Archive for the Self-management Category


600 ways to say thank you

Published March 21st, 2012

Earlier this month, we hosted Harvey Mackay on Office Hours. Last week, I received a thank-you note that was memorable — and in its own Godinesque way, remarkable. You can read all five pages here, but the image below should give you the gist. Some of you might not dig this particular approach. But it’s [...]

The power of habits — and the power to change them

Published March 6th, 2012

Human beings, we’ve been told, are creatures of habit. If we do something one way on Tuesday, odds are we’ll do that same thing the same way on Wednesday. Sometimes that helps us. Think about those who floss regularly and can’t imagine otherwise. Other times, it can rot our brains and hollow our souls. Think [...]

Can a tomato make you more productive?

Published February 29th, 2012

My quest to get more and better work done is endless — but not nearly as endless as my willingness to blab about that quest with anyone who’ll listen. In the last few months, a few wise souls who’ve counseled me have leaned in, Mr. McGuire-like, and whispered in my ear a single word: Pomodoro. [...]

3 equations that can change your life

Published January 10th, 2012

Chip Conley is a rare bird. He’s a successful entrepreneur, a provocative thinker, and — get this — a nice guy. Today, he’s out with his newest book, Emotional Equations: Simple Truths for Creating Happiness + Success, and it’s a gem. (Buy it at Amazon BN.com, or IndieBound.) In the book, Chip uses the grammar [...]

How to make a New Year’s
non-resolution

Published January 2nd, 2012

Man, am I glad it’s a new year. I need a re-boot. And as I contemplated my resolutions for 2012, I reached out to Kelly McGonigal for some guidance. Kelly is a Stanford lecturer and author of the terrific new book, The Willpower Instinct (Buy it at Amazon, BN.com, or IndieBound) that explores the psychology, economics, [...]

Sign of the day: New Year’s Edition

Published January 1st, 2012

John Re spotted this on a street in North Adams, Massachusetts. Seems like good advice for 2012.

The power of an hourly beep

Published October 24th, 2011

Peter Bregman is a strategy consultant who advises some of North America’s top CEO’s and writes widely-read blog for the Harvard Business Review. Last month he published his second book, 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done, which is packed with smart, practical advice for boosting individual performance. (Buy it at Amazon, BN.com, Indie [...]

Monday morning advice from two design icons

Published October 3rd, 2011

This morning, while straining to get my cognitive gears to engage, I stumbled across two tidbits of advice that made the task easier and prepared me for the week ahead. The first came from Brain Pickings, one of my favorite sites. Proprietress Maria Popova unearthed a 1972 Q&A with the legendary Charles Eames. The whole thing [...]

John Warrillow’s 3 habits of highly successful entrepreneurs

Published April 29th, 2011

John Warrillow has been studying entrepreneurs for fifteen years. First as the producer of a syndicated radio show, then as the founder of a research company that surveyed ten thousand business owners each year, and now as an angel investor and columnist for both Inc.com and CBS NEWS. As it happens, he has a terrific [...]

Entrepreneurs are Iron Chefs, Managers are Swedish Chefs

Published April 25th, 2011

In this February Inc. Magazine article, which I finally got to this weekend, The University of Virginia’s Saras Sarasvathy talks about research she’s done into the thinking styles of accomplished entrepreneurs. The whole piece is worth reading, but I was especially intrigued by her flavorful distinction between entrepreneurial thinking and managerial thinking: “Sarasvathy likes to [...]

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