Have You Noticed How Attitude Affects Everything?
27 May 2014The other day as I was driving to an appointment I heard Kim Hill, long-running National Radio New Zealand personality, interview 88 year old Sheila Natusch – artist, historian, natural science researcher and writer of over 30 books including ‘Animals of New Zealand’. http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/2597151 I was glad my trip was long enough to hear the […]
Working At A Stand-Up Desk Will Get Your Better and Faster Results
20 May 2014As I walked around the offices of one of my long-standing legal clients a few weeks ago I noticed some of the senior associates and partners had stand-up desks for a portion of their work, including computer work in some cases. Then last week, when I interviewed my friend and professional organiser Mary Pankiewicz of […]
How do we learn to not sweat the small stuff?
14 May 2014Some people know it naturally, some never get it, and the rest of us have the best teachers in the world – small children! I spent the first week of our recent school holidays around a lot of small children and their parents, with a brilliant opportunity to observe in a real world ‘laboratory’. Although […]
Teach Good Habits Young and We Grow Self-Sufficient Adults
14 April 2014Last weekend I had the joy of looking after 3 grandsons whilst their parents were off at an agricultural conference. On Saturday morning I was chatting to a mother on the side line of 7 year old Matt’s first rugby game for the season. ‘My son struggles to keep up,’ she said, pointing to the […]
How To Separate Work And Home When Working From Home
8 April 2014These days more and more folks, even corporate people, work at home some or part of the time. Two key issues need to be handled if we work without the immediate physical support of an office and the external motivation of ‘going’ to work. Mastery of them will dramatically increase your home-based productivity. They are: […]
Top 10 Ways To Reach Your Productivity Goals
15 January 2014Have you ever started something and quit halfway? One of the most difficult parts of doing tasks is completing them. This is also true when it comes to time management and productivity goals. Writing down your goals was the easy part. Applying your new, ideal schedule can feel impossible, especially when things don’t go your […]
Meetings CAN Start on Time!
14 October 2013Ever noticed that many groups have an insidious culture of running late for meetings? It seems almost that the bigger the organisation the worse the problem. Of course there can be a number of contributing reasons, but one big one is very simple and ragingly obvious – people don’t allow themselves enough time to get […]
No Time for Exercise? ‘Snack’ On It!
1 October 2013How often have you heard people say ‘I don’t have time to exercise’? (Or said it yourself!) The common wisdom is that we have to exercise for hours a week to make any real difference. For years I ran the same story-line. With a busy life and often on the road, eventually I gave up […]
Start on your Bucket List NOW – work/life balance is a daily choice
12 August 2013A friend just sent me this article about Sir Ray Avery. http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/9020251/A-man-planning-how-to-use-his-last-4000-days. I love his philosophy. There is always more work we could do, more money we could make, more demands on our time. But putting things off until a ‘better time’ – when might that be? As I read Ray’s story it reaffirmed my […]
What conditions do you need in order to work effectively?
29 July 2013I had a call recently from a concerned member of the public. He’d been reading some of my recent NZ Herald articles (and reader comments) about how people struggle to work well in crowded open plan offices. He wanted me to know that the NZ Government is actively working to reduce floor space per person. […]