab your phone instead of letting your mind wander for five minutes.

    Both levels matter.

    The Environmental and Economic Costs Nobody Mentions at Conferences

    When I put my critical thinking hat on here, I found something that really bothered me.

    Training a large AI model eats a huge amount of computing power, which means a huge amount of electricity. A 2023 study estimated that training a single large language model can create as much carbon dioxide as five cars over their whole lifetimes.² The data centres that keep these systems running use billions of litres of water for cooling. The hardware depends on rare earth minerals that have to be mined, often in places where local communities carry the environmental and human cost.
    None of this means AI is automatically wrong. I do not think that. But it does mean the story of AI as a clean, neutral, purely progressive tool is incomplete. There are real costs. They do not land on everyone equally. And they almost never appear in the slide deck when someone is selling you efficiency.
    Maybe, and this is something I also read about this month, AI will advance to a point where it can create nanobots (yes, a la Iron Man) and these bots can become every atom or substance needed. A rare mineral or a body cell. At that point we will probably mine less and possibly be able to reduce energy costs. But in what state will our environment be by then?

    What I Actually Learned This Month, Including the Thing That Unsettled Me

    I spent part of February listening to two episodes of Diary of a CEO that I would recommend if you want to think more seriously about AI without needing a computer science degree.
    The Roman Yampolskiy episode is the one that lodged itself in my brain. He is an AI safety researcher and his position is not gentle. He does not think we can build a safe superintelligent AI. Not “it will be tricky.” Not “we need more regulation.” He thinks the problem might be impossible to solve and that most people pushing ahead with AI development are not acting as if that might be true.
    And I get him. A superintelligence is unprecedented and able to think of scenarios we cannot even phatom. So how do we protect ourselves if it doesn’t stay benign?

    As someone who likes solutions and frameworks and neat systems, I found that hard to sit with. I did it anyway.

    The Mo Gawdat episode felt emotionally different. Gawdat, who used to be Chief Business Officer at Google X, talks about AI with a kind of tired urgency. He is not trying to stop it. He treats its progress as inevitable. His focus is on the values we pour into these systems and whether the people building them are thinking carefully enough about what they are actually creating.

    The BigDeal episode about building a business with AI employees was the most concrete and grounded. No sci fi. Just small business owners matter of factly talking about using AI tools to handle operational work. What struck me was not fear. It was how normal they made it sound. This is not a thought experiment for them. It is a Tuesday. That made my own career questions feel less hypothetical too. This is already happening. The question is not if it touches your field. The question is how soon and in what shape.

    The Thing That Genuinely Unsettled Me

    Here is the part that got under my skin.
    It was not the headlines about jobs being replaced. It was not Bostrom’s alignment problems. It was something smaller and closer.

    I was reading about how some organisations now use AI in performance management. Tools that monitor productivity, track communication patterns and generate neat little assessments of individual performance.
    And I thought about me.

    I am autistic. My brain works differently. I have spent years masking and adapting and performing a version of myself that looks “professional enough” in offices that were not built with people like me in mind. So imagine an AI system trained on data from neurotypical high performers assessing my email response times, my wording, how often I speak in meetings and turning that into a score. No context for sensory overload, for burnout, for the careful pacing that keeps me functional. No measure of the actual thought processes brought into every decision.
    That did not feel abstract. It felt personal. And it reminded me that the people already on the edge of existing systems are usually the ones most exposed when a new layer of automated judgement arrives.

    The Tension: Tool That Frees You vs. Force That Replaces You

    I refuse to be either a cheerleader or a catastrophist about AI. Both positions are lazy. The honest answer is that it depends, on who builds it, who governs it, who has access to it and whether the people most affected by it have any say in how it is deployed.

    This is the question I kept circling all month, usually while making tea or staring out of train windows.
    On one hand, AI already makes my life easier in very practical ways. I use it to sketch first drafts of documents that would otherwise take me a whole evening. I use it to summarise long reports when my brain is already fried. I use it to generate options when I am stuck in black and white thinking. I use it to summarise and plan projects, I use it to fasten up research.
    It really has given me back some time. And as a burnout recoveree, time and energy are my most guarded resources.

    On the other hand, I have watched AI being used to create deepfakes with malicious intentions, stolen intellectual property and accusations of using AI for writing anything in proper grammar.

    So my conclusion was simple and not very glamorous. The technology is not the root problem. The governance is. And governance is a human problem, which means it is a space where people like us, educated, tired, paying attention, working in real organisations, are needed.

    I am not anti AI. I am pro awkward questions about AI. Those are different positions and the way people talk about this topic often collapses them into a loud, useless binary.
    Let’s return to a topic many recognise in the AI debate: Is AI coming for our joby.

    The short answer. Yes

    The long one: one at a time. At first it will and is already hitting entry level jobs and lower income fields. Anything that is easily repeatable. Those have been the first jobs to go anywhere. We are not dictating our letters anymore ever since everyone at work uses a PC, we need less people working in archieves if they’re digital.
    But AI will go further and include more and more jobs.

    This month I learned that humans will probably become like the nobility in history. Adminstrating themselves and living a cultural and social setting. No more 9-5, no more work.
    But what will be our way towars that? Who will we loose and leave behind?
    What will our society do, to ensure a stable life and income for everybody?

    Those are the questions we already have to ask. But somehow we don’t.

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    Most people are optimizing the wrong things. They’re chasing productivity hacks while their health quietly declines or building careers while their identity shrinks. Spending money without a system or resting without actually recovering.

    The Long Game is a weekly newsletter that zooms out. Every Saturday you’ll recieve one email built around four pillars: a Destination worth traveling to, a Read of the week, an Expert opinion that caught me that week, an Alignment tip to make everything fit your system and one Motivation to continue. I call it a DREAM because of that. It’s practical tools, honest perspective and zero filler.

    Written by someone who burned out, rebuilt from scratch and learned that sustainable success isn’t about doing more. It’s about building better. She has a law degree, an autistic brain that loves systems and a deep distrust of generic advice.

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    How I Actually Studied This Month: My February Routine

    I want to be specific about how I studied because “I read four books and listened to six podcasts” can sound either impressive or fake. Especially if you are already stretched thin.

    I did not sit down and read four books from start to finish. I read what I needed and gave myself permission to be strategic.
    Weeks one and two: I started with Life 3.0. Tegmark is the most readable of the four authors on my list, so I began there. Thirty minutes in the morning before work with my coffee. No highlighters. Just a plain notebook where I wrote down questions that came up as I read.
    Week three: I moved to The Shallows in the evenings. Carr’s tone is more personal and the book is shorter. It felt like a good counterweight to the broad, sweeping thinking in Tegmark. That same week I listened to the Yampolskiy and Gawdat episodes of Diary of a CEO on my commute.
    Week four: I did not force every page of Superintelligence. I used the index and the chapter summaries and went straight to the sections that connected with the questions I had already written down. I listened to the audiobook of The Singularity Is Nearer on my commute. I also listened to the BigDeal AI CEO episode and blocked out an afternoon to actually experiment with several AI tools. No theory. Just testing. Where did they genuinely help. Where did they spit out confident nonsense.

    The honest truth is that when you study something this complex and emotionally loaded, the goal is not to finish the reading list. The goal is to walk away with better questions than the ones you started with.

    That is what February gave me.

    Since then I have been experimenting with AI agents and prompts to make my life easier and it also rekindled my love of learning, because in these changing times the ability to grow and learn will become a key factor.

    By the Numbers

    • Women hold only 26% of data and AI roles globally, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2023.³
    • The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that up to 14 million workers in the US alone could need to change occupations by 2030 due to AI-driven automation, with women in administrative and service roles disproportionately affected.⁴
    • A 2024 LinkedIn Workforce Report found that AI literacy is now among the top five skills employers are looking for across industries , including sectors traditionally dominated by women, such as healthcare, education and HR.⁵
    • Despite this, women are significantly underrepresented in AI ethics and governance roles, the exact spaces where decisions about how these systems are built and deployed are being made.

    Q&A: The Questions You Are Actually Asking

    Q: I am not a tech person. Is it too late for me to understand AI well enough to use it or protect myself from it?

    No. And I say that as someone who spent most of her adult life assuming technology was for other people. The barrier to understanding AI is not technical skill. It is vocabulary and confidence. You do not need to know how to build a model. You need to know what questions to ask when someone tells you a decision was made by one. Start with one good book, I would recommend Life 3.0 and one good podcast episode, the Mo Gawdat Diary of a CEO episode is a strong entry point. That is enough to start.

    Q: Should I be worried about AI replacing my job?

    Honestly? Some roles will change significantly. Some tasks within almost every role will be automated. But the research consistently shows that the jobs most at risk are those built around repetitive, predictable tasks, not the jobs that require judgment, relationship management, ethical reasoning or contextual understanding. Though I do believe they will follow. The goal is not to avoid AI. It is to understand it well enough to position yourself as someone who works with it intelligently, rather than someone who is simply replaced by it.

    Q: How do I know if an AI tool is actually good or just well-marketed?

    Ask three questions. First: what was it trained on and by whom? Second: what are its known failure modes or limitations? Third: who bears the cost when it gets something wrong? If the company selling you the tool cannot answer those questions clearly, that tells you something important. I also look at where servers are located, e.g. if they’re in Europe and follow the GDPR. But that’s a personal decision.

    Q: I feel overwhelmed every time I try to read about AI. Where do I even start?

    Start with the feeling, not the information. The overwhelm is real and it is not a sign that you are not smart enough. It is a sign that the topic is genuinely complex and that most of the public discourse around it is either hype or panic, neither of which is useful. Give yourself permission to go slowly. One book. One podcast. One conversation with someone who thinks critically about it. You do not need to understand everything. You need to understand enough to participate in the conversation.

    Keep Going With The One-Person Renaissance

    The full 12-month curriculum lives here: The One-Person Renaissance: A 12-Month Blueprint to Becoming the Most Educated, Empowered Woman.

    January was economics and finance, understanding the systems that shape our money and our choices. February was this. Each month builds a different layer of the same foundation: a woman who understands the world she is living in well enough to move through it with intention and to grow her skills.

    If you want to follow along in real time, subscribe to the newsletter below. I share what I am reading, what I am questioning and what I am actually applying – without the performance of having it all figured out.

    “`
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    Most people are optimizing the wrong things. They’re chasing productivity hacks while their health quietly declines or building careers while their identity shrinks. Spending money without a system or resting without actually recovering.

    The Long Game is a weekly newsletter that zooms out. Every Saturday you’ll recieve one email built around four pillars: a Destination worth traveling to, a Read of the week, an Expert opinion that caught me that week, an Alignment tip to make everything fit your system and one Motivation to continue. I call it a DREAM because of that. It’s practical tools, honest perspective and zero filler.

    Written by someone who burned out, rebuilt from scratch and learned that sustainable success isn’t about doing more. It’s about building better. She has a law degree, an autistic brain that loves systems and a deep distrust of generic advice.

    “`
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    Footnotes

    1. Dastin, J. (2018). Amazon scraps secret AI recruiting tool that showed bias against women. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-amazon-com-jobs-automation-insight-idUSKCN1MK08G
    2. Strubell, E., Ganesh, A., and McCallum, A. (2019). Energy and Policy Considerations for Deep Learning in NLP. Proceedings of the 57th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics. https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.02629
    3. World Economic Forum. (2023). Global Gender Gap Report 2023. https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-gender-gap-report-2023
    4. McKinsey Global Institute. (2023). The Future of Work After COVID-19. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/the-future-of-work-after-covid-19
    5. LinkedIn Economic Graph. (2024). LinkedIn’s Jobs on the Rise and Workforce Confidence Reports. https://economicgraph.linkedin.com
  • What Burnout Taught Me About Longevity: the 5 habits I built from scratch

    What Burnout Taught Me About Longevity: the 5 habits I built from scratch

    There was a version of me who thought being tired all the time was just adulthood.
    I thought waking up exhausted meant I needed to try harder. I thought the headaches, the brain fog, the constant tension in my body, and that heavy feeling of moving through every day with nothing left in the tank were just the price of being ambitious. I kept functioning. I kept showing up. From the outside, my life still looked fine.

    It was not fine.

    Burnout did not arrive in one dramatic moment. It built itself quietly. In the sleep I kept cutting short. In the stress I normalized. In the pressure I treated like proof that I was doing enough. By the time I admitted something was wrong, my body had been trying to tell me for a long time.

    That experience changed how I think about longevity.
    For a long time, longevity sounded abstract to me. Like a shiny wellness word for people with perfect morning routines, expensive supplements and the energy to track everything. But burnout forced me to understand it differently. Longevity is not about becoming obsessed with living forever. It is about building a life and a body that do not collapse under the weight of how you are living now.
    That was the shift I needed.

    I did not rebuild my life by becoming perfect. I rebuilt it by asking a simpler question: what habits would make future me feel safe, steady and well?

    These are the five habits I built from scratch during burnout recovery. They changed how I work, how I rest, how I travel, and how I think about success.

    Disclaimer: I am not a health professional. Here I am writing about what my own research for personal use taught me. Apply with caution and talk to your health professional before you start.

    1. I stopped treating sleep like the thing I could always borrow from

    If you had asked the old me what mattered most for health, I probably would have said food or exercise. Sleep felt negotiable. It was the first thing I stole from and the thing I assumed I could make up later.

    I was wrong.

    In burnout, sleep stopped feeling restorative. I could sleep and still wake up feeling like I had been hit by something. My body felt wired and tired at the same time. That was one of the first moments I realized rest and recovery are not the same thing as simply being in bed.

    So I started from zero.

    Not with a perfect nighttime routine. Not with a hundred rules. Just with the decision that sleep was no longer optional maintenance. It was infrastructure.

    For me, this became very unglamorous very quickly. I got more honest about what happened when I stayed up too late. I was more anxious the next morning, more overstimulated. More likely to reach for sugar, caffeine and sheer willpower instead of actual energy. So I established my first little routines. Going to bed at the same time every day and no work immediately before, even on my blog or social media that are not really work to me.

    As an autistic woman with a sensitive nervous system, the quality of my sleep is not a cute wellness detail. It is often the difference between coping and crashing.

    What this habit looks like in real life

    • I protect my bedtime more than I protect most plans.
    • I try to keep my evenings quieter than my mornings.
    • I treat bad sleep as useful information, not a personal failure.
    • I stop pretending I can outwork exhaustion.

    Sleep was the first habit that made me feel human again. And if I am honest, it is still the one everything else depends on.

