2025

04-02 Blogging in the Age of AI

2021

07-09 Setting Work Boundaries
07-02 Experimentalism: An Alternative to Perfectionism
06-25 Giving Ourselves Credit
06-18 It's Not My Fault
06-11 On the Importance of Volunteering
06-04 A Conversation With Our Inner Critic
05-28 You Waste Years By Not Being Able to Waste Hours
05-21 On Managing Time Debt
05-14 The Break is Part of the Work
05-07 Get the First Try Out of the Way
04-30 Make the Work Easier
04-23 How to Reduce Friction on Big Projects
04-16 The Great Thing About Decisions
04-09 To Work Better, Stop Working
04-02 The Urgent Can Wait
03-26 The Shakespeare of Board Books
03-19 Don't Sweat the Coffee: On Ignoring the Trivial
03-12 Signing Up Future You
03-05 Don't Waste Meetings
02-26 Conditions for Starting Our Work
02-19 Choose Your Hobbies Carefully
02-12 Is Your Daily Plan Realistic?
02-05 Be a Student of Your Own Past Behavior
01-29 Feedback: A Simple Tool to Create Change
01-22 Can the Important Force Out the Trivial?
01-15 Approaching a Crisis Like a Professional
01-08 What to Do When You Don’t Feel Like Working
01-01 This Year, Make Good Behaviors Easier

2020

12-25 What Do We Learn from 2020?
12-18 Think Days: Investing in Your Future
12-11 Working Like a Freelancer
12-04 Emotional Reasoning: Feelings Aren't Facts
11-27 Every Night, a Little Thanksgiving
11-20 To Create, Start with Low Standards
11-13 The Right Way to Say No
11-06 What Leadership is Really About
10-30 On Self-Compassionate Productivity
10-23 During Hard Times, Focus on Others
10-16 Separating Productivity from Self-Worth
10-09 Don't Try to Get Through the Day
10-02 Make It Easy For People to Help You
09-25 Turning an Unproductive Day Around
09-18 The Benefits of a Professional Reading List
09-11 Work With What You’ve Got: Training Yourself to Work Hard
09-04 Two Benefits of Living More Intentionally
08-28 What Productivity Is Really About
08-21 Career Advice: Don’t Cut Your Own Path
08-14 For a Good Life, Knowledge Isn't Enough
08-07 Busy? Step Into Your Practice Pod
07-31 Introducing Crimely: Or, The Downside of Too Much News
07-24 What Musicians Know
07-17 Do the Next Right Thing
07-10 A Different Kind of Perfect
07-03 The First Step to Solving Big Problems
06-26 Trust Your Systems: How to Not Sleep Through Your Alarm
06-19 Taking Failure Seriously (But Not Too Seriously)
06-12 On Fixed-Schedule Productivity
06-05 Assuming Good Faith
05-29 Always Do More than You Get Paid For
05-22 Documentation: Being Nice to Future You
05-15 Give Yourself a Pep Talk: Andy Grove on Leadership
05-08 An Easy Way to Improve Your Understanding of Human Behavior
05-01 Want to Learn About Yourself? Start a Garden.
04-24 What to Do When You Have a Lot to Do
04-17 Should You Use Social Media During a Pandemic?
04-10 Reclaim Your Free Time with Active Leisure
04-03 Your Daily Routine Is Gone. You Need to Replace It.
03-27 Everything Counts for More
03-20 Change, Crises, and Clarity
03-13 Coronavirus: A Clear-Eyed Approach
03-06 To Do Your Best Work, Let Things Pile Up
02-28 Feelings vs. Information: What People Remember
02-21 Being Successful vs. Being Useful
02-14 Avoiding Error Chains
02-07 Two Simple, Timeless Productivity Tips
01-31 Bad Is Stronger Than Good, So Save Your Thank-You Notes
01-24 How I Started Drinking Enough Water (With No Effort)
01-17 Make It Easy to Say Yes
01-10 Is This Good for Me? Cleaning Up Our Mental Diet
01-03 6 Short Questions for a New Decade

