72 Shares Those elusive projects that always stay undone could benefit from a red, hot go, as Leo Babauta suggests, instead of slowly chipping away at it. However, you need a plan. These steps cover everything from setting your time up to resolving the project at the end. Won’t you feel awesome once you get this one done? 4. Make a project modular. Similarly, sometimes there’s a project where it would be impossible to do all in one go. It might be too large, or sometimes you have to wait for certain things to... More »
94 Shares These are those things that you have to say but could hurt other people. Confrontation and honesty are sometimes taboo, so how do you get the truth out and keep the other person happy? Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks [both Ph.D.] say that if you don’t want an argument, you can speak on unarguable terms. If I say to you, “My stomach feels queasy,” you’d have a difficult time arguing with me. If I say to you, “You make me sick to my stomach,” you’d probably find plenty to argue with me about... More »
36 Shares Although your next job interview won’t have as many as 64 questions, your would-be employer will almost certainly ask at least one of these. Tell me about yourself. TRAPS: Beware, about 80% of all interviews begin with this “innocent” question. Many candidates, unprepared for the question, skewer themselves by rambling, recapping their life story, delving into ancient work history or personal matters. BEST ANSWER: Start with the present and tell why you are well qualified for the position. Remember that the key to all-successful interviewing is to match your qualifications to what... More »
Organized Home has a few great ways to get rid of clutter in your home or at work. For most of us, clutter is just the result of bad habits and indecision. The first method described attempts to force decision making in a very simple way: The Four-Box method forces a decision, item by item. To apply it, gather three boxes and a large trash can. Label the boxes, “Put Away”, “Give Away/Sell” and “Storage.” Items to be thrown away belong in the trash can. What I like about having these ‘clutter... More »
We’ve mentioned a few times at Lifehack.org that you can’t really do more than one brain-intensive thing at once, instead only switch between tasks. And I’m not talking about smoking while riding your push-bike. So the underlining productivity tip is not to multitask. Kim Roach wrote it in her article, 50 Ways To Increase Your Productivity and I threw up a few points on how you could carry out multiple tasks at once in How To Multitask. However, the message was you can’t multitask, so focus on one thing and move to... More »
We’re not doing our job as men if we can’t fix a dead outlet or fillet a fish, right? You’re only as much a man as the amount of skills you have, so get cracking! Popular Mechanics has 25 that every man should know, and you’ll notice none of them are anything like ‘configure a POP account’ or ‘validate CSS’. Navigate With a Map and Compass Though GPS may seem ubiquitous, it doesn’t work everywhere. Mountains and dense tree cover can knock out sat signals—and batteries can die. Here’s how to roam... More »
Competition is a big part of human nature. For some more than others. It’s in our nature to compare and judge. Everyone has their own gauge for success that has usually been conditioned by various factors; school, work, TV etc. However, it doesn’t have to be this way and Brian Kim understands this when he writes, “Don’t think hierarchy, Think journey”. If you keep focusing on everyone else’s journey, you’re going to stop paying quality attention to your own. What I mean by quality attention is attention free from jealousy, worry, envy,... More »
If there’s one person to keep happy at work [other than yourself], it’s your boss. When they’re not happy, though, it can be difficult to stay on their good side. So when faced with a grumpy boss, try not to give in to a negative workspace and attempt to change the situation for the better. Brad Isaac suggests 5 ways to do so, the last being Stay Away if the other four don’t work. Divert with good news - Sometimes all a boss needs to get rid of a bad mood is... More »
11 Shares A study in a 2005 Journal of Experimental Psychology suggests that it is just human nature we allow for more time in the future that is actually available. Do you find yourself committing to too many tasks and activities, only to realize on the day that you have much too much to do? Gal Zauberman, PhD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and John Lynch Jr., PhD, of Duke University, say you’ll probably always do this: Participants believed that both time and money would be more available in “a... More »
23 Shares Taking the kids out on the road can be a blessing and a nightmare. Also, from their perspective, it can be quite boring. So to let restless kids have a little fun makes sense; but it shouldn’t cost you the price of in-car monitors and gaming consoles! Here are 27 great [and free] games you and the kids can play anytime, anywhere. License Plate Lingo: You can use the license plates of the cars around you to provide entertainment for your kids. The goal of this game is to come up with... More »
David Allen’s latest articles at the Huffington Post are a great guide to GTD for organizational intermediates. They’re good to read through and revive some simple ideas that work universally when getting things done. This week Dave divulges the all-elusive ‘meaning of organized life’: Things need to go where they need to go. Simple? That’s the idea, I guess. The most interesting point he makes, in this article, is how you would go about your daily life recognizing where any given ‘thing’ needs to go. This is a big part of GTD... More »
Monday the 15th October saw the Blog Action Day project begin. Kicking things off with the very and, maybe always, timely topic of the environment. In my mind, it was a success. And to celebrate how much the blogging community got on board, I want to share some of the best posts that came out of Blog Action Day.
We all have those tasks and projects that we plan on doing ‘someday’. The problem is that someday isn’t very specific. Will you ever do these things? Someday, maybe; but how about we schedule these one day? Don’t worry about how silly or trivial they might sound. Don’t think about how ‘unimportant’ they are. If you genuinely want to do them they are neither silly, trivial or unimportant. Instead start thinking about what you can do to make them real, and realizable. Turn them into real goals with real deadline, just like... More »
Research at the Norwich Business School by Prof Yehuda Baruch is suggesting that allowing, or even encouraging, some bad language in the workplace could benefit employee morale and spirit. “We hope that this study will serve not only to acknowledge the part that swearing plays in our work and our lives,” said Baruch, “but also to indicate that leaders sometimes need to ‘think differently’, and be open to intriguing ideas.” Is there generally little tolerance in casual working situations, between peers for instance? Or is this sort of attitude fairly prevalent already?... More »
Ted.com has dubbed this list as 100 Websites You Should Know And Use, but I think this may even be a great beginner guide for anyone new to the internet. Who’s new to the internet, you ask? I come across many people who have used the web casually, mostly for emails, and don’t quite know of how much information and resources there are. This list of 100 websites is a great starting point, categorized in interests like arts, knowledge, e-commerce and more. Check it out, and throw up a few suggestions of... More »