    Why sleep matters for longevity
    Most adults need at least seven hours of sleep each night, and getting too little sleep over time is linked to serious health problems, including heart-related risks. The American Heart Association also notes that poor sleep health is associated with cardiometabolic risk factors like high blood pressure, blood sugar issues, poor mental health and obesity. In plain English: bad sleep does not just ruin tomorrow. Repeated often enough, it can shape the quality of your next few decades. And women need more than seven hours of sleep. Eight should be the minimum amount and since we don’t fall asleep immediately as our head touches the pillow, that should mean nine hours in bed. And on a busy schedule, that’s a lot.

    2. I built boundaries before I felt allowed to

    One of the hardest things burnout taught me was that being capable does not mean being endlessly available.
    I used to think boundaries were something you earned once you had done enough. Once you had proven yourself. Once you were less needed. Once everyone else was okay.
    That logic will drain you for years.

    What I needed was not better time management. I needed to stop volunteering my nervous system for things that were never mine to carry.

    At first, building boundaries looked incredibly guilty. It looked like saying “No” to friends and family, even to my boyfriend. It looked like not booking every evening. It looked like saying, “I can’t do that this week” instead of finding a way to squeeze one more thing in. It looked like leaving white space in my weekend on purpose and resisting the urge to fill it with errands just because empty time made me uncomfortable.

    As an autistic woman in a full-time professional role, my capacity has edges. Burnout forced me to respect them. And honestly, that lesson matters far beyond autism. If you are easily overstimulated, chronically over-responsible or always the one who keeps things together, you probably have edges too. You might just be ignoring them.

    A life that only works when you overfunction is not a well-designed life. It is a dependency.

    What this habit looks like in real life

    • I leave white space in my calendar on purpose. At least one completely empty weekend per month.
    • I make fewer promises when my energy is already stretched.
    • I stop calling every limit a flaw.
    • I remember that rest is not what happens after life. It is part of life.

    Boundaries gave me something I did not realize I had lost: the feeling that my life belonged to me again.

    3. I stopped chasing health trends and started stabilizing my body

    After burnout, I became much less interested in doing what looks healthy and much more interested in doing what actually helps.

    That changed how I approached food.

    I stopped seeing nutrition as a place to perform discipline. I started seeing it as daily support for my energy, mood and resilience. I paid more attention to whether I was eating in a way that kept me stable, not whether it looked impressive on the internet.

    For me, that meant fewer extremes and more consistency. More real meals. More protein and fiber. Less pretending coffee counted as breakfast. Less acting surprised when I felt shaky, irritable and exhausted after running on stress and convenience foods all day. I looked into AIP and TCM diets, even ayurvedic methods to see where I could support my body more, beyond trends and I looked at recent nutrition science to back everything up.

    One of the biggest shifts I made was during workdays. I stopped waiting until I was starving and then grabbing whatever was fastest. I started going to the kitchen at work and getting myself a salad and a full meal, without having to cook in advance. I started eating a nourishing breakfast, not whatever I felt like at the bakery. Not because I had become exceptionally disciplined, but because I finally understood that my body was not failing me. I was just giving it nothing stable to work with.

    There is a big difference between eating to look in control and eating to actually feel well.
    Longevity, to me, lives in that difference.

    What this habit looks like in real life

    • I build meals around steadier energy, not perfection.
    • I stop glorifying skipping meals because I am busy.
    • I choose habits I can repeat in stressful weeks, not just ideal ones.
    • I care more about how food makes me feel at 3 p.m. than how “good” it sounds on paper.

    This habit helped me trust my body again. Not because I followed some perfect plan, but because I finally started paying attention.

    4. I learned that movement does not have to punish me to help me

    When you are burned out, intense self-improvement can become another form of self-abandonment.
    I had to learn that movement was not there to fix me, shrink me or make me earn my worth. It was there to support a body that had been under too much stress for too long.

    That shift changed everything.

    I stopped measuring movement only by how hard it looked. Walking counted. Stretching counted. Yoga counted. Short strength sessions counted. On some days, the most honest thing I could do for myself was go for a walk at lunch instead of forcing a punishing workout after work when I was already fried.
    That one shift taught me more than any fitness plan ever did. The best movement habit is not the one that makes you feel morally superior. It is the one that gives you more life back.

    And really there are only three things to focus on for a long and healthy life while regarding movement:

    • Cardio matters, because of your VO2max but you need less than you think (FoundMyFitness)
    • muscles are your health insurance, so resistance training is needed
    • you need to feel good while doing it and not stress your body out even more

    What this habit looks like in real life

    • I choose movement that supports my energy instead of draining it further.
    • I aim for consistency, not punishment.
    • I remember that walking counts. A lot.
    • I focus on what helps me feel stronger and more at home in my body.

    This was one of the first places I stopped trying to force a version of health that did not fit my real life.

    If a habit makes your life look healthy but leaves you more exhausted, I am not impressed.

    5. I created small recovery rituals instead of waiting for collapse

    Before burnout, recovery was something I postponed.
    I rested when I had no other option. I slowed down when my body basically forced me to. I treated recovery like an emergency response instead of a regular practice.

    That does not work if you want a sustainable life.

    Now I think in smaller rhythms. Tiny ways to come back to myself before the crash. A quiet walk without a podcast. Ten minutes of lying down in a dark room when my brain feels loud. Journaling when my thoughts start stacking on top of each other. Keeping a slower morning when I can feel that my system is already overloaded before the day has even properly started. A whole day with just me and my book. Two hours in a spa (I use one with private suits where I am truly alone).

    None of this looks glamorous online. That is probably why it works.

    Longevity is built in these ordinary moments. In the repeated decision to support your body before it starts screaming for help. And for me, this is one of the biggest lessons burnout left behind: my body whispers before it shouts. If I listen earlier, I suffer less later.

    What this habit looks like in real life

    • I do not wait until I am falling apart to recover.
    • I notice the early signs that I am getting overloaded.
    • I build regular moments of quiet into weeks that would otherwise eat me alive.
    • I respect that my body whispers before it shouts.

    This habit taught me that recovery is not a luxury. It is maintenance for a life I want to keep living well.

    What burnout changed about my definition of longevity

    Burnout made me less interested in wellness aesthetics and more interested in what actually holds up under real life.

    That is how I think about longevity now.

    Not as a performance. Not as a collection of expensive habits. Not as trying to become some optimized machine who never gets tired. But as building a way of living that protects your energy, supports your future and leaves room for being human.

    That matters to me because I do not want to spend my best years proving how much I can endure.
    I want a long life, yes. But more than that, I want a life that feels good to live while I am in it. I want a live where I am still active and out and about at 60, 70 and 80.

    And if you are reading this while feeling exhausted, stretched thin and slightly scared by how normal that has started to feel, let this be your reminder: you do not need to wait for a breakdown to start building differently.

    Q&A: Burnout, longevity, and where to start

    Can burnout really affect long-term health?

    The World Health Organization defines burnout as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed and classifies it as an occupational phenomenon. Burnout itself is not just about feeling tired. It often travels with the exact patterns that wear people down over time: bad sleep, chronic stress, low recovery, less movement and worse health habits.

    What is the best longevity habit to start with if I feel overwhelmed?

    Start with sleep. Not because it magically fixes everything overnight, but because almost everything feels harder when you are exhausted. Better sleep gives you a more stable foundation for every other habit.

    Do I need supplements and tracking tools to care about longevity?

    No. They can be useful for some people, but they are not the foundation. The basics still matter most: sleep, stress, food, movement and recovery. Then you can look into your blood work and see if you have any deficits you need to supplement or what you can do to support your body better. Oversupplementing can cause health issues as well.

    How do I know if I am heading toward burnout?

    Pay attention to what feels normal now that would have worried you a year ago. Constant tiredness, irritability, brain fog, headaches, feeling numb, needing all weekend to recover and never fully feeling rested are all signs worth taking seriously.

    Is rest productive?

    I think that is the wrong question. Rest is not valuable because it makes you more useful. It is valuable because you are a human being, not a machine. The side effect is that life usually works better when you stop running on empty.

    The habits I built were simple. The life they gave me was not.

    I did not rebuild my life in one dramatic transformation. I rebuilt it in boring decisions that I kept making. Earlier bedtimes. Better boundaries. More stable meals. Gentler movement. Real recovery.
    And the result was not that I became perfect. The result was that I became steadier.

    I became someone who could notice what was happening before I crashed. Someone who could protect her energy without apologizing for it. Someone who could care about long-term health without turning it into a second full-time job.

    That is what I want more women to understand about longevity.

    It is not just about adding years at the end. It is about refusing to burn through yourself on the way there.

    If this is the kind of thinking you want more of, my newsletter is where I share what is actually working. Not perfect plans. Not wellness performance. Just honest systems, real routines, and the small shifts helping me build a life that feels better to live.

    ​

    Most people are optimizing the wrong things. They’re chasing productivity hacks while their health quietly declines or building careers while their identity shrinks. Spending money without a system or resting without actually recovering.

    The Long Game is a weekly newsletter that zooms out. Every Saturday you’ll recieve one email built around four pillars: a Destination worth traveling to, a Read of the week, an Expert opinion that caught me that week, an Alignment tip to make everything fit your system and one Motivation to continue. I call it a DREAM because of that. It’s practical tools, honest perspective and zero filler.

    Written by someone who burned out, rebuilt from scratch and learned that sustainable success isn’t about doing more. It’s about building better. She has a law degree, an autistic brain that loves systems and a deep distrust of generic advice.

    ​

    Footnotes

    1. Matthew Walker, PD: Why we sleep
    2. World Health Organization. “Burn-out an ‘occupational phenomenon’: International Classification of Diseases.” https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases
    3. CDC. “About Sleep and Your Heart Health.” https://www.cdc.gov/heart-disease/about/sleep-and-heart-health.html
    4. American Heart Association. “Sleep matters: duration, timing, quality and more may affect cardiovascular disease risk.” https://newsroom.heart.org/news/sleep-matters-duration-timing-quality-and-more-may-affect-cardiovascular-disease-risk
    5. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. “Protein.” https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/protein/
    6. Yale Medicine. “What Does Burnout Do to Your Body?” https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/what-does-burnout-do-to-your-body
  • The Asthetic of Jess: What the Name Really Means

    The Asthetic of Jess: What the Name Really Means

    Black and white portrait

    I need to confess something before we begin.

    There was a version of me who would have deleted this entire brand name idea after the first “Is that a typo?” comment.
    Because I’ve spent a lot of my life trying to spell myself correctly for other people.
    To be palatable. To be easy. To be the kind of woman who doesn’t ask the world to slow down, soften the lights, lower the noise or make room for a brain that runs on patterns and pressure.

    But then burnout happened.
    And burnout has this brutal honesty to it. It strips you down to what’s real. What works. What doesn’t. What you can’t pretend your way through anymore.

    So when I chose the name The Asthetic of Jess, I wasn’t trying to be quirky.

    I was finally being accurate.
    And yes, I know. It’s spelled “wrong.”
    That’s the point.

    Asthetic: Not a typo, but a statement.

    Here’s what the name means. Loud and clear.

    Asthetic stands for three things that shaped everything about the way I live, travel and create:

    • Autism: the way my brain sees the world differently, finds patterns others miss and needs systems that actually work.
    • Anti-static living: refusing to stay stuck, stay still or settle for a life that doesn’t fit.
    • Aesthetic: because beauty isn’t shallow. It’s how I want to surround and dress myself and feel at home.

    One word. And it’s my whole world.

    And if you’re reading this thinking, “Okay, but… what does that actually look like in real life?”
    Good. That’s what this post is.

    The part nobody tells you: I didn’t build this brand from confidence

    I built it from necessity.
    I did everything “right.”

    I worked hard. I studied law. I carried a lot for a long time. I tried to be capable and unproblematic and high-performing and fine.
    At one point, I wasn’t fine at all.

    I remember a time where I was struggling just to get out of bed. During my studies I was financially strained, perpetually sick and carrying the weight of my family’s needs. I lost my student job due to illness. I felt like I had to apologize for failing, and that as an adult, I simply had to function.

    That period of my life didn’t just make me tired.
    It made me question who I was if I wasn’t productive.

    It made me feel ashamed for needing help.

    It made me feel like everyone else got an instruction manual I missed.

    And I’m sharing this because the name The Asthetic of Jess is not branding fluff. It’s the clearest, most distilled explanation of what I learned when my old way of living stopped working.

    It’s the answer to:

    • Why I care so much about routines
    • Why travel is not “just a hobby” to me
    • Why I talk about longevity like it’s personal (because it is)
    • Why beauty and atmosphere matter to me (and why that’s not shallow)

    So let’s break down the three parts.

    If it’s stressful, it’s the wrong system.

    Not you being broken. Not you being “bad at life.” Just a system that was never designed for the way you actually move through the world.

    1) Autism: the lens I see everything through

    Autism isn’t a personality trait I sprinkle into captions.
    It’s the operating system.
    It’s the reason I notice details other people walk past.
    It’s the reason I can plan a trip down to the last detail and feel calmer because of it, not trapped by it.

    It’s the reason overstimulation can flatten me, and why “just go with the flow” has never been relaxing advice.

    For a long time, I thought the goal was to become more like everyone else.
    Less sensitive. Less intense. Less specific.

    But the truth is: the moment I stopped treating my brain like a problem to fix, I started building a life that actually fit.
    And that’s where the systems came from. Not productivity hacks. Not morning routine aesthetics. Real systems. The kind that hold up when you’re exhausted, overwhelmed or already on your last nerve.

    Because when your brain is different, “good enough” systems don’t work.

    They need to be:

    • clear
    • repeatable
    • low-friction
    • kind on bad days

    That’s why my travel planning is structured.
    That’s why my routines are built for real life.
    That’s why I write the way I write.
    I’m not here to perform spontaneity.
    I’m here to give you something that works.

    What I mean when I say “systems = safety”

    When I say systems give me safety, I don’t mean I love being controlled. In fact I hate it.

    I mean that without a system, life becomes a constant stream of tiny decisions.
    And decision fatigue doesn’t feel like “being busy.” It feels like:

    • waking up tired no matter how much you slept
    • feeling behind before the day even starts
    • snapping at people you love because your brain is already full
    • canceling plans because the logistics are too much

    A good system doesn’t make life rigid.

    It makes life possible.

    2) Anti-static living: refusing to stay stuck

    “Anti-static living” is my favorite part because it’s the one that sounds like a concept until you realize it’s an emotional survival skill.

    Static is what happens when your life becomes a waiting room.
    You’re doing all the right things, but you’re not living.

    You’re delaying the parts of life you actually want until:

    • you have more money
    • you have a better job
    • you’re less tired
    • you’re more confident
    • you’ve lost the weight
    • you’ve “earned it”
    • you’re retired

    Static is telling yourself, “One day.”
    Anti-static living is deciding you’re done waiting.

    For me, that looked like booking flights even when I didn’t feel ready.
    It looked like taking my limited PTO seriously and building trips that fit into a full-time job instead of fantasizing about quitting.

