I have been trying to think of time differently, so I don’t panic because I don’t have time to do that. I have a job that requires about 60 hours of work a week. And I homeschool my kids. So the only way to get by is to stop thinking of time in terms of …

I get so many books in the mail to review, and the way I evaluate which ones are worth my time is to first read the jacket flap. So I’m not even going to pretend that I have read Tipping Sacred Cows, by Jake Breeden, but I’m going to tell you that it has an …

I only fly business class because too many things go wrong when I don’t.
When I’m at the airport, I miss my planes. A lot. My biggest problem is that I can’t actually read my boarding pass.So I’m going to tell you about how I get help.
But asking for help is complicated. Garret Keizer, author of …

I wait until my kids and husband go to bed. I wait ten extra minutes just in case. Then I take my new book out of the bag: Family Violence: Legal, Medical and Social Perspectives.
It’s a textbook organized by types of violence. The only light on in the house is the one next to the …

I spent the morning going through my file of links that people have sent to me over the week that looked good to read. I have seen enough productivity advice to know that I should not leave links in my inbox. David Allen says everything needs to be dealt with now or filed for later. …

Let go of your dreams. They are stupid. I’m going to show you why. But first, let me say that I’m a big fan of deciding what you want for your life. It’s just that I’m a practical person. If you say you want stuff you can’t have [insert here, for example, a list of …

I am shocked to hear that 60% of people don’t know what’s holding them back from reaching their goals. So I decide that I will address the topic: The way  you figure out what you should be doing next is that you try stuff.
You make bad choices, you try again. This is really standard advice for …

1. They use lists. High achievers organize their thinking with lists, they organize their time with lists, and when they want to spur their creativity, the best tool they have is to force themselves out of the comfort of their list.
2. They use pharmaceuticals. Adderall is de rigueur for the high-powered jobs in high-powered cities …

I hate myself for not doing yoga every day. That’s how you know you’re serious about yoga: you use it to generate self-hatred.
I am the type of person who can use a wide range of things to this end: telling my son the wrong name for the D major scale on the piano, for example. …

Do you like that headline? I stole it from CBS. When I saw the headline there, I clicked immediately. I didn’t like the post, but it got me thinking.
Why does anyone want focus? People probably click the headline because we associate focus with success. Of course, I come from a family full of people with …

Most of the time management advice that’s out there sucks. It’s all written by men who write about time management while their wives are at home taking care of their kids, or by men who don’t have anything to do except write about time management. We need time management advice for people who have a …

Executive function means being able to see the big picture and sort through details to arrive at a good decision. You probably have met more than a few people with very poor executive function. This person is probably very smart but seemingly incompetent in one area—often at work, or in daily life skills, or both. …

One of the keys to my ability to work 40 hours a week and homeschool two kids is that I have great time management. Which is to say, I say no to just about everything. But learning when to say no is still a work in progress. Here’s what I know about saying no to …

I make a plan where I write enough on Sunday so I don't lose my mind trying to write posts all week in between dealing with two kids.
And then I decide writing seems too hard. And I decide I should take a bath.
You might think this is my way of relaxing, but it's not. We …

Melissa rides her horse every morning before she goes to work, at noon, which is when her boss gets to work. I am sad that Melissa is happy because now she will not come back to the farm and be my permanent photographer.

I used to feel sorry for Brad and Angelina because they had photographers …

The best thing about going to a rural school is that there are not really vacations. I’m not sure why. Maybe because we had bazillion snow days. Or maybe it’s because no one needs two weeks off to go to Bermuda in March. Or maybe it’s because kids need to get out of school early …

It's true that I am publishing my gift suggestions too late for the biggest gift-giving season of the year. But I think it's okay, because the gifts are totally impractical.
In fact, I think this is actually my wish list—stuff I wish I had been given over the years to keep my career on track.
1. A …