Do you keep an ever growing to-do list of things you need, or want, to get done?

Peter Bregman over at Harvard Business Review offers some helpful tips on how to manage your to-do list and boost your personal productivity.

How to Manage Your To-Do List

1.  Schedule for today. Decide which ones you can get done today, and schedule a time to do them.

2.  No more than three days. Each day, review your list and decide what things, if any, you want to schedule on your calendar for that day. But don’t let anything hang around on your list for more than three days. [Read more…]

Is your iPhone, Blackberry or other smart phone helping, or hurting, your work-life balance?  According to Ian Price, author of The Activity Illusion, smart phones are hurting our work-life balance more than helping.

Smart phones were hailed as a tool that would boost productivity, improve communication, and help people leave the cubicle and do work on their terms – whether that’s on the road, at home, or the local coffee shop – at hours that are convenient for them.

Problem is, our smart phones have led many of us to do more work than ever, check email at all hours, and never really leave work behind.  That’s not so “smart,” is it?

Sadly, many of us are proud of how busy we’ve become.  Why? Because of the activity illusion – the idea that busyness equals productivity or success. [Read more…]

Have you ever said, “I hate Facebook,” because it takes up too much of your time? Would you like to learn how to use Facebook more effectively and efficiently?

Some of my Facebook friends have recently taken a break from Facebook for a month, and some have decided to give it up for Lent.

One said it was taking up too much of their time.  Another said they “want to focus more on real relationships,” or something like that. Meaning, I guess, that they wanted to talk to people face to face instead of via the Internet.  As if one mode of communication is more valid than another.

I understand the sentiment (and I’ve got no problem with anyone who wants to take a break from or quit Facebook), because I know how easily Facebook could dominate my life.  If I let it.  But I don’t. [Read more…]