Categories
email life Organization

Guerilla Ruthlessness

I used to be very into “productivity”, but I’m somewhat over it lately. Whilst I still favorite the articles on twitter to read later, I’ve stopped buying books about it. There’s a lot of advice out there, keep a todo list! Keep a done list! Keep a don’t list! Various ways to arrange, and schedule, […]

Categories
email Organization

Email Once A Day

Back in May, I started checking email only once a day (and sometimes not at all if I had no meetings). I had to accept that no-email days would be scarcer than I’d like, but overall it’s been a good experiment. Typically I get through it as fast as possible (< 15 mins) and once […]

Categories
Books Organization

How to be Slightly Happier and get a Bit More Done

I bought this book (Amazon) because I’m a huge fan of Burkeman’s column “This column will change your life”. He has a knack for taking a large self help book and extracting the one actually useful piece of advice – like the 10-10-10 method for making decisions. And debunking popular myths – like it taking 28 day days […]

Categories
Career email Organization

Drawing Lines Around Your Day

Arriving, stressed, on a Monday morning the other week I decided to shut the mail tab on my browser, with no intention of opening it again. This impromptu panic started a new thing – I’m checking (work) email at most once a day, if I have a meeting. No meeting days – usually one a week […]

Categories
inspiration Organization Reflections

Positivity Challenge

I was having a bit of a crisis the other day about how much I had committed to and whether I would do a decent job at any of it to two friends and colleagues. They gave me a bit of a pep talk. And then set me a challenge – to stop beating myself […]

Categories
Organization

Making Mondays Manageable

I’ve been getting really stressed out on Mondays lately. I realized why when I called someone out on doing the exact same thing. Monday mornings I do my “snippets” – I make a list of things I achieved the previous week. And I mentally plan what I want to achieve over the course of the coming […]

Categories
inspiration Organization

Giving Up On Goals

I’m not doing my weekly review at the moment. At first it was in part because I was ashamed to admit that I hadn’t yet unpacked my apartment (it’s done now). But also, I showed up to the coffee shop to work with my mentee and something exciting had happened to her, and she said, […]

Categories
inspiration Reflections

Maintaining Optimum Stress Level

At Ignite Waterloo a guy gave a talk about “Why All My Ex-Girlfriends Are Crazy”. Of course, I was dying to know why. The reason? They were women who having achieved at university and then started their career had got to a point in their lives where they no longer had the same level of […]

Categories
job hunting Organization Thesis

The Ultimate Productivity Boost

I checked off everything on the list last week. It wasn’t even down to the line – at 1400h on Friday all that was left was one kickboxing class. I hung out, caught up on some reading, watched an episode of Scrubs and then went out for dinner. And I thought about how it was […]

Categories
Organization Reflections

A Diet of Live Frogs

Monday: Going to the DV and exchanging my license – surprisingly painless. Tuesday: Going outside. Wednesday: Laundry, paying bills. Thursday: Dealing with insurance people. Friday: Going to Carleton How Was It? Not as bad as I thought it would be, most things were less awful than anticipated (apart from going to Carleton). Even though I […]