If you're like most people I work with in companies, the demands come at you from every angle, all day long, and you have to make difficult decisions without much time to think about them. What enduring principles can you rely on to make choices that reflect openness, integrity and...

"How can I get 7-8 hours of sleep when I'm with my kids from the moment I arrive home, and I need some time for myself before bed?"

"How can I find time to exercise when I have to get up early in the morning and I'm exhausted by the...

Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, is not an empty suit.

It's not just that Schultz doesn't favor suits (at the talk I heard him give last week, he was wearing a cardigan sweater) but also that he has a heart, which he is willing to wear on his sleeve,...

I just got back from the SXSW interactive conference in Austin. I went there to give a talk about fueling sustainable productivity by balancing periods of fully absorbed attention with intermittent renewal.

Peering out into that vast hall, I fear I saw the future: a sea of the digital elite...

Do you have the feeling, as I do, that in the overwhelm of everyday life, we're getting too much of stuff we don't need, and not enough of what we do? Herewith my first set of suggestions about how to redress the imbalance:

Let's cut to the chase.

Say you decide to go on a fast, and so you effectively starve yourself for a week. At the end of seven days, how would you be feeling? You'd probably be hungry, perhaps a little weak, and almost certainly somewhat thinner. But basically you'd be...

As I sit down to write this blog, I'm facing a blank page. I know it's going to be difficult, because it always is. Maybe I'll just check my email first, or update on Facebook or Twitter, or read the morning headlines on The New York Times, or sneak a...

For nearly a decade now, I've begun my workdays by focusing for 90 minutes, uninterrupted, on the task I decide the night before is the most important one I'll face the following day. After 90 minutes, I take a break.

To make this possible, I turn off my email while...

Change is hard. New Year's resolutions almost always fail. But at The Energy Project, we have developed a way of making changes that has proved remarkably powerful and enduring, both in my own life and for the corporate clients to whom we teach it.

Our method is grounded...

Are you working longer hours, attending more meetings, taking shorter vacations, answering more e-mails and eating lunch at your desk, if you eat lunch at all?

Does demand in your life just keep getting higher, so you're struggling more and more just to keep up? Are you utterly sick of...

I ended my most recent post with this line:

"The true measure of greatness is our capacity to navigate between our opposites with agility and grace -- to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never to stop trying to get better."

Over the past week, I've thought...

Consider the following qualities:

Confident.....................Humble
Courageous.................Prudent
Tenacious....................Gentle
Honest.........................Compassionate
Decisive.......................Flexible
Disciplined...................Playful
Strong..........................Vulnerable
Deliberate....................Spontaneous
Discerning...................Intuitive
Outgoing.....................Introspective

Which quality do you value more in each pair?

Is there any doubt that most of us tend to choose up sides between qualities, valuing one in...

In August, I posted a blog titled "Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything" on the Harvard Business Review. Over the subsequent three months it has become one of the site's most widely read blogs ever.

The notion that we can be excellent at anything prompted passionate...

If there is anything this nasty, fear-driven, dispiriting political season has demonstrated, it's that no politician -- Democrat, Republican, or otherwise -- has any compelling solutions to what ails us. Even as partisan a figure as Jeb Bush is suggesting voters are feeling "disgust with the political class."

We live...

There are many stunning moments in the documentary Inside Job that brilliantly demystifies the story behind the global financial crisis that began in 2008. For me, the most powerful was something the CEO of a large bank said to his fellow guests at a party held by Treasury...

It's the most compelling, preoccupying question we measure ourselves by every day, and it has very little to do with money. I'm talking about "worth" as in self-worth and "value," as in the degree to which we feel valued by others and valuable in the world. Nothing more powerfully influences...

Some years ago, I spent time with a guy who I typically greeted in the most ordinary way: "How are you?" I'd ask.

"I'm WON-DER-FUL," he'd respond, rapturously, and every time I asked. Talk about a conversation stopper. What do you say back to that?

Suffice to say this...

Good luck, right?

But here's the reality: naps are a powerful source of competitive advantage. The recent evidence is overwhelming: Naps are not just physically restorative, but also improve perceptual skills, motor skills, reaction time and alertness.

I experienced the power of naps myself when I was writing my new...

In its early days, one of the joys of email was the access it provided to people who might otherwise be inaccessible, or very difficult to reach. I still remember a New Yorker article written by John Seabrook in 1994, which was effectively my introduction to this new...

It's just after Labor Day in the U.S. as I write this post. To my own amazement, I've spent most of the past month truly relaxing -- reading lots of books, playing tennis, running, hanging out with my family and eating food I mostly shouldn't -- scones and donuts for...