The very first article I wrote for my newsletter was a book recommendation for David Allen's book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. That was 2004. Recently I realized that I had misunderstood the utility of a key tool from his system — the...
“Stuck” is a state of mind, but not a figment of your imagination. What gets you “unstuck” is looking at the problems you face from a slightly different perspective. There is always a way forward, but sometimes “forward” is in a different direction from what you assumed.[…]
Thinking Lab Current Classes All Thinking Lab classes, bonus recordings, Thinking Day recordings, and Q&A call recordings will be posted to the Thinking Lab Current Classes podcast as they occur and will remain in the podcast for about 3 months. The recordings are...
Many people get stuck prioritizing, because to say "yes" to one thing is to say "no" to another. That "no" feels like giving up something that's important. Faced with the need to prioritize, your subconscious exclaims: "But I want them all." Of course you do. Let's...
The Prioritization Challenge Overview Know the Time Scale to Shift I've read a lot of books on productivity and time management, but I've never seen any of them make this point: if you want to shift how you spend your time, you first need to figure out the time scale...
I recently read Greg McKeown's book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. This is a good book, which I recommend. I agree with 98% of what he says, and I have on my agenda to re-read it. My goal will be milk a little more of the wisdom out of it. I was...
I recently answered a query on LinkedIn: New LinkedIn data shows that the number of “boomerangs,” or employees who left a company for a certain amount of time and then returned, is rising — and it’s even higher at top employers. We’d...
Tactic: Surveying - an Overview What: This tactic launches you into a thorough chewing of what you know about an issue. When: Use this tactic when you feel you need a better grasp of some issue you are familiar with. For example, when you start working on a topic, use...
Pity Party Background The "Pity Party" is a variant on the "Judge Your Neighbor" technique. Both are helpful when you need to do in-depth introspection. If you have been utterly stuck for a day or more, an in-depth, multi-hour analysis is worth doing. "Judge Your...
When you are committed to living by reason, contrary emotions can create all sorts of conundrums. For example, a Thinking Lab member recently reported some doubts about a decision he made to take a break and go for a walk. Based on our discussion, I would say that all...
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