Here's an idea: Instead of thinking of your summer vacation as something that detracts from your work, think of it as a way to boost your work performance — or even your business.
The weeklong getaways that run a day or two over, the hour-long siestas that turn into three hours, and the three-day weekends that [...]

My book, Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success, is available now!
Here is tip #37 from the book: A Long List of Ways to Dodge Long Hours
It's hard to leave the office at a reasonable time of day when your workplace culture centers on long hours. But the cost of not leaving work is high: a [...]

One of the best ways to distinguish yourself at work is through productivity. We're all sifting through too much email, we all have more work than we can ever get done, and we all have access to more information than we could ever consume.
The people who make the best decisions about how to process this [...]

I'm not a perfectionist. In fact, when I painted my walls I didn't paint near the windows because I didn't want to do the detail work. When I accidentally address an envelope upside down, I don't get a new envelope.
You know what? Doing those things hasn't made my life any worse. It hasn't made me [...]

The first thing I did when I sat down to work today was do the easy stuff on my list that does not need to be done until the end of the week. Then, when I should have been going to bed, I started working on the stuff that has to be done today.
I know that [...]

Emotional intelligence. This is how you will differentiate yourself at work in the new millennieum.
We can see the world shifting around us in response to the fact that tolerance for poor social skills is getting less and less. The need to fit in with a group on some level, is getting higher and higher, and the tendency [...]

I decided to spend the lull at the end of December working on my time management skills. What has happened, though, is I have merely gained a deeper understanding of why my time management has fallen apart.
Here are three strategies that everyone should be doing that I am not:
1. Do the most important thing first.
I [...]

The need to have regular human moments at work is similar to the need to stand up and stretch on an airplane: Your well-being depends on it. On top of that, a workday with regular face-to-face contact is more energizing than a day full of contacts exclusively via computer and phone.
So get out from behind your [...]

On my last post, where the comments are especially good, Diana wrote that delegating has always been hard for her and she asked how a manager can overcome the following problem: "If the people I was managing didn't know what I was doing that was more important than what I was delegating for them to [...]

I've been doing a little research on sleep. I have found that the more I understand about nutrition, the better I eat. And I thought the same would hold true for sleep. In fact, though on my way to convincing myself to sleep more, I found mostly research to help me sleep less.
But first, here [...]

The last week of December is the busiest time for customer service reps who are fielding calls from customer’s whose gifts don’t work. For most other office workers, this week is dead. And if you are in the office this week, you are probably looking for something to do.
1. Plan
Here’s the first thing to do: [...]

Three weeks ago I wrote a column about dealing with war anxiety. I interviewed my family (what else is new?) and then wrote about my brother Mike’s worries about life insurance.
Then this guy, Paul, started sending emails to me: “Who is your source on that insurance stuff in your column?"
Paul’s emails kept coming. He called [...]