    It looked like learning to say no without guilt.
    It looked like making room for absolute free days.
    It looked like traveling to prove to myself that I’m not trapped in one version of life.

    Because here’s the quiet truth I don’t see enough people say:

    Travel is evidence that your system works.

    Not your dream life. Your actual life. The life you have right now.

    Burnout didn’t just exhaust me. It stole my ability to imagine.

    Anti-static living is me getting that imagination back, piece by piece, trip by trip, habit by habit.

    3) Aesthetic: beauty as a nervous system language

    Let’s talk about the word that makes some people roll their eyes: aesthetic.

    Because it’s easy to dismiss beauty as shallow.
    It’s easy to assume it’s about trends, outfits, perfect kitchens and buying more stuff. Because that is what we see on social media.
    But that’s not what I mean.

    When I say aesthetic, I mean:

    • the way a room feels when the light is soft
    • the relief of a clean surface when your brain is loud
    • the quiet confidence of wearing something that feels like you
    • the comfort of a hotel that understands atmosphere
    • the joy of a city that looks like a poem

    Beauty isn’t decoration for me.
    It’s regulation.
    It’s communication.
    It’s how I feel at home.
    And yes, it’s also part of how I travel.

    I’m a mid-budget luxury traveler because I’m not trying to buy status.
    I’m trying to buy ease. I’m trying to buy the kind of comfort that helps me recover, not just the cheapest bed that leaves me depleted.

    That’s not indulgent. That’s intentional.

    So why spell it wrong?

    Because I spent too many years letting other people’s rules define what “right” looked like.

    Correct spelling.
    Correct career path.
    Correct way to be an adult.
    Correct way to travel.
    Correct way to be a woman with ambition.
    Correct way to be “high functioning.”

    And every time I forced myself into that version of correct, my life got tighter. Smaller. More performative. More exhausting.

    So the name is a little rebellion. A little flag in the ground. A reminder that I don’t have to explain myself into being acceptable. I can just build something that fits.

    What you can take from this, even if you’re not me

    You don’t need to be autistic to understand the feeling of living in a system that was never built for you.
    You don’t need to want to travel full-time to want more movement in your life.
    And you don’t need to care about “aesthetic” to know what it feels like when your environment either supports you or drains you.

    So here are three questions I’d love you to sit with:

    1. What part of your life feels static right now? Where are you waiting for permission?
    2. What system would make your life easier this week? Not perfect. Easier.
    3. What kind of beauty makes you feel like yourself again? Not what looks good online. What feels good in your body.

    That’s the heart of this brand. Not a vibe. A way of living.

    Q&A: The Asthetic of Jess

    Is “Asthetic” actually a typo?

    No. It’s an intentional misspelling and an intentional life choice. The name is meant to signal that this is not a generic lifestyle blog. It’s personal, specific and built around the way my brain and values actually work.

    Why include autism in the brand name meaning?

    Because it’s dishonest not to. Autism shapes the way I plan, travel, build routines and process the world. It’s not a “fun fact.” It’s the method. And I am tired of hiding the fact after not being diagnosed as a child, it feels freeing to have that now.

    What does “anti-static living” mean in practice?

    It means making choices that create motion: booking the trip, building the routine, setting the boundary, taking the class, changing the plan. It’s refusing to delay your life until you feel perfectly ready.

    Is this blog only about travel?

    No. Travel is one pillar, but the deeper topic is the system behind a life that works: routines, longevity habits, learning, glow-up and intentional living that survives a full-time job. Travel is a result in a way, when you’re able to travel relaxed and freely and not to run from your normal life, then it means that your systems work.

    Who is The Asthetic of Jess for?

    Ambitious women in full-time careers who want more than work, feel overstimulated and stuck and want systems that make room for travel, health and an identity beyond their job title.

    If this hit you in the chest, come closer

    If you’re the woman who feels chained to a corporate calendar.
    If you’re tired of waiting for “someday.”
    If you want to travel more without quitting your job.
    If you want routines that don’t collapse the second you have a bad day.
    If you want to feel like yourself again.

    Then you’re exactly who I built this for.

    Join my newsletter. It’s where I share the real systems: travel itineraries for 9-to-5 lives, burnout-proof routines, longevity habits that don’t feel like a second job and the mindset shifts that make all of it stick.

    “`
    “`

    Most people are optimizing the wrong things. They’re chasing productivity hacks while their health quietly declines or building careers while their identity shrinks. Spending money without a system or resting without actually recovering.

    The Long Game is a weekly newsletter that zooms out. Every Saturday you’ll recieve one email built around four pillars: a Destination worth traveling to, a Read of the week, an Expert opinion that caught me that week, an Alignment tip to make everything fit your system and one Motivation to continue. I call it a DREAM because of that. It’s practical tools, honest perspective and zero filler.

    Written by someone who burned out, rebuilt from scratch and learned that sustainable success isn’t about doing more. It’s about building better. She has a law degree, an autistic brain that loves systems and a deep distrust of generic advice.

    “`
    “`

    Welcome to The Asthetic of Jess.

  • Nobody Taught Me What Money Actually Was

    Nobody Taught Me What Money Actually Was

    Open book and notebook with money and graphs to showcase financial education

    I was twelve years old the first time I understood that we were poor.
    Not in the softened, tidy way adults sometimes say it. I mean the kind of poor where my mum would stand before the shelves in a supermarket, adding prices up and calculating what we wouldn’t be able to buy- The kind of poor where my grandma used to bulk cook food and bring it over for us.
    She had just lost her job. After 30 years in the company, the company was sold and shut down. She was not careless. I noticed her worries and tried to help. But nobody really explained things to me.

    Money felt like weather. It happened around us. You earned it, you spent it, you ran out, you started again. No one talked about it. No one named it. That was the full lesson plan.

    Fast forward twenty years. I have a law degree. I work in HR. I have been on holidays my eleven year old self would never have believed were possible. And still, most of my adult life, I felt the same low level panic at the checkout. The same feeling that money was something that happened to me, not something I could shape on purpose.

    It was not an income problem. It was a language problem.

    That shifted in 2021. Nothing really exciting happened. There was just me strolling and landing on the page of a financial coach for women. She was talking about financial literacy and how important it was and how no one taught us in school. Which really resonated with me.
    This started my journey. I started reading up on retirement insurance, about emergency accounts. I started slow.
    A budgeting hack here and there, a turnover on my insurances.
    Then I read my first books about investing. ETFs sounded like the safe and logical way.
    I opened up an investment account in 2023 and invested my first 100 € and then I did – nothing.

    I was trying to get a feel on my emotions in investing. Because as I learned, you have to like the way you invest to be able to keep it up longterm and during recessions.
    I like investing, I really do.
    So after one whole year, I set up my automated payments. Into my emergency account, into my investment account and into my continued financial education.

    I had changed a lot and rediscovered my love of learning. That had me set up a personal curriculum for me and of course finance had to play a part. So January was my financial education month. Not because January is special, I decided to make it special. As part of my One-Person Renaissance curriculum, I gave the whole month to economics and personal finance.
    I read and am still reading about financial literacy, the psychology behind money and investing. About different investment strategies, from ETFs, bonds and shares to real estate, private equity and angel investments.

    No more avoiding it. No more hoping it would somehow make sense later.

    January is dark and quiet and a bit nothing. I used that flat, grey energy as a place to sit with the thing I had been dodging for years.

    This is what I learned, what I read, what I listened to and why I think learning how money works is one of the most quietly radical things a woman can do for herself right now. And it had me max out my emergency accounts, freeing up investment money and living month to month without worrying at the register.

    Note: this is not investment advice but a record of my personal experiences. All investments offer risks. Always do your own research before investing money.

    ​

    Most people are optimizing the wrong things. They’re chasing productivity hacks while their health quietly declines or building careers while their identity shrinks. Spending money without a system or resting without actually recovering.

    The Long Game is a weekly newsletter that zooms out. Every Saturday you’ll recieve one email built around four pillars: a Destination worth traveling to, a Read of the week, an Expert opinion that caught me that week, an Alignment tip to make everything fit your system and one Motivation to continue. I call it a DREAM because of that. It’s practical tools, honest perspective and zero filler.

    Written by someone who burned out, rebuilt from scratch and learned that sustainable success isn’t about doing more. It’s about building better. She has a law degree, an autistic brain that loves systems and a deep distrust of generic advice.

    ​

    Why Financial Literacy Is Actually About Freedom (Not Just Money)

    Here is what no one tells you when you grow up with not enough money. The lack is not only in your bank account. It moves into your body.
    It wires your nervous system. It decides how much risk feels safe, how much you dare to ask for, how big you let yourself want.

    I spent years on a good salary and still felt breakable. Not because I was irresponsible. I knew how to stretch money. I knew how to survive. What I did not have was a clear way to think about money beyond getting through the month.

    Financial literacy is what sits in that gap.

    It is the difference between checking your balance and actually knowing what your money is doing when you are asleep. The difference between only working for money and, eventually, setting things up so money also works for you.

    Robert Kiyosaki puts it bluntly in Rich Dad Poor Dad: the rich do not work for money. They acquire assets. The sentence looks almost silly when you first read it. It took me weeks to let it really land. Because to take that seriously, you have to completely change your idea of what it means to be doing well.
    Doing well is not just a high salary. It is money that still arrives when you are ill or burned out or taking a break.
    No one in my childhood ever talked about that. Not once. That is not a small missing piece. That is a whole other subject that never made it to the kitchen table.

    The Two Things That Actually Changed How I Think About Money

    I am not going to give you a reading list and wish you luck. I want to tell you about the two ideas that cracked something open for me and the books that delivered them.

    Compound Interest: The Thing That Made Me Angry I Hadn’t Started Sooner

    Albert Einstein allegedly called compound interest the eighth wonder of the world. I do not know if he really said it. The idea is still wild.
    Compound interest means you earn returns not only on your original money, but also on the returns that money already made. So it stacks. Slowly at first, then faster. Not in a straight line. In a curve. An exponential growth to success.

    The catch is that it needs time. Which means the most powerful thing you can do in your twenties and thirties is not to find the perfect investment. It is to begin. With whatever you can. Even if it feels small and a bit pointless at first. Don’t believe me? In his book “The Psychology of Money” Morgan Housel explains just how much of his wealth Warren Buffet, the GOAT of investing, made past his 60th birthday. Spoiler alert: a lot!

    If you invest £200 a month from age 25 at a 7% average yearly return, you end up with roughly £525,000 at 65. If you wait until 35 to start, that drops to around £243,000. Same money each month. One change. When you start. That gap is compound interest doing its thing. And you don’t need a continous 7 % either. A few good years at 20 % will compeed with recession months and you will still make money.

    When I read that, I did not feel motivated. I felt briefly furious. Nobody told me this at eighteen. Nobody told my mum. We were both playing a game we did not know had rules.

    Morgan Housel’s “The Psychology of Money” is where I also started making peace with that anger. He does not just explain the mechanics. He explains why clever people make messy decisions with money. Why we do things that make no sense on a spreadsheet but feel safe in our bodies. It felt less like a finance book and more like someone finally describing why I act the way I do around money, without making me feel stupid for it.

    One idea in particular stopped me: that getting wealthy and staying wealthy are two completely different skills. Getting wealthy requires taking risks. Staying wealthy requires the opposite: caution, humility, not assuming the good times are permanent. I had never separated those two things before. I had been treating them as the same thing, which is part of why my relationship with money felt so confused.

    The Difference Between Earning Money and Building Wealth

    Your salary is not your wealth. It’s your starting material. The two are not the same thing, and confusing them is one of the most expensive mistakes a high-earning woman can make.

    This one took me years.
    I thought a good income automatically meant I was good with money. That it meant I was safe. That if I just kept earning more, the rest would somehow sort itself out.

    Earning money is you swapping your time, your brain or your body for pay. It is you showing up. It is tied to your energy and your health. You stop, it stops.

    Building wealth is you slowly collecting things that do not need you in the same way. Assets that have their own life. Rent coming in while you are off work. Dividends landing while you are in bed with the flu. Royalties turning up months after you did the work.

    The Diary of a CEO podcast has a run of money episodes that finally made this click for me. The conversations with Alex Hormozi, Codie Sanchez and Daniel Priestley all circle the same idea from different angles. The people who end up with real freedom are not always the ones with the biggest salaries. They are the ones who learn the difference between making money and placing money. Who ask, every time it hits their account: where does this go that helps my future self, not just my today self?

    The BigDeal episode “I Asked 6 Billionaires How To Get Rich” sounds like a stunt. It is worth listening to with a notebook open. The actual advice is not shocking. What hit me was how early these people learned the rules. They were shown how assets work, how risk works, how ownership works, while the rest of us were just told to get a stable job and be grateful.

    The gender wealth gap is not just about pay. It is about what we do with what we earn. Women are statistically more likely to keep money in cash savings rather than investments. That gap compounds over decades, quietly, invisibly, until retirement arrives and the numbers tell the whole story.

    📊 Info Box: The Gender Wealth Gap

    Women in the UK hold, on average, 35% less wealth than men. In the US, women hold approximately 55 cents for every dollar of wealth held by men. A significant driver of this gap is not just the pay gap, but the investment gap. Research by Fidelity found that women who invest actually outperform men by an average of 0.4% annually, yet women are 50% less likely to invest at all. The barrier is rarely capability. It is almost always access to information and confidence that the information applies to them.

    Sources: World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report 2023; Fidelity Investments Women and Investing Study 2021

    How I Actually Studied This in January

    January has its own mood. The world shrinks a bit. Parties stop. Shops feel quiet. You get social permission to cancel plans and sit on your sofa in socks that do not match.

    Instead of fighting that, I started using it.

    My study plan was simple. One book a week. I went deep on Rich AF by Vivian Tu ( a great introduction to all things money) and The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel rather than skimming five books and absorbing nothing. I listened to podcasts during my morning commute instead of music. I was driving, stuck in traffic and someone talked in my ear about interest rates or investment accounts.

    I kept a messy notes document on my laptop. Every time I hit a word or concept I did not fully understand, it went in there. Later that day or at the weekend I would look it up, watch a short video or reread the chapter until it made basic sense in my own words.

    I also listened to Emma Grede’s Aspire episode “How Not Talking About Money Is Stopping You From Making It.” If you grew up in a house where money meant shame, sighs or tight silences at the dinner table, please listen to it. She names the thing I had only ever felt as a knot in my chest. The way women are taught to be grateful for whatever shows up. The way we absorb the idea that talking about money is rude, greedy, unfeminine. That silence is not neutral. It protects the status quo. It keeps you from even knowing what questions to ask.

