Life of E's

Not long ago, I sent out a question to a few hundred people about what their biggest obstacles are to productivity and Holy Moly – I got more responses to that question than to any other one I've ever sent out. Based on what people wrote in, clearly procrastination is a huge obstacle. Procrastination is [...]

Tags: attitude, obstacles, procrastination, Productivity, strategies, success, time management, tips, tools

What is your metaphor for life? Maybe you have never really thought about it. About 30 years ago, I articulated my metaphor as: 'Life is a bank and time is the medium of exchange.' This makes a great deal of sense to me because time is really the only thing that I have that is [...]

Tags: business, currency, life, loss, money, success

Recently I taught the class If You Do Nothing Else This Semester to help colleagues get organized at the beginning and throughout the semester.  One Life of E's member who also took the class asked the following: My latest problem has been the following dilemma between doing something right away and postponing it. Once I [...]

Tags: organizing, overplanning, overspend on tasks, planning, procrastination, Productivity, projects, steps, tasks, where am I

There are days that I label "Pantihose Days" and then there are the days that I've finally found a new name for:  "Garanimals Days."     The difference is this (if you can't already picture it): Pantihose days are those days where I'm doing a workshop, teaching a seminar, presenting a keynote, or doing some high-level [...]

Tags: attire, garanimal, pajamas, pantihose, professional, relax, suit, teleseminars, work, work environment, workshops

No matter how many times you sincerely express gratitude, there's always room for a few more. The good news is that you will never run out of ways to thank people – and they will never be tired of being appreciated. Here are ten tips for saying thank you. Choose the one(s) from the list [...]

Tags: acknowledge, appreciation, colleagues, courtesy, customers, email, friends, gratitude, Professors, thank you, tips, voicemail

In Pat 1 of "Making Decision and Changing Your Life" post we looked at the consequence of not making a decision and not taking action.  Now let's go ahead and look at making the decisions and getting some forward momentum.   Now I'm going to start with the easy example first. Let's say you have [...]

Tags: change, choices, deciding, making a decision, not choosing, open door, stress management, taking action

Pearl S. Buck once said, "Once the "what" is decided, the "how" always follows. We must not make the "how" an excuse for not facing and accepting the "what."   I really like that quote. So often, we start worrying about HOW something will get done and get all tangled up in that and we [...]

Tags: choices, deciding, decisions, distractions, focus, outlook, Productivity, tips

Eliminating anything you can to reduce stress includes getting rid of 'stuff" in your life that is bugging you.   Here is a continuing list (in nor particular order) of 'stuff' to eliminate from your life.  Eliminate these items one step at a time and check them off as you do so: Clothes that you [...]

Tags: clutter, clutter-free, getting rid of, mess, organization, Productivity, stress management, stuff, things to eliminate

Do you have some 'stuff' in your life that is bugging you? Then it's probably time to start getting rid of it. And you can do that one step at a time.   The following list is in no particular order, so there are easy ones and difficult ones throughout. Take steps to eliminate any [...]

Tags: clutter, energy, focus, just whelmed, Productivity, stress, tips

Do you need to have someone come in to haul everything out of your house to reduce some of the stress? Is it necessarily to dedicate hours and hours for weeks and weeks to de-clutter? Nope. You can take care of some small items – and see what a difference it makes. For example, imagine [...]

Tags: clutter, distractions, energy, focus, just whelmed, Productivity, stress, tips