Why You Should Work Smart Not Hard: 4 Ways To Do It

We’re often told that hard work gets us ahead. That’s true to an extent – if you put effort and focus into something, you’re going to achieve more than if you go at it in a half-hearted way. But it’s all too easy to get sucked into working long hours, ticking tasks off a list, without being all that effective or successful.

Instead of just working hard – putting in lots of hours – look for ways to work smart.

Why? Read the Rest of This Article »

How to Make a Schedule You Can Stick To

Have you ever been surprised at how much you can fit in when you’re at a conference? When we have a schedule provided for us, we manage to get from one event to the next at the right time; the imposition of external timings means that even if we’d like to stick with one task a little longer, we move on quickly. We deal with emails in brief breaks, sending shorter replies than usual, ditching any junk without even opening it.

In day to day working life, though, we tend to find ourselves struggling to stick to self-imposed schedules. One or two things overrun; emails and phone calls come in; our boss dumps an urgent task on us.

However beautiful your schedule looks, just writing it out isn’t going to help you. Read the Rest of This Article »

6 Tips for When You’re Not in the Mood to Work

“Daydreamer” courtesy of Nelsonius

We all have times when we’re just not in the mood to get on with work. Perhaps we’re feeling tired or apathetic, or weeks of stress have finally caught up with us. Maybe we’re just having a hard time staying on task – Facebook, Twitter, webcomics and other distractions seem, well, more distracting than usual.

So how can you stay on-task and on-track when you don’t feel like working?

1.    Do Something Else!

Okay, it’s not always possible – but how about doing something else instead? If you’re trying to force yourself to work on your small biz at the weekend and you’re feeling fed up, then the best solution may well be to simply take a break.

You can end up wasting a lot of energy by pushing yourself on by sheer willpower … when, in fact, it may be the case that your brain and body really need a break.

Of course, this isn’t an option in your average job (no boss wants to hear “sorry, I wasn’t in the mood to work today”) but if you have flexible hours or work for yourself, pay attention to early signs of fatigue or burnout. Read the Rest of This Article »

How to Find the Energy for More Than Just Your Day Job

Image courtesy of Amelia PS/Flickr

So you’ve got something you’re really passionate about. Perhaps it’s a hobby which you think you could turn into a business. Or a community project, or a novel you’re writing, or a diet or exercise routine which you’re really taking seriously this time.

The problem is, you’ve got a day job. It takes up most of your time and energy each day.

So how can you find the energy to get anything else done?

I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not easy. I wrote fiction, then a blog, alongside a day job, and I started out freelancing while still working full-time. It was tough, and it wasn’t a situation I’d have wanted to sustain in the long term – but it was necessary while it lasted.

Although I ditched the day job a couple of years ago, I still need to balance my time and energy; I’m studying a part time masters alongside freelancing.

Here’s what works for me: Read the Rest of This Article »

Do You Need to Set Goals?

If you’ve been reading personal development blogs for any length of time, you’ll have come across plenty of posts about goals. We’re all expected to have them. We’re told that having goals means we’ll be happy high-achievers, storming through life as we check off yet another item on our to-do list.

And yes, setting goals for yourself can help you to stay focused on what you want from life. It can help to counter our bias towards short-term thinking and short-term results. But even if you’ve diligently written down your goals, if you’ve created your vision board or made check-lists galore, you might still have a nagging sense that’s something’s wrong.

Here’s why: Read the Rest of This Article »

How to Get Perspective on Your Life

Do you ever feel that you’re so caught up in the day to day and hour to hour routines of life that you never get a chance to step back and see the bigger picture?

Do you get lots done, but without a real sense of accomplishment?

Have you ever reached the end of a busy week and wondered what the point was?

I expect we all feel like that from time to time – but for some people, it’s the norm. Perhaps you’re juggling studies and work, or work and family, or multiple projects and goals. Maybe you have a nagging sense that there’s something wrong or that your priorities are skewed – and you keep promising yourself that you’ll be less busy next week/month/year.

The problem is, you always seem to be busy. You’ve got lots on, and your attention is on the details, not the whole picture. How can you get some perspective on your life? Read the Rest of This Article »

Procrastination: 4 Causes and Cures

Do you find yourself procrastinating a lot? (You might even be procrastinating right now, reading this blog post while you should be working or cleaning or ordering the groceries online.)

Procrastination can be a real problem for some of us, leading to wasted hours and days, and a lot of frustration. Often, we think that to cure ourselves of procrastination, we need to concentrate harder, focus ourselves better and become more self-disciplined.

But I don’t believe that procrastination is a disease. It’s more like a symptom. And by figuring out – and addressing – the underlying cause, you’ve got a good chance of ending your procrastination habit.

So, what might the causes be? Read the Rest of This Article »

Want a Quick Boost? Clear Some Clutter!

Ever had a day (or, more likely, a week) when you felt a bit miserable, for no clear reason? Perhaps you were stressed and felt disorganised and over-busy. Maybe it seemed like everything was piling up on you.

When you feel like you have little energy and no motivation, it’s easy to start spiraling down into feeling worse and worse. You might want to make big changes in your life, like losing weight or changing careers, but you just can’t summon up the strength to get going. You feel unhappy but you’re not sure how to fix what’s wrong.

A great place to start, and to give yourself a quick boost, is to start clearing some clutter out of your life. Read the Rest of This Article »

Long-Term Productivity Means Looking After Yourself

Many of us place a lot of importance on being productive. We want to achieve our goals, succeed in our ambitions, and accomplish something worthwhile. That’s all great … but sometimes it  can go too far.

Have you ever pushed yourself too much, only to end up producing poorer quality work … or worse, getting sick or ending up just plain miserable?

To be truly productive over the long-term, you need to take care of yourself. In his bestselling self-help book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey distinguishes between our actual “production” and our “production capability”, explaining that we need to pay attention to the latter in order to continue to have the former.

So how can you take care of your ability to keep on working towards your goals? Read the Rest of This Article »

It’s OKAY to Spend on Stuff You Love

With personal finance, as with so many areas of life, we have a tendency to swing between extremes. Often, an excess of spending – with accompanying credit card debt, clutter and stress – prompts us to take a good hard look at our finances. We make all sorts of good resolutions: a plan to reduce our debt, a savings account for our emergency fund, and so on … and somewhere along the way, we pick up the idea that we should only spend money on absolute essentials.

We might start off sensibly, cutting down on unnecessary spending to put some money aside for the future. But before long, we end up obsessing about every penny, denying ourselves even tiny treats like a weekly coffee or a magazine, because it’s a “waste of money”.

Are You Enslaved by Your Money?

Usually, being “enslaved” by our financial situation means we’re in debt, struggling to stay afloat. But I feel that there’s another sort of enslavement which we can fall into: forgetting that money is just a tool for us to use in whatever way we want. Read the Rest of This Article »

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