    I did not finish every book I picked up this month. Some chapters lost me and I had to come back later. Which is okay, because from Day One I knew it was going to be a lifelong learning process, because money changes all the time. I argued with a few ideas out loud in my kitchen, specifically with Kiyosaki’s framing of the poor as people who simply do not understand assets, which I found a bit too clean given that some people are working three jobs and still cannot make rent. The ideas are useful. The framing occasionally ignores structural reality. I kept both thoughts.
    That is the work. This is not about ticking off a reading list. It is about letting new ways of thinking settle slowly into your decision making, until you catch yourself doing something different on a random Tuesday and realise the reading actually worked.

    The full 12-month curriculum is here if you want to follow along from the beginning.

    Growing up without money does not mean you are bad with money. It means you were never taught the rules of a game you were already playing. That is not a character flaw. It is a gap you can close.

    Q&A: The Questions You’re Actually Asking

    Q: I earn a decent salary but I have nothing saved. Where do I even start?

    Start with clarity, not action. Before you open an investment account or set up a savings plan, spend two weeks tracking exactly where your money goes. Not to judge yourself. To get an honest picture. Most people are surprised by what they find. Once you can see the full picture, you can make intentional decisions about it. The first step is always visibility.

    Q: I want to invest but I’m scared of losing money. Is it actually safe?

    All investing carries risk. That is not a reason not to do it. The relevant question is: what is the risk of not investing? Keeping money in a standard savings account with inflation running at 3 to 4% means your money is losing real value every year. The stock market, historically, has returned an average of 7 to 10% annually over long periods. That does not mean every year is positive. It means over time, the trend is upward. Starting small, diversifying and thinking in decades rather than months is how you manage the risk.

    Q: I feel like financial content is always aimed at men or at people who already have money. Where do I find information that actually speaks to me?

    Vivian Tu’s Rich AF is the most accessible starting point I have found. She goes by @yourrichbff on social media and her short form content is just as good as the book. Emma Grede’s Aspire podcast covers the psychological and cultural side of women and money with real directness. And the Diary of a CEO money episodes are worth your time regardless of gender. Good financial thinking is good financial thinking.

    Q: I grew up in a household with financial scarcity. Does that affect how I handle money as an adult?

    Yes, and it is worth knowing that. Research in behavioural economics consistently shows that financial scarcity in childhood shapes adult decision making in specific ways: higher risk aversion, difficulty with long term planning, a tendency to prioritise immediate security over future growth. None of that is permanent. But it does mean that for some of us, financial education is not just about learning concepts. It is about unlearning emotional patterns that were adaptive once and are now getting in the way. Morgan Housel’s The Psychology of Money is the best starting point for understanding this.

    The Invitation

    Financial literacy is not a luxury subject. It is not for people who already have money. It is the foundation of every other kind of freedom you want to build, the travel, the career pivots, the ability to say no to things that do not fit your life.

    January is the month I chose to build mine. You can start any month. You can start today.

    If you want to follow the full One-Person Renaissance curriculum, the overview post with all 12 months is here: The One-Person Renaissance: A 12-Month Blueprint to Becoming the Most Educated, Empowered Woman.

    And if you want to make sure you do not miss February’s deep-dive into AI, technology and digital fluency, subscribe to the newsletter below. No noise. Just the good stuff.

    ​

    Most people are optimizing the wrong things. They’re chasing productivity hacks while their health quietly declines or building careers while their identity shrinks. Spending money without a system or resting without actually recovering.

    The Long Game is a weekly newsletter that zooms out. Every Saturday you’ll recieve one email built around four pillars: a Destination worth traveling to, a Read of the week, an Expert opinion that caught me that week, an Alignment tip to make everything fit your system and one Motivation to continue. I call it a DREAM because of that. It’s practical tools, honest perspective and zero filler.

    Written by someone who burned out, rebuilt from scratch and learned that sustainable success isn’t about doing more. It’s about building better. She has a law degree, an autistic brain that loves systems and a deep distrust of generic advice.

    ​

    Footnotes & Sources

    1. Kiyosaki, Robert T. Rich Dad Poor Dad. Warner Books, 1997. richdad.com
    2. Tu, Vivian. Rich AF: The Winning Money Mindset That Will Change Your Life. Portfolio/Penguin, 2023. yourrichbff.com
    3. Housel, Morgan. The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness. Harriman House, 2020. morganhousel.com
    4. Hazlitt, Henry. Economics in One Lesson. Harper & Brothers, 1946. Available via fee.org
    5. Dalio, Ray. Principles: Life and Work. Simon & Schuster, 2017. principles.com
    6. Fidelity Investments. “Women and Investing Study.” 2021. fidelity.com
    7. World Economic Forum. Global Gender Gap Report 2023. weforum.org
    8. Diary of a CEO Podcast. “Money Making Experts” series featuring Alex Hormozi, Codie Sanchez, Daniel Priestley. stevenbartlett.com/podcast
    9. Aspire with Emma Grede. “How Not Talking About Money Is Stopping You From Making It.” Available on all major podcast platforms.
    10. BigDeal Podcast. Episode #83: “I Asked 6 Billionaires How To Get Rich.” Available on all major podcast platforms.
  • Different brain, better systems: How I actually travel 15+ countries with a full-time job

    Different brain, better systems: How I actually travel 15+ countries with a full-time job

    Bahrain 2023

    I still remember one Monday morning when my alarm went off and I felt angry before my feet even touched the floor.
    Not because I hated my job. And not because I was ungrateful.
    I was angry because I could already feel the week swallowing me whole. Uni, commute, helping my family, my student job. The low hum of being needed everywhere, all the time. And underneath all of it, this quiet ache I could not ignore anymore:

    Is this really it? Work all year, blink and maybe feel alive for two weeks in summer?

    At that point, travel had become more than a holiday to me. It was proof. Proof that my life still belonged to me. Proof that I had not become a woman who only existed between study books and weekend errands.
    The problem was that I kept looking at travel through the wrong lens. I thought the people who travel often must be richer than me, freer than me, more spontaneous than me, less tired than me. I thought they had a kind of life I did not.
    I had a full-time job, more than one to be honest and limited money and time. Real responsibilities. and a brain that has never done well with chaos. I need structure. I need clarity. I need things to make sense before they feel enjoyable. For a long time, I treated that like a flaw.

    Now I know better.

    I do not travel 15+ countries with a full-time job because I am naturally carefree. I do it because I stopped copying systems that were clearly built for someone else and started building ones that actually fit me.
    That changed everything.

    I did not need a completely different life. I needed better systems for the life I already had.

    I am not good at chaos and that turned out to be useful

    A lot of travel content is built around a kind of woman I have never been.
    She books a flight on a whim. She lands with no plan. She says yes to everything. She turns delays into adventures and somehow looks radiant doing it.
    Good for her. Truly.

    That is just not me.

    I do not find chaos romantic. I find it draining. I do not want to spend my trip stressed, under-slept, overstimulated and pretending that is what freedom looks like. I spent too long trying to perform spontaneity because it looked cooler than being the woman with notes, backup plans and screenshots saved in three places.

    But the truth is, the more honest I got about how my brain works, the easier travel became.
    As someone whose brain works a little differently, I have learned that structure is not the opposite of freedom. For me, structure is what makes freedom possible. It is what keeps a trip from turning into exhaustion with a cute photo dump attached.

    And once I stopped judging myself for needing systems, I got very good at building them.

    The real issue was never my job

    For a long time, I blamed my full-time job as a caregiver and later my adult job for why I was not traveling the way I wanted to.
    And yes, a job creates constraints. So does money. So does energy. So does being an adult with real obligations.
    But if I am honest, my job was not the only thing in the way.

    The bigger issue was that I had no repeatable system. Every trip started from zero. Every decision felt heavier than it needed to. I would think about going away for weeks, then leave everything too late, panic over prices, open far too many tabs, get overwhelmed and close my laptop feeling worse than before.

    That cycle is exhausting, especially when your day-to-day life already asks a lot of you.

    I know so many women live in that exact tension. On paper, life looks fine. You are competent. Responsible. You show up. You keep things moving. But inside, even the things that are supposed to be exciting start to feel like another project to manage.

    That is where a lot of travel advice falls apart.

    Most travel content is made by people who do not have your calendar. This is for the women who do.

    My travel life actually starts with life design

    One of the biggest shifts I made was understanding that I do not build trips in the booking phase. I build them much earlier than that.

    I build them in the way I design my year.

    I treat PTO like part of my compensation

    This changed more than I expected.
    So many women treat paid time off like a privilege they need to morally earn first. As if rest, joy and seeing the world should only happen after we have overdelivered enough to justify them.

    I do not believe that anymore.

    My PTO is part of my compensation. It is part of my quality of life. It is part of how I stay well enough to keep showing up to the rest of my life.
    So I plan it early. I look at long weekends, public holidays and busy seasons at work. I think about where I want recovery, where I want adventure and where I need margin. I do not wait until I am so burnt out that every destination starts to feel like a cry for help.
    That one change alone made travel feel less accidental and much more possible.

    I keep a running list instead of starting from scratch

    I am not reinventing my next trip every single time.
    I keep a list of places I genuinely want to go and I organize them by what kind of trip they suit.

    Weekend city breaks or daytrips, four-day escapes, one-week trips. Then I look at shoulder season ideas, places that need more planning, longer stays and places that are easy wins.

    This sounds simple because it is. But it saves me from the spiral of trying to make every destination in the world compete for my attention at once. It helps me plan by travel season, time available and budget, so I can work through my list accordingly. I like using Notion for that, but you could use any method of choice.

    Decision fatigue is real. The more decisions I can make once instead of ten times, the easier it becomes to actually go.

    I plan by energy, not ego

    This has probably improved my trips more than anything else.
    Not every season of my life is the right season for a packed itinerary, three hotel changes and an ambitious list of must-sees. Sometimes I need quiet. Sometimes I want beauty and slowness. Sometimes I want a city that feels rich and interesting without asking too much of me.
    I used to choose trips based on what sounded impressive.
    Now I choose trips based on what I can actually enjoy.
    That difference matters.

    Info box: My anti-burnout travel filter
    Before I book, I ask myself:

    1. How much energy will this trip require from me each day? (Beach days vs exploring)
    2. Will I come back feeling expanded or depleted?
    3. Does it fit my real budget, not my fantasy one?
    4. Am I booking this because I want the place or because I need relief?
    5. Will this work with the life waiting for me when I get back?

    I reduce friction before it becomes stress

    People sometimes hear the word systems and assume I mean spreadsheets, rigidity and stripping all the joy out of life.

    I mean the opposite.
    My systems exist to protect the joy.

    The less friction I create for myself, the more present I get to be when I travel. That means I can actually enjoy the café, the museum, the train ride, the walk home at golden hour, instead of spending half the trip trying to locate a confirmation email while my battery dies.

    I keep everything in one place

    Flights, hotel details, train times, restaurant ideas, outfit notes, reservation screenshots, neighborhood saves, backup plans. I want one place I can trust.

    Not because I am trying to be intense.

    Because I know myself. Nothing makes me feel more frazzled than having important information scattered across seventeen tabs, five apps and an inbox full of search terms I cannot remember.
    A simple system saves an incredible amount of energy.

    My systems is composed of one Notion Travel planner, where I can link and embed everything I need and an AI assistant that helps me plan and reminds me of everything I missed and the best thing: sends everything in one email straight into my inbox.

    I plan anchors, not every second

    This is important.
    I do not script my trips minute by minute. That would stress me out too. But I do create anchors.
    I know where I am staying. I know how I am getting there. I know the one or two things that matter most each day. I know where I can eat nearby if I am tired. I know what my backup plan is if the weather turns or I hit a wall.
    That is not overplanning. That is self-respect.

    It means I do not have to waste precious energy solving basic problems in the moment.

    I repeat what works

    This one is deeply unglamorous and ridiculously effective.

    I reuse packing lists. I repeat airport routines. I book the kinds of places I already know help me feel calm instead of just looking good online. I know what pace works for me. I know how much I can realistically do before a trip tips from energizing into draining.

    I used to think repetition meant I was boring.
    Now I think repetition is one of the fastest ways to create ease.

    The goal is not to become the kind of woman who can handle anything. The goal is to know yourself well enough to stop needing to.

    I stopped performing spontaneity

    This might be one of the most freeing things I have ever admitted to myself.
    I do not want a life that only looks effortless from the outside. I want a life that actually feels good on the inside.
    That means I no longer pretend that last-minute chaos is my ideal. I no longer confuse stress with adventure. I no longer act like the best kind of travel is the one that leaves me wrecked but with enough photos to prove I was fun.
    That version of womanhood does not interest me anymore.

    What interests me is building a life that fits.

    A life where I can be ambitious and rested. Structured and adventurous. Responsible and deeply alive. That does not mean that I do not book last-minute ever. But if I do, it’s with preplanned ideas, a system in place and a free calendar my energy is urging me to fill.

    For me, travel is one of the clearest places where that becomes visible. When my systems work, my world gets bigger.

    “`
    “`

    Most people are optimizing the wrong things. They’re chasing productivity hacks while their health quietly declines or building careers while their identity shrinks. Spending money without a system or resting without actually recovering.

    The Long Game is a weekly newsletter that zooms out. Every Saturday you’ll recieve one email built around four pillars: a Destination worth traveling to, a Read of the week, an Expert opinion that caught me that week, an Alignment tip to make everything fit your system and one Motivation to continue. I call it a DREAM because of that. It’s practical tools, honest perspective and zero filler.

    Written by someone who burned out, rebuilt from scratch and learned that sustainable success isn’t about doing more. It’s about building better. She has a law degree, an autistic brain that loves systems and a deep distrust of generic advice.

    “`
    “`

    I budget for peace, not just price

    Cheap is not always cheap.
    A flight at a brutal hour, a bad location, a hotel that saves money but costs sleep, an itinerary so packed I need a second holiday to recover from it, I have done all of that.

    And every time, I paid for it with my nervous system.

    Now I think in terms of value. Sometimes what looks like a small upgrade is actually the smarter decision. A better location. A direct route. A room I know I will sleep well in. A travel day that does not destroy me.

    That is not being dramatic. That is understanding that when you have a full-time job, the price of a trip is never just financial. It is also physical and emotional. Here’s the bad news: we’re not 20-year old backpackers anymore who can thrive on red-eye flights and hostel dorms.

    I plan the return home too

    This used to be the part I ignored.
    I would come back late, leave my suitcase half open, get too little sleep and throw myself straight back into work already dysregulated. It ruined the end of the trip and the start of the week.

    Now I protect the landing.

    I try not to return at the last possible second. I reset my space. I know what Monday needs from me. I make sure there is food, quiet and enough time to come back to myself before corporate mode kicks in again.

    That is part of the trip too.

