Weekly Round-Up #99: Why Your Blocks Matter, How To Plan Your Future and How To Stop Micromanaging
In this week’s round-up we look at how blocking your time in a visual manner may make you re-evaluate your choices, how you can make better decisions and how to stop being a micromanager.
This week’s round-up looks at how you may change your priorities when you can see the bigger picture, some shiny new toys for your cubicle and why I still feel you need to be polite in emails.
34 Ways To Make Your Cubicle So Much Better – Buzzfeed
It’s getting close to Christmas so it’s time to start thinking about what you can ask Santa for (assuming you’ve been good of course!) This post from Buzzfeed has 34 great products you can use in your cubicle to make it more functional and feel like a home away from home.
How to Email – The Atlantic
Whist I do agree with some of this article (I’ll be covering some of the topics in my “Become An Email Ninja Course” I don’t think cutting out greetings or signoffs really makes that much of a difference in terms of overall email processing time. In fact it can generate even more emails – after all, you didn’t address me in the email so am I the intended recipient? Why are you being so rude, you never said hello! Any goodwill you hope to foster could be lost all for the sake of a few extra keystrokes.
100 Blocks a Day – Wait But Why
I’m a big fan of Time Boxing but sometimes it’s beneficial to look at the bigger picture, you may think twice about committing to something when you see how precious your time is.
How to Stop Procrastinating on Your Goals by Using the “Seinfeld Strategy” – James Clear
Who knew that the “father” of task chaining was actually a comedian? Editors Note: I’ve never watched Seinfeld nor seen any of his stand up so sorry if I’m not more aware or impressed!
6 Daily Habits Of Highly Productive People – Inc
There are some simple things to do that can make your day run more smoothly. These techniques aren’t rocket science but I do like to remind you every 6 months or so – that way you have no excuse for not getting things done!
Why We Micromanage and How To Stop – Go Burrows
It’s a fine balancing act managing employees: give them too much freedom and (given the wrong personality) they could take advantage and shirk, manage them too closely and you can stifle creativity and cause resentment. This great post covers the reasons behind why you may want to micromanage and how you can offer your colleagues more freedom.
The Easiest Future Planning Method You’ll Ever Use – Page Flutter
One of the things that has been holding me back from going “Full On” bullet journal is the lack of clarity around how to organise future events, and what to do when you fill up a page and can’t carry on – I like things to be together, sorry! This article from Megan at Page Flutter covers a variety of techniques for planning out your yearly events and has some great explanations on how to implement them.
6 Lies that Keep Our Homes and Lives Cluttered – Becoming Minimalist
I am a terrible hoarder – well, I prefer to call myself a “prepper” as you’ll never know when something will come in handy – but every now and then I do have a clear out, honest! As well as physical clutter there is mental clutter too and this post looks at some of the things we can minimise to make our lives better.
7 Mental Models You Should Know For Smarter Decision Making – The Next Web
When you’re trying to make a decision sometimes your instinct may be to just go with your heart rather than to sit an think it through. This fascinating article covers 7 different methods for looking at a decision to see what course of action you should take.
Here Is a New and Very Complicated Excuse for Why You’re Always Late – Science of Us
I am always late, and it would seem that I now have a rather complicated excuse for why I’m never at work on time – I’m not sure I can explain it to H.R though, I don’t really understand it myself!
Create Your Own Custom Stickers – Labeley
If you’re into planning or just want some funky sticker to put on your Christmas cards then check out Labeley. It lets you design labels in a variety of shapes and then share them via social media or email, or have them custom printed for a reasonable fee (I’m not sure what international shipping from the U.S would be so bear that in mind when ordering).
Have A Great Weekend
Don’t forget to check back in next Friday for a special 100th Edition of the Weekly Round-up!