Search of Amber © Maciek PelcWhat are the values you live by? If such a question catches you off guard - welcome to the club! A few years ago, I would not even consider writing down a list of my values or even figuring out a personal mission statement, as recommended by Steven R. Covey.

How can we become aware of our values? It doesn't look like a great idea to pick them from a list of all potential values ever uttered by mankind. Use simple triggers instead - events in your life that make you think. There are direct pathways to discovering your values, like:  » Read more

«Opening Gifts» © Omer Ziv

Holidays and birthdays always come as such a surprise, don't they… ;-) ?

From secular occasions like wedding anniversaries, to Valentine's Day, to New Year, to religious events like Christmas, Layla tul Mehraj, Vesak, Holi or Passover - all around the globe, many people ask themselves every year: how can I make a friend or loved one happy and make or find a special present for her or him?

There are gifts to avoid, gifts you can do yourself (DIY) and appropriate times to start.  » Read more

You can become effective and efficient not only by doing something, but also by refraining from doing something.

For instance, you might ask yourself how you're currently wasting time, energy and money - and how you could eliminate the causes. The Toyota Production System (TPS) takes this to a higher level. As you can tell by the name, the system is about manufacturing cars. Anyway, if you take a closer look, you realize TPS can  » Read more

Most of my lists are kept on paper. Some of their @-contexts are more generic than others. For example:

• @Online lists everything I just need plain internet access for. I could do this in an internet café.
• @Home also lists online-todos, but only those I need to do at home. E.g., when I need documents I can't (or would not want) to carry with me.
• @Office also lists online-todos, but only those I need to work on in the office (Most of the time, I need additional reference material here that my clients won't allow me to take out of their offices).

As you can see immediately, some contexts imply others - @Home I'm also @Online, and @Office I'm @Online, too. There is a danger here: if I looked only at the @Home list while I'm at home, and in the office only at the @Office list, I'd risk to forget that I could finish some @Online todos at home or in the office as well.

For that reason, I keep the more generic lists (like @Online) on top of my list stack. That way, I see them first when I look at the stack.