In a partnership of any kind - a marriage, a working relationship, a friendship or the dreaded “group project” in school - sometimes it feels like you’re doing all the giving and the other person is doing all the taking. Unfortunately, they usually feel the same way. We humans tend to notice how things are [...]

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I talked to someone the other day who is moving across country, planning a wedding and changing jobs. All at the same time.
I completely flaked (notice the slowdown in posting here) just from an unexpected move across town a few weeks ago. It was all I could do to move and show up at my [...]

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Is it important to separate your home life and your work life? I see self-employed and telecommuting people in forums talking about that separation as if there’s no question it’s important, but I wonder.
50 years ago, not everyone had to work for a paycheck. It wasn’t too expensive to leave “the city”, buy some rural [...]

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The title is a bit of an oversimplification. What it really means is that what we think of as “wasted time” may not actually be a waste after all. We need to overhaul our definitions of “productivity” and “time wasting.”
The current definitions
I used to wait tables. My shifts would last 4-6 hours without breaks. I’d [...]

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I once had a job based largely on my ability to calm people down when they were upset. I didn’t even realize I had such superpowers - it came naturally to me. But since then people have asked me how to do it, and I’ve analyzed what it is I do.
The first rule in dealing [...]

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I learned early on the importance of working when you don’t feel like it. Whether I was sick, tired or just out of touch with my creative muse, I mastered the art of staying on task no matter what. The problem is, I didn’t know when I was burnt out. In adulthood I realized this [...]

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If you’re in a stressful, emotional situation where you need to express yourself clearly and get your point across (whether at work or in another relatively businesslike environment), the worst feeling is the sense that you’re not going to be able to do it without crying. I’m all for letting out emotions when you need [...]

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Spotlight Post: How to Sleep More Effectively, Starting Tonight
Tired after getting a full nine hours and still feeling exhausted? You sleep the sleep of the innocent - you nod off quickly, don’t have nightmares and have no trouble breathing - and still you can hardly get up in the morning and seldom feel totally awake, [...]

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Cell phones are such a blessing in some ways. But when they interrupt your meals or bug you when you’re trying to finish a task, they can drive you crazy. If you’ve had enough, it’s up to you to change the expectations of people who call you. You don’t have to be available 24/7, even [...]

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Some people get in their own way. We all do, really - it’s just that some people seem to cause themselves a lot more trouble than others. If you care about someone like this, it can be very frustrating trying to be a friend. Or you may think someone who self-sabotages is just looking for [...]

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