Start Now. Start Small. Battling the Evil P Twins.

As a long-time fan of Gretchen Rubin’s work and as someone who battles the evil P twins of procrastination and perfectionism, I am giving myself a belated (what else) birthday present: her latest book, “Better Than Before, Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives” (Crown Publishing Group).

Learning To Stop Short of the Brim

We interrupt our regularly scheduled broadcast of the Oscar’s Gift Reading Guide to mention a simple change that has made a huge difference in not only how I spend my time, but perhaps more important, how I feel at the end of each day. I’m finally learning to prioritize. A while back, I decided to …

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Planning vs. Doing

Do you regularly set aside time for planning, or, like me, do you sometimes allow planning and deciding to seep into space that should be spent on doing and writing? Natalie Houston has an excellent piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education about her personal productivity tips, including the importance of separating “deciding from doing”: “Over the …

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Working (and Writing) Smart

From the Harvard Business Review blog network, Tony Schwartz discusses multi-tasking, anxiety, creativity, and pacing in  Four Destructive Myths Most Companies Still Live By. You’ll find much in this concise piece to discuss, debate, and perhaps apply. On multi-tasking: “The worst thing you can do as a boss is to insist that your people constantly …

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