There is an old adage that says if you eat a frog first thing in the morning, the rest of your day looks pretty easy. If you have two frogs to eat, pick the biggest, ugliest one first. Your personal “frog” is the project or activity that:

Yields the most benefit for you in [...]

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My last post discussed how we stretch ourselves to the limit and then can push ourselves further when driving as we try to reach a destination quickly, often in the interest of better time management. At that same time the news came out about the possibility that two Mesa Air pilots both fell asleep [...]

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In the previous post, I spoke about the common ways commuters multitask when driving. Another detriment to long-term effective time management is pushing through on the road so you can get somewhere faster, even though you may be struggling to stay focused.
The National Sleep Foundation says:

60% of Americans have driven while drowsy
37% admit to [...]

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Can you imagine a day without email? Suppose the whole company banned managing email once a week on Fridays?
For most people, the first response is an immediate objection. In my time management seminars, even bringing up the idea of setting blocks of time each day for processing email vs. letting it interrupt you all day [...]

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Recently a headline hit all of the major papers, asking, “Is Night Shift Tied to Cancer?” The International Agency for Research on Cancer is adding overnight-shift work as a probably carcinogen.
This doesn’t mean that working nights will, by itself, cause cancer. What happens is that the overnight work creates a risk when it disrupts the [...]

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The simple checklist has been around for eons of time. Even Santa is depicted as checking off his work. However in so many cases, our hectic lives have evolved away from this tool. We move too fast to pause for planning out the steps and recording them.
The dilemma is that as technology advances and steps [...]

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In one of Scott Adam’s pointed Dilbert cartoon strips, the boss reminds employees to use their vacation time before the end of the year. When they do take the days, they are lambasted for not being there when there is so much work to do.
Have you accumulated vacation days that you should use before [...]

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Cyber Monday: the Monday following Thanksgiving, the biggest online retail shopping day
The term “Cyber Monday” came into being after computers penetrated the workplace. Employees used that first day back after the holiday to order their Christmas presents. While the need for this day is a bit archaic now that computers are also [...]

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We are faced with jobs, errands, and projects that require our immediate attention every day. Tasks from personal chores (picking up the dry cleaning) to professional obligations (finishing the report by 5 p.m.) weigh on our minds regularly. Trying to decide which to do when can be a challenge.To help determine priorities, let’s first consider [...]

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Do you multitask?
Of course you do…we all do! There have been several times that I’ve had to email someone, shush the dog, check on dinner, and look up the number for the doctor all at the same time. Fortunately for me, none of those things were life threatening or would have ended my job.
How do [...]

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