    And honestly, it is one of the reasons travel still feels good in my life instead of becoming another source of stress.

    This is about more than travel

    Yes, I love seeing more of the world.
    I love the perspective of it. The confidence. The reminder that life is bigger than your inbox, your office, your postcode, your usual loop of worries.

    But this is also about something deeper.

    It is about refusing to believe that your real life only starts later. After the promotion. After the move. After you finally become less tired, less sensitive, less overwhelmed, less yourself.

    I am not waiting for some future version of me to start living.
    Building better systems taught me that.

    Travel was one of the first places I proved to myself that I did not need to become someone else to have a beautiful life. I needed to stop forcing myself into systems that were never designed for me in the first place.
    And I think a lot of women need to hear that.

    You are not lazy. You are not bad at planning. You are not failing because the usual advice does not work for you.

    Sometimes the advice is built for a different brain, a different life, a different level of support, a different relationship to time, stress, and money.

    That does not mean you are the problem.
    It means you need a better system.

    You do not need to escape your life to see more of the world. You need to stop building your life in a way that leaves no room for you.

    What this has made possible for me

    Because I stopped treating travel like a fantasy and started treating it like a design problem, I have been able to travel 15+ countries while working full time.
    Not in a frantic, performative way. In a way that is sustainable, thoughtful and actually enjoyable.

    A way that lets me come home with good memories instead of just exhaustion. A way that works with real schedules, real budgets and a real nervous system. A way that still leaves room for ambition, rest and a life I do not need to recover from.

    That is the part I care about most.
    Not just going more, but going well.

    Q&A

    How do I travel so much without quitting my job?

    I plan earlier than most people think is necessary, use my PTO strategically, build around long weekends and public holidays, and rely on repeatable systems instead of starting from zero every time.

    Do I need a huge salary to travel more?

    No. I think clarity matters more than excess. I travel mid-budget, choose carefully where comfort matters most and avoid expensive mistakes by planning well. I also have established travel hacks to book cheaper than the listing price and book clever.

    What if trip planning already overwhelms me?

    That usually means the planning process needs to become simpler, not that travel is not for you. Start with one short trip, one saved list, one planning document, one decision session. Keep it small enough to feel doable. Try having AI plan a trip for you and adjust the result to your tastes. It’s a great way to become clearer on what you really want as well. I recommend travel AI like Mindtrip for that.

    Is this only relevant if I am neurodivergent?

    Not at all. But if you get overwhelmed easily, hate chaos or need more structure to feel relaxed, these systems will probably help you even more.

    What is the biggest mindset shift behind all of this?

    Stop asking how someone with a completely different life does it. Start asking what would make it work for the life you actually have.

    Build a life that fits, then travel from there

    I am not interested in selling the fantasy of effortless travel.
    I am interested in helping you build a life that feels bigger without breaking you.

    That is what better systems gave me. They did not make me less sensitive, less ambitious or less in need of rest. They made it possible to honor all of that and still see more of the world.

    If that is what you want too, join my newsletter. That is where I share the routines, travel systems, and intentional living tools that help me make a full-time life feel like my own.

    For more tips I recommend my Confessions of a PTO-addicted jetsetter and my Travel hacks.

    Our free newsletter informs you regularily via e-mail about news and offers tips and tricks. Your personal data is used to personalise your experience. By checking this box and subscribing you agree to the Terms and conditions.*
     

  • From Carthage to Sidi Bou Said: A Journey Through Tunisia’s Ancient and Modern Wonders

    From Carthage to Sidi Bou Said: A Journey Through Tunisia’s Ancient and Modern Wonders

    (Or: How to Walk in the Footsteps of Hannibal, Wander Through 1,000 Years of History, and Sip Mint Tea in a Village That Looks Like a Painting)

    Tunis in One Day (Quick Plan)

    • Best order: Carthage → Medina → Sidi Bou Said
    • Time: 8–10 hours (full day, but a good one)
    • Getting around: TGM train + short taxis
    • Budget (rough): €25–€60 per person (transport, entry tickets, food)
    • Small things that save your mood: download offline maps + carry cash for snacks/tickets

    Carthage: The Rise and Fall of Africa’s Greatest Ancient City

    Ruins of Carthage

    Why Carthage Matters

    Phoenician settlers founded Carthage in the 9th century BCE. It grew into the wealthiest and most powerful city in the ancient Mediterranean, until Rome destroyed it in the Punic Wars. Today the ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A place that was once glorious, then gone.

    One thing worth knowing: Carthage’s general Hannibal crossed the Alps with elephants to attack Rome. It did not end well for him.

    How to Get to Carthage

    • Location: 15 km northeast of Tunis, about 20 minutes by car.
    • Taxi: Around €10 from Tunis.
    • Train (TGM): From Tunis Marine to Carthage-Hannibal station. 15 minutes, ~ €0.50.
    • Tour: Half-day tours from Tunis run around €30.

    What to See in Carthage

    1. Byrsa Hill

    This was the heart of ancient Carthage. Climb it and you get panoramic views over the ruins and the Gulf of Tunis. While you’re up there, visit the Carthage Museum (~ €5). It holds Punic masks, Roman mosaics and enough context to make the ruins actually make sense.

    2. The Punic Ports

    These harbors made Carthage a superpower. The circular one was for warships. Hannibal’s fleet sailed from here. The commercial port handled traders from across the Mediterranean. After Rome destroyed Carthage, they copied the port design. That tells you everything.

    3. The Roman Ruins

    Rome razed Carthage in 146 BCE, then rebuilt it as a Roman city. The Antonine Baths are massive, second only to the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. Walk through the Roman Villas too. The mosaics are still intact.

    4. The Tophet

    A sacred site often linked to the most contested part of Carthaginian history. Some sources claim children were sacrificed here to Ba’al Hammon; others argue the remains point to a cemetery and symbolic burials. Either way, it’s a heavy place, worth visiting if you’re up for it, and easy to skip if you’re not. Reading up on the debate beforehand changes what you notice once you’re there.

    Where to Eat Near Carthage

    • Restaurant Le Golfe: Seafood with views of the Gulf of Tunis. Order the grilled octopus.
    • Café des Délices: Casual, good Tunisian salads and fresh juice.

    Carthage and Sidi Bou Said are close to each other. Combine them in one day and you will not regret it.
    Carthage is quieter than people expect, which is exactly why it works.

    The Medina of Tunis: A Walking Tour Through 1,000 Years of History

    Why the Medina Matters

    The Medina of Tunis is a UNESCO-listed maze of narrow streets, mosques and souks that date back to the 8th century. Arabs, Berbers, Andalusians and Ottomans all left their mark here. You can feel it in the architecture, the smells, the way the light falls through the alleyways.
    At one point this was a center of Islamic intellectual life. Scholars and poets came from across the world. That history is still in the walls.

    How to Get to the Medina

    • Metro: Place de Barcelone station, Line 4.
    • Taxi: Around ~ €3 from anywhere in Tunis.

    Hire a guide for around €15 or download Google Maps offline. The alleys are genuinely confusing and that is part of the charm, but a guide saves time.

    What to See in the Medina

    1. The Zitouna Mosque

    Built in 732 AD, this is the second largest mosque in Tunisia. The courtyard has marble columns and geometric tiles. If the minaret is open to non-Muslims, climb it. The view over the medina is worth it. Dress modestly, cover shoulders and knees. This should actually be a no-brainer.

    2. The Souks

    This is where Tunis comes alive. Spices, textiles, copper… everywhere you look. Go in the morning when it is less crowded.

    • Souk El Attarine: Perfumes and essences. Stop and smell the amber and oud.
    • Souk des Chéchias: Traditional red felt hats. They have been made here for centuries.
    • Souk des Orfèvres: Gold and silver jewelry. Haggle. Start at half the asking price.

    3. Dar Ben Abdallah

    An 18th-century palace turned museum. It shows you how Tunisian elites actually lived, mosaics, fountains, lavish tiles in the harem quarters. Entry is ~ €3 and worth every cent.

    4. The Al-Zaytuna Madrasa

    A 17th-century Islamic school that still functions as a center of learning. The library holds ancient manuscripts on science and philosophy. Ask to see the roof. The view over the medina is one of the better ones you will find.

    5. The Hidden Courtyards

    Behind unmarked doors, tucked away from the crowds, you find these quiet courtyards. Dar Lasram is a restored 19th-century house turned cultural center. Dar El Jeld has a stunning Andalusian courtyard you can visit for free. And sometimes, if you knock on a wooden door, a homeowner will let you peek inside (proceed with caution, especially when traveling alone).

    Where to Eat in the Medina

    • Café des Nattes: A hidden café. Mint tea and pastries.
    • Dar El Jeld Restaurant: Fine dining in a palace. Order the lamb couscous.
    • Fondouk El Attarine: Rooftop views of the medina. Good for lunch.

    Try lablabi while you are here. It is a chickpea soup and it is Tunis’s best street food. Simple, filling, and nothing like what you expect.
    It’s magical, but it can be a lot. Give yourself permission to take breaks.

    Sidi Bou Said: Tunisia’s Blue and White Village by the Sea

    Eine Gasse gesäumt mit weißen Häusern mit blauen Türen und Fenstern

    Why Sidi Bou Said Looks Like a Painting

    Perched on a cliff over the Mediterranean, Sidi Bou Said is all cobalt-blue doors, whitewashed walls, and bougainvillea. It looks like a Greek island dropped into North Africa. The village was shaped by Andalusian refugees in the 12th century, and the blue and white color scheme was introduced by a Baron in the 1920s. It is now protected by law.

    How to Get to Sidi Bou Said

    • Location: 20 km north of Tunis.
    • Taxi: Around €15 from Tunis.
    • Train (TGM): From Tunis Marine to Sidi Bou Said station. 25 minutes, €0.50.
    • Tour: Half-day tours from Tunis run around €25.

    Go in the late afternoon. The light at that hour is something else for photos.

    What to See in Sidi Bou Said

    1. The Streets

    Every door, window and alley is painted cobalt and white. Get lost on purpose. Each door is different. Look for the Street of the Cats, there are cats everywhere and they do not care about your schedule.

    2. Café des Nattes

    The best spot for mint tea with a view of the Mediterranean. Order the mint tea with pine nuts and a brik à l’œuf, a Tunisian pastry with egg inside, crispy and good. Sit on the terrace. Take your time.

    3. Dar El Annabi

    A 19th-century palace that shows traditional Tunisian life. The courtyard has mosaics and fountains. The rooftop gives you panoramic views of the village and the sea. Entry is ~ €3.

    4. The Cliffside Walk

    A path along the cliff with views of the Mediterranean and Tunis below. Walk to the lighthouse. That is the best spot for sunset. The sky turns pink and the sea goes quiet. It is one of those moments you do not plan for but remember for a long time.

    5. The Artisan Shops

    Pottery, textiles, jewelry. Blue and white ceramics and handwoven rugs. Bargain politely and start at half the asking price. Most sellers expect it.

    Where to Eat in Sidi Bou Said

    • Restaurant Le Café des Délices: Seafood with views of the village.
    • Au Bon Vieux Temps: Traditional Tunisian dishes in a historic house.
    • Pâtisserie des Nattes: Best pastries in town. Try the makroudh, a date-filled pastry.

    Order a fricassé too, a Tunisian sandwich, spicy and crunchy. It is the kind of thing you eat standing up and then immediately want another one.
    Yes, it’s photogenic. No, you’re not the first person to think so, go late and you’ll still love it.

    Practical Tips Before You Go

    1. You can do all three in one day. Carthage in the morning, the Medina in the afternoon, Sidi Bou Said at sunset. It is a full day but a good one.
    2. Hire a guide in the Medina. Worth around €15 to €20. The alleys are a maze and a good guide shows you things you would never find alone.
    3. Wear comfortable shoes. Cobblestones and hills everywhere. Not the day for flip-flops.
    4. Eat the street food. Brik, lablabi, makroudh. Do not skip this.
    5. Dress modestly in the Medina. Cover shoulders and knees. It is a sign of respect and locals notice.

    Quick Answers to Common Questions

    Can I visit all three in one day?
    Yes. Carthage in the morning, the Medina in the afternoon, Sidi Bou Said at sunset. That is the order that works best.

    Is the Medina safe?
    Yes. Stick to the main streets and avoid empty alleys after dark.

    When is the best time to visit?
    Spring (March to May) or fall (September to November). The weather is mild and the crowds are manageable.

    Can I take photos in the Medina?
    Yes, but ask before photographing people or the inside of mosques.

    How do I get from Carthage to Sidi Bou Said?
    Taxi for around €10 or the TGM train for around €1.

    Why This Trip Stays With You

    Tunisia is a country of layers. Ancient ruins, medieval medinas and a cliffside village that looks like it was painted by hand. In Carthage you walk where Hannibal walked. In the Medina you get lost in a thousand years of history. In Sidi Bou Said you sit in a blue doorway and watch the sun go down over the Mediterranean. As a Latin student and history nerd this was by far my highlight of my Tunisia travel.

    Pack your camera, wear good shoes and go. You will figure out the rest when you get there.

    P.S. Want more Tunisia tips? Sign up for my newsletter The Long Game. I’ll send you my calm, no-drama Tunisia notes: a one-day Tunis route you can copy, what’s worth paying for, what’s not and the small logistics that save you from spending your trip negotiating with Google Maps.

    ​

    Most people are optimizing the wrong things. They’re chasing productivity hacks while their health quietly declines or building careers while their identity shrinks. Spending money without a system or resting without actually recovering.

    The Long Game is a weekly newsletter that zooms out. Every Saturday you’ll recieve one email built around four pillars: a Destination worth traveling to, a Read of the week, an Expert opinion that caught me that week, an Alignment tip to make everything fit your system and one Motivation to continue. I call it a DREAM because of that. It’s practical tools, honest perspective and zero filler.

    Written by someone who burned out, rebuilt from scratch and learned that sustainable success isn’t about doing more. It’s about building better. She has a law degree, an autistic brain that loves systems and a deep distrust of generic advice.

    ​

    P.P.S. Got a favorite spot in Tunisia or a memory from a trip? Share it in the comments. I am always adding to my list.

  • The White Cliffs of Rügen: A Guide to Germany’s Most Dramatic Coastal Views

    The White Cliffs of Rügen: A Guide to Germany’s Most Dramatic Coastal Views


    (Or: How To Find The Best Viewing Spot)

    🌊 Why the White Cliffs of Rügen Are a Must-See

    Germany’s White Cliffs of Rügen (Kreidefelsen) are stunning: chalk cliffs soaring 118 meters above the Baltic Sea, wild beaches, and hiking trails with beautiful viewpoints. This is Jasmund National Park, Germany’s smallest but most spectacular national park. Think Dover meets Jurassic Coast, but with fewer crowds and more fairy-tale vibes.