2019

12-27 Addition By Subtraction: Planning For a Calmer Year
12-20 A Brief Argument for Reviving Your Reading Habit
12-13 3 Principles for Writing Better Emails
12-06 Taking Better Breaks from Work
11-29 Productivity Tip: Getting Up to Speed on Big Projects
11-22 Never Miss Twice: A Middle Path to Building Good Habits
11-15 The Trap of Endless Optimization
11-08 On Intentional Communication: Don’t Pick Up the Rope
11-01 On Personal Change without Change
10-25 For Better Performance and an Easier Start, Try a Ritual
10-18 Daily Planning's Biggest Payoff
10-11 The Space Between Stimulus and Response: On Observing Our Emotions
10-04 Paying the Price of Success
09-27 Lash Yourself to the Mast: On Sidestepping Self-Discipline
09-20 On Practicing at Work
09-13 On Change
09-06 The Discipline to Close the Door
08-30 Keeping a "Things to Remember About Myself" List
08-23 Project-Centered Journaling: A Tool for Getting Unstuck
08-16 To Change Behavior, Get Specific
08-09 When You’re Ultra-Busy, Choose What to Neglect
08-02 Three Alternatives to Willpower
07-26 Why You Need a Game Plan
07-19 Choosing How Much We Care
07-12 The Story of Disneyland’s Trash Cans
07-05 A Bad Plan Beats No Plan
06-28 Imperfect Consistency and the Real Test
06-21 On Being a Mood-Changer
06-14 The Smartest Career Move You Can Make
06-07 Using Public Deadlines to Fight Procrastination
05-31 On Resistance to Organizational Change
05-24 When to Abandon Efficiency for Effectiveness
05-17 How to Spot a Bad Self-Help Book
05-10 Don’t Forget to Celebrate
05-03 Why It's Okay Not to Have an Opinion
04-26 On the Importance of Think Days
04-19 Strengths and Weaknesses: Two Sides of the Same Coin
04-12 Put On Your Own Mask First
04-05 Busy and Exhausted: No Points for Either One
03-29 On Accepting the World As It Is
03-22 “Reading the Books” vs. Talent
03-15 Leadership Tip: The Golden Rule of Change Management
03-08 Processing Email: How to Tame Your Inbox
03-01 Lowering the Barrier to Working on Long-Term Projects
02-22 Trying to Do More of What Matters? Let Excel Help.
02-15 Next-Level Daily Planning: When to Schedule Different Kinds of Work
02-08 The Pros and Cons of Quitting Social Media
02-01 What to Do When Your Schedule Falls Apart
01-25 How to Skim a Book, and Why You Should
01-18 Three Reasons to Make More Checklists
01-11 The Four Basic Components of a Good Productivity System
01-04 Two Tips for Improved New Year's Resolutions

