My husband is a co-founder of the successful and award-winning start-up Monito. Together with his brother and friend, they started their company from scratch eight years ago, and I have been with him during the whole adventure. Their learning curve was steep, and I was fortunate to benefit from that.

Discussions around work and his concrete advice on my projects helped me improve my creativeness, productivity, and relationships with my colleagues. Despite working in a completely different economic sector- I am a molecular biologist- I have learned the following professional skills and life lessons from living with him.

How to pitch an idea

One of the most important skills an entrepreneur needs is to convince your audience. You will be unable to turn your brilliant idea into a meaningful product without investors, customers, or employees.

Knowing how to be engaging and convincing — in meetings, performance evaluations, or job interviews- can decide your professional career's success.

I learned that the key to convincing communication is to identify your main message. What is the one thing you want to address?

Then structure your thoughts and bring logic to what you are saying. Make sure everyone can follow your thoughts. Consider what information is important for your audience to understand your idea, but don’t overwhelm them with facts. Cut any unnecessary clutter from your presentation that is not important to understand your message. Think about potential questions that might arise and be prepared to answer them.

The best way to test if our presentations are convincing is to practice them in front of each other. Combined with the benefit we got from listening and giving each other feedback, we strongly improved our presentation skills. The more often we practiced, the better we got.

As a scientist, I gave many talks in front of my peers. Some people think good results speak for themselves. I could not disagree stronger. In my experience, without clear and efficient communication, your results will not get the credit they deserve.

Believe in yourself, but be open to change

Be confident in yourself and your ideas, but don’t be afraid to adapt your product. Monito’s cofounders' initial business idea was to create a money transfer company like Western Union and Moneygram, but cheaper. Once they realized that there were numerous options available, they quickly changed their project to a comparison website.

During my academic career, I had to adapt my hypothesis and experiments to account for newly published results and navigate logistical and technical problems.

In one case, I had worked on the characterization of a protein for months without success before deciding to stop wasting my time and focus on a more promising project.

It was hard to let go, but I found it helpful to see that it is ok to fail. The importance is that the failures don’t dissuade you from going on. Maybe you did not achieve a specific goal, stay positive and go on to the next.

Don’t be afraid of feedback and learn to incorporate it

I learned the importance of feedback not only from your peers but from everyone. Being in charge of Monito’s product, a key part of my husband’s work is to collect feedback to improve their platform's user experience constantly.

Customer feedback is not a personal criticism, and it does not make him doubt their product; he uses it to get better.

Similarly, they encourage candid feedback amongst colleagues to build more efficient teams.

I still find accepting criticism difficult, but I make an effort to listen attentively, then analyze if the criticism is true and how I can include it to become better in my job.

The importance of good design

In the sciences, text alone can fail to convey a message. Difficult concepts are much easier to understand with good illustrations. We all like to look at beautiful things.

Instead of including schematics from other publications (with correct citations) or making simple sketches, my husband helped me with more complex illustrations. These were capable of representing the real biological situation and helped the audience better understand my results and conclusions.

I felt more confident presenting visually appealing slides and posters, comparable to wearing good-looking clothes for an important event.

Fancy tech tools to boost your productiveness

I am not skimming Product Hunt. A few days ago, I had never even heard of this website where you can find all sorts of tools and apps- but my husband does.

Over the years, he has introduced me to many useful tools. Without him, I would still scribble on paper notebooks digital horizon would stop at the Microsoft Office suite.

But now, I use Whimsical to design a flowchart allowing me to illustrate complex workflows to my colleagues, use Notion to collect and organize my writing ideas, and Grammarly to check for spelling and punctuation mistakes.

Welcoming and empowering company culture

He inspired me to think about how company culture can boost your employees' motivation and productiveness.

Since the last year, despite the pandemic, Monito’s team has doubled in size. Mostly they worked from home, so they have hired coworkers whom they have never met.

But despite social distancing and lockdown restrictions, they make efforts to create a welcoming company culture and get to know each other.

They introduced a tool (Donut) in their communication system to keep in touch, which randomly connects people to schedule a common coffee break. But since small talk on Zoom is even more difficult than at an office water fountain, it offers you a topic to break the ice and get the discussion going, like “The best trip you have ever been on” or “What secret hobbies do you have to relax.”

This approach takes you out of your social isolation and forces you to connect with others.

Making an effort to get to know and connect everyone shows their employees that they are more than just a workforce necessary to get tasks done.

I found this to be something not every employer is doing at the moment.

During the pandemic, I heard companies mistrusting their employee’s sense of responsibility and dedication to their work. Some keep denying home-office requests despite health authorities' guidelines to retain control over their employee's working habits.

