Time Management

"There's still pressure at work to be the 1950s working dad, and pressure at home to be the father of 2013," explains Jennifer Berdahl, associate professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. Call it the new "masculine mystique." Just in time for Father's Day, Berdahl completed a study...

What's the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning, before you even brush your teeth? Is it checking the e-mail that's flooded your inbox overnight? Does the pull feel increasingly irresistible, even Pavlovian? Do you get so immersed in responding to other people's agendas that 30 minutes can go by...

I woke up one morning about four weeks ago and realized in a flash that I'd hit a wall. Most days I can't wait to get to work. On this day, I struggled to get myself out of the house. The first three months of the year had been intensely demanding, between hiring a series of new employees for a rapidly growing...

By Susan Ricker Between commutes, budgets, client demands and deadlines, it's no wonder work can be a huge source of stress. More than three quarters of workers are feeling the pressure, too: An overwhelming 77 percent of workers say they are sometimes or always burned out in their jobs, according to a...

By Laura Roeder This probably isn't the first article you've read about taming the email beast. You know all about categorizing, filtering, batching your time, etc., etc. But no matter how savvy your email system is, managing your inbox is still attacking the symptom, not the problem. What if you just got less...

By Robert Half International Most likely you were drawn to your profession because it enables you to use your skills, knowledge and talents to their maximum potential. But if lately you feel as though you're standing still or stuck in a rut, it may be time to step back and evaluate your situation. This type of...

By Travis Steffen As entrepreneurs, we're always busy. But where does it end? When you get more successful, do you think your schedule will magically get less busy and fill up with fewer obligations? Think again. Instead, you'll have to get more done in less time. And unless you have a system, it may prove...

I've had the privilege of being career coach to some of the world's most successful people: from college presidents to Fortune 50 C-level executives to world-class scientists. Here are commonalities among them:

How do you stay focused when working on the go -- in airports, co-working spaces, Starbucks? -- Ashley

On May 31, 2009, an Air France plane carrying 228 people from Brazil to France crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing everyone on board. It was one of the deadliest accidents in aviation history, and according to a recently disclosed judicial report, the pilot had only one hour of sleep. "I didn't sleep...

By Vivian Giang The idea of having employees walk around with electronic sensors to track their every move is unsettling. There are privacy and legal issues, and who wants to feel like they are just a cog in a system? But data companies say that the resulting reams of information will improve life for companies...

For more than a decade now, I've struggled to define what fuels the most sustainably productive work environment -- not just on behalf of the large corporate clients we serve, but also for my own employees at The Energy Project. Perhaps nothing I've uncovered is as important as trust. As much as employers...

NEW YORK -- Companies are on a tear in terms of productivity and profits, but they aren't sharing much of the gains with their workers. The gap between hourly compensation and productivity is the highest it's been since just after World War II. This divergence is one of the major drivers of the nation's...

By Jude Bijou It's normal to procrastinate at work. Usually we do it because we're avoiding a task that's unpleasant or daunting. And, in truth, procrastinating isn't really a serious problem until it starts to interfere with your performance at work. If you're feeling worried, fearful and stressed out, or your...

Many people are motivated to do tasks by knowing they're being productive, contributing to society, and/or providing good income for their family. Other people are more motivated by pleasure: Will this activity be fun? Unless a task is fun and/or easy, they're tempted to procrastinate. If the latter sounds like...

In my work helping women build successful, fulfilling careers, I started to see something quite troubling. Women who had been high achievers in school-good students who earned good grades-were finding that the very skills that served them well in school were holding them back in their careers. "Good student...

By Susan Ricker Most of us have been late to work at some point. According to a new CareerBuilder study, 26 percent of workers admit to being tardy at least once a month and 16 percent are late once a week or more. But what excuses do people give for being late? More than 2,600 hiring managers and more than...

Work presents many problems for workers -- among them is sharing space with some people you'd probably prefer to avoid. There may be a solution. A new product called the "bubble desk," designed by the French firm of Christian Pottgiesser, allows office workers to enclose themselves at their workstations,...

Everyone knows that ambition is key to success. If you're not naturally driven, acquiring ambition can feel like an impossibility. While I can't promise I can turn a torpid procrastinator into a dynamo, I have been able to help my clients see moderate improvement. And one of the world's top experts on...

This weekend brings the Super Bowl, that annual festival of traditions including overpriced commercials, seven-layer dip and a curious one for we business writers: statistics on how much productivity is "lost" due to the game. I've seen different numbers bandied about: Employers lose $820 or $850 million...