Procrastination

I know an advertising agency owner who never fully takes a vacation.  He takes his family to fairly exotic locations, but never so alien that they are outside the reach of modern communication.  In other words, he is never further than a cell phone call or email away.  He checks in with the office several times a day – much to the chagrin of his family who want him to be fully engaged in the holiday at hand.  So, he ends up sneaking off under the guise... Read More

Millions of us world wide learned a great deal from Professor Randy Pausch with his "Last Lecture." Here's some hard-earned insight from Jai Pausch, Randy's wife, that can also benefit all of us. It certainly means a lot to me. Read More

The best college admission essay, like the best of writing, only works if it is genuine. Good writing is honest and therefore stirs emotions within the reader. Your essay will either speak to the reader or not. Read More

We generally think of mindfulness as an idea that has been around for thousands of years, originally emerging out of Buddhist traditions. Many Buddhist researchers are doing great studies showing that mindfulness has an impact on many aspects of human experience. Read More

I received a letter from a reader today. With his consent, I'm sharing this letter here on the blog, as it's an insightful, well-written (at times painful) first-hand account of coming to grips with procrastination. Read More

"Is a poet still a poet if he spends most of his time sitting in a white plastic chair in his driveway? If he promises to write an introduction to a poetry anthology but avoids writing and instead riffs on poetry and poems, digressing to the point of absurdity?" A lot of writing involves an apparent delay, but it's not necessarily procrastination.

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Distractions are everywhere, and they take a real toll. Find out why managing distractions can be so tough, and discover two brain-based strategies for getting on top of them. Read More

The economic hole of indebtedness that we're creating now will be worsened by the baby boomers departing the workforce and the increasing costs of health care to seniors. The issue is political procrastination or ignorance, or both. Read More

One of the primary reasons that motivation, of itself, does not automatically lead to change is that we fear the demands involved may be too costly. We may have to see our own role in the problems we are having and do something about it. In addition, we worry about how other people will react when our behavior patterns change. Finally, seeing our own role in our problems does cause some painful reflection about the past and how much time we have wasted in behaving as we have. But the "advantages" of staying the same can be very costly and if we take just a few simple steps we can avail ourselves of the freedom and insights that dealing with resistance can afford. Read More