At Monito, even before the pandemic, they had flexible work hours and remote working options, leaving it up to their employees to come to the office or work from home.

I am fortunate to live with someone who is so inspiring and has introduced me to so many tools boosting my creativity and productiveness. He has shaped where I want to work in the future and how I imagine a fulfilling and motivating job.

If I got you interested in my husband’s startup, check out the job offers on monito.com. Unfortunately for me, they don’t need a molecular biologist.

The Skills I Learned from Living with an Entrepreneur was originally published in Kick Ass At Life on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What you can do to increase your chances for protection against covid-19

Finally, the covid-19 vaccination rollout begins, and many people get the long-awaited shot. At the moment, vaccines are our best chance to end this pandemic and for our lives to go back to pre-pandemic normality. But some measures to prevent the spread of the virus-like social distancing and lockdowns of entire countries- might impact the efficiency of the vaccination in some individuals.

Even if the approved vaccines are between 70 and 90% effective in preventing severe covid-19, one person out of 20 will still get infected with the virus. Yet you can improve your chances for successful protection by considering a few simple things around the days of your shot.

Researchers have studied factors influencing flu or hepatitis vaccine efficiency in the last decades, and these factors- even if not specifically tested for a coronavirus vaccine- might modulate covid-19 protection.

One way to measure if vaccination is effective, meaning if you are immunized against the disease, is to look at the antibody response. Antibodies are a part of our immune system, which help to neutralize viruses and fight off infections. High antibody concentrations are a marker for efficient immunization and are thought to protect from getting severely ill with covid-19.

It is also tempting to speculate that an enhanced antibody response will give you a better chance to fight off SARS-COV2 mutant strains. At least in a laboratory, antibodies from vaccinated people could bind and neutralize the mutant viruses.

So, here is what you should consider around the time you get your vaccination.

Avoid stress and privilege social interactions.

In a recent article in New Scientist, the author Helen Thompson interviewed Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, the director of the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research at Ohio State University, who says, “We know so much about how stress affects vaccine response, I’d be surprised if it didn’t apply to covid-19”.

Already 30 years ago, she showed that confident, relaxed students, compared to highly stressed students, showed a better Hepatitis B antibody response after vaccination.

Another study with the influenza vaccine obtained similar results. Elevated stress levels, especially ten days after the vaccination, led to decreased antibody production. Hormones- like Adrenaline and Cortisol- secreted during stressful periods might be responsible for impairing the immune system.

All the more reason to make a conscious effort to slow down during these difficult times. Try as much as possible to empty your schedule, relax and do things you enjoy.

But unfortunately, not everyone has the option to lower their stress levels. Many people find themselves under enormous pressure to juggle childcare, work from home, and miss friends and family. If you can’t control your workload, it is essential to do something that makes you happy.

A positive mood was linked to a good response after the influenza vaccination. It goes as far as being in a positive mood when you are vaccinated enhances the flu vaccination efficiency.

Similarly, feeling and missing friends and family were found to do the opposite.

So get in touch with your loved ones, even if only online or via the phone. If you know someone who is getting vaccinated soon, you could give them a call, send a message or write them a postcard to make sure they know they are not alone.

Get more than seven hours of sleep.

Janice Kiecolt-Glaser further mentioned a not yet published study where participants responded with lower antibody concentrations if they slept poorly several consecutive nights before a hepatitis-A vaccination. Two nights before the vaccination seemed to be the most important time to get a good night of rest.

Considering the profound effect sleep has on our productiveness and wellbeing, it is not surprising that our immune system also relies on it to function well.

Lower your alcohol consumption.

Anna Popova, the head of the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing, advised Russians to avoid alcohol two weeks before and three weeks after the Sputnik V vaccination.

There is no doubt that heavy alcohol consumption, such as binge drinking, negatively affects the immune system. If the body is occupied with alcohol detoxification, our immune system has to stand back.

Yet, most doctors think it is unlikely that moderate drinking, like a glass of wine or beer, will harm immunization. It certainly will not hurt to entirely avoid alcohol around the vaccination to be on the safe side.

Move and exercise.

Physically active seniors were found to respond better to the flu vaccination.

In general, exercise leads to a cytokine (special signaling proteins) release, which activates the immune system and boosts antibody production. Weight lifting or physical strength workouts, the kind of workouts leading to muscle soreness- which are thought to be small muscle injuries, might be especially capable of activating the immune system by activating repair mechanisms.

Further, the undoubtedly positive effect of exercise on our mood and general wellbeing could have the most profound effect on our antibody response.

