Articles tagged "Personal productivity"

3 ways to automate parenting duties without screen time

I have a friend who once said something like this to her daughter: "Would you like me to dedicate my limited memory to remembering your birthday or checking whether you've put on your socks and shoes each morning?" I laughed. But I also wanted to cry.

How to automatically keep track of almost anything

I used to have a sticky note on my desktop where I'd write down everything that annoyed me in a given week. Freelancer bailed? Wrote it down. Coworker mansplained something? Wrote it down.

Your brain isn't a computer, and that's a good thing

You are not a machine—and that's a good thing. You can do things, right now, that no machine ever could. And I'm not talking about mushy stuff like loving your dog or appreciating a concerto. I'm talking about concrete skills.

What working parents need at work

I've been a working parent for three years. I've worked remotely the entire time, and it has been such a blessing in my family life. I don't have a commute, so I get to spend more time with my kids before and after school.

Create an agenda in Google Docs when you schedule a meeting in Google Calendar

Meetings run better with an agenda, but only if you remember to actually make one. Why not automate the process? Here's how to automatically create an agenda in Google Docs every time you schedule a meeting in Google Calendar.

How to automate busywork in your personal life

I love to automate things. And not just work things, but also personal things. After all, the more efficient I am at life, the more time I have for one-sided conversations with my dog.

How to Be a Productivity Ninja: Attention management

In any knowledge work job, you're really playing two different roles at once: you're simultaneously the "boss" and the "worker".

How to bring joy into your work day

Remember the feeling you had as a kid holding a bunch of crayons in your hand or watching fireworks in the sky or blowing bubbles into the air? That's joy: a burst of intense positive emotion that makes you smile and even laugh.

How to build habits that will last all year

A habit is something you do on the regular, almost without thinking. And yet—when it comes to forming new habits, it feels nearly impossible to get behaviors to become sticky. We exercise for a week before begging for the couch to take us back.

Do fewer things, but do the right things better

It's tempting to be everywhere and do everything. We read articles (like this one, hi!) telling us what will make our business successful. We see what our competitors are doing and we must do that thing too.