2018

12-28 A Tip for Managing New Holiday Gifts
12-21 How to Use Counterfactual Thinking to Your Advantage
12-14 Productivity Tip: Schedule Your Free Time
12-07 What George R.R. Martin Can Teach Us About Tool Selection
11-30 Hardship and Perseverance: Lessons from an Astronaut
11-23 3 Ways to Begin a Daily Gratitude Practice
11-16 What "Math People" Know
11-09 My Niece's TEDx Talk
11-06 I Hope You Vote Today
11-02 Good Tools are Worth the Money
10-26 Improving Our Chances for Personal Change
10-19 How to Make Your Goals More Motivating
10-12 Here's How to Remember Important Conversations
10-05 An Ode to Taking Action
09-28 How I Lobotomized My Smartphone (And Why You Should, Too)
09-21 Peter Drucker on Time: Our Most Important Resource
09-14 What to Read Next? Out with the New, In with the Old.
09-07 Time Blocking: A Brilliant Time Management Tool
08-31 How to Rescue a Half-Wasted Day
08-24 To-Do Lists and Goals
08-21 On Avoiding Becoming Jaded
08-17 Hacking Your To-Do List: Verbs Only
08-14 It Will All Get Done: Two Tips for Surviving a Busy Period
08-10 Update Your Headshot
08-07 Use It or Lose It
08-03 Getting a New Project Organized
07-31 On Weird Productivity Tactics
07-27 Cheating Others Out of Our Best Work
07-24 Respect Creativity
07-20 Einstellung and the Internet
07-17 Decide When and Where
07-13 High-Altitude Productivity
07-10 All Twelve Keys
07-06 When Is a Jerk a Jerk?
07-03 Notice What's Working
06-29 Pull the Weeds While They’re Small
06-26 How to Plan Your Week
06-22 What’s the Best Way? It’s Simple.
06-19 Confronting a Good Book That’s Got a Little Crazy In It
06-15 A Simple Tip to Improve Your Eating Habits
06-12 Changing a Behavior? Start With Your Environment.
06-08 Can Self-Compassion Improve Productivity?
06-05 We’re Poor Judges of Our Own Behavior
06-01 The Time Will Pass Anyway: Evaluating Long-Term Goals
05-29 Tweak Your Work Environment to Increase Productivity
05-25 Astronaut Jim Lovell on Workplace Problems
05-22 Effective Living: Leave It Better Than You Found It
05-18 No Time for a Think Week? Take Think Days Instead.
05-15 Are You Sure It’s Plugged In?
05-11 Upcoming Experiment: The Think Week
05-08 Four Blogs Not to Miss
05-04 Attention Management and Project Planning: Doing the Work Up Front
05-01 We Could All Use a Little Coaching
04-27 Getting Good at What You’re Bad At
04-24 Life is a Steak: a Metaphor for Understanding Work
04-20 Haggling? Ackerman Bargaining Is the Formula You’ve Been Looking For
04-17 Costly Signals: How We Prove We Mean Business
04-13 How to Read . . . Less? When to Put a Book Down
04-10 How to Make Your Life Worse in 5 Steps
04-06 The Value of Easy Changes
04-03 Yelling At the Mechanic
03-30 Case Study: Email Etiquette and Varying Worldviews
03-27 Purge Your To-Do List: Letting Go of Old Tasks
03-23 On Old-School Information Gathering: Less Googling, More Talking
03-20 The Peak–End Rule: Get Down to Business While Remaining Friendly
03-16 Pop-Tarts and Restraint Bias: How Much Self-Control Can We Count On?
03-13 How to Keep Your Work Email From Eating Your Morning
03-09 Need to Get Something Done? Use Your Calendar, Not Your To-Do List
03-06 The Stockdale Paradox: Faith and Discipline
03-02 Principles of Adult Behavior: 25 Ideas for Living with Dignity
02-27 When In Doubt, Cut Something Out
02-23 Pain Points: How to Make Yourself More Valuable at Work
02-20 What to Do When You’re Not Feeling Up to It
02-16 Two Notes on Taking College Classes In Your 30s
02-13 To Make Better Decisions, Learn Big Ideas From Other Disciplines
02-09 Why I’ve (Mostly) Quit GTD
02-06 Minimalism: How Much Stuff Should We Own?
02-01 A Way to Make Recurring, Difficult Tasks Easier
01-30 Meriwether Lewis and the Value of Clarity
01-26 Learning to Embrace Befuddlement
01-23 To Argue More Productively, Ask This Question
01-19 Why You Should (Usually) Take Notes By Hand
01-16 Cognitive Biases: Weeding Our Mental Garden
01-12 How Interleaving Improves Learning
01-09 Break the Golden Rule: Improving Work Relationships
01-05 Time Management and Big Important Projects
01-02 Re-reading Is Ineffective. Do This Instead.