    Fun fact: The cliffs are made of chalk. The same stuff as school chalk! But don’t try to write on them. In fact, you probably don’t want to get too close because of breakoff risks. Chalk is a soft stone.

    🗺️ How to Get to the White Cliffs of Rügen

    By Car:

    • From Berlin: 3.5-hour drive via the A20 and A205.
    • From Hamburg: 4-hour drive via the A1 and A20.
    • Parking: P1 Königsstuhl (€5/day) or P2 Nationalpark-Zentrum (€3/day).
      Pro tip: During travel season (from May to September) arrive before 9 AM to beat the crowds.
    • Make a whole Rügen vacation out of your trip and drive from Binz, Sellin or Sassnitz

    By Train + Bus:

    1. *Take the ICE train from Berlin or Hamburg to Binz (3–4 hours).
    2. *Transfer to Bus 241 to Sassnitz (30 mins, €3).
    3. *Walk or take the shuttle bus (€2) to Königsstuhl.

    By Bike:

    • Rügen is bike-friendly if you don’t mind hilld, rent a bike in Binz or Sassnitz (€15/day) and cycle to the cliffs (~1 hour).
      Pro tip: Follow the Rügen Coastal Cycle Path, scenic and flat.

    🏞️ What to See and Do: The Ultimate Guide

    1. Königsstuhl (The King’s Chair)

    Why it’s iconic: The most famous cliff, a chalk monolith that juts into the Baltic. The views are unreal. And there are quite the interesting legends on how it earned its name.

    What to do:

    • *Hike to the Viktoria viewpoint (10 mins from the bus lot).
    • *Visit the Nationalpark-Zentrum Königsstuhl (15), interactive exhibits on the cliffs and park.

    2. The Wissower Klinken

    Why it’s special: A series of chalk pinnacles that look like giant teeth. Photographers love this spot.

    What to do:

    • *Hike the Wissower Klinken Trail (1.5 hours, moderate).
    • *Climb the wooden stairs for views of the cliffs.

    3. The Victoria Viewpoint (Viktoriasicht)

    Why it’s special: The best photo spot, panoramic views of the cliffs and sea.

    What to do:

    • *Hike from Königsstuhl (30 mins) or from the parking lot.
    • *Bring waiting time, that platform is small.

    4. The Stubbenkammer Cliff

    Why it’s special: The tallest cliff on Rügen (118m), dramatic and less crowded than Königsstuhl.

    What to do:

    • *Hike the Stubbenkammer Trail (2 hours, challenging).
      Pro tip: Wear sturdy shoes, the trail is steep.

    🥾 Hiking Trails: The Best Routes for Every Level

    TrailDifficultyTimeHighlights
    Königsstuhl LoopEasy1 hourCliff views
    Wissower KlinkenModerate1.5 hoursChalk pinnacles
    StubbenkammerHard2 hoursPanoramic views
    Victoria ViewpointModerate1 hourSunset views, photo spots

    Pro tip: Download the Komoot app for offline maps and trail details.

    📸 Best Photo Spots (And How to Get the Shot)

    SpotBest TimeTip
    KönigsstuhlSunrise/SunsetLess crowds
    Victoria ViewpointGolden hourBring a tripod
    StubbenkammerMiddayContrast of white cliffs and blue sea
    Boat CruiseMorningsThe only way to view the cliffs in all of their glory

    Pro tip: Use a polarizing filter, enhances the blue of the sea and white of the cliffs.

    🍽️ Where to Eat Near the Cliffs

    1. Nationalpark-Gaststätte Königsstuhl

    Why go? Right next to the cliffs, local seafood and German dishes.
    Order this: Rügen herring with potatoes, fresh and delicious.
    Pro tip: Sit on the terrace for views of the Baltic.

    2. Strandhalle Binz

    Why go? Luxury with sea views, perfect for a post-hike meal.
    Order this: Their fish and desserts are to die for
    Pro tip: Reserve a table, popular in summer.

    💡 Pro Tips for the Ultimate Rügen Experience

    1. Visit in Shoulder Season:
      • May–June or September, fewer crowds, milder weather.
    2. Wear Layers:
      • The wind off the Baltic is chilly, even in summer.
    3. Bring Water and Snacks:
      • Limited food options near the cliffs, pack a picnic.
    4. Respect the Cliffs:
      • Stay on marked trails, chalk is fragile and dangerous if you wander too close to the edge. I cannot mention this enough. People have died by being at the cliffs edge or below them at the wrong time.
    ​

    Most people are optimizing the wrong things. They’re chasing productivity hacks while their health quietly declines or building careers while their identity shrinks. Spending money without a system or resting without actually recovering.

    The Long Game is a weekly newsletter that zooms out. Every Saturday you’ll recieve one email built around four pillars: a Destination worth traveling to, a Read of the week, an Expert opinion that caught me that week, an Alignment tip to make everything fit your system and one Motivation to continue. I call it a DREAM because of that. It’s practical tools, honest perspective and zero filler.

    Written by someone who burned out, rebuilt from scratch and learned that sustainable success isn’t about doing more. It’s about building better. She has a law degree, an autistic brain that loves systems and a deep distrust of generic advice.

    ​

    ❓ FAQ: Because You’ve Got Questions

    Q: Are the cliffs safe for kids?
    A: Yes, but supervise them closely and stay on marked trails.

    Q: What’s the best time of year to visit?
    A: May–September, best weather and access to trails. I honestly loved visiting at the very end of April, because dogs are still allowed on the beaches. Winter is dramatic but some trails and even restaurants and shops on the island close.

    Q: Can I find amber on the beach?
    A: Yes! Look after storms, best spots are Stubbenkammer and Prorer Wiek. But be careful, some of it might be yellow phosphor from the mines of WWII that is washed ashore now that the mines are all rusty.

    Q: Is there a fee to enter the park?
    A: No, Jasmund National Park is free. Only the Nationalpark-Zentrum has an entry fee and the busshuttle to the Königsstuhl isn’t free either.

    🎉 Final Thought: Why Rügen’s Cliffs Are Germany’s Hidden Gem

    Rügen’s White Cliffs are more than just a scenic spot, they’re a feeling. Standing on the edge of the cliffs, watching the Baltic crash against the chalk, you’ll understand why this place inspires artists, writers, and dreamers. It’s wild, beautiful and unforgettable. Germany’s answer to the Cliffs of Moher, but with fewer crowds and more charm.

    So pack your hiking shoes, grab your camera and dive into Rügen’s magic. And when you’re standing on the cliffs, wind in your hair and sea spray on your face, you’ll know why this is Germany’s most dramatic coastline.
    Want more travel destinations? Here are some of my favourites. And I even offer full itineraries, so you don’t have to lift a finger to plan your trip. You just need to book.

    P.S. Want more Rügen secrets? Sign up for my newsletter The Long Game and get exclusive guides, local tips and zero tourist traps.

    ​

    Most people are optimizing the wrong things. They’re chasing productivity hacks while their health quietly declines or building careers while their identity shrinks. Spending money without a system or resting without actually recovering.

    The Long Game is a weekly newsletter that zooms out. Every Saturday you’ll recieve one email built around four pillars: a Destination worth traveling to, a Read of the week, an Expert opinion that caught me that week, an Alignment tip to make everything fit your system and one Motivation to continue. I call it a DREAM because of that. It’s practical tools, honest perspective and zero filler.

    Written by someone who burned out, rebuilt from scratch and learned that sustainable success isn’t about doing more. It’s about building better. She has a law degree, an autistic brain that loves systems and a deep distrust of generic advice.

    ​

    P.P.S. Got a favorite Rügen spot or hidden gem? Share in the comments. I’m always adding to my list! 🏞️✨

  • Hidden Gem Alert: Why You Should Add Osnabrück to Your Germany Itinerary

    Hidden Gem Alert: Why You Should Add Osnabrück to Your Germany Itinerary

    Osnabrück Gothic city hall
    Rathaus Osnabrück, Germany

    I still remember the first time I wandered into Osnabrück. It wasn’t part of any grand Euro tour or famous “must-see” list, but it was the city I chose to study law in and yet a place I knew little about. But by the end of my university time, Osnabrück had etched itself onto my heart as one of those underrated German cities that surprises you at every turn, a true hidden gem in Germany’s travel scene. If you’re a busy professional craving an off-the-beaten-path Germany escape that mixes unique experiences with comfort or a student trying to chose a cozy city to study in or spent a semester abroad, follow along.
    This Osnabrück travel guide will show you how to savor history, culture and coziness in one long weekend. I promise, afterwards you’ll want to stay.

    Day 1: First Impressions : Old Town Charms and Cozy Welcomes

    Stepping off the train in Osnabrück (after an easy ride from Hamburg or Frankurt (Main)), I felt an immediate sense of calm. The city’s pace is unhurried, and everything seems within arm’s reach, ideal when you’ve only got a weekend or a poor student biking everywhere. After checking into a boutique hotel in the Altstadt (Old Town), I chose a lovely spot right near the market square, ensuring all the sights were walkable, I set out to explore on foot.

    My first stop was the Historic Market Square, the storybook heart of Osnabrück’s Old Town. Framed by rows of colorful, gabled merchant houses, the square exudes Hanseatic medieval charm. At its center stands the Gothic City Hall of the Peace of Westphalia, where a golden dove-shaped door handle welcomes you into history. Inside the wood-paneled Peace Hall, I sat on the same benches where, in 1648, delegates negotiated the end of the 30 Years’ War, you can literally feel the breath of history in the air. Outside, the Bürgerbrunnen (Citizens’ Fountain) tells 1200 years of city stories through intricate bronze figures. As a history buff, I was in heaven. As a traveler, I was simply in awe, it’s not every day you casually stroll through the birthplace of European peace treaties. The historic Osnabrück City Hall on the Market Square, where the Peace of Westphalia was signed in 1648.

    From the square, I wandered past St. Mary’s Church and into Heger Tor, a grand neoclassical gate that once guarded the city. Locals call it the Waterloo Gate, a memorial to soldiers who fell at Waterloo. Passing through, I entered the Heger Tor Viertel, a district of cobbled lanes lined with half-timbered houses, quirky boutiques, and inviting taverns. It’s incredibly walkable, you won’t need anything more than comfy shoes to explore Osnabrück’s Old Town alleys. Around each corner, I found something photo-worthy: a hidden courtyard here, a whimsical street sculpture there and always the mix of medieval and modern life blending effortlessly.

    Heger Tor

    By mid-afternoon I craved a caffeine fix. I ducked into Café Kommode, a cozy little café beloved by locals. True to its name (“kommode” means dresser in German), it’s adorably furnished with vintage cabinets and armchairs, as if you’re having coffee in a stylish grandmother’s living room. I ordered their house specialty cappuccino and a slice of hazelnut cake. Legend has it a priest once called their homemade chocolate pralines “heavenly,” and after tasting one, I couldn’t agree more. Sinking into an antique sofa, sipping my coffee, I felt the stress of office emails melt away.

    Travel tip: Osnabrück’s café scene is fantastic, take the time to slow down and people-watch. You’ll notice everyone from university students to friendly grandpas enjoying the afternoon “Kaffee und Kuchen” ritual. In this city, relaxation is practically a cultural heritage.

    Refreshed, I continued my stroll. Just a few blocks away stands Osnabrück Cathedral (St. Peter’s) with its twin towers and peaceful cloister. I fondly remember it as the church where my best friend got married. Outside on the square, people are strolling in every direction or having a coffee or pizza under the statue of Justus Möser (a famous jurist born here), giving the square a friendly buzz. It was the perfect teaser for the next day’s plans. As dusk fell, Osnabrück’s Old Town took on a warm glow. Many buildings lit up and lively murmurs drifted from restaurants. For dinner, I craved something hearty and local. I found it at the Hausbrauerei Rampendahl, a historic brewery tavern on Hasestraße. The atmosphere was just what I needed: rustic wood interiors, the clink of beer glasses, and the smell of home-brewed beer and hearty food wafting from the kitchen. I devoured an order of cheese “Spätzle” paired with their house pilsner, of course. The portions were generous (I later learned you can order half-portions that still fill you up), prices reasonable, perfect as a student and the convivial vibe made a solo traveler like me feel right at home. If you prefer vegetarian or lighter fare, no worries: Osnabrück’s city center offers everything from organic Italian and tasty soups, to vegan street food, all within a few minutes’ walk. This city truly has culinary fulfillment for every taste and budget.

    After dinner, I wasn’t quite ready to call it a night. Instead, I followed the sound of laughter and clinking glasses to Sonderbar, a tucked-away local bar known for its impressivly quirky decor. . By midnight, I realized I’d experienced exactly what I came for: authentic connection in an underrated city that doesn’t feel touristy at all. I walked back to my hotel under the gentle glow of old street lamps, already excited for what the next day would bring.

    ​

    Most people are optimizing the wrong things. They’re chasing productivity hacks while their health quietly declines or building careers while their identity shrinks. Spending money without a system or resting without actually recovering.

    The Long Game is a weekly newsletter that zooms out. Every Saturday you’ll recieve one email built around four pillars: a Destination worth traveling to, a Read of the week, an Expert opinion that caught me that week, an Alignment tip to make everything fit your system and one Motivation to continue. I call it a DREAM because of that. It’s practical tools, honest perspective and zero filler.

    Written by someone who burned out, rebuilt from scratch and learned that sustainable success isn’t about doing more. It’s about building better. She has a law degree, an autistic brain that loves systems and a deep distrust of generic advice.

    ​

    Day 2: Culture and Discovery: Markets, Masterpieces and a Dash of Quirk

    I woke to church bells and sunlight filtering through medieval-paned windows, a glorious Saturday in Osnabrück. Today was all about diving deeper into the city’s culture. First up: breakfast at the Weekly Market. This market, held in the square by the cathedral, is a Saturday tradition. By 9 AM, it was in full swing. I joined locals browsing stalls piled high with fresh produce, artisan bread, and flowers. Hungry, I made a beeline for a bakery stand and treated myself to a “Franzbrötchen” (a cinnamon-sugar pastry native to northern Germany) and a cup of local roast coffee. I enjoyed them right there in the square, perched on a bench near the statue of Justus Möser, watching Osnabrück come to life. There’s something heartwarming about being part of a city’s morning routine. I felt less like a visitor and more like I belonged. After fueling up, I headed to the nearby Museum Quarter, specifically to the Felix Nussbaum Haus. This museum was a highlight I’d been anticipating, blending art, history, and striking architecture. Designed by renowned architect Daniel Libeskind (who also created the Jewish Museum in Berlin), the Felix Nussbaum House is a modern architectural marvel nestled amid old city walls. Its design is all sharp angles and tilted lines, Libeskind intended it to feel a bit disorienting, reflecting the tragic story of the artist inside. Felix Nussbaum was an Osnabrück-born painter whose life was darkly interrupted by the Nazi regime; he was murdered at Auschwitz in 1944. Walking through the museum’s corridors, I felt his story in every painting: from the bright, hopeful early works to later pieces filled with fear and anguish. It’s rare that a museum moves me emotionally, but one self-portrait of Nussbaum hiding in an attic, painting himself with haunted eyes was incredibly poignant. Yet the experience wasn’t depressing; it was inspiring. The very existence of this museum, with over 200 of Nussbaum’s works on display, felt like a triumph of art over darkness. I left with a deeper appreciation for Osnabrück’s commitment to remembering its history while embracing creativity.

