Personal Development for Smart People^TM

Virtually every time management system teaches that you must prioritize your projects to make sure you’re working on what’s truly important instead of getting caught up in minor things.  However, few systems explain precisely how to do this.  How do you decide which task is really the most important at any given time?  Is it the one that’s most urgent, [...]

Since I receive many questions about this topic, I thought it would be fun to share a candid insider’s look at the reality of being an A-list blogger.  These are my personal observations, so I’m not saying they’re true of other high-traffic bloggers, but it wouldn’t surprise me if some of these patterns held up.  While I normally [...]

Testing ideas through direct experience is among the best ways to learn and grow.  If you want to know if an idea really has merit, test it under real-world conditions.  Then you’ll have your answer.
For example, suppose you want to ask someone out for a date.  One simple test would be to go right up to the person and [...]

Here’s the third installment of 33 Rules to Boost Your Productivity (see Volume 1 and Volume 2).
These are a bit sillier and less politically correct than the first two volumes — I had to stretch to come up with more ideas – but many are still valid in certain situations.  Just be sure to take them with a grain [...]

My last article on 33 Rules to Boost Your Productivity got a positive reception, so I decided to come up with 33 more.
A few of these are similar to the ones already posted, but most are new.  Sometimes looking at the same idea from different angles can be beneficial.
So here are 33 more rules to boost your [...]

Heuristics are rules intended to help you solve problems.  When a problem is large or complex, and the optimal solution is unclear, applying a heuristic allows you to begin making progress towards a solution even though you can’t visualize the entire path from your starting point.
Suppose your goal is to climb to the peak of a [...]

Have you ever met a self-help junkie?  A self-help junkie is someone who reads self-help books voraciously, attends seminars as much as his/her budget will allow, and is fluent in self-help lingo; however, when you look at this person’s life objectively, s/he has very little to show for this investment beyond a well-stocked bookshelf and a collection of [...]

Here’s an example of applying the concept of polarity to solve a specific problem.
Many years ago I ran into a problem with my web host.  Their service was OK for several months, but then it started going downhill.  My web site would suddenly go offline, and I’d have to contact them to fix it.  My email would cut in and out, and sometimes valid [...]

I’m sure you’ve heard the Woody Allen quote that 80% of success is showing up.  While merely showing up — to work, to an audition, to a date, etc. — won’t guarantee success, it’s certainly a prerequisite.
A few months ago I began training in kempo, a martial arts style that could be described as a [...]

In battlefield medicine the principle of triage involves dividing patients into three groups:  1) those who will die anyway whether they receive medical attention or not, 2) those who will survive anyway whether they receive medical attention or not, and 3) those who will survive only if they receive timely medical attention.
Despite its morbid nature, triage [...]