Hack Attack: Beta test your goals – Lifehacker

It’s foolish to expect that you’ll have instant success with anything you try. You can avoid major disappointment and frustration if you plan ahead and consider the early stages of goal-setting and goal-accomplishing as just that – an early testing period that can potentially bring success, but, regardless of the outcome, is nonetheless a great learning and testing ground.

If luck smiles on you and you happen to get everything perfect right off the bat, then congratulations! If you’re not so lucky, don’t worry – allow yourself to make some mistakes, learn from them, gain better footing, and continue.

Working Smart: What’s the Secret to Your Success?

The truth is, you are building your reputation—your brand—one response at a time. People are shaping their view of you by how you respond to them. If you are slow, they assume you are incompetent and over your head. If you respond quickly, they assume you are competent and on top of your work. Their perception, whether you realize it or not, will determine how fast your career advances and how high you go. You can’t afford to be unresponsive. It is a career-killer.

Headhunter Kelvin Thompson talks about how — and why — to sell yourself as a team player. 

You have to be honest with yourself about where your strengths lie. Don’t focus on the fact that you don’t have certain strengths and have to pretend that you do. That’s the one thing that will distract you from getting the roles you’re really good at.

Getting To Done: Communication – A guide to email triage – Lifehacker

Ever wonder what causes that sinking feeling of dread just before you open your e-mail client? Is it the hundreds of new messages that will mock you in all their need-a-response-asap, unread glory?…

It’s depressing to watch a mean, lean, fighting machine of a company deteriorate into mediocracy. In Silicon Valley we call this process the “bozo explosion.” This downward slide seems inevitable after a company achieves success–often during the years immediately following an IPO. The purpose of this article is to prevent, or at least postpone, this process in your company.

Bona tempora volvant–by Guy Kawasaki: How to Prevent a Bozo Explosion

Dilbert Comic Strip Archive – Dilbert.com – The Official Dilbert Website by Scott Adams – Dilbert, Dogbert and Coworkers!

Wired News: Work More, Do Less With Tech

Most U.S. workers say they feel rushed on the job, but they are getting less accomplished than a decade ago, according to newly released research.

Workers completed two-thirds of their work in an average day last year, down from about three-quarters in a 1994 study, according to research conducted for Day-Timers, an East Texas, Pennsylvania-based maker of organizational products.

The biggest culprit is the technology that was supposed to make work quicker and easier, experts say.

“Technology has sped everything up and, by speeding everything up, it’s slowed everything down, paradoxically,” said John Challenger, chief executive of Chicago-based outplacement consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas…

Jonathan Grubb: 8 types of meeting attendees

Some personalities that come out in meetings, especially at big software companies.

Taking a day out

by Britt Parrott

Many people forget how routine their lives are. While this is especially true for those, like me, who have a regular 9-5 job, freelancers often get into their own routines, even while being less constrained by hours and location.

    Doing the same thing over, day after day, contributes to creative blocks. Some might work through these blocks temporarily (by visiting sites such as this one), but it neglects the root cause of what got them into the block in the first place: routine.

    I schedule a day out for myself as often as possible. I don’t call it a day off because those are usually taken for a specific purpose: a trip, work around the house, etc. For me, a day out is a way to temporarily break out of my routine. In the process, I usually get a boost of creativity.

9 tips for running more productive meetings | 43 Folders