Secrets Of The Most Productive People – Gina McCarthy

President and Ceo, National Resources Defense Council

- By Adele Peters

PRESIDENT AND CEO, NATIONAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL

When we first got started in this [pandemic], there was almost no separation between work and home. . . . We lost those separations where you just stop, sit down, and have dinner. The one habit that I’ve always had is that I don’t talk about work when I’m at home, period. Through eight years [as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency] in the Obama administration, I just didn’t. I don’t think my husband knew what I was doing for a living until I was in the Obama administration, because then he could read some things in the news, and it’d be like, “Oh, you’re doing this?” I had three kids in three years. My job was to be home when I’m home. And when I’m working, I’m working. At dinner, we don’t talk about work. And I give myself an hour or two after that to do nothing and hang around. Bisecting home and work is one of the most important things you can do.