Casey’s eTips

eTips are quick suggestions for improving productivity.  You can quickly digest the tip and put it to use immediately.  Sign up to receive eTips via email using the form on the right, or read them online, below and on Casey’s blog.

eTips
March 11, 2024

Casey’s eTip: Go Outside First Thing in the Morning

We just started daylight saving time in the US and any change like this is a wonderful opportunity to begin a healthy new habit. Specifically… Casey's eTip: Go Outside First Thing in the Morning The research about the biological reasons we need early morning light is well known. The recommendation…
eTips
March 5, 2024

Casey’s eTip: Turn Organizing into a Game

Organizing your office (or any space) can seem daunting. Where to begin? How long will it take? Is there ever an end? To ease the process… Casey's eTip: Turn Organizing into a Game Games are fun because there's an element of challenge and a time limit to ratchet up the…
eTips
February 27, 2024

Casey’s eTip Listen with Curiosity to Enhance Productivity

It's possible to listen with frustration, approval, derision, delight, impatience, and so much more. Those reactions can become filters that limit our perceptions, hindering our comprehension. It helps to… Casey's eTip: Listen with Curiosity to Enhance Productivity We are all capable of missing what the speaker is trying to convey…
eTips
February 20, 2024

Casey’s eTip: Listen Actively to Enhance Productivity

Listening can seem like a passive activity but giving and receiving information is a mutual exchange that requires full engagement from the listener… Casey's eTip: Listen Actively to Enhance Productivity Reflecting back or summarizing what the speaker says helps both parties ensure understanding, which saves time, money and aggravation. If…
eTips
February 7, 2024

Casey’s eTip: Listen Attentively to Enhance Productivity

"You have two ears and one mouth. Use them proportionately!" This admonition reminds us that careful listening defuses tensions, identifies solutions and decreases errors, so... Casey's eTip: Listen Attentively to Enhance Productivity Listening actively begins with full engagement -- attending closely to what the speaker says in the moment. Your…
eTips
January 31, 2024

Casey’s eTip: Move Your Body for Greater Productivity

"Those who think they have no time for exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness," wrote Edward Stanley. I'll add that most of the top performers I know value fitness and physical health. So… Casey's eTip: Move Your Body for Greater Productivity Physical health helps produce…
eTips
January 23, 2024

Casey’s eTip: See No as a Bridge, Not a Barrier

If we are to say "yes" to what matters most to us, we must say "no" to what does not. But saying "no" (or "not now" or "not that way") can seem like a block to our relationships. It doesn't have to… Casey's eTip: See No as a Bridge, Not…
eTips
January 16, 2024

Casey’s eTip: Accept or Keep Only Treasure

We Americans are taught to accumulate. We keep things (emails, papers, objects) unless they're clearly trash. Understandably, clutter ensues. How to avoid it…? Casey's eTip: Accept or Keep Only Treasure Here's a small yet profound mindset shift you can resolve to make this year… Shift your default setting from "Keep…
eTips
January 10, 2024

Casey’s eTip: Put Your Challenges in the Bigger Context

Before I launch into another year of productivity-enhancing suggestions and ideas, here's one thought that I hope you take to heart. My eTips aim to help you to live and work with greater ease. They aren't trying to "fix" you because you aren't broken. When you feel frustrated at work,…
eTips
January 2, 2024

Casey’s eTip: Cultivate Joy in 2024

Happy New Year! I'm beginning my 21st year of writing weekly eTips and this one offers an unexpected approach to improving productivity… Casey's eTip: Cultivate Joy in 2024 The positive psychology movement is finally studying joy on a large scale. Turns out that we can cultivate it. We can find…
eTips
December 19, 2023

Casey’s eTip: Produce Joy and Peace

As the year winds down and the days get as short as they can be, now is a great time to shift focus to… Casey's eTip: Produce Joy and Peace Productivity isn't about squeezing the life out of every second or treating time like money. Time is much more valuable…
eTips
December 13, 2023

Casey’s eTip: Use Universal Precautions with Everyone

When I was in my 20s, I worked in a hospital and learned about "universal precautions." Since we never knew whether a patient had a contagious disease, we treated everyone with the care we would if we knew they did indeed need special care. Nowadays, especially this time of year,…
eTips
December 5, 2023

Casey’s eTip: End Your Obligation Streak

This holiday season, I encourage you to examine your list of things you "have to do" because you've always done them. It might be time to… Casey's eTip: End Your Obligation Streak Singer/songwriter Aimee Mann wrote: "And so, for the sake of momentum, I'm condemning the future to death so…
eTips
November 28, 2023

Casey’s eTip: Stick to a System, Even an Imperfect One

Are you someone who goes from one task-management method to another, trying to find what works for you only to discover that the constant change leaves you with no method at all? You're not alone! My recommendation is to… Casey's eTip: Stick to a System, Even an Imperfect One No…
eTips
November 21, 2023

Casey’s eTip: Give Thanks and Be Happy

I wish you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving. Abraham Lincoln, who presided over very challenging times in our nation's history, issued nine proclamations calling for days of thanksgiving during his tenure (the October 1863 one set the timing for our national holiday--
eTips
November 15, 2023

Casey’s eTip: Keep All Your To-Do’s on Your Calendar

Daniel Markovitz makes a compelling case in a Harvard Business Review article for ditching to-do lists (although there are ways of managing such lists that address his concerns). Instead, he suggests you… Casey's eTip: Keep All Your To-Do's on Your Calendar Putting tasks on the calendar ensures there is time…
eTips
October 31, 2023

Casey’s eTip: Learn How Your Brain Works

We live with our brain our whole lives but we probably never received an instruction manual about how it works when we were children. Fortunately, it's not too late to… Casey's eTip: Learn How Your Brain Works When you understand the neuroscience of how your brain functions, you increase your…
eTips
October 24, 2023

Casey’s eTip: Leverage the Rhythm of Attention

Our ability to direct our own attention influences both our productivity and our quality of life. We are more productive when we focus on what matters. We are happier when we focus on gratitude. These are just a couple examples. Still, it's important to realize that our attention naturally wanders.…
eTips
October 17, 2023

Casey’s eTip: Presume the Best in Others

This eTip stems from my experience this past week, making avoidable mistakes and encountering others doing the same. I'm reminded that it's useful to… Casey's eTip: Presume the Best in Others It's easy to take one data point from someone, especially someone new, and form an opinion of that person,…
eTips
October 10, 2023

Casey’s eTip: Picture the Person You’re Contacting

As we communicate more and more with people we've never met, especially via writing only, it's easy to forget their humanity. We can see them as obstacles to or levers for our goal achievement. To combat this effect… Casey's eTip: Picture the Person You're Contacting Imagine this human with a…