    Emerging back into the sunshine, I decided a lighthearted pick-me-up was in order. Fortunately, Osnabrück has just the thing for a sweet tooth. I strolled over to Leysieffer, a famous local chocolate shop and café that’s been delighting residents for over a century. Fun fact: Osnabrück is the original home of Leysieffer, founded in 1909, so you know they’ve perfected their craft. I sat in their pretty café and savored one of Leysieffer’s signature Himmelspralinen (“heavenly pralines”). Let’s just say I now fully understand why their chocolates are legendary. It was the perfect palate cleanser after the heavy emotions of the museum.
    Next, I decided to experience a bit of Osnabrück’s modern local culture. Just a short walk from the Old Town is the L&T shopping center, an upscale department store that hides a very unexpected attraction: in its sports department basement, there’s an indoor surfing wave called the Hasewelle! Yes, you read that right, surfing in the middle of a German city. I couldn’t resist checking it out. Inside L&T, stylish shoppers mingled with curious onlookers like me, all gathered around a large glass pool where wetsuit-clad surfers were riding a never-ending wave. The energy was contagious. I didn’t try it myself, but watching locals catch a wave in a store was a delightfully quirky reminder that Osnabrück isn’t afraid to mix old and new. If shopping is more your thing, L&T also offers 22,000 square meters of retail therapy, from high fashion to outdoor gear, but I was content with the free surfing show.

    For the afternoon, I had two options: delve into nature or visit another museum. Osnabrück tempts you with both. Ultimately, the sunny weather lured me outdoors. Did you know Osnabrück is the only major city situated inside a nature park? The UNESCO GeoPark TERRA.vita surrounds the city with rolling hills, forest, and even geological wonders. On a whim, I hopped on a local bus (public transit is efficient here) to the edge of town for a short hike at the Piesberg, a former quarry that’s been transformed into a scenic park. The trail was easy and the views from the top, rugged sandstone cliffs and green countryside, were worth the mild climb. I found it pretty cool that I could be immersed in nature just 20 minutes after being in a bustling market. If hiking isn’t your style, another popular option is the Osnabrück Zoo, uniquely set in a forest and even featuring an underground zoo exhibit (yep, there are animals that live below ground, talk about offbeat!). Families especially love it, but as an adult I can attest it’s quite fun to explore for a few hours. Whether you choose a nature walk or the zoo, it’s a relaxing change of pace that shows off Osnabrück’s softer side.

    As evening approached, I returned to the city center for one more cultural treat: a classical opera at the theatre. I lucked into a ticket for Mozarts Zauberflöte. Sitting among local music lovers, letting the orchestra’s melodies wash over me, I felt an uplifting sense of belonging and inspiration. It’s experiences like this, blending with the community, enjoying a shared love of art, that make small-city travel so rewarding. For my final dinner in Osnabrück, I opted for a lighter meal. I found the Zinnober, a wine specialist with an amazing restaurant. Over a glass of Riesling and a plate of seasonal veggie risotto, I reflected on how fulfilling yet unhurried the day had been. In big cities I often feel pressure to race from sight to sight, but here I was genuinely relaxed, having seen so much without ever feeling rushed. Osnabrück had quietly worked its magic.

    To cap off the night, I followed the sound of live jazz to a tiny bar near the Heger Tor. Inside, a trio was playing upbeat swing while a friendly bartender recommended local craft beers. I recognized a couple of faces, the city is just the right size that you might bump into the people you saw at the market or the concert hall. We exchanged smiles and cheers. Traveling solo in Osnabrück never once felt lonely; it felt like being among old friends.

    Day 3: A Fond Farewell: Relaxation and Inspiration

    All too soon, Sunday morning arrived, my last day in this lovely city. I allowed myself a lazy start (one of those cozy hotel mornings where you linger over coffee and a German breakfast spread of breads, cheeses, and fruits). Checkout wasn’t until late morning, so I decided to squeeze in one more uniquely Osnabrück experience before catching my afternoon train home.I took a leisurely walk to the Osnabrück Castle, a Baroque palace that now houses the university. The gardens behind the castle practically begged for a stroll. I meandered through the manicured lawns and fountains of the Schlossgarten, watching students study under trees and elderly couples feed the ducks. The castle’s exterior, painted a cheery yellow, made for a great photo-op and the atmosphere was incredibly peaceful. It struck me that Osnabrück seamlessly blends youthful energy (thanks to the university) with a tranquil, almost meditative vibe. Not many cities can be vibrant and chill at the same time, but this one nails it.

    With just an hour or two left, I returned to the Old Town for a final dose of its charm. Many shops were closed (note: in Germany, most stores shut on Sundays), which actually made the stroll even more enjoyable, the streets were quiet, almost all mine. I popped into Café am Markt, which was open and busy serving brunch. Snagging a seat by the window, I indulged in one more coffee and a waffle topped with fresh berries. Outside, the bells of nearby St. Mary’s tolled noon. I could see a few tourists gathering by the Town Hall, taking photos of the Peace of Westphalia plaque, but mostly it was locals out for Sunday walks with their dogs or grabbing ice cream with their kids.

    Is Osnabrück worth visiting? Absolutely! Precisely because it isn’t overrun with tour buses and selfie sticks. It felt like a secret I was in on, a place where you can deeply engage rather than just “see and tick off” sights. Before heading to the station, I walked one last loop around the Market Square, now calm and sun-drenched. I found myself already feeling nostalgic about this city I hadn’t even left yet. In just three days, Osnabrück had given me exactly what I needed: a mix of inspiration, humor, history, and heart. From the emotional impact of the Felix Nussbaum Museum to the silly delight of indoor surfing, from rich historical lessons at the Peace Hall to laughing with locals over beers, this trip was the perfect reminder of why I love travel. It recharged my batteries and broadened my perspective, all without straying from that mid-budget comfort zone. I didn’t have to sacrifice good food or a nice bed to have an adventure here. Osnabrück proves that sometimes the best getaways are hiding in plain sight, away from the tourist traps.

    Did I return? Absolutely! I spent the next seven years in this city, achieving my law degree and still think about this city with nostalgia. Which is why I ever so often return to my alma mater.

    Travel Q&A: Planning Your Osnabrück Escape

    Q: How do I get to Osnabrück?

    A: Osnabrück is well-connected and easy to reach. By train: Direct trains run frequently, roughly 2.5 hours from Berlin (via Hanover) and about 30 minutes from Münster. It’s also on the international rail line between Amsterdam and Hamburg. I took a train from Hamburg and arrived in ~2 hours, relaxed and ready. By air: The nearest airport is Münster/Osnabrück (FMO), about 30 km away, with car rentals and shuttle buses available. Alternatively, fly into Düsseldorf or Hamburg and take a train. By car: Osnabrück lies at the intersection of major Autobahnen (A1 and A30), so driving is straightforward (about 1 hour from Bremen, 1.5 from Dortmund). Once in the city, you won’t really need a car, the center is compact.

    Q: Can I do this trip over a long weekend?

    A: Definitely! Osnabrück is perfect for a 3-day long weekend. I arrived on a Friday and left Sunday and felt I experienced a lot without rushing. It’s even doable in 2 days if you skip a few things, but three days lets you soak in the atmosphere, include a mix of history, culture and relaxation (as this itinerary shows). Many corporate professionals (myself included) use a Friday off to turn Osnabrück into an easy weekend getaway. It’s also a great add-on city if you’re traveling between bigger German destinations, a worthy stop that won’t eat up too much time but gives you ample memories. I even know some people that visit Osnabrück on daytrips from Bremen or even Cologne.

    Q: When is the best time to visit Osnabrück?

    A: I’d recommend late spring to early autumn for the best weather. April-June brings mild temperatures, blooming parks and the city’s famous May Week festival (if you enjoy street food and music, time your visit for that!). Summer is lovely and not overly crowded (students generally leave by Juli after graduation or for the semester break and return in September), you can dine outdoors on the market square terraces comfortably. Early fall (September) is also gorgeous, with autumn colors in the surrounding nature park. I visited in August for the first time after my admission letter and had sunny days around 23°C (73°F). Winter is chilly and quiet, but Osnabrück does host a magical Christmas Market worth seeing if you’re in the region during the holidays. Just bundle up and enjoy the lights and Glühwein in the historic square. Overall, there’s no bad time for this hidden gem, but fair weather lets you enjoy all the outdoor cafés and walking tours to the fullest.

    Schloss Osnabrück

    Q: Is Osnabrück solo-travel friendly?

    A: Absolutely. I traveled solo and felt completely safe and welcomed. The city is medium-sized (~165,000 residents) with a laid-back, friendly vibe. Many locals speak English (and are eager to help if you need directions or recommendations). There are many international students in the city and overall it has a very relaxed campus feeling. As a solo traveler, I loved the ease of striking up conversations, whether at Café Kommode, in a brewery or during the night watchman tour (which I highly recommend for solo folks; you’ll inevitably chat with others carrying lanterns alongside you!). The city is well-lit and populated in the evenings, especially around the Old Town, so I was comfortable walking back to my hotel at night. For women traveling alone, Osnabrück feels as safe as it gets. Just watch yourself around the main station at night (that’s also where the red light district is located) and keep an overall watchfulness. In all of my seven years in the city I had one unsafe situation and luckily that was right around the corner from the district attorney and the police station.
    You’ll also find plenty of spots to enjoy your own company: quiet museum mornings, cozy reading nooks in cafés and benches in the Schlossgarten for journaling (or bring a blanket and join the students grilling there). It’s an ideal place to slow down and enjoy some “me time.”

    Q: Where should I stay for comfort and convenience? Aim to stay in or near the Altstadt (Old Town) so you can walk everywhere. There are a few great mid-range hotels that balance comfort, style and location. I stayed at the Romantik Hotel Walhalla, a beautiful half-timbered inn right by the Market Square, it had modern amenities and a historic ambiance (and a fantastic breakfast!). Another solid choice is the Dom Hotel near the Cathedral, which is contemporary, comfortable and literally steps from the weekly market. If you prefer boutique design, look up Hotel Fraser (just an example; Osnabrück has several chic small hotels). All these options keep you central, meaning you can drop off your shopping bags or take an afternoon rest easily. Prices are moderate (I paid far less here than I would in bigger German cities for equivalent quality). For budget travelers, there are a couple of hostels and pensions, and for luxury seekers, a few upscale options with spa facilities on the outskirts. But truthfully, mid-range in the center hits the sweet spot, you’ll have the Old Town charm at your doorstep without sacrificing comfort.

    Q: How do I get around the city?

    A: On foot, mostly! Osnabrück’s main attractions are clustered in the city center and the Old Town is very walkable. I never once needed a taxi within the Altstadt. The cobblestone lanes are pedestrian-friendly (and you’ll keep stumbling on hidden gems by walking). For farther spots like the zoo or Piesberg, the city bus network is reliable, frequent and safe. A single ticket costs just a few euros. I used the bus to reach the Piesberg trailhead and it was a smooth 20-minute ride. If you enjoy cycling, the city also offers bike rentals and has decent bike lanes (Osnabrück is aiming to become a certified biking city) plus, biking is a fun way to explore the parks or along the Hase River that runs through town. Driving in the center isn’t necessary (and parking in those ancient streets can be tricky and pricey), so I’d suggest parking the car if you brought one and enjoying Osnabrück at a human pace.

    Conclusion: Don’t Wait, Osnabrück Awaits You!

    Leaving Osnabrück after finishing uni, I felt a mix of contentment and nostalgia. Content from the wonderful experiences I’d collected and nostalgia because I’d found a home in this city that I am going to miss, but also happy I can share it with others. This city proved that a place doesn’t have to be famous to be extraordinary. In fact, its very under-the-radar status is part of the charm. Osnabrück let me slow down, learn, laugh and rejuvenate, all in one short trip and by living here. If you’re dreaming of a getaway that balances inspiring history, friendly vibes, a touch of humor and plenty of comfort, Osnabrück is calling your name.
    So, what are you waiting for? Life is busy and the “right time” to travel might never announce itself, make the time. Plan that long weekend, go experience this hidden gem of Germany and create your own story in the City of Peace. I promise you’ll come back not only with beautiful photos, but with a refreshed spirit and maybe a few new friends (and definitely a box of Leysieffer chocolates!).

    Don’t miss out on more offbeat travel inspiration! Subscribe to my newsletter for practical guides and heartfelt tales that fit into a real working person’s schedule. And before your next adventure, check out our related articles on other hidden gems in Germany and Europe, your perfect trip might be closer than you think. Travel well, travel often and remember: sometimes the lesser-known path leads to the most unforgettable destinations.

    Cheers to your next journey, perhaps it’ll be Osnabrück! 🌟

    ​

    Most people are optimizing the wrong things. They’re chasing productivity hacks while their health quietly declines or building careers while their identity shrinks. Spending money without a system or resting without actually recovering.

    The Long Game is a weekly newsletter that zooms out. Every Saturday you’ll recieve one email built around four pillars: a Destination worth traveling to, a Read of the week, an Expert opinion that caught me that week, an Alignment tip to make everything fit your system and one Motivation to continue. I call it a DREAM because of that. It’s practical tools, honest perspective and zero filler.

    Written by someone who burned out, rebuilt from scratch and learned that sustainable success isn’t about doing more. It’s about building better. She has a law degree, an autistic brain that loves systems and a deep distrust of generic advice.

    ​
  • 24 Hours in Athens: The Perfect One-Day Itinerary for First-Time Visitors

    24 Hours in Athens: The Perfect One-Day Itinerary for First-Time Visitors

    Only have a day in Athens? Don’t worry, this compact city packs ancient grandeur, artistic soul and Mediterranean charm into a walkable experience. Whether it’s a layover, cruise stop, or your first taste of Greece, this 24-hour itinerary blends iconic sights with hidden gems and authentic moments.

