Productivity

The ancients divided the day into 12 equal parts of day plus 12 equal parts of night. That’s how we got 24 hours in a day—and it changed everything. Once the idea of time had become normalized and standardized, timepieces proliferated and a common sense of “time” began to drive the flow of human activity. As early as the sixth century, church bells rang on the hour setting and keeping the rhythm of the day for all. Industrialization drove this to maximum pervasiveness. We wake, eat, sleep, and work in concert with everyone else in the world. Useful in many … Read more

Speeding up is not always the best way to go faster. Today’s work is often more complex and nuanced than it appears at first glance. That can make it seem like we have a clear goal, an effective strategy, and a sound plan of execution when the reality is that we don’t.  If you take a closer look, you may see that the goal is not super clear. You might not have the best strategy selected (especially if the goal wasn’t clear!). And you therefore probably don’t have as thoroughly detailed a plan for execution as you might have thought. … Read more

This simple trick to dealing with overwhelm might seem too easy when I tell it to you. But it actually works like a charm. When you’re in the middle of a storm of confusion and your day is filled with endless meetings, to-do lists, and a heavily clogged email box, there isn’t much time to think. Your survival instincts kick in and you hustle like crazy to keep up. You chase down loose ends, scramble to put out fires, and try to keep your head above water. The last thing you want to do is stop. That will just make … Read more

A meeting is an event where minutes are taken and hours wasted. — Captain James T. Kirk One of the best ways to find more time in your day is to skip meetings that aren’t effective. Can you skip them all? Probably not. But you can selectively avoid some of the worst meetings on your calendar and reclaim valuable time. I’m going to show you how. Why most meetings waste a lot of time While meetings can be productive, too often they are not. They start late, run long, and fill up the allotted time with more hot air than … Read more