Articles tagged "Personal productivity"

Deep Work vs. Messy: How to Balance Productivity and Creativity

If only your office were quieter, if your colleagues would quit asking questions, if the phone would stop ringing. If only your desk were neater, your notebooks cleaner, your files a bit more organized.

The Power of Silence: Why You Need Less Noise for Work and Your Health

Shhh. Hear that? No? That's surprising. Odds are, you can hear something right now: A siren, the hum of a fan, the blur of background conversations, the ticking of a watch.

Quantified Self 101: 3 Steps to Using Your Personal Metrics for Self-Improvement

How do you define a productive day? How does your coworker define one? How about your mom? There’s no right answer. All of us have different goals, different work styles, different priorities.

How to Overcome the Fear of Public Speaking: 5 Tips from the Pros

Like most people, at one time in my life I was terrified of public speaking. I remember one moment particularly clearly. My classmates were waiting for me to read a paper I’d written—an experience, I’m sure, many remember from high school and college.

How to Make Your Mondays More Productive (and Less Stressful)

Monday. It’s the day we all love to dread. Garfield famously hates Mondays, and if you want to have some fun with Urban Dictionary definitions, Monday is either "the biggest waste of exactly one-seventh of your life" or "the reason Sundays suck.

The Craftsman Approach: Master Your Work Through Deliberate Practice

In a PBS documentary on Viking swordsmithing, the world got a glimpse into deeply focused, masterful craftsmanship.

Easy GTD®: How to Get Things Done or Get Back on the GTD Wagon

Getting Things Done® (GTD®) is a popular productivity philosophy and system, but it can be intimidating for new users because of its complexity. Even for those who start using GTD, it's all too easy to fall off the bandwagon.

The Best Free Books from O'Reilly Press

It's not every day that you'll find a good new book to read and discover that it's free. The internet's filled with more text than anyone could possibly read in their lifetimes.

5 Steps to Tweak Your Software for More Productive Work

Computers help us be more productive. But they're also perhaps the most distracting devices ever invented. The first personal computers were little more than a blank screen with a terminal where you'd type in text commands.

3 Free Apps That Make Time Blocking Easy

Time Blocking. It’s a simple productivity method—just schedule time to complete each your tasks, just like you’d schedule time for meetings. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most strategies difficult to actually implement in your daily life.