The top productivity gurus help you make your life simpler with lots of lifehacks and efficiency tips.



zen habits
Leo Babauta
Zen Habits
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Chris Guillebeau of The Art of Non-Conformity. Follow him on Twitter here. When you were a kid and wanted to do something your parents or teachers didn’t like, you may have heard the question, “If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you?” The...

zen habits | 7 Sep 2010 | 9:38 am CDT

Stepcase Lifehack
Stepcase Lifehack
I was talking with a friend recently who took a voluntary lay-off to go to a new position at a start-up company. When the hiring executive at the new company went to his boss to make the hire, however, he was told he couldn’t bring my friend on full-time. By then his old position had already ...

Stepcase Lifehack | 4 Sep 2010 | 11:47 am CDT

zen habits
Leo Babauta
Zen Habits
“Silence is a source of great strength.” ~Lao Tzu Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on twitter . It’s a busy day, and you’re inundated by non-stop emails, text messages, phone calls, instant message requests, notifications, interruptions of all kinds. The noise of the world is a...

zen habits | 2 Sep 2010 | 8:42 am CDT

Stepcase Lifehack
Stepcase Lifehack
What makes a smartphone “smart?”This may sound like a dumb question, but I have actually been asking it ever since I made a commitment to upgrade my time management system with the purchase of a shiny, new 2011 smartphone in January.Setting aside the question of the costs (which I unde...

Stepcase Lifehack | 1 Sep 2010 | 6:44 pm CDT

zen habits
Leo Babauta
Zen Habits
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Cal Newport of Study Hacks. “I did stand-up comedy for eighteen years,”  Steve Martin recalls  in his 2007 memoir, Born Standing Up. “Ten of those years were spent learning, four years were spent refining, and four were spent in wild...

zen habits | 31 Aug 2010 | 3:14 pm CDT

zen habits
Leo Babauta
Zen Habits
‘A few strong instincts and a few plain rules suffice us.’ ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on twitter or identica. Life can be ridiculously complicated, if you let it. I suggest we simplify. Thich Nhat Hanh’s quote, which I’ve stolen as this site&#...

zen habits | 27 Aug 2010 | 10:29 am CDT

Stepcase Lifehack
Stepcase Lifehack
Look for a house with a square or rectangular shape.Looking for just the right new home is an overwhelming task! There are so many considerations, so many things to think about that it’s easy to get distracted and not notice features of the home and its location that could be problematic. And, if...

Stepcase Lifehack | 27 Aug 2010 | 9:37 am CDT

zen habits
Leo Babauta
Zen Habits
“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” ~Confucius Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Scott Dinsmore of ReadingForYourSuccess. How can a mountain better prepare us for life? At over 14,000 feet, there’s more to learn than I would have thou...

zen habits | 24 Aug 2010 | 8:00 am CDT

Stepcase Lifehack
Stepcase Lifehack
It was Dr. Anthony P. Witham who once said “children spell love…T-I-M-E.” He was definitely onto something. Unfortunately, if you are like most parents, time is a precious commodity that often eludes us. Whether we have a new job, a new baby, or we just need to make the coffee or stri...

Stepcase Lifehack | 23 Aug 2010 | 5:07 pm CDT

Stepcase Lifehack
Stepcase Lifehack
Feng shui teaches that everything is alive with energy. Everything. That means that you too are alive with energy. What kind of energy are you? When I evaluate environments for good feng shui I look for a feeling of harmony and balance, a predominance of positive energy, and few sources of negative...

Stepcase Lifehack | 18 Aug 2010 | 4:16 pm CDT

zen habits
Leo Babauta
Zen Habits
‘It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly.’ ~Bertrand Russell Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on twitter or identica. I know there are many of you who want to declutter, or who have already gotten started … ...

zen habits | 18 Aug 2010 | 10:20 am CDT

Stepcase Lifehack
Stepcase Lifehack
The Writing ProcessSometimes I sit at my computer to write an article and the experience is a very logical, cerebral and practical one. To be honest, I think it’s more of a conscious process than it is a creative experience. I carefully consider what I want to convey to my readers. I think about ...

Stepcase Lifehack | 17 Aug 2010 | 9:28 am CDT

Stepcase Lifehack
Stepcase Lifehack
A week ago, I received a message from a blog reader. He commented that my entries have been longer of late, and while he tried reading, he was lazy to continue on. He suggested I should create shorter versions of my articles for busy and lazy people like him.For perspective, my guest posts on Lifeh...

Stepcase Lifehack | 16 Aug 2010 | 6:09 am CDT

Stepcase Lifehack
Stepcase Lifehack
...

Stepcase Lifehack | 13 Aug 2010 | 9:10 pm CDT

Stepcase Lifehack
Stepcase Lifehack
Humor and laughter provide so many rewards. Studies have shown 20 seconds of laughter yield the same benefits as 3 minutes of hard rowing. A Robert Half International study reported 84% of executives believe a worker with a good sense of humor does a better job. Incorporating humor more effectively...

