“He who knows others is wise, he who knows himself is enlightened” – Lao Tzu One of the first steps in change is awareness — understanding how and why you do things the way you do. But why is it important to know yourself? Awareness of self…empowers. It creates space and understanding for decisions to be made

Most of us associate travel and time with what we’re going to do one we get to our destination. Planning and mapping out what to do once you arrive can certainly make for a more pleasurable vacation, but there are things you can do while you are on your way that can make it…

I bet you’ve heard this quote before: “The early bird gets the worm…” – William Camden Perhaps you’ve heard it in reference to your own sleeping habits. There are numerous articles on the web where writers tell you that one of the best ways to become more productive is to get up early. By doing so…

At this time of year you really need to slow down. With all of the hustle and bustle of a busy shopping season and the frenetic pace many take on to close all of their “open loops”, we lose sight of the fact that this is the time of year to take stock of where…

Working with a coach has become quite the norm in our modern work world. From professional athletes to successful business professionals, from mid-life moms to college graduates, the reasons for working with a coach are as varied as the individuals. Coaching can take many forms, from individual sessions to group workshops, in person, on the phone…

Before I begin, I need to give full credit of this post to Rob Lawrence, a great friend of mine and the co-author of a book we wrote together called Get Noticed. Rob is also a creativity coach who has inspired me on numerous occasions with his advice. One particular instance was when he was…

Do you ever feel overwhelmed or have too much to do? Have you been known to move around like a headless chicken? If so, maybe it’s time to do a Productivity Audit. Here are a few questions that will help you decide if it is time to audit your efficiency: Do you feel in control of your…

The demands on our time are greater now than ever before. With information coming at us faster than we can digest it, responsibilities handed to us faster than we can handle them and communication moving at breakneck speed, finding ways to fit as much as possible into your day is a daunting task to say…

When taking on the project of improving your productivity, you’ll undoubtedly come across two words that go hand-in-hand with the practice: important and urgent. These two words often intertwine depending on what your priorities are and how well you’re keeping up with what you’ve got on the go. Knowing what the difference between important and urgent…

One of the greatest ironies of this age is that while various gadgets like smartphones and netbooks allow you to multitask, it seems that you never manage to get things done. You are caught in the busyness trap. There’s just too much work to do in one day that sometimes you end up exhausted with…

In my last article here at Stepcase Lifehack,one of the comments I received suggested that there is a fine way to get around the question of having a “sacred’ calendar. Popular books like Getting Things Done and others advocate the use of calendars for appointments, trips and other activities that “must” be performed on a particular…

I was still in bed when I heard that big bang this morning. Since I already heard that similar type of sound a few times this year, I knew that it was another fender-bender of a car crash outside. My house faces a street intersection that can get quite busy during rush hours even though at…

While I love Getting Things Done (GTD) as one of the best time management systems around, many of its user struggle to implement its recommendations. The reason? GTD was developed in the 1990′s at a time when email volumes were low, mobile email access was limited, there was no such thing as tweeting and 2…

Most productivity writing is about tips for organizing our workspace — creative ways to arrange our e-mail inbox, write to-do lists, color-code folders, and so on.  These techniques can be useful, but they don’t deal with one of the biggest obstacles to getting our work done:  our own minds. As I’ll bet you’ve experienced, if…

Most of us think of time management skills as something that we happen to have, and others desperately need. It’s easy to do so when we believe that a lifetime of learning can be contained in a single lesson that we happen to have learned. But are we as good at managing our…