Posts under ‘Operational Nature’

Last time I mentioned the need to exercise the part of your brain that does focused, careful work.
But let’s face it. Multi-tasking is a reality (even if a perceived reality) of every busy entrepreneur. So you might as well get good at it. Here are three tips:
1. Maintain context
We are more productive multi-tasking if we [...]

Take a look at your calendar right now.
What have you been doing for the last month? Is it the life you imagined yourself living? Are you doing what is needed to making progress? Do you know what progress looks like? Anything surprising?
Financial planners often suggest that the first step to money management is to become [...]

Imagine a world where one did not have to walk because one could be transported magically to wherever one wishes instantaneously. Food is custom ordered and delivered on the spot, and technology allows us to do amazing things with a simple verbal command. Is this the perfect world envisioned by Star Trek with teleporters and [...]

Here is something that makes the Holocaust possible:
“Another factor that reduces self-control and fosters the crossing of moral boundaries is a certain kind of mental state. This state is marked by a very concrete narrow, rigid way of thinking, with the focus on the here and now, on the details of what one is doing. [...]

As I sit here planning my own wedding (mere weeks away), I am struck by how planning a wedding is like planning a military campaign. Asides from the possible metaphor of love and war, the planning process between the two share many conceptual similarities. Both involve tactical, operational and strategic framing. Both require you to [...]

There’s a certain satisfaction to being busy. You’re getting things done. Every task is a priority and thus the importance of your work is assured. Furthermore you are praised and rewarded handsomely by others for your dedication. That is until you realize that years later, you haven’t been taking care of your self or others [...]

While doing spring cleaning, I looked in despair at two large piles. On one side was a variety of shapes and sizes of plastic containers. On the other side was a variety of shapes and sizes of plastic lids.
I was despairing not because I could not put the pieces together and match up lid with [...]

When you make a mistake, admit it and take responsibility for it. It’s what my fiancee and youth probation officer tell her kids, and apparently it’s also what is recommended for businesspeople.
It’s a funny thing that we forget relationships matter in business. In one experiment, productivity increased because various lights were turned on or off [...]