What motivates you? While there are thousands, millions, maybe billions of answers to that question, a growing body of research, some of it dating back 50 years, shows two things that don’t motivate us very well – the promise of rewards and the threat of punishment. It seems counter-intuitive, since after all we take it for granted…

OK, I’m done with procrastinating. I’m done with the guilt, anxiety, stress — and, of course, the not getting stuff done. I’m tired of answering “what’d you do today” with “nothing…”. Of course, it’s a lie — I did do something, just not anything important. Not anything that made me feel happier, more complete, or…

The emphasis on getting things done (GTD) through technologies, tools and psychological tweaks has helped us become able to achieve new heights in productivity. This is great since the more things that we can finish, the sooner we can get on to other (often bigger and better) things. That could mean picking up more money…

I used to hate TV. Not because of the shows that were on (although many of them were terrible), but because it killed my productivity. It was a love/hate relationship. When I was stressed out and my brain had been overwhelmed all day, I’d use television to escape for a few hours and recharge…

There are lots of methods and techniques for making decisions. One of the most commonly used is the pros versus cons list or risks versus rewards. This type of list helps make a clear distinction about what benefits a choice offers, and also what you have to lose. To make it easy, I put together a…