Stepcase Lifehack | 12 Aug 2010 | 9:21 am CDT

zen habits
Leo Babauta
Zen Habits
Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on twitter. I’ve written a lot about habits — it’s in the title, after all — and after all these years, and after all the questions that people have asked about forming habits, there’s one thing that seems more important than anyth...

zen habits | 11 Aug 2010 | 10:55 am CDT

Stepcase Lifehack
Stepcase Lifehack
Do you have any friends or colleagues who are negative? If so, you’ll know they aren’t the most enjoyable people to be around. Negative people can be real downers in any conversation. No matter what you say, they have a way of spinning things in a negative direction. Some negative peopl...

Stepcase Lifehack | 9 Aug 2010 | 12:30 pm CDT

Stepcase Lifehack
Stepcase Lifehack
Staying organized is not for sissies! Unlike getting organized it requires a commitment to DAILY ACTION to maintain the order you created when you got organized. That means, you must do the same actions day after day after day after day after day . . . in order to avoid the trauma of having to reo...

Stepcase Lifehack | 6 Aug 2010 | 11:11 am CDT

Stepcase Lifehack
Stepcase Lifehack
Worried about growing your business during the recession? You don’t have to be. Make a few smart tweaks and your business will do more than just survive.The media attention placed on the recession could make almost anyone doubt a decision to enter the world of small-business ownership. But th...

Stepcase Lifehack | 4 Aug 2010 | 7:54 am CDT

zen habits
Leo Babauta
Zen Habits
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Celestine Chua of The Personal Excellence Blog. Do you have difficulty saying “no”? Are you always trying to be nice to others at the expense of yourself? Well, you’re not alone. In the past, I was not good at saying “no”, ...

zen habits | 3 Aug 2010 | 12:54 pm CDT

Stepcase Lifehack
Stepcase Lifehack
Our Internal RealityWe all want to change our internal reality on some level. The way we think, interpret, react, cope, expect, process, interact and communicate. The way we create our own experiences: good and bad. The way we manage our fears. Or, perhaps, don’t manage them. The way we avoid the...

Stepcase Lifehack | 2 Aug 2010 | 5:57 am CDT

Stepcase Lifehack
Stepcase Lifehack
Have you ever read a blog and thought about starting one yourself because you could do as good a job? Most of us could benefit from keeping one. Especially those with small business aspirations! I’ve got over 10 blogs but only one of them is public. The rest are kept private and used as a way...

Stepcase Lifehack | 30 Jul 2010 | 9:16 am CDT

Stepcase Lifehack
Stepcase Lifehack
Every successful company has to start somewhere– at the bottom, to be more precise. And when the company is yours, climbing that ladder of success can feel awfully daunting at times. Luckily, there are tools available to help entrepreneurs advance their businesses. We have partnered with AppS...

Stepcase Lifehack | 30 Jul 2010 | 6:21 am CDT

Stepcase Lifehack
Stepcase Lifehack
When I was a small child, I’d curl up on my parents’ bed after the sunshine had warmed their dark brown comforter. It was an oasis of peace and safety that I struggled to find in later years. I’d made the mistake of thinking that being an adult meant no longer delighting in “silly” things...

Stepcase Lifehack | 29 Jul 2010 | 5:32 pm CDT

Stepcase Lifehack
Stepcase Lifehack
Think your small business can’t grow in this economy? You’re wrong. Improving your mindset and minimizing your risk are possible in all economies.If you pay attention to the media and get sucked into an “economic panic,” you might think that trying to grow a business in toda...

Stepcase Lifehack | 28 Jul 2010 | 9:40 am CDT

zen habits
Leo Babauta
Zen Habits
“With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on twitter or identica. The idea of having concrete, achievable goals seem to be deeply ingrained in our culture. I know I lived with goals for many years,...

zen habits | 27 Jul 2010 | 3:25 pm CDT

Stepcase Lifehack
Stepcase Lifehack
A couple of months ago I wrote an article on 10 reasons to quit TV on my blog. I was half expecting resistant replies, but was surprised to read many readers expressing the same sentiments. Some of them have removed TV from their lives since years ago, while some are on the way towards cutting TV o...

Stepcase Lifehack | 26 Jul 2010 | 8:06 am CDT

Stepcase Lifehack
Stepcase Lifehack
We’ve all heard how frightened nearly everyone is of public speaking. Maybe that’s understandable, but it creates the potential for lots of misinformed conventional wisdom spread by people who have to make presentations but haven’t had the opportunity to learn what really works.To...

Stepcase Lifehack | 23 Jul 2010 | 7:11 pm CDT

zen habits
Leo Babauta
Zen Habits
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Mary Jaksch of Goodlife ZEN. Do you want to be more productive? Maybe you do, but I’m sure you don’t want to feel stressed, overwhelmed, or unhappy – which happens to many super-productive people. But there is good news: You can be insane...

zen habits | 21 Jul 2010 | 1:01 pm CDT

Stepcase Lifehack
Stepcase Lifehack
Do you want more comments on your blog? Let’s assume you already know how valuable comments are to your blogging experience. But how do you get more of them? Here are 31 ways to increase comments on your blog. Some are concepts I use regularly on my own blogs. Others I know about from watchin...

Stepcase Lifehack | 16 Jul 2010 | 6:37 am CDT