Have you ever had days or weeks when your calendar was filled seemingly to the brim with meetings? As an experienced software developer in a senior technical role, I find that I am being requested to attend more and more meetings, especially to provide advice or guidance to various teams and to participate in status […]
For over six months now I have been working four days a week instead of the usual five. I originally made this change in schedule in order to spend more time with my young son. When I started, I was unsure how it would go, and how long I would be able to maintain it. […]
Celebrating Thanksgiving Day here in Canada inspired me to write this article. Too often, we focus on the negatives - the obstacles or problems in our way - and fail to appreciate and be thankful for everything else. I find this to be especially true at work, where part of my responsibility is to investigate […]
Do you find yourself constantly busy with urgent tasks, left with no time to work on less urgent yet more important activities? In my experience this is a wide-spread problem, both at the workplace and at home. How many people do you know acknowledge the importance of exercise, but claim they don’t have the time? […]
Being a professional at the top of your field means being able to consistently perform at a high level. Those underneath may have the same knowledge and abilities, but if they cannot apply them consistently, then they will never rise to the top. This is true across a diverse collection of activities including athletics, photography, […]
I recently read the book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t by Jim Collins. The book is the outcome of a simple question: how can a good or even mediocre company achieve enduring greatness? A research team worked for five years to answer this question, and Good to Great provides […]
In order to achieve and maintain optimal performance in any activity, it is important to take breaks. Whether it is a good night’s sleep, a lunch break during the day at work, or a longer annual vacation, the body and mind need recovery time. Trying to operate at 100% capacity all the time will eventually […]
Thanks to a comment submitted by Brian for my article Working Smarter, Not Harder, I have recently worked through the book Getting Things Done : The Art Of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen. I already considered myself well-organized, yet I found the book extremely helpful. The author takes a bottom-up approach, focusing on presenting an […]
I have always been fond of the phrase ‘work smarter, not harder’, so I enjoyed my recent read of the book Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency by Tom DeMarco. The main premise of the book is that being 100% busy (totally efficient) provides no capacity for dealing with change. […]
