4 Musts For Significant Productivity

Work less, achieve more. Sounds great, but is it realistic? Yeah, actually, it is–and simpler than you might expect.
 
A few months ago I test-drove a truckload of tricks, tactics and tools that promised to add hours to my day. I devoured Tim Ferris’ The Four Hour Work Week and Todd Duncan’s Time Traps. I downloaded [...]

Top 10 Business, Faith & Faith-at-Work Podcasts (Part 2)

Alrighty, then: Here’s the second (and final) installment of podcasts that send my gray cells a-dancing . . .
Sales Guy’s Quick and Dirty Tips For Getting The Deal Done
I confess: As an introvert, the word “sales” used to scare the daylights out of me. But I’m learning we’re all in sales, no matter what we [...]

Top 10 Business, Faith & Faith-at-Work Podcasts (Part I)

If you made me choose between eating and being able to listen to my favorite podcasts for a day, that’d be a tough one for me. They’re my brain food, and consuming them makes me smarter, wiser and happier.
One simple (yet very, very powerful) success principle is choosing carefully whom we listen to and what goes into [...]

Save Time (And Effort) By Empowering Others

Those of us with a strong need to please (or to be in control) often are bogged down by people who seemingly depend on us to get anything done.
A dear relative, who somehow thinks I have amazing Internet powers, used to email me: “Please search XYZ on the Web and let me know what you [...]

It’s all about Whom you know…

I’m a list junkie. Dig through my purse, laptop, desk or whatever book I happen to be reading at the time, and you’ll find about a dozen lists: some typed, some neatly written in my planner, others scribbled on random pieces of paper.
During the past few months, I’ve compiled a long list of personal goals, [...]

Non-negotiables and purposeful living

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. [Philippians 3:12]
So, umm… yeah… I am without excuse for neglecting this blog for the past two months. I do have a list of lousy [...]

When it’s wise to neglect your weaknesses

“Do not neglect the gift which is in you, [that special inward endowment] which was directly imparted to you…” (1 Timothy 4:14, Amplified Bible )
This verse recently got me thinking about a counter-intuitive lesson I learned while starting a business a couple of years ago.
Being the creative type, I could cook up a great product, but completely [...]

Is Shared Attention Making Us Dumber?

Here’s the third (and last) post on productivity, as promised.
…
Strapped for time? Quit multi-tasking and start single-tasking, experts say. Ignore that advice and you might actually grow dumber (their argument, not mine—more on that in a bit).
Author Tim Sanders, a former Yahoo! exec, blogged some time ago about a former co-worker who “slowly strangled his [...]

Work Less, Get More Done

“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” [Ephesians 5:15-16]
How does your output compare to your outcomes? In other words: Don’t tell me how hard you’ve been working; tell me what you’ve accomplished.
As I juggle mounting personal & [...]

The Low-Information Diet

Until recently, my typical work day went a bit like this: I’d be working on a project when a dozen e-mail alerts popped up on my screen, followed by a random instant message from a friend or relative. Meanwhile, my office and cell phones battled for my attention, and a co-worker invariably buzzed through the [...]