2017

12-12 The Surprising Usefulness of the Personal Project Post-Mortem
12-05 The Case for Simple Digital Tools
10-31 How to Read More Books: 8 Tips
10-20 What Is Stoicism, and How Can It Make Your Life Better?
10-10 The Problem with Minimalism
09-29 3 Tips for Dealing with Vague Long-Term Work Projects
09-26 How Habits Work (and How to Change Bad Ones for Good)
09-22 An Ancient Technique for Weathering Life’s Storms
09-19 Cafes, Notebooks, and Understanding How Creative Work is Done
09-15 Rules for Daily Living: Writing Yours Down
09-12 How to Keep Email from Running Your Workday
09-08 7 Questions to Ask Before You Give Up
09-05 The Common Denominator of Success
09-01 The Culture of Your Workplace (and Why It Matters)
08-29 How to Make Unpleasant Tasks a Little Easier
08-25 An App to Help You Use Your Phone Less
08-22 Two Kinds of Criticism, and What to Do With Each
08-18 How to Defeat Distraction While In the Zone
08-15 A Simple Way to Grab Some Time for Yourself
08-11 3 Books You Should Read Immediately
08-08 Crazy Busy? Remember This.
08-04 6 Ways to Become More Resilient
08-01 Anticipating Difficulty: What's in Your Emotional Toolbox?
07-28 The Daily Post-It Note: A Dead-Easy Way to Get the Right Things Done
07-25 Want to Make a Big Change? Think Small.
07-21 The Gap: What Stops Most People From Doing Creative Work
07-18 How to Manage Multiple Projects Without Going Crazy
07-14 4 Reasons You Should Start Keeping a Journal
07-11 How to Schedule Your Entire Day Without Feeling Trapped
07-07 My Snickers Problem: When to Compromise With Yourself
07-04 Too Busy? Try Letting Small Bad Things Happen.
06-30 How to Use a Simple Google Form to Track Your Behavior
06-27 You Are the Average of the 5 People You Spend the Most Time With
06-23 Static Friction: Why Getting Started Is So Hard
06-20 How We Paid Off $48,000 of Student Loan Debt in Two Years
06-16 From Subway to MacArthur Genius Grant: A Case Study in Perseverance
06-13 Fitness: The Other Four Kinds
06-09 All Work Is Group Work
06-06 Why Time Management is Like Dental Floss
06-02 In Praise of the Humble Thank-You Note
05-30 Rickets of the Mind
05-26 The Productivity Equation
05-23 Setting Some Ground Rules
05-19 A Simple System for Managing Paper
05-16 How to Get Some Good Out of a Bad Day
05-12 Take the Lane: When Safe Feels Dangerous (and Dangerous Feels Safe)
05-09 3 Unconventional Tips for Becoming More Confident
05-05 5 Ways to Keep Politics in Perspective
05-02 How to Keep Fear from Making Decisions for You
04-28 7 Time Management Tips You Can Implement Right Now
04-25 How to Successfully Juggle a Million Different Interests
04-21 Struggling to Achieve Your Goals? Try This.
04-18 6 Tips for Resolving Workplace Conflicts
04-14 The Simple Genius of Planning Your Day the Night Before
04-11 2017 Reader Survey: Help Me Be Useful to You!
04-07 At Work, Look to Give (Not to Receive)
04-04 Let Go of What You Can’t Control (That Includes Your Past Mistakes)
03-31 You Already Know What to Do, and That’s Half the Battle
03-28 The Chasm Between Planning and Doing
03-24 It’s the Set of the Sail, Not the Direction of the Wind
03-21 Is Your Life Unbalanced Lately? Don’t Worry About It. Here’s Why.
03-17 The Secret to Doing Hard Things Daily
03-14 5 Common Mistakes Highly Productive People Make
03-10 Defeat Imposter Syndrome: 4 Tips for Overcoming Self-Doubt
03-07 The To-Don’t List: A Tool for Staying Focused
03-03 What a Baby Pooping in Your Lap Can Teach You
02-28 6 Ways to Break Out of a Productivity Funk
02-24 24 Hours. No Exceptions.
02-21 Pay Attention Carefully
02-17 Taking Off from the Infinite Runway
02-14 We Are All Hypocrites
02-10 The Upgraded Bookmark: 30 Seconds to Easier Reading
02-07 5 Tips for Starting a Creative Habit and Sharing Your Work
02-03 All Mistakes Are Not Created Equal
01-31 How to Harness the Incredible Benefits of Long-Term Thinking
01-27 Three Reasons We Give In to Short-Term Thinking (and Why It’s Bad)
01-24 My 2016 Jimmy John’s Bill (or, How Short-Term Thinking Can Ruin Your Life)
01-20 Does Failure Encourage Compassion for Others?
01-17 Become Happier by Making Room in Your Life
01-13 What Do We Really Want at Work?
01-10 6 Easy Wins for Increasing Productivity
01-06 The Problem with Lucky Breaks
01-03 Our New Baby Girl (and 3 Ways to Avoid Catastrophizing)