    Here’s how to see the best of Athens in one incredible day, without feeling rushed:

    🌅 7:30 AM – Sunrise at the Areopagus Hill (Mars Hill)

    Why start here: Skip the Acropolis crowd and greet the day with a golden view of the Parthenon and the city waking up. This free hilltop spot is just below the Acropolis entrance and perfect for peaceful photos. Bring coffee and breakfast pastry from a nearby bakery. Wear shoes with grip – marble rocks get slippery.

    🏛️ 8:30 AM – Explore the Acropolis

    Arrive early to beat the tour groups and the heat. The Acropolis opens at 8:00 AM and it’s magical in the morning light. Must-sees: The Parthenon (iconic temple of Athena), the Erechtheion with its graceful Caryatids, panoramic city views.
    🧠 Tip: Buy a combo ticket online (€30) that also includes the Ancient Agora, Roman Agora and more, valid for 5 days.
    📸 Don’t linger too long here, you have a lot more to see!

    🏛️ 10:00 AM – Acropolis Museum

    Just a few minutes’ walk from the ruins, this award-winning modern museum adds context and beauty to what you just saw. Budget: ~1–1.5 hours. Great bathrooms, AC and a peaceful rooftop café. Don’t miss the glass floor over ancient ruins.
    🎟️ Entry: €15 in high season / €10 in low season.

    ☕ 11:30 AM – Coffee Break in Koukaki

    Head to the leafy neighborhood of Koukaki, just south of the Acropolis but far quieter than Plaka. Try a freddo espresso or traditional Greek coffee.
    Café picks: Little Tree Books & Coffee or Lotte Café-Bistro for cozy vibes
    🧠 Bonus: Pick up a handmade notebook or Greek poetry book while you sip.

    🏘️ 12:30 PM – Wander Anafiotika & Plaka

    This is Old Athens at its dreamiest, whitewashed houses, blue shutters, winding alleys, and flowering vines. You’ll feel like you’ve left the city and entered a Cycladic island. Start at Anafiotika, hidden behind the Acropolis slopes. Meander down into Plaka for neoclassical buildings, artisan shops and postcard-perfect streets
    🎁 Souvenir tip: Look for handmade leather sandals or small-batch olive oil.

    🥙 1:30 PM – Light Lunch at a Garden Courtyard

    While we’re avoiding food content in-depth, aim for something quick, fresh and in a shady spot to refuel.
    Neighborhood suggestion: Psyrri for local character and fewer tourists. Eat light so you stay energized for the afternoon.

    🏛️ 2:30 PM – Ancient Agora

    Often overlooked, this was the true heart of Ancient Athens, a lively space where Socrates once debated and citizens voted.
    Highlights: Stoa of Attalos (now a museum), Temple of Hephaestus (incredible preservation), shady olive trees and wildflowers in spring
    🎟️ Combo ticket from the Acropolis covers entry.

    Temple of Hephaestus from above

    🛍️ 4:00 PM – Flea Market + Local Finds in Monastiraki

    Browse vintage books, quirky souvenirs and antiques in the buzzing Monastiraki Flea Market. You’ll find everything from orthodox icons to vinyl records. Visit Hadrian’s Library ruins next door. Grab a snack or drink from a street vendor (local fruit or koulouri ring). It’s a great place to people-watch and soak up energy.

    Hadrian’s library

    🌇 6:00 PM – Sunset Viewpoint: Lycabettus Hill or Philopappos Hill

    You have two dreamy sunset options:
    1. Lycabettus Hill (highest point in Athens). Take the funicular or hike (~20–30 min). Epic city views, especially of the Parthenon lit up.
    2. Philopappos Hill (near the Acropolis). Quieter, romantic ruins, easier walk. Ideal if you’re short on time or energy. Bring a small bottle of wine or just sit and reflect as Athens glows golden and the city lights begin to flicker.

    🌙 8:00 PM – Stroll Through Lit-Up Plaka

    Even if you don’t dine here, Plaka by night is magical. Bougainvillea climbs the walls, soft music floats from cafés and the Parthenon glows above you. Snap a photo from Lysikratous Street. Enjoy a final walk or pop into a quiet bookshop or boutique.

    ✈️ Leaving or Staying? If you’re catching a night flight, book a cab via Beat or take Metro Line 3 to the airport (last train departs ~11:30 PM). If you’re staying another night, wind down with a drink at a rooftop bar like A for Athens or Couleur Locale.

    🧭 Final tips for 24 Hours in Athens. Wear grippy shoes (you’ll thank yourself). Stay hydrated (bring a refillable water bottle). Avoid overplanning, give yourself space to wander and feel the city

    ​

    Most people are optimizing the wrong things. They’re chasing productivity hacks while their health quietly declines or building careers while their identity shrinks. Spending money without a system or resting without actually recovering.

    The Long Game is a weekly newsletter that zooms out. Every Saturday you’ll recieve one email built around four pillars: a Destination worth traveling to, a Read of the week, an Expert opinion that caught me that week, an Alignment tip to make everything fit your system and one Motivation to continue. I call it a DREAM because of that. It’s practical tools, honest perspective and zero filler.

    Written by someone who burned out, rebuilt from scratch and learned that sustainable success isn’t about doing more. It’s about building better. She has a law degree, an autistic brain that loves systems and a deep distrust of generic advice.

    ​
  • Soft Discipline: How to Build Consistency Without Burning Out (Before Q2 Kills Your Goals)

    Soft Discipline: How to Build Consistency Without Burning Out (Before Q2 Kills Your Goals)

    Open notebook on a serene desk for soft discipline

    The Day My “Perfect” Routine Exploded (And Why I’m Glad It Did)

    A few years ago I decided to become a superhuman. I set my alarm for 5 a.m., planned a 90-minute gym session, blocked my calendar for “deep work” sprints, and even scheduled “mindfulness breaks” (because, you know, balance). And throughout the whole Covid lockdown it worked. But then I had to discover: it only works as long as that is my only focus.

    I had to learn: You don’t need more discipline. You need softer discipline.

    WTF is soft discipline? It’s not about white-knuckling your way through life. It’s about building consistency that actually sticks, especially when Q2 hits and your calendar looks like a Tetris game on steroids.

    If you’re a busy professional who’s tired of starting strong and fizzling out by April, this is your lovely, no-BS guide to making habits that last. No brutal routines. No guilt. Just amazing, sustainable progress.

    What the Hell Is Soft Discipline? (And Why It Beats “Hustle Culture” Every Time)

    The Problem with “Hard” Discipline

    We’ve been sold a lie: That success requires grinding, forcing and suffering. But here’s the truth:

    • Burnout is real. 76% of professionals report burnout symptoms by Q2 (source: American Psychological Association).
    • Willpower is limited. Studies show we only have about 3-4 hours of high-quality focus per day (source: Harvard Business Review).
    • Life happens. Meetings overrun. Kids get sick. Your boss drops a “quick project” at 4:59 p.m.

    As I had to learn: Hard discipline fails because it doesn’t account for reality.

    Soft Discipline: The Gentle Art of Actually Getting Sh*t Done

    Soft discipline is about designing your environment, systems and mindset so that consistency feels easy, natural and even enjoyable. It’s not about being perfect, it’s about being smart and kind to yourself.

    Key principles:

    ✅ Start stupid small (so small it’s impossible to fail).

    ✅ Stack habits (attach new habits to existing ones).

    ✅ Design for frictionless action (remove barriers before they stop you).

    ✅ Embrace the “two-day rule” (never skip twice in a row).

    How to Build Soft Discipline This Spring (Without Losing Your Mind)

    1. Start Stupid Small (Seriously, Like Ridiculously Small)

    WTFact: The most successful habit-builders don’t start with “work out 5x a week.” They start with “put on gym clothes.”

    Why? Because momentum beats motivation. If you can do 2 minutes, you’ll often do 20.

    Examples:

    • Fitness: “Do 1 push-up” → Often turns into a full workout.
    • Reading: “Read 1 page” → Often turns into a chapter.
    • Meditation: “Breathe for 60 seconds” → Often turns into 10 minutes.

    Action Step: Pick one habit. Make it so easy you’d feel silly not doing it. Do it for 7 days. Then, and only then, consider scaling up.

    2. Stack Your Habits (Like a Pro)

    Habit stacking is the art of attaching a new habit to an existing one. Your brain loves routines, so piggybacking makes new habits stick faster.

    Examples:

    • After I pour my morning coffee, I will write 1 sentence in my journal.
    • After I brush my teeth, I will do 10 squats.
    • After I sit down at my desk, I will drink a glass of water.

    Here’s what I do:
    After putting on my toner, I will do a little back stretch (PM) or a little hopping (AM).
    Before I do my skincare routine, I will prep my tea.
    After my skincare, I do half an hour of reading before bed.
    After walking the god, I will ha´ve dinner.

    Action Step: Identify 1-2 existing habits. Stack a tiny new habit onto them. Use this formula:

    After [current habit], I will [new habit].

    3. Design for Frictionless Action (Remove the Barriers Before They Stop You)

    WTFact: You’re 3x more likely to follow through if you prepare the night before (source: British Journal of Health Psychology).

    How to remove friction:

    • Fitness: Lay out your workout clothes the night before. Keep your sneakers by the door.
    • Healthy eating: Pre-cut veggies on Sunday. Keep a water bottle on your desk.
    • Productivity: Close all tabs except the one you need. Use apps like Freedom to block distractions.

    Action Step: Spend 5 minutes tonight preparing for tomorrow’s habit. What’s one thing you can do to make it easier?

    4. Embrace the Two-Day Rule (The Secret to Never Quitting)

    Rule: Never skip your habit two days in a row.

    Why? Missing one day is normal. Missing two starts a slide into “I’ll start next Monday” hell.

    What to do if you skip a day:

    • Day 1: “Oops, life happened. No big deal.”
    • Day 2: “Non-negotiable. I’m doing this, even if it’s just 1 minute.”

    Action Step: Track your habit with a simple checklist. If you miss a day, reset immediately.

    5. Use “Temptation Bundling” (Make Habits Fun, Not Punishment)

    WTFact: People who bundle habits with guilty pleasures are 51% more likely to stick with them (source: University of Pennsylvania).

    Examples:

    • Only watch Netflix while on the treadmill.
    • Only listen to your favorite podcast during your commute (if you walk/bike or connect your phone to the car).
    • Only eat chocolate after you’ve written 500 words. (I did this while studying for my law exam.)

    Action Step: What’s a guilty pleasure you can bundle with a habit you want to build?

    ​

    Most people are optimizing the wrong things. They’re chasing productivity hacks while their health quietly declines or building careers while their identity shrinks. Spending money without a system or resting without actually recovering.

    The Long Game is a weekly newsletter that zooms out. Every Saturday you’ll recieve one email built around four pillars: a Destination worth traveling to, a Read of the week, an Expert opinion that caught me that week, an Alignment tip to make everything fit your system and one Motivation to continue. I call it a DREAM because of that. It’s practical tools, honest perspective and zero filler.

    Written by someone who burned out, rebuilt from scratch and learned that sustainable success isn’t about doing more. It’s about building better. She has a law degree, an autistic brain that loves systems and a deep distrust of generic advice.

    ​

    Soft Discipline for Busy Professionals: Real-Life Examples

    Here’s your proof that it works:

    Case Study 1: The Corporate Warrior Who Hated Mornings

    Problem: Sarah, a marketing director, wanted to meditate but “never had time.” Solution: She stacked “1 minute of breathing” onto her existing habit of waiting for her coffee to brew. Result: 6 months later, she meditates for 10 minutes daily, without “finding time.”

    Case Study 2: The Traveling Consultant Who Wanted to Work Out

    Problem: Mark’s job had him in hotels 3 weeks a month. Gyms were inconsistent. Solution: He committed to “10 bodyweight exercises” in his hotel room, using an app like Nike Training Club. Result: He worked out 4x a week, even on the road.

    Case Study 3: The Parent Who Wanted to Read More

    Problem: Lisa, a mom of two, hadn’t read a book in years. Solution: She kept a book on her nightstand and read one page before bed. Result: She finished 12 books last year, without “finding time.”

    Q&A: Your Burning Questions About Soft Discipline

    Q1: “I’m already overwhelmed. How do I add one more thing?”

    A: You’re not adding, you’re replacing. Swap 5 minutes of doomscrolling for a tiny habit. Example: Instead of checking Instagram first thing, breathe for 60 seconds.

    Q2: “What if I fail?”

    A: Failure is data. Miss a day? Ask: What made it hard? Adjust. Example: If you skipped your workout because you were tired, try a 5-minute stretch instead. I also recommend to plan your routine for the baddest of days, like a minimal viable routine. Stick to it even then and it will feel so easy to add more on the best days.

    Q3: “How do I stay consistent when traveling?”

    A: Pack your habits. Bring resistance bands, download meditation apps or use the “two-day rule” religiously. Example: Even if you’re jet-lagged, do one push-up to keep the streak. I am famous for doing a little yoga flow on the hotel room floor in the morning.

    Q4: “I’m not a morning person. Can soft discipline work for me?”

    A: Absolutely. Soft discipline isn’t about when, it’s about how. Attach habits to your natural rhythms. Night owl? Stack habits onto your evening routine. Not everyone is suited to the influencer 5 AM morning routine, who fit a whole day into the time before 9 AM. You could even use your lunch break to start a new routine.

    Q5: “How long until this feels automatic?”

    A: Research says 18-254 days (average: 66). But with soft discipline, it feels easier immediately because you’re not fighting yourself. I would suggest trying something out for 60-90 days. Still a fight? Not the right routine.

    Conclusion: Your Spring Reset Starts Now (No Brutality Required)

    Here’s the lovely truth: You don’t need more willpower. You need smarter systems.

    Recap:

    1. Start stupid small.
    2. Stack habits onto existing ones.
    3. Remove friction before it stops you.
    4. Never skip twice.
    5. Make it fun with temptation bundling.

    Your action step: Pick one habit. Make it tiny. Start tomorrow.

    Remember: Consistency isn’t about being perfect. It’s about showing up, even when it’s messy.

    Now, go build a life that feels super, amazing, and cool, without the burnout.

    What’s the one tiny habit you’ll start with? Hit me up on Instagram and tell me. I’d love to cheer you on! 🌱

    ​

    Most people are optimizing the wrong things. They’re chasing productivity hacks while their health quietly declines or building careers while their identity shrinks. Spending money without a system or resting without actually recovering.

    The Long Game is a weekly newsletter that zooms out. Every Saturday you’ll recieve one email built around four pillars: a Destination worth traveling to, a Read of the week, an Expert opinion that caught me that week, an Alignment tip to make everything fit your system and one Motivation to continue. I call it a DREAM because of that. It’s practical tools, honest perspective and zero filler.

    Written by someone who burned out, rebuilt from scratch and learned that sustainable success isn’t about doing more. It’s about building better. She has a law degree, an autistic brain that loves systems and a deep distrust of generic advice.

    ​