4 Steps to Becoming a Multitasking Master

In an effort to get more accomplished we can create more distractions and inefficiencies. One of the things that can destroy our productivity more than almost any other is multitasking. We've all heard the research that "proves" multitasking is counterproductive. While I can't totally disagree, I also can't totally avoid the fact that more often than not it's necessary or just a fact of life. The key point is that there is bad multitasking and there is good multitasking. The trick is to learn how to multitask the right way.

Read on...

Concept of the Week - Willingness vs. Ability

Recently I've had some issues with someone who is very able, but unwilling to accept certain responsibilities. This reminded me of another concept learned long ago call the Willingness vs. Ability matrix. Traditionally we see high achievers, and settle for something less, while struggling to get the to move up or over into the desired upper right hand quadrant. This also made me realize that sometimes it's better to have someone will high willingness and low ability, than someone with high ability and low willingness.

Word of the Week - Conatus

Conatus (Latin for effort; endeavor; impulse, inclination, tendency; undertaking; striving) is a term used in early philosophies of psychology and metaphysics to refer to an innate inclination of a thing to continue to exist and enhance itself.^[1] This "thing" may be mind, matter or a combination of both. Over the millennia, many different definitions and treatments have been formulated by philosophers. Seventeenth-century philosophers René Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, and Gottfried Leibniz, and their Empiricist contemporary Thomas Hobbes made important contributions.^[2] The conatus may refer to the instinctive "will to live" of living organisms or to various metaphysical theories of motion and inertia.^[3] Often the concept is associated with God's will in a pantheist view of Nature.^[2][4] The concept may be broken up into separate definitions for the mind and body and split when discussing centrifugal force and inertia.^[5] 


In my case I was facing several business decisions where I was failing to find a conatus or impetus for the client (or my management) to endeavor to move from current state to an improved future state (i.e. enhance itself). Creating the inertia or momentum to move from present state in business is, at times, is a conundrum.

The 4-Hour Workweek: Is it really possible?

I'm halfway through listening to the audio book version of The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris. While many of his strategies for reducing non-productive (i.e. non-profitable) time and increasing leisure time and achieving goals sound great, do they really work? Well, he's done it himself, though not without challenges. I don't know that I can do them all, but I will be putting several of his strategies into practice and reporting back here whether they worked for me (e.g. blogging from Tahiti) or not (e.g. get fired). This should be interesting.