Category Archives: Productivity

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Why and How to Take a 10-Minute Nap

A Scientific Approach to Improving on the Power Nap

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Do you feel too tired in the afternoon to do work worthy of your ability? Or do you feel too drained at the end of the day to give your best to your loved ones? If so, you should take a 10-minute nap during the day. After reading the science behind its effectiveness, I’ve been experimenting with it. And I’ve found it to be a complete gamechanger.

Woman taking a quick, 10-minute nap at her desk

Perhaps, like me, you rarely nap. Perhaps you consider it “unmanly” or even impossible given your job or schedule.

In this post I address those concerns. I argue for the benefits of a 10-minute nap. And I discuss how to pull it off. (more…)

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How to Do Everything at the Most Optimal Time

Discover the Best Time—Based on Your “Type”—to Fall in Love, Interview for a Job, Ask for a Raise, etc.

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Is there an optimal time of day to fall in love, interview for a job, or ask for a raise? According to the book The Power of When, which I just finished reading, there is. The author, Dr. Michael Breus, argues that there are 4 types of people. For each type, Breus lays out the most optimal time of day to engage in a wide range of activities from training for strength to seeing a therapist to presenting your ideas.

A picture of a lion

One of the four types of people is the “lion,” the quintessential morning person.

“’When’ is the ultimate life hack,” writes Breus. “It’s the foundation of success, the key that unlocks a faster, smarter, better, and stronger you. Knowing ‘when’ enables you to perform ‘what’ and ‘how’ to your maximum potential.”

In this post I briefly summarize the 4 types of people. Then I show the most leveraged time of day for your type, and the other three types of people, to undertake important activities in order to get from them the most bang for the buck. (more…)

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My Top 10 Posts of 2017

Get Outsized Value from These 10 Most Popular Posts

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As 2017 draws to a close, I wanted to recap for you the 10 most popular posts on my blog this year. You should be able to get outsized value from these posts, especially the #1 most popular.

Here are the top 10 posts, starting with the most popular: (more…)

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Is the Apple Watch Worth the Cost?

My Thoughts after One Month with the Apple Watch

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Last month I got an Apple Watch. The questions I repeatedly get asked about it are: “What do you use it for?” and “Do you like it?” And there seems to be a third, unspoken question: “Is it worth the cost?”

A watch on an apple, as a play on the words "Apple Watch"

In this post I answer those questions. My aim is to help you decide whether you would find it useful, whether you would like it, and whether you would think it worth the cost. (more…)

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How to Love Your Job

3 Ways to a Job that You are Passionate about and Good At

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Do you jump out of bed in the morning looking forward to your work? Or is your job boring? Or a grind? Or even something you dread? What would it mean to you to have a job you love?

Man leaning back in his chair, smiling with content about his job

I was recently introduced to a paradigm for thinking about work that I find brilliant. It’s one of those ways of thinking about things that is so simple yet so profound. For most people, I’d wager it is the key to their job satisfaction. (more…)

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21 Ways to Get the Most out of Sleep

Quick Tips from the Book “Sleep Smarter: 21 Essential Strategies to Sleep Your Way to A Better Body, Better Health, and Bigger Success”

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It’s incredible that we—myself included—give such little thought to something that we spend so much of our life doing: sleeping. When I’m rested, I’m efficient. I’m effective. I am energized to pursue what matters most. Perhaps you feel the same way. But it’s hard to get rested. And being tired makes everything harder, slower, and less enjoyable. Perhaps you agree again.

In his recent book Sleep Smarter, Shawn Stevenson writes, “The research is in, and it’s 100 percent conclusive: When you don’t sleep well, you get slower, less creative, and more stressed, and you underperform.” That’s the bad news. The good news is that you can sleep well.

Stevenson provides 21 essential strategies to sleep your way to a better body, better health, and bigger success. In this post I share the top actionable insight or two that I took from each of the book’s 21 chapters: (more…)

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How to Read 7,000 Pages per Year the Easy Way

Or any other Number. 7,000 is Just what I Happen to Read.

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Do you wish you could read more but can’t find the time? Or do you ever feel embarrassed that you aren’t more well-read? If so, I’d like to show you how to devour books in the least amount of time possible. And it’s not through speed reading. It’s not through audio books, either. Not exactly. I’ve used this process to read more than 7,000 pages per year each of the last three years.

Headphones plugged into book

To a small minority, reading 7,000 pages per year is no big deal. To a vast majority, however, that is a shockingly large number. After all, 28% of Americans don’t read a single book in a given year. The median number of books Americans read per year is 4, meaning they maybe read 1,000 pages/year or so.

Whether you’d like to read 4 books pear year or 40 books per year, the method I use will help you achieve your goal. Here’s the method, followed by my answers to questions/objections you might have to it: (more…)

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5 Reasons Your Team Should Quit Email, Text, & IM and Slack Instead

Slack is a More Efficient way for Teams to Communicate

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If 18 months ago you had told me that my team would no longer need email, text messaging, or instant messaging to communicate with each other, I would have thought you were crazy. No IM, maybe. But no email and text? No way. Yet here we are, with no need of those tools anymore. And it’s all because of Slack.

Coworkers thinking and talking

In this post I’ll explain what Slack is and how my team uses it. Then I’ll share 5 reasons why I recommend it for your team, too. (more…)

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How to Increase Efficiency with Context-Optimized Tasks

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There are many ways to approach the tasks on your to-do list. The relative urgency of tasks can’t fail to play a role. The importance of tasks should play a greater role. But in this post I want to focus on an often-overlooked aspect of task-management: context. Most tasks are well-suited to being worked on in certain environments but ill-suited to others. Working on tasks optimally suited to the context you are in at any given time can greatly increase your overall work efficiency.

Scrabble-type letters spelling "context"

In this post I’ll explain what I mean by “context” and show how to increase efficiency by choosing tasks well-suited to any given context. (more…)

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Save Time with these 2 Strange Gmail Tricks

How to Use the Gmail Plus Sign and Dot Tricks to Save Time

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A number of folks have recently signed up to receive my emails. Looking over the subscriber list, I see that about two-thirds of you have Gmail addresses. I wanted to share 2 time-saving Gmail tricks that you might not be aware of.

Gmail logo

The following two tricks work for Gmail and some other email providers as well: (more…)