In time of uncertainty we are more careful with how we spend our money, when time is tight we try our best to spend that wisely too. But there’s something that is often a little more subtle, something we are not always aware of, that is constantly being stolen. 

Did you miss me? Did you know even know that I went missing?

5 months ago I decided to embark on an experiment. I decided to quit social media. That's right, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, and blogging on my site.

When we hear the word productivity, what does our mind automatically think of? Time management, hard work, effort, dullness, discipline?

Well not any more, as they guys at the pop music website popjustice.com have come up with a simple brilliant fun idea.

“There’s an app for that!”, is a phrase I hear a lot. And people are right, there is an app for almost anything you can think of. And probably not just one, but many that do the same thing but slightly differently from each of its competitor.

Being productive for me is all about being both efficient and effective. About “How” you do things and also “What” you do. I don’t see it as one idea that can instantly transform you, i.e. a quick fix and all your troubles will be solved. It has to be worked on, bit by bit, its’ an art form.

I must be feeling the heat from these soaring June temperatures in the UK this week. I’m not just hot, I’m also thinking about being hot.

There’s been plenty of talk this week following the Royal Wedding, after the famous sermon by American preacher Michael Curry   It will certainly be one of the biggest things you’ll remember if you ever think back to it in future years.

Back in the 70s and 80s, the band Van Halen like touring, and they liked touring BIG. They used to give the venue a massive document of all the things that needed doing before they arrived to do the show.

I use Evernote for storing a large amount of my reference material, and am a big fan. I was recently invited to one of their seminars. The title of this one being Triple Overload. Just seeing the word “Overload” had me signing up.

The simplest ideas are always the best, I’m sure you will agree. I discovered one this week, which as soon as I heard about it, I knew it was for me.

I really struggle with coffee. Not with drinking it, I don’t, or should I say I can’t.  After being diagnosed with M.E. 30 years ago, my body struggled to deal with caffeine,

At around midday, every day during the second World war, Winston Churchill would retire to a private room (within the war rooms), put on his PJs, and take a nap for an hour or two. Bombs might have been falling....

Don’t panic, this post is not a check-up to see if you’ve picked the right partner to marry! Being appropriately engaged is a term used by David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done (GTD for short), the art of stress-free productivity. If you don’t know already, I’m a big fan, and love to work at and teach his principles. To me he’s basically saying, are you doing the right thing in the right moment, with no distraction?

For those of you old enough to remember The Fast Show on TV back in the 90s, “This week I have mostly been thinking about Buffers”. When I first think of buffers it conjures up pictures of old steam engines coming in to the station.

One of my favourite song lyrics is from the song Being Boring by the Pet Shop Boys. “We were never being boring, we were never feeling bored.” It conjures up pictures of people busy doing things that they enjoyed, and also tells us that there was no time to be bored.

At first glance this sounds idyllic, but is it achievable?

Last week I called in at my local car dealership to look at a new car. My existing car is fine, and has got at least another 2 years of reliability left (I hope). The new car looked great, so much so that I even took it for a cheeky test drive.

I came away with my head spinning.

You might not be happy in me telling you this, but we humans are a bit lazy. I know it’s difficult for us to admit, but it’s true. There is good news though.

At the end of last year I blogged about buying my wife an Amazon Echo for Christmas. Well, since we set it up at home I wouldn’t say it changed our lives dramatically. We’ve largely been asking Alexa to play songs, check the weather, and for me to check on the football scores.

Stephen Covey the author of the famous 7 Habits of Highly Effective people, tells us that everything we do (our tasks, projects, and goals) need to reflect our “Roles’ in life.

Everybody’s roles are of course different and can change over time. It’s a good exercise to sit down and write down what your present main roles are.

This week I have been reading a great book about Rest and Work. The author has done his research into why resting is so important. I’m only half way through the book, and here are some of the key take-aways so far.