Today is the beginning of the holiday shopping season in the United States (although thanks to online sales it is creeping into other parts of the world as well), and if you’ve been out and about you’ve likely seen stores that are more crowded than they have been all year. With incredible (re: crazy) discounts…

With November 1st almost upon us, NaNoWriMo is set to begin. There are plenty of tools to help budding novelists achieve the goal of 50,000 words in 30 days, but what about the reasons behind committing to such a daunting task in the first place? Surely, many of those taking on the challenge have other…

Earlier this week, I began a discussion of the way that manhood in American society is changing. Today, I want to revisit the topic with some of my own ideas about how these changes could lead to a more enriching and satisfying take on masculinity. Before I do that, though, I want to say how…

Manhood is changing. It’s as simple, and as complicated, as that. Two recent events prompted me to write about manhood today. The first was the release of The Shriver Report, a study of the status of women in the United States. The second was the publication of The Art of Manliness, a book of…

Leaders have more power than they realize. They can patiently create a climate of creativity or they can crush it in a series of subtle comments and gestures. Their actions send powerful signals. Their responses to suggestions and ideas are deciphered by staff as encouragement or rejection. If you want to…

This is the second part of a 12-part series I will be posting through the end of December and into January 2009, examining the current understanding of productivity and where the concept might be heading in the future. I invite Lifehack’s readers to be an active part of this conversation, both in comments here and…

A couple of days ago I listed 10 of the tools I find essential whenever I travel, along with a bunch of related tips. Today, I have more tips, this time disconnected from any particular tool or gadget. Because most of the traveling I’ve done as an adult has consisted of longish trips…

There’s no escaping the fact that the world is getting smaller: your company’s vendors might be in India, with customers in Britain, while you are somewhere in the U.S. That’s why employers, from international non-profits to the mom-and-pop stores down the road, want employees able to think globally. Even college admissions look positively on time…

How many times have you heard from your coworkers, friends and yourself the old line about being too busy fighting alligators to drain the swamp? How often does your life seem to be a car crash of intersecting urgencies? It’s easy to get sucked into a business culture where everything is urgent, everything is a…