Work Less and Do More

Help Stever Robbins create The Get-it-Done Guy’s Guide to Happiness, Success, and File Folders

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What causes you stress?

October 15th, 2009 · 24 Comments

I’m working on the book’s “de-stressing” chapter. I’m not happy with the current draft and want to reorganize it. I’m brainstorming about different causes of stress and how that might drive the chapter.
What are your major causes of stress? Mine are deadlines, broken software or hardware, bad customer service reps, and low blood sugar.
How about [...]

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Tags: Uncategorized

What do you do with email you’ve read?

March 12th, 2009 · 26 Comments

I save pretty much all my email, and it fills up my hard drive, my backups, and my Gmail account. I rarely go back and read it, though sometimes it *is* a valuable reference source.
I’ve been thinking of linking my Blackberry to my email so deleting a message on the Blackberry once I’ve handled it [...]

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Tags: Misc

What are some rules and beliefs of organizational life?

February 13th, 2009 · 15 Comments

Hi! For my book, I would like to gather a set of beliefs that govern how people operate in organizations. I’m especially looking for beliefs that really drive people’s behavior, decision-making, etc. Contradictions and alternate viewpoints welcome and encouraged. For example:

Never help out a colleague too much, because they’re just competition for the top spot.
Always [...]

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Tags: Misc

Giving money to family or friends

December 18th, 2008 · 14 Comments

If your company went public and you made a large sum but not super-large, say $5 million, would you give any to family & friends? Why/why not? How about if you made $20 million? $100 million?

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Tags: Uncategorized

How do *you* remember faces and names?

November 3rd, 2008 · 13 Comments

I’m writing a Get-it-Done Guy episode on remembering names and faces. I know how I remember names. But my way isn’t perfect. In fact, if you’ve ever met me and expected me to remember your name, you’ll know my way sucks. (Sorry, Mom. At least, I think your name was “Mom.”)
I may use your answer [...]

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Tags: Tips

Do “broad stroke” and highly-specific tips go together?

August 13th, 2008 · 9 Comments

I’m collecting the final list of tips for the book. I’m noticing there are two categories of tips and am not sure they would work together in a book. Here are samples:

Broad-stroke
Narrow

Use networking for your job search
Name files YYYYMMDD when they contain dates

Cultivate your intuition for decision-making
Clear your inbox backlog by deleting extra messages.

Will these [...]

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Tags: Uncategorized

Giving feedback: is the “sandwich” valuable, or trite and ineffective?

August 12th, 2008 · 10 Comments

Conventional wisdom has it that you should sandwich negative feedback between two pieces of positive feedback. You can read about “the hamburger method” here.
Shelle Rose Charvet points out that most people already know the method. Now, when they hear positive feedback, they simply bypass it and wait fo the shoe to drop (then they ignore [...]

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Tags: Misc · structure

What do you drop and what do you keep?

August 5th, 2008 · 12 Comments

I’m overloaded! Yes, it happens to me, too
The problem happens when I take on a new project, here’s a delay in the project (e.g. I’m waiting for someone to get me a document), and during that delay, I start something new. Once the delay is over, I now have two projects on my plate that [...]

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Tags: Misc

Does humor work in large doses?

July 17th, 2008 · 19 Comments

Quick question… In my podcast, I use a lot of humor. The humor is almost always tangential to the actual point. After all, how funny are file folders? Not very. But file folders being used as emergency underwear? Er, hilarious.
Work Less and Do More is shaping up to be a book of a great many [...]

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Tags: Writing

What’s a good name for an e-mail overload product?

July 10th, 2008 · 15 Comments

Update 8/8/08: Name chosen! The product now exists! You are Not Your Inbox, available at http://www.YouAreNotYourInbox.com !
I’m in the final stages of developing a product that helps people combat e-mail overload. Could you help me choose a title? The subtitle will describe the product; the main title should be catchy, PR-worthy, etc.

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Tags: Misc