Category: Book

Do you collect anything? Some of us do, but that probably wasn’t the intention. Maybe we saw something we liked on vacation and made an impulse buy. The next vacation, we saw something similar and got it too. Then a relative saw those two “collectibles” when visiting and decided to get you another. Once you… Continue reading Collections

Are you able to watch TV and wrote at the same time? I can. In fact, I get some of my best writing done while half paying attention to the TV and half writing. It’s not a good time for editing for me, but getting the initial ideas on paper or recorded in my notes… Continue reading Writing

“TV doesn’t control my life” – Vicki Roberts about TIVO. Studies show that the average American watches __  hours of TV per day. That’s a lot. One of the reasons is because there are so many good shows to choose from. We have more content than ever before, most of it available 24 hours per… Continue reading Get Control of Your TV Viewing

They say those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it… Don’t reinvent the wheel. You can “import” ideas across time and space. Look outside your area for new ideas that you can introduce to your circle. And look back in time to find forgotten ideas that you can bring back. Think how often… Continue reading Back to the Future

Some people get hung up on sharing their info or allowing apps to track their location. Yes, it’s true that this does give apps more information about you, but it does allow them to better serve you. For stuff that doesn’t really matter that much, what’s the big deal? For example, I recently downloaded the… Continue reading There’s an App for That

One of the ways successful people are able to maximize their time is by focusing on those things that they uniquely can do well (things that can’t be done by anyone else), and they pay people to do everything else. A common piece of advice is to work on our weaknesses, but that’s not the… Continue reading Focus on Your Strengths

Isn’t it funny how people who have a lot on their plate are always looking for more stuff to do? Shark Tank – the sharks are rich and successful, and they should be and probably are really busy. Yet they take time to do the show in hopes of investing in other businesses that they’ll… Continue reading Busy People

What if you turned your drive home into productive time by multitasking? You could learn something by listening to a book on Audible or listening to a podcast. Or maybe you could learn a new language while on the road. Here’s another idea: why not call someone each day while heading to the house who… Continue reading Turning Drive Time into Productive Time

If you’re writing to multiple people who don’t know each other, you can repeat much of the content. Think how surprised the recipient will be. If that’s too much, how about writing a single year-end wrap up letter. Our friend Debbie does this. Even though at this point we only see her every couple years,… Continue reading Write Letters

Have a perpetual inbox. Maybe not an in-room, but a single thing that “stuff without a home” can be put until it’s put in its proper place. Sort of your island of misfit toys. That way, the rest of the house can stay neat and organized, and you’ll have a single spot that you need… Continue reading Perpetual Inbox

When someone walks into a new space, he or she can normally spot what needs to be changed right away. Because that person is not familiar with the space, the needed improvements stick out like a sore thumb. They have fresh eyes. They may mention things you’ve never noticed or that you’ve long since forgotten.… Continue reading Fresh Eyes

One example of this is in the movie Two Week Notice, starring Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock. Grant’s character, a multi-millionaire real estate developer, has plans to tear down a community center and replace it with high-rise apartments. Bullock’s character, who spends her time protesting projects that she believes harm the community, does what she… Continue reading Highest and Best Use

Get a credit card that allows you to earn airline miles or other rewards, make sure it has enough available credit on it to cover your monthly expenses, and then set all of your recurring bills up on autodraft with that card. That way, you reduce the number of bills you have to think about… Continue reading Put Your Bills on Autopilot

Do other people know the real you, or do they just see a façade? I don’t really like the idea that people see a façade; that implies it’s not the real you. I prefer instead to think of ourselves as multifaceted, and we reveal different parts of our personality to different people and in different… Continue reading People are Complicated

If you have a business and find yourself answering the same questions again and again, why not automate the response? You could put together an email template that will allow you to quickly answer a client’s question without having to type the answer from scratch. You might also want to put those FAQs on your… Continue reading Stop Repeating Yourself

In sports, it’s possible to “save time.” In football, for instance, the team can spike the ball, run out of bounds, throw and incomplete pass, commit a penalty, or call time out. Time stops at the end of each quarter and at the two-minute warning. Preserving time is not only possible, there are several strategies… Continue reading Saving Time

Have you ever heard someone describe their life as “in sync”? That’s actually a great place to be. When you’re in sync, everything’s working as it should. There’s no conflict between two or more things that are important to you. It’s as if all parts of your life are on the same page. So how… Continue reading In Sync

Whether something is a waste of time or not depends a lot on whether you should be doing something else with that time – in the same way that whether something is a waste of money or not depends a lot on whether there’s something else you should be doing with that money.  Gambling might… Continue reading A Waste of Time?

Where would you go? When would you go?

Do you ever wish life had a fast-forward button like in Adam Sandler’s movie The Clickr? Not me. I wish it had a rewind button so I could go back and do a few things differently and, more importantly, so I could go back and relive some of the best moments of my life. A… Continue reading Don’t Be in Such a Hurry

Be respectful of other people’s time. You don’t like it when people waste your time, so don’t waste theirs. Don’t be late, don’t interrupt, don’t push your responsibilities off on them by failing to do your job, and don’t delegate something you could easily do yourself when they are busy.

Does DIY save time or waste time? It has the potential for both. If you’re doing something that you could reliably hire someone else to do for a reasonable price, then you should probably outsource. But if outsourcing actually costs you more in terms of time and money than simply doing it yourself, then you… Continue reading DIY – Do It Yourself

Born-On Dates: We’re all familiar with the expiration dates on food products, but my Grandma used to write the date she bought items on them, long before Budweiser started printing the “born-on date” on their cans and bottles. This actually makes sense when putting something in the freezer, but even with canned goods, my Grandma… Continue reading Deciding What to Do First

At one time or another, every writer has had “writer’s block.” For some reason, we can’t think of anything to write. But I don’t think this phenomenon is restricted to writers. Sometimes people get “life block.” They know what they’re doing isn’t working for them, but they don’t know what they want to do and… Continue reading Writer’s Block (and Life Block)

Do you get nervous when you have to perform, when all eyes will be on you? We all do. But there’s really no reason to be. Most of the time, when have to do a speech or presentation or performance of some sort, our audience is usually relatively small. Most of the people we know… Continue reading Performance Anxiety

Wordle: Wordle is a word game that took social media by storm in early 2022. I love the game—as Jay Bavishi said on Twitter, it has given people a non-heavy reason to check in with friends and family every day in these heavy times, while sometimes claiming intellectual superiority over them.

Having a short memory is helpful in sports. If you don’t, mistakes can linger and influence future performance. Golf is a great example. It’s very much a mental game, and if we focus on a mistake we made on the last hole, we’re likely to repeat it. But if you can put the past behind… Continue reading A Short Memory

Looking for a good gift idea? Why not give people the gift of time? Instead of giving them another item that they’ll have to find a place for, you could give them something that will save them some time, like a free housekeeping session or one free week of lawn maintenance. Or you could give… Continue reading The Gift of Time

My sister and I dread gift-giving occasions like birthdays or Christmas because my Mom inevitably starts asking three to four months ahead of time what we want. The problem is that I need to come up with low-cost items that I’d like to have, but if I want something, especially something inexpensive, I tend to… Continue reading Gift Lists

The last five percent of a project can sometimes take as long as the first 95 percent. It’s at least as difficult and it’s the part we dread the most. That’s why it’s the part we’re most likely to procrastinate on. But you have to close the loop in order to finish off a project.… Continue reading Projects