Calendars are the lifeblood of business operations. They always have been and always will be. One of the most common observations of successful businesses (and individuals) is they are very highly organized and have a consistent procedure. A 2017 study by PMI found that only 60% of projects actually meet their goals. The primary cause […]

The best and most creative thinking and problem-solving can only take place during uninterrupted periods of time. You know it and so do your colleagues. Which is why your company wants to give everyone time one day a week—let’s say Thursday—to work alone. Easier said than done. It is difficult to control the array of […]

Tim Ferriss’s 4-Hour Workweek is an enormously popular book, selling more than 1.35 million copies since its 2007 release. But that doesn’t mean its message on how to “escape the 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich” sinks in right away. While Daniel Ndukwu, founder and CEO of software company Kyleads, was an early […]

I started journaling a little over a year ago. It has become a regular part of my morning ritual. It has helped me clarify my thinking, process my feelings, and make better decisions.

However, like most people, I struggled with consistency. I wanted to journal. I was convinced of the benefits. But I found myself blowing it off with increasing frequency.

Sound familiar?

Several months ago I stumbled onto something that solved the problem. Not one hundred percent of the time, but most of the time.

Honestly, I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. It seemed too simple.

But I shared it with my wife, Gail, who was struggling with consistency herself. After successfully using it for a few weeks, she said, “Honey, you have got to blog about this.”

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Charley Kempthorne has been keeping a journal for more than 50 years. Every morning before the sun is in the sky, the professor-turned-painter carefully types out at least 1,000 words reflecting on his past, his beliefs, his family, even his shortcomings. The prolific fruits of his labor reside in an impressive storage facility in Manhattan, […]

Studying the history of paper, as I did while writing the book Paper: Paging Through History, exposes a number of misconceptions. The most important of which is this technological fallacy: the idea that technology changes society. It is exactly the reverse. Society develops technology to address the changes that are taking place within it. To […]

If you ever attend Milan’s Design Week—a sweeping furniture fair, art festival, and Prosecco-soaked party that takes over Italy’s financial capital each April—you will need several essentials to fit in with the global trendsetters in attendance. First, your glasses. This is a design crowd, so the options are polarized into two camps: ultraminimal frameless spheres […]

One of my earliest memories involves a handwriting struggle. My class had been tasked with writing stories. I love stories. My masterpiece, about accidentally catching a great white shark and putting him into my bedroom aquarium, was the longest in the class. It was pages and pages long. It had chapters. I was in child-heaven […]

This is going to sound crazy. After all, I run an online content business. But the best reading app for comprehension, emotional engagement, and more is … paper. Whether we go back to the ancient Egyptians or the Chinese, there’s nothing new about paper. What is new is the understanding that reading on paper is […]

Everyone knows I geek out when it comes to new technology. But sometimes old tech is the best tech, and that goes for taking notes. Last fall information guru Clay Shirky banned the use of laptops and other digital devices in his NYU classroom. It remains a controversial move. Not only students, but even other […]