The Top 60 Words to Stop Using Right Now, Including Pivot

Words matter. How you choose to describe your ideas, thoughts, emotions, and reactions create not only the impression the world has of you but also they also create the way you imagine the world.

That is why, in this spring of 2020, we need to toss the depleted, hollowed-out, crippled, and bankrupted words — phrases and clichés that we've been using as "bookmarks" for original and clear thinking in our conversation and writing.

Using "bookmark" or "bookmarking" as a verb is one of those terms. We've got to stop using it. ("Substitute" would be a good substitute.)

I'm not "bookmarking" this idea to "circle back" to it once I've "reached out" to my "cohort" to "curate" a "multifaceted" and "dynamic" "exchange" with them to "incentivize" our mutual "engagement" in the construction of a "roadmap" that will permit us to "leverage" myriad “interactive” "modalities" so that we all feel a sense of “agency” and “empowerment” as we “synergize” our “articulated” “enterprise” and move “towards whatever lies ahead” during these “unprecedented times.”

You can’t use any of the words in quotation marks. Just stop. That’s the new rule.

I asked friends, colleagues, neighbors, and strangers what words we all had to stop using right now. Within three hours, I received 420 responses. These are my friends with words and they reassure me that I'm not alone. We're in this together.

(And "we're in this together" is one of those phrases we've got to retire; it's Done.)

The top 60 words we must all stop using right now include, but are not limited to:

Pivot

Amplify

Stewardship

Bandwidth

Mindset

Entitlements

Let's socialize that idea

Journey

Kicked to the curb

Benchmark

Optimize

Walk back

Pilot

Big lift

Soul crushing

Impactful

Normalcy

Do the math

Granular

Reposition

Dialoguing

It is what it is

Transparency

Low-hanging fruit

Silo

Rubric

Aspirational

Monetize

Deep dive

Onboarding

Wheelhouse

Optics

At the end of the day

Bespoke

Unpack

Utilize

Closure

Intersectionality

Thought leader

Game changer

Influencer

Assessment outcome

Put a pin in it

And to circle back as a memory-jog:

Bookmark

Leverage

Cohort

Enterprise

Incentivize

Agency

Empower

Synergy

Modalities

Multifaceted

Roadmap

Stewardship

Curate

Reach out

Toward whatever lies ahead

Unprecedented times