You know what you want. You know what to do. So why is nothing happening? There are thousands of texts and approaches in the productivity & success universe. Many of them are good, some are great. Some, like the writings of Marcus Buckingham approach genius in their rich simplicity. So why, if there are so many great…

Photo by Marloes Most people are unexceptional at following up: it sounds obvious, but it shouldn’t be this way, because followup (I spell it as a single word) is key to combining smaller achievements into bigger ones. Actively following up on conversation is also a trait of people who’re successful, focused, and relentless about living…

Taking a look at the tools and processes different people actually use in their day to day lives. By asking 5 basic questions, we get a glimpse into the way a variety of individuals use their systems and see what works and what doesn’t. In this episode, editor of lifehack.org, Dustin Wax. The Trial by Fire…

Whether it’s for a school assignment or for a novel manuscript, everybody writes. For many people, however, writing often becomes a chore: time-consuming, demanding, and unsatisfactory. The problem is that most people don’t stop to think how to write. Just as there are steps to solving an algebraic equation, there are several steps that can…

Taking a look at the tools and processes different people actually use in their day to day lives. By asking 5 basic questions, we get a glimpse into the way a variety of individuals use their systems and see what works and what doesn’t. In this episode, founder and editor of lifehack.org, Leon Ho. The Trial…

One of the most powerful tools we can use to enhance personal productivity is to standardize tasks and processes. This is nothing new, yet it has become part of the much touted Toyota Production System as a way to reduce automobile manufacturing costs. A classic example from hundreds of years ago is the way that…

We spend a lot of time researching, trying, and reading about methods, processes, tools, and techniques to make us more productive and efficient. The problem is that many of these tools and processes work well in theory, but don’t integrate well into our real-world workflow. I began to wonder what other people use in their own…

This post is part of the Trial By Fire Productivity series. I plan in my head. Back when I was getting started as a freelance designer, I waited tables to help pay the bills. I was one of those waiters that kept orders in his head. I never wrote them down, and very rarely made…

This post is part of the Trial By Fire Productivity series. The first thing that came apparent was the need to define my time. I had to do this in a way that was both flexible and clear. The only productivity/time management tools I kept are Google Calendar, my Miquelrius spiral grid notebook, and…

One of the best motivators for getting things done is the relaxing free time at the end of the day/week. “Working hard to be lazy basically means investing the extra effort (working hard) at first so that it will pay off in the long run (be lazy).” Vivek Mahbubani gives tips…

Launching a new project is extremely time-consuming. It’s at these times I begin to learn how effective my productivity process and tools really are. Since creating a 36-hour day is out of the question, the next best thing is making the hours you have more productive. Enter tools and processes. The thing is, you can never…

At Say Leadership Coaching (SLC) we concentrate our efforts on just that which our name implies; coaching the leadership in companies to reach their greater potential. Executives are but one group we work with; there are leaders at every level of a company’s official org chart, and we find that titles can be irrelevant…

Remember “management by objective?” In the early years of my own management career, management by objective was the single-minded battle cry for business. It was a time when we took certain things for granted, like the hard work ethic of our staff; with few exceptions, dependability and reliability was pretty much a workplace-entry given. Little wonder that…

Creativity is one thing, but capturing it into a form that’s useful (to your needs) is another. I’ve got an idea that I plan to implement for myself: mini process flows. Now, your jobs that you’ll need done are different than mine. I’ll just show you mine as examples, okay? Process Flow Basics Here are the…

My Renaissance Man friend Richard has a post about designing a digital photography workflow. He used the free visual software, Gliffy, to produce the flow he has now. In his blog, Richard asked others to help better develop his workflow, or suggest their own additions to the process. It’s a neat exercise for you…