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A friendly competition is brewing between our two “list-makers.” In the first edition of “The ‘Karla Bos’ Files,” Karla said she keeps of list of the 10 things (or more) that she accomplishes before 8:30 am every weekday. Inspired, Nina Flax decided to share her own morning rituals – so eventually we’ll be able to compare how two powerhouse individuals start their day. From Nina:

Here is one for the “Flax-Bos Throwdown of 2018.” Or maybe dance off. Though I don’t know if I’m “Team Britney” or “Team Justin.” Here are 10 things (not more) I accomplish before 8:30 a.m. every workday:

1. Wake Up. This is a MAJOR accomplishment for me. I am not a morning person, never have been. Would much prefer to stay up until 4 a.m. and sleep until 11 a.m. (but who am I kidding, I never get 7 hours of sleep anymore). Now there is child in my life. So, when he wakes up shouting “Papa, the sun is awake!” I too am awake. Even when I’ve been up past 2 a.m. working – or making lists…

2. Scan Email for Urgent Messages. I have taken to putting my phone in airplane mode at night, and leaving it not on the bedside table but on the floor (I think maybe this is helping my sleep?) – but I still scan my emails first. Being in California, I wake up to so many emails every morning from people further east and need to have the peace of mind that I have responded to everything urgent.

3. Kiss Child. Every morning – though sometimes by FaceTime. Funny aside on this. I have a very close friend who works at Facebook. My parents are very close to said very close friend, and when they come to visit me, they like to visit her on campus. I can’t take the time to describe the awesomeness of campus – but a particular focus of my father’s is their meatza (meat pizza). On one of my parents’ first visits to campus, my father said (out loud, he is not quiet and the area we were in was completely open plan): “You know, [friend]. You tell that Mark Zuckerberg that he missed the boat letting Apple get the name FaceTime.” I’m not kidding. It was hilarious.

4. Get Ready for Work. Usually while trying to continue to monitor emails and/or scanning LinkedIn for any interesting news updates. This usually includes cajoling child to brush his teeth. It is a real struggle.

5. Make Sure Creatures are Fed. Well, not all creatures. My husband always feeds the dogs (and in this I will not be upset when he uses the word always – this is different from arguments). But I usually make sure that child and fishy (or, I should say fishy 2.0) will get food – even if this is asking someone else to make sure it happens. That counts, right?

6. Drive to Work; Call Dad. (a) I don’t like to be on the phone at home, (b) somehow even though I live in Silicon Valley there are many dead spots in my house, and (c) I can’t (or at least I’m not supposed to) monitor emails while driving. So I always try to get the most out of my time in the car by making calls. The vast majority of the time one of my calls is to father mentioned above. We kibbitz and I sometimes try to explain how to accomplish various tasks on his iMac or iPad. Which is actually really hard without being able to look at your own screen to explain the way different icons and menus look. The rest of my calls are to colleagues to connect quickly on outstanding tasks, catch up on matters, etc.

7. Park Between the Lines. If you lived around here, you would know that many people do not accomplish this. I really don’t understand it. (My husband if he were talking to you would point out that I too, once, parked outside the lines – and got a ticket.)

8. Shout Hello to My Group. Anyone who sits by me in the office knows when I arrive. I am a big believer in hello’s & goodbye’s (and other things to connect – which I will save for another list).

9. Run to the Kitchen to Get Coffee. I am addicted to caffeine. I am okay with this.

10. Really Start to Work. When I lived in Chicago, trust me, this was a rarity before 8:30 a.m. I never subscribed to the Midwest way of earlier to work (but also was in the office later than most on a regular basis – see accomplishment #1 above).

Limits on Director Information Rights

We’ve blogged a couple of times – see this blog and this blog on DealLawyers.com – about the ongoing dispute between CBS & its controlling shareholder. If you like to “nerd out” on corporate law issues, this litigation just keeps on giving. Here’s the intro from this Francis Pileggi blog:

In the latest iteration of the ongoing litigation, the Delaware Court of Chancery recently provided a textbook summary of the general rule that directors have the right to unfettered access to corporate data, with three general exceptions. In this case, one of those exceptions to the general rule applied to prevent directors who were adverse to a Special Committee from obtaining communications with counsel for the Special Committee.

Lease Accounting: FASB Proposes Changes

It seems that FASB has noticed the sad state of implementation efforts for the new lease accounting standard. Earlier this week, they proposed a few changes aimed at easing the burden. The Exposure Draft addresses these topics:

1. Sales taxes & other similar taxes collected from lessees

2. Certain lessor costs paid directly by lessees

3. Recognition of variable payments for contracts with lease & non-lease components

Comments are due September 12th.

– Liz Dunshee