Some years ago I remember standing in my kitchen, staring silently at my boxes of cereal, trying to decide which to have for breakfast.  Was it a Frostie’s morning, or was it more of an Oat Crunchie’s day?  Or maybe granola?  I stood there for 5 minutes, until – utterly frustrated – I marched…

Consider this: In three weeks time, you have a big presentation to a long-hoped-for new client. Three weeks is plenty of time, though, so each day you sit down at your computer and, instead of working on your presentation, play game after game of Desktop Tower Defense. Three weeks and a day…

What in your life can you control? Not much, as it happens. In fact, most of the areas we feel most in control of are riddled with uncertainty and unpredictability: business, health, parenting, finances. In a lot of cases – like picking which stocks to invest in – the average person actually underperforms random selection. That…

Which job should you take? What car should you buy? Should you ask him to marry you? Are you ready for another baby? Is this house right for you, or should you keep looking before you make an offer? Life is full of hard choices, and the bigger they are and the more options we have…

Ever encountered a project where only one decision needs to be made before you can finish the project? It may only take you a few hours to finish the project once that decision is made, but invariably, it’s the decision that takes forever to make. It’s because decision-making is as much a skill as riding…

Same Old, Same Old? Do you find yourself doing the same things day in and day out? To use a metaphor, are you listening the the same songs of life every day? If so, why not hit the shuffle button on your life and let a new tune rev up your day, your creativity, and your…

Leadership seems to be on everyone’s minds one these days. Educators talk about “teaching leadership”, religious and charitable organizations host “leadership development” programs , businesses invest heavily in “leadership training”. But what is leadership, exactly? And how do we practice it? Leadership is about bringing out and mobilizing the best in the people around you. It’s…

Back in November, I posted an Excel spreadsheet that I sometimes use for making simple decisions. Though pretty basic, it always worked well for me. Well, Lucy over at lucylou.info took the idea and expanded on it, making a pretty cool workbook that she calls, the Ultimate Pros and Cons Excel Workbook: But what…

As we approach the New Year, many of you may be starting to consider one or more New Year’s resolutions. Okay, you’ve done it before—probably many, many times—and the results have not been spectacular in terms of success. In fact, most of your past resolutions have lasted maybe a week or two. Don’t despair. Exactly…

The blog Bad Analysis shares their count down on why would people insist to make bad decision even they are clearly wrong. It is good read to understand them and avoid them (the reasons and people) at all cost: We’ve come this far… (sunk cost bias) Me me me! (egocentric bias) That just proves my point. (confirmation bias) That’s…

I found an old article called Make Decisions in Advance from Productive Strategies. I blog it because i like it a lot. No matter if you are deciding which restaurant to go for dinner, or which implementation is better for your project – you spend your time on those decision making cycle. The article suggests…

Over at Slow Leadership, this week has been all about using your time. I don’t set out to give each week’s postings a single theme, but sometimes it happens that way. It began with considering the relationship between time, action and thought in a posting I called Taking Your Time. Some people…

A leader forced to utilize “hamburger management” is like a cordon bleu chef told to work as a short-order cook and produce nothing but hamburgers with french fries every day. Any organization that uses this approach is like a diner who eats nothing else. The first becomes bored, frustrated and disillusioned; the second becomes sick…

A research has suggested that complex decisions are best to work out with your unconscious mind. Gaia Vince at NewScientist.com has noted that the research at University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands has showed too much thinking of a complex item will lead to wrong choice. It is good to sleep on it so your…

“Anything worth having is worth working for. Persistence is often the defining quality between those who fail and those who succeed.” —On Ho‘omau, the Hawaiian value of persistence and perseverance, in Managing with Aloha, Bringing Hawaii’s Universal Values to the Art of Business Persistence is one of those work qualities that we universally value in business. We…