Spencer Poole

My favorite item at the moment has to be my IKEA table lamp. I often find myself working on writing projects late at night so it's really nice to have a small lamp with adjustable settings. The soft amber light is not too harsh on the eyes and it overall just does its job to perfection. Have to give an honorable mention to my Samsung monitor as well, the large screen lets me display lots of NBA player data at once and helps me write faster on my laptop.

I spark creativity by making sure I write everything down. You really never know when a good idea will hit you. So whether I'm on the subway, or even on a run, I'll make sure to take a second to pull up my notes app and jot something down If I think it would be a good idea for a newsletter or an article. Then when I'm not feeling as creative, I can go back through my notes and find plenty of ideas to go off of.

A big thing I do to keep a good work-life balance is to make sure I schedule out time for things I like to do ahead of time. For example, I get together with my friends from grad school every Friday for pickup basketball, and every week a schedule a night to get on a call with my brother in North Carolina and play some games with him. Without planning ahead, it can be easy to focus entirely on work and not take time for things you enjoy.