I just finished a two week stint on jury duty. I received the summons and expected, as so many others have told me they experienced, to waste a morning in the court house only to be sent home. However, by lunch time I realized that would not be my fate…

Have you ever had a minor disagreement with your significant other that resulted in a major fight? Did you feel personally attacked for something that seemed trivial at first? Unfortunately, you’re not alone. This happens frequently in relationships both personal and professional. In the professional world, we have techniques to…

Speaking to strangers is hard. Reaching out to strangers in your workplace where a failure could have consequences on your career is terrifying. I think it’s fair to say that making the first move in the dating world is less stressful than reaching out to a strange at work to…

Budgeting is hard. Budgeting with a spouse or significant other introduces the risk of an argument. The reason for both of these is that most of us don’t budget based on our values. We approach our budget as if it is a isolated chore to be done outside of any…

As always, I want to define my terms. Hustle is used in a few contexts with slightly separate meanings so I want to be clear. I am not referring to any illegal activity. I use “hustle” to refer to actions taken above and beyond the basics to increase your income…

By now, the word “agile” has become a swear word in many companies. Employees roll their eyes when they hear it and in many ways, rightfully so. Many managers use the term without understanding it or what it requires. Instead of gaining the concepts benefits, we’ve become frustrated with our…

I recently held a meeting for the sole purpose of creating a visualization for the project. This is a project that has been on-going to five years that I just took over and I was struggling to understand the relationships between the teams and the data flow between them. …

I was listening to a financial podcast yesterday, Dave Ramsey, where a man was asking for advice on how to get out of debt. He had a truck that was worth twice his annual salary, a small boat, and would eat fast food every day at work. The the path…

One of the most useful tools I’ve ever learned for time management is the priority index. The Priority Index is a visualization to help you choose what to work on and when to work on it. Index Breakdown The Priority Index places your work on a graph. On the left of the…