Forecast the people

You know before you clock in. The supervisor who micromanages the close. The coworker who takes credit and gives none. The customer who arrives looking for a fight. The shift lead who answers every question with a sigh. None of them is a surprise. So why do they keep landing like one, knocking you off balance an hour into the day?

Marcus Aurelius ran an empire full of difficult people, and he handled it by telling himself who was coming. He opened the day with a forecast: "Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial" (Meditations 2.1, Long). Not to brace for war. To take away the ambush. A thing you've already pictured can't blindside you into a reaction you'll regret.

This is the week's whole move, and it starts here: meet the people you actually work with, on purpose. Picture them before the door opens — the meddler, the ingrate, the one who rubs everyone wrong — so that when they show up exactly as themselves, you've already chosen how you'll stand. Surprise is what hands them the wheel. Forecast hands it back to you.