Archive for the ‘Productivity’ Category
Time-saving tip
February 9th, 2011
You’ve been trying for years to perfect your recipe for old-fashioned boiled fudge. A little pinch of this, a little drop of that … Eureka! This year you’ve finally managed it! Fudge just like great-grandma used to make. So of course, you’ll trust yourself to remember the recipe, right?
Of course, not. You’ll record the recipe and keep it in your recipe file
TAGS: chores, directions, how to, instructions, motivation, Self-Improvement, step by step, tasks, tips, what to do | 
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Cold reduces productivity
December 28th, 2010
Baby, it’s cold outside, and you need to save money on your heating bill. But hang on before you lower that thermostat too much.
A few years ago, researchers at Cornell University found that when employers lowered office temps from a toasty 77 degrees to a chilly 68 degrees, they also lowered worker productivity
TAGS: heat, heating costs, motivation, Productivity, research, Self-Improvement, thermostat, tips |
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Rev your engine after the holidays
December 27th, 2010
It’s beginning to look a lot like … the post-holiday slump. Ugh. You’ll probably do some partying to ring in the new year, maybe watch a few football bowl games. And then it will be time to clean up the mess, throw out the leftover fruitcake, and beat the bathroom scales to dust with your kid’s new baseball bat.
For six weeks, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s keep Americans on one extended high of sugar and hustle-bustle. Then it’s back to reality … a little poorer
Donate old toys
December 23rd, 2010
‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring … except the parents trying to figure out where they’d store the new batch of toys
Here’s one way to solve the dilemma and spread the Christmas spirit at the same time …
Cure your holiday tardiness
December 20th, 2010
It’s Christmas week. You’ve got shopping, parties, family obligations. And you’re late
Well … if you live in the United States, 20 percent of the adult population is chronically late. So you’re trying to push your way through the other 41.5 million late people who’re wondering why you’re on their road.
Isn’t there a better way to get to the egg nog on time?
Simplify your chores
November 23rd, 2010
We’ve got PCs, netbooks, iPhones, iPods, and iPads; Wiis
, Miis, and MP3s; Segways, GPS, and TiVo. But we still can’t tell the laundry to pick itself up off the floor, toss itself into the washer, and bring along one of those handy all-in-one detergent packs. No matter how much technology does for us, we still have chores—those tedious daily and weekly tasks that not even the Roomba robot vacuum can eliminate.
So how do we make these mundane tasks less mundane? Try turning them into a daily obstacle course.
TAGS: activity, chores, game, motivation, Productivity, Self-Improvement, simplify, tasks, time management, tips |
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Make an inspiring move
October 26th, 2010
See it? Over there, floating in the air just … out … of … your … reach. In your mind’s eye, you stretch out your fingers … so close. Maybe if you get to your feet! Yes, that will do it! The simple act of standing will bridge the distance, allowing your brain to latch onto the elusive idea floating just outside its grasp.
Timers ensure healthy scheduling
October 21st, 2010
Like many of you, I’ve got too much on my mind lately and the mental noise is overwhelming the part of my brain that tracks everyday chores, appointments, and so on. As a result, I’m skipping meals, going to bed at ridiculous hours, putting off easy tasks that would be better put away, and even missing appointments that were marked on my calendar.
Time for the timers.
When life’s not fair
August 24th, 2010
My niece is about to enter the second grade, but as Robert Fulghum
famously noted, she learned everything she needs to know in kindergarten. She learned to share and to play fair. And she expects the universe to support her idea of fairness. So when she lost her plastic duck-topped coffee-stirrer—a souvenir from the previous day’s parade of ducks
at the Peabody Hotel
—she declared: “That’s not fair!” as though the universe would magically make it reappear.
“What’s not fair?” I asked.
“They took it!” she said of the restaurant staff that had thrown away her prize.
“You left it on the table, and they picked it up with the rest of the trash. Why isn’t that fair?”
Because!
TAGS: fair, inspiration, motivation, problem solving, realistic, Self-Improvement, success, vent |
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3 easy problem-solving strategies
July 18th, 2010
Lucien Loubiere had a problem. A big, angry, snorting problem. It was early 1961, and the actor commanded the spotlight before a live audience in Périgueux, France. As he stood center stage looking regal in a brilliant bullfighter’s costume, he suddenly found himself facing an unexpected and unwelcome challenge: an enraged young bull, set loose by practical jokers in the show’s company.
Audience members began screaming and scrambling from the front rows, but Loubiere remained calm. Reaching inside his costume, he quickly extracted a pistol and fired three shots, killing the bull as it charged. Then turning to the audience, he announced with a dismissive shrug, “It’s the modern way to do it.”