2016

12-30 You Can’t Rush The Important Stuff
12-27 A New Year's Resolution: Doing Less, Better
12-23 What a Year of Daily Trumpet Practice Taught Me
12-20 Big Projects: Building a House vs. Learning to Drive
12-16 Predictions for Fatherhood (Part II)
12-13 In 3 Weeks, I’ll Be a Dad. Here’s What I Predict for Fatherhood. (Part I)
12-09 Home Improvement vs. Self-Improvement
12-06 What to Do When You’re Unmotivated
12-02 Do You Need a Plan?
11-29 Does Your Job Fit in a Manual?
11-25 How to Be Grateful (When You Don't Feel Grateful)
11-22 Perfectionist? Here’s the Price You’re Paying (and How to Pay Less)
11-18 Useful Things: November 2016
11-15 Consider Writing a Failure Résumé
11-11 How to Help Others: Share Your Failures
11-08 A Five-Minute Exercise to Lower Stress and Clarify Thinking
11-04 What Makes a Good Day?
11-01 Hanlon’s Razor and Compassion for Others
10-28 The Four-Year Plan
10-25 Useful Things: October 2016
10-21 Life Is Not a Zero-Sum Game, So Give Generously
10-18 Availability Heuristics and Dealing with Bad Days
10-14 Inspiration Is for Amateurs: How to Do Great Creative Work
10-11 2 Questions to Ask Before You Turn Your Hobby Into Your Career
10-07 How to Deal with Uncertainty (When You Hate Uncertainty)
10-04 Task Importance and the To-Do List Trap
09-30 Anything Worth Doing is Uncomfortable at First
09-27 The Philosophy Major and the Business Major
09-23 14 Questions about Leadership
09-20 What Does the Audience Want?
09-16 How Professionals Think About Equipment
09-13 Why You Shouldn’t Avoid Discomfort
09-09 Exposure Therapy and Your Work
09-06 11 Ways to Avoid Improvement
09-02 Great Leaders Expect Complexity, Not Simplicity
08-30 You Don’t Get Credibility First. You Get Credibility Last.
08-26 Balancing High Expectations with Reality
08-23 Feeling Ready Isn’t a Useful Measurement
08-19 Increase Your Creativity With Constraints, Part II
08-16 Increase Your Creativity With Constraints, Part I
08-12 Don't Look at the Roadkill
08-09 Productivity Tip: Use Small Chunks of Time
08-05 How to Improve Your Concentration With Zero Effort
08-02 Why Increasing Your Productivity Is Often Disappointing
07-29 90 Minutes of Focused Work
07-26 Problems with Personal Development, Part II
07-22 Problems with Personal Development, Part I
07-19 The Hedonic Treadmill and How to Live More Effectively
07-15 Corporations Are People. What If They Were Good People?
07-12 How to Fix the Problem of Too Many Choices
07-08 What is Raising the Stakes, and How Can It Turn You Into a Productivity Monster?
07-05 Your Comfort Zone and Safety Zone
07-01 How to Focus: 6 Productivity Tips
06-28 Learn From the Experts: 2 Big Reasons to Ask For Help
06-24 Default Answer: Yes or No?
06-21 Make Opportunities Fit You
06-17 Ask Boldly
06-14 3 Steps to Living an Intentional Life
06-10 Detail-Oriented Is Overrated
06-07 Gratitude Check-Up: Four Questions to Ask Yourself
06-03 Can You Say Yes When Your Life is Full?
05-31 How to Take a Habit Inventory
05-27 Garrison Keillor's Memorial Day Sonnet
05-24 Where to Find Good Ideas
05-20 What Would This Look Like If It Were Easy?
05-17 In Praise of Structure
05-13 Please Remember Rule Number 6
05-10 How to Read More and Waste Less Time
05-06 Is Self-Improvement Selfish?
05-03 What to Do When It’s Not Ready
04-29 Don’t Think. Just Start.
04-26 When to Argue With Someone
04-22 Writing Your Symphony Tomorrow
04-19 How Do You Relax?
04-15 How to Become a Happy Taxpayer
04-12 Think Like a Freelancer
04-08 Be Nice to Future You
04-05 Done Is Better Than Perfect
04-01 Books That Changed My Life, Part II
03-29 Books That Changed My Life, Part I
03-25 Expect the Expected
03-22 How Hindsight Bias Steals Our Credit
03-18 How Your Personal Philosophy Controls Your Life
03-15 What’s an Inspiration Portfolio, and Why Do You Need One?
03-11 How to Roast Your Own Coffee
03-08 3 Reasons to Roast Your Own Coffee
03-04 When the Honeymoon is Over: Keeping It Going
03-01 A Simple Formula for Problem-Solving
02-26 Do The Most Important Thing First
02-23 The Power of Gratitude: Some Things I'm Grateful For
02-19 Success Is Boring, and That’s Exciting: Why Habits Are Crucial
02-16 You Are Self-Employed
02-12 The Magic of a Morning Routine
02-09 You Need to Create: Why Making Art Is for Everyone
02-05 The Power of On Purpose
02-02 The Basics of Getting Things Done, Part III
01-29 The Basics of Getting Things Done, Part II
01-26 The Basics of Getting Things Done, Part I
01-23 What Do We Owe Musicians?
01-20 3 Reasons to Start Reading More
01-08 Failure is Good. So Are You Failing Enough?
01-03 Three Reasons You Should Try to Improve: An Argument for Personal Development

2015

12-28 What is Personal Development, and Why Should You Care?