From the category archives:

Do Less Achieve More

Waves of Activity and Renewal

by Stephen Mills June 9, 2010

The way we work and live is not conducive to maximal effectiveness. In our rush-around modern lives we try to live by one long pulse during the day and then rest at night. We are working too long and too continuously. We are burning up our mental and emotional reserves without giving them a chance to renew.

Read the full article →

Master Your Workday Now by Michael Linenberger

by Stephen Mills May 11, 2010

Master Your Workday Now!: Proven Strategies to Control Chaos, Create Outcomes, & Connect Your Work to Who You Really Are is a really good book. I rate it five stars. Check out Steve Pavlina’s review on Amazon; he gives it a huge thumbs up. Pavlina spends most of his review describing Part I of the book, but Parts II and III are also really well done. Amazon is currently offering a 48% discount.

Read the full article →

Limit Your Minutes

by Stephen Mills April 26, 2010

Give yourself a specific amount of time to finish a task and then don’t cheat. Live with your time limit. When the time is up, stop. Allow what you’ve accomplished in the time limit to be good enough. Give yourself 30 minutes to clean a room and then let the result stand. Give yourself two hours to write the report and then let that be good enough. Forcing yourself to live with what was accomplished in your time limit will help you implement the 80/20 rule and overcome your perfectionist tendencies.

Read the full article →

Why I’m Not Busy Anymore

by Stephen Mills March 21, 2010

I’m tired of being busy in a 24/7 connected world. I want to be valuable. I want to do what is important to me. I don’t want to be in a constant state of high-tension stress because I’m “busy” and because I have so much to do. I want to be calm and reflective and quietly go about getting important work done. I’ve decided being busy is no longer for me.

Read the full article →

Change Made Simple – Direct the Rider

by Stephen Mills March 4, 2010

In this article we discuss the first of the three main components of the process – Direct the Rider. Directing the rider is all about providing clarity to yourself or others. It’s about solving specific problems and taking specific actions instead of trying to boil the whole ocean.

Read the full article →

Change Made Simple – Overview

by Stephen Mills March 2, 2010

Switch is an excellent book with very practical advice that is made as easy to follow as you can imagine for such a broad and complex topic. I really loved this book. I bought the book at a Barnes and Noble. When I was checking out, the sales clerk said “The whole world needs to read this book”.

Read the full article →

Getting To Freedom by Working the System

by Stephen Mills February 22, 2010

The bottom line is that for those things you have to do, those things for which a repeatable process can be used, you create a system that is deadly efficient and as automatic as possible. In this way you burn through those necessary tasks with maximum speed and efficiency and that frees up the rest of your time to do what you want. In my case that means no planning and no organization. Instead I do whatever I feel like doing and in the way I like to do it: playing, tinkering, and creating.

Read the full article →

The Brain Surgeon, the Janitor, and the Six-Inch Pizza

by Stephen Mills November 10, 2009

We have a hard time cutting out what is not essential because in our minds we create a story that makes everything essential. It’s not. Most of it is trivial and won’t matter in the end.

Read the full article →

Top 10 Ways To Clear Your Mind Clutter

by Stephen Mills October 10, 2009

Meditate – There is probably no better way to clear the clutter from your mind than meditating. Try more extended meditation once a day, but you can meditate for short periods of time in a quite place at work if you need to. Try five minutes in a small conference room. Breathe – So very [...]

Read the full article →

An Optimal Balance to Your Life

by Stephen Mills October 2, 2009

One of the biggest mistakes people make in trying to balance everything they do in their lives is trying to do it all perfectly. You feel that no matter how much time you devote to your job, your kids, or yourself that it still isn’t enough. Sorry, but you can’t be the perfect partner, perfect parent, perfect friend, perfect employee, and perfect self all at the same time. If you try it, you will fail.

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →