Monthly Archives: April 2015

Stress and Performance

Many people claim they work best under pressure. This is likely both true and false…depending on several conditions. Stress can lead to improved performance; however, this relationship only applies to certain levels of stress. The Yerkes-Dodson Law, discovered over 100 years by Psychologists Robert Yerkes and J. Dodson, informs us that there is an optimum […]

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Twain’s Law of Work

“Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.” – Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Not too long ago, I gave a talk on the idea that Passion is a Life Management Tool as the more you enjoy something, be it […]

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Be Prompt

If you want to be very productive, you must make sure you are on-time for all appointments. Business Woody Allen once remarked that “90% of life is just showing up”. I’d like to modify this truism to state to “…showing up on-time”. Imagine that you are just five minutes late to an important meeting with […]

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Constraints and Catalysts

Question: Why do traffic jams occur, even when no accident has taken place? It turns out such slow-downs are simple manifestations of physical rules, meaning that the slowest car becomes the speed constraint on the cars directly following it. This is because of all the cars behind the slowest one can only travel at the […]

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Work, Passion, Mission

“There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers…To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, […]

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