From the Author

Studies show that people who are happy in their work and their lives are more productive and successful. But even if that weren’t true, it’s better to be happy. After all, who wants to be sad? So let’s take a side-trip from our straight ahead exploration of productivity and success to examine how we can […]

I have to confess: I had so much fun writing that previous post, Boost Your Career Trajectory, that I am immediately following it up with Part 2. As you probably remember, I wrote about increasing your level of productivity and success with skills and abilities that are general: that can be useful regardless of the

Increasing your level of productivity and success involves a great many skills and abilities. Some of them are highly specific – like mastering the intricacies of your career or profession, and boosting your willingness to work hard at necessary tasks and projects. But others – including the ones I’d like to address here – are

I’ve written many times about communicating effectively, including here, here, and here. That’s all useful information which you may want to review. Now I’d like to take a different tack and talk about four key considerations that will help you improve your ability to communicate effectively, getting your messages across and reaching the agreements you

There’s a vast difference between the type of communication where people are trying to win or prove themselves right, and the type where people are trying to find the truth or the best way forward. Unfortunately, too much of our daily communication is of the former type. While the other person is talking, we’re too

I feel I owe you an apology. In previous posts, here and here, I’ve shared some of my methods for expanding my self-imposed limits that had the potential to hold me back from growing my capabilities and range of experiences. I hoped they would be as much help to you as they have been to

As I’ve written before, it’s simply not possible to navigate your work and your life without experiencing a crisis or two. While it’s important to try and avoid them as much as possible, it’s even more important to cultivate your ability to minimize their impact. Crises come in many different varieties and degrees of difficulty.

This has been said many times, by me and by others. But it’s so central to productivity and success that I’m going to say it again: Of all the things pulling at your time and attention, focus first and foremost on what’s urgent and important. Accomplishing more of what you care about is just that

There are countless elements that contribute to productivity and success. I’ve covered many of the important ones in this space, and will continue to cover more of them for as long as I can. One that’s often undervalued, however, is getting comfortable with failure. This is because the fear of failure is a powerful restraint

There’s an undeniable and often overlooked power of apology that everyone can benefit from mastering. I’m not talking about unwarranted apologies that stem from a lack of confidence, such as apologies people offer, as I wrote, “when they’ve done nothing wrong, undercutting their own opinions and ideas with disclaimers, and offering excuses for what they