Your mental and physical wellbeing can influence your overall health and your response to the covid-19 vaccine.

We should not underestimate the profound effect of a good mood, a sound night of sleep, and a calming walk in the fresh air can have on our immune system.

If you have the privilege to get the vaccine at the moment, value it and make the most of it.

Your personal vaccine efficiency could be impacted by social distancing and lockdowns was originally published in BeingWell on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Putting our daughter to bed used to be so easy until she was about two years old. We then had to change her bedtime routine drastically to avoid parental burnout. We had great success with an icon-checklist pinned to the bathroom door.

In the worst of times, it took us two hours to put her to bed, twice a day, for naps and evenings. It coincided with the birth of her younger brother and the start of the global covid-19 pandemic. Due to social distancing restrictions, we had no help from friends and family. We were exhausted. We urgently needed time to relax, time for us alone. The only way to get it was for our toddler and newborn to sleep at the same time. We had to change our approach.

This is easier said than done. We struggled for several months to find a solution that would consider our need for more self-care time and our daughter's needs.

We had to consider her needs to come closer to our needs.

For a very long time, we got her needs wrong. After her younger brother's birth, she was no longer our only child and could no longer get our full attention. We thought her difficulty falling asleep was due to her wanting to spend time with us alone once her younger brother was already in bed.

As a solution, the bedtime ritual got longer and longer. On a typical evening, we would read stories, sing songs, retell her day, count the light balls above her bed (in French and in German), listen to an audio story, listen to songs, give her a hug standing, a hug lying, a noisy kiss, a quiet kiss, a big kiss, a small kiss and so on.

Not only did the ritual get longer and longer, but so did the time she spent falling asleep afterward. She did not stay in her bed and always left her room with a new “good” reason, from blowing her nose to cutting a hanging down fingernail.

We were dreading bedtime and worrying about how long it would take even before it started

This bedtime routine clearly was not working anymore. We were quickly getting impatient, often very frustrated and sometimes angry. All she had to do was go to bed and sleep as she used to a few months ago. And yet, she was defying us, preventing us from getting some urgently needed quiet time.

The solution to this nightmare was to change the ritual drastically.

We established a list of what was necessary before going to bed: brushing her teeth and putting on her pajamas. Then we included the pretexts she took the most often to leave her bed: drinking some water, cutting her fingernails, using the toilet, and blowing her nose.

We pinned a large piece of paper with six big icons she could easily recognize to the bathroom door.

The goal was to allow her to follow the checklist and feel reassured we had done everything. After all, this is what falling asleep is all about: letting go.

Her biggest need was to spend more time with us.

But what she wanted the most wasn’t on the checklist, though. After her younger brother was asleep, she alone could be with her parents. We wanted to honor this need, but we made sure it wasn’t part of a dysfunctioning bedtime ritual loaded with negative feelings. After she was done with the checklist, we decided that she could stay with us for a short time in the living room and did not have to go to bed immediately.

After 15 minutes, we brought her to bed and tucked her in, telling her that we loved her before leaving the room. Sometimes we have to wait a few minutes in front of her door to remind her to stay in her bed. If she gets up, we bring her back directly; no more cuddles. If she is agitated, we give her a last hug and kiss, but we clarify that this is the last one. Most nights, it takes her no more than 5–10 minutes to fall asleep alone on her own.

Some nights, it does take her more time to fall asleep, and we had to learn that this is ok, too. Before, our bedtime ritual was focused on making her sleep. But the complete opposite was happening; she would not stay quietly in bed but instead yell and run around.

Turns out you cannot force a toddler to sleep or stay in their bed.

But you can control your reaction to their behavior. We thought that she had to be asleep for our evening to start. After she is in bed, we start reading a book, discussing our day, doing some exercise, or watching TV, even if she is not asleep yet. If she gets out of her room, we don’t ignore her; we simply bring her back to bed. We do this firmly and confidently and go right back to what we were doing.

A key element was discussing what was going to happen at bedtime during the day. Explaining how after the checklist, she’ll have some alone time with us before we bring her to bed, where she’ll then get a last hug. We stressed that after that, we as parents also needed some time for us.

After a few evenings, she learned to let go and fall asleep while her parents enjoy some quiet time.

I look forward to hearing about your bedtime strategies, so don’t hesitate to share them in the comments!

Thank you to all the parents in the Your Parenting Mojo Group and the wonderful educators at “Centre de vie enfantine Cour” who helped us with strategies to tackle this parenting problem.

The bedtime ritual that gave us back our evenings was originally published in Modern Parent on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.