Dumb Little Man has a really well thought-out and laid-out piece about how he handles banking. He says it’s not necessarily the “best” way to bank, but it’s his way. Of note in his system: 3 Bank Accounts- one for direct deposit, one each for his and his wife’s expenses. 2 Back-up/Emergency fund vehicles…

So a friend of mine is building a robot. Most things that get called robots are really nothing more than remote control cars with a few smarts, or telepresence vehicles. But this guy is all about the soul of the machine, the way the robot will consider things. And his model? He plans for his…

(I’m teasing a bit, based on Leon’s post about anti-procrastination) I was surfing a blog that talks about GTD and life, and I read a great post about taking some time to recover and relax. Bryan basically comments about part of David Allen’s book, READY FOR ANYTHING, where David discusses finding time to…

It’s tricky to be a kid. My Four-year-old wants to be an equal partner in all activities my wife and I are engaged in, and she’s not exactly the best sit-still person for longer car rides. One trick we’re finding is that if we give her a job to do, it’s helping her focus and…

Here are a few hacks and tips for getting yourself ready for vacations. Some deal with money. Others deal with planning. They all hopefully add up to ways you might get more fun and comfort out of your next vacation: Save Change and Coffee Money- Make it a project to raise jars of money for vacations…

Adam mentioned wanting a quicker reboot for his life. I gave this some thought, and here’s what I have for a premise: not unlike computers, the thing that slows down most reboots is sorting through everything. Where were things left when I shut down? What’s got to be done by which thingy when? That kind…

I’ve got this crazy notion that comes partly from living in a space that is basically one big giant room (a loft). The house has been a little messy lately, and no matter what we do, it’s just not coming back to a state of “organized” lately. So I’ve got this thought. Bear with me…

Gretchen Rubin from The Happiness Project is weighing in with her Wednesday Tips series. This week she’s here to help us eat better. Here’s a sampler platter: Paradoxically, studies show that over time, people who diet tend to gain more weight than people who don’t diet. Here are some non-dieting tips for eating better…

I’ve got health and fitness on the brain because of a fitness challenge I’m hosting in my own stuff, so I was thinking about ways to get some more fitness into my cubicle-bound day job. Here’s what I’ve got. Rebuild Your Cube – Some offices are cool with cubicle mods…

This week, I’ve been thinking a great deal about what counts as a “civilized” corporate and workplace culture. That’s because I’m deep into the editing process with my new book, Slow Leadership: How to Civilize Your Workplace, which will be published this Fall. The more I think about it, the more is seems to me that much of corporate America — much of the Western corporate world, if it comes to that — has taken a large step backwards in recent years in providing truly civilized working conditions.

Ronsan had a goal. When I was in my early 50s, I began to question the lifestyle my husband and I were living. I longed for a simpler lifestyle: I knew I wanted less stress, I knew I was tired of working for someone else, and I felt there had to be a way to achieve…

A frequently asked question about my productivity is, “How do you find the time to do all that?” I often joke that I don’t sleep (and well, I don’t really sleep enough), but the truth of the matter is that I’ve spent a lot of time really examining the way I spend my time, and…

I’ve been working with a lot of editing lately: removing dead space and clicks and “ums” from audio podcasts, clipping off the unimportant or blurry in video footage, trimming useless or hard-to-understand words out of posts and articles. It strikes me that editing is an important part of maintaining a productive and effective life. Edit…

Gretchen Rubin wants you to be happy, and she knows that you want to get the most out of life, you need regular exercise. She has a lot of tips on sticking with your program. Exercise helps make you happy. People who exercise are healthier, more energetic, think more clearly, sleep better, and have delayed…

There are lots of services out there that will do things on your behalf. You can drop your clothes off at the laundromat to get them washed and folded for you. You can purchase your groceries online and have them delivered to the house. You can pay people to mow your lawn and rake the…