I got sucked into busyness during my junior year by defaulting to YES and defending my NO. Before the school year started, I had a full course load, a new job, and an on-campus leadership position. I was also training for my first mountain bike race. That’s when Amy, a friend of mine, invited […]
Beat Stress and Busyness
The Easiest and Most Powerful Weapon Against Busyness
You have in your arsenal one of the most powerful weapons to fight and destroy busyness. You’ve known this weapon and wielded it well from the time that you could talk. You could use this weapon when you were a small child. It is the favorite word of many one-year-olds. It’s the word […]
How to Get Rid of 5-10 Hours of Commitments
You only have 168 hours every week in your life. But, if you’re like most people, you try to fit 190+ hours worth of commitments into your time. And many of those commitments suck the life out of you. There’s a simple method for getting back 5-10 hours of your time EVERY WEEK […]
Email is Like a Tractor Beam
If you don’t intentionally manage your email, it will distract you from your priorities and make you unproductive. I learned this (again) the hard way a few weeks ago. Email is like a tractor beam that draws you into unwanted work. Every “reply” or “delete” makes you feel like you’ve accomplished something. […]
Freedom Comes from Being (un)Busy
As we celebrate freedom this weekend, I wonder: have you GIVEN YOURSELF freedom? Or are you like most people: you think of freedom as “being able to do EVERYTHING you WANT now? That type of “freedom” only creates stress and busyness. Real freedom comes: when you have margin in your time, energy, […]
How Busyness is Like Hoarding
Have you ever watched one of those TV shows with hoarders? Everytime I see one, I’m fascinated…. But hoarding and busyness have a lot in common. In my recent interview with Jeff Brown, we discussed what you can learn from a hoarder to help you beat overcommitment. If you’d like to maximize […]
One Entrepreneur’s Advice on Living with Purpose, Productivity, and Peace
If you could tell entrepreneurs one piece of advice about Purpose, Productivity, and Peace, what would it be? I asked this question recently to Jerry Beers, the cofounder of Five Pack Creative, creators of mobile apps. I interviewed him recently about leading his business and the expectations entrepreneurs put on themselves to work […]
The Shocking Truth about What Busyness and Cancer Have in Common
What if a friend told you that he had lung cancer? You would be devastated. And your friend would be angry that he had contracted the awful disease that has taken so many lives. But how would you respond if that friend then pulled out a cigarette and lit it up? #Busyness and […]
What To Do with Your Time if You Get (un)Busy
“If I get (un)busy, what will I do with my time?” This is one of the most frequent questions that I get and was posed to me recently by Jeff Brown of the Read to Lead podcast. Many high achievers wrongly assume that to have margin in your schedule means that they’re unproductive or […]