eTips

Research shows that a quick walk outside is a highly productive way to take a break at work. Even better... Casey's eTip: Walk Around a Tree During Your Break Looking at trees (rather than buildings), smelling their leaves, breathing the oxygenated air they produce--it all combines to relax your mind…

To manage your money well, you must track how you spend it. To manage your time well, you must do the same. Casey's eTip: Track Your Time for Three Weeks Track your time in 10-, 15- or 30-minute increments for a few weeks. Categorize the types of activities you do.…

Greg McKeown describes the Paradox of Success--the more you succeed in your career (financially or otherwise), the more opportunities you have and the more distractions arise. He advises us all to... Casey's eTip: Practice Essentialism to Prioritize His book Essentialism offers practical advice to focus on what really matters: Admit…

Good restaurant servers can teach us a lot about efficiency and project management. Faced with many demanding customers, they can't get myopic and fulfill one table's request before visiting the next . Instead, they check the status of every table in their section and make each trip to the kitchen…

Self-defeating "lifestyle" behaviors are a hidden cause of inefficiency, lack of goal achievement, stuckness and dissatisfaction. To move forward with greater ease… Casey's eTip: Get Help for Counterproductive Habits Drinking too much, eating poorly, using drugs (prescription or not) recreationally, living beyond your means--these habitual behaviors and others like them…

Meetings are costly in terms of time and money, so it makes sense to use clear, up-front agreements to... Casey's eTip: Run Meetings that Move Matters Forward First, agree on the agenda. It can be as simple as "What outcome do we hope to achieve from this conversation?" Second, agree…

Your work will never be done. While one project ends, another begins and many more are in mid-stream. It helps to… Casey's eTip: Get Comfortable with Your Loose Ends If your brain tells you that you must finish your work before you can play and you know that your work…

Perfectionism is the enemy of productivity. If you typically strive to do all your work as best as possible, imagine you're back in school. This time, though… Casey's eTip: Go for a B Average, Not an A The Pareto Principle (aka the 80/20 Rule) encourages you to prioritize the 20%…

Experiencing joy on a daily basis isn't the result of producing the life you want (my definition of productivity). It is the method. To begin… Casey's eTip: Practice Joy Today Being joyful is not a character trait. It is a daily habit anyone can develop. Consciously seeking awe in nature…

Developing new habits is difficult. Everyone forgets to do or not do an action, remembers too late, and/or makes mistakes. It helps to... Casey's eTip: Expect the Path to New Habits to Be Bumpy When you know that change is a spiraling, revolving process, rather than a straight, steadily-elevating line,…