After almost 4 years of doing this GTD and productivity thing, I have to say that the most important part of my system are lists; they are the core of anything that I have used as a tool and without them my system wouldn’t exist. If you aren’t a list keeper or a wannabe list keeper, take a look at the following lists that are considered to be essential....

1. Kieran Behan, gymnast. Imagine being told that you will never walk again! That was what doctors told Kieran after they removed a cancerous tumor from his thigh at the age of 10. The operation went badly, so badly in fact, that he woke up screaming in pain from massive nerve damage. Up to then, he had been crazy about gymnastics and was determined to become an Olympic champion. But how could he do that when he could not even walk now and was confined to a wheelchair?...

What a great start to a job! I had moved to a new city, and had been at work for less than a morning when I had my first run in with the first style of bad manager. I didn’t stay long enough to find out what Mr Agressive would do next. Bad managers are a major issue. Research from Approved Index shows that more than four in ten employees (42%) state that they have previously quit a job because of a bad manager....

As someone who has extensively researched the value of a degree before deciding to drop out of university, let me share my two cents on the matter. It may shift your perspective. Before we go over the 10 most useless degrees in college, let’s go over some major gaps that apply towards pursuing a degree in the first place. False sense of security Growing up, we were promised the illusion of the golden ticket....

The perfect way to open a conversation? Ask a question! However, don’t fall into the generalization trap. Asking someone: “How are you?” will garner the automatic “fine” and your conversation ends as if a door slammed in your face. Asking the same person how their daughter did at her recent poetry slam will elicit a positive response because by showing your knowledge of them, you’re showing you care. And they will be more than happy to offer details of their life event....

Luckily for me, my parents never bothered with a lot of the extras, and my mom had several clever ways of DIY fixes and time-savers that I learned as a kid. So when I got to college and saw fellow students wasting their time and money on their laundry. What is a college student doing paying for frills like dryer sheets?! Why does anyone make their laundry more expensive and tedious than it needs to be?...

What Exactly is a Weekend Project? Originally, weekend projects were geared more toward home improvement. During the week, you can’t work on a high-traffic area of your home, and the responsibilities of one’s occupation plus the high energy of the work week just deemed it too time consuming. So, individuals would wait until the weekend to do repairs. However, in modern times, weekend projects don’t have to involve a hammer—they can encompass everything from cleaning out your home office to building a computer....

We’re told to “think outside the box” all the time, but how exactly do we do that? How do we develop the ability to confront problems in ways other than the ways we normally confront problems? How do we cultivate the ability to look at things differently from the way we typically look at things? Thinking outside the box starts well before we’re “boxed in” – that is, well before we confront a unique situation and start forcing it into a familiar “box” that we already know how to deal with....

Valet is an Android app that is any city-dweller’s best friend as it not only helps you remember where you parked, but also sets reminders for when your parking meter will expire or what days street sweeping occurs. Even more impressive is that for all the good the tool does, it only costs $1.99 -meaning it will pay for itself many times over the first time it helps you avoid a street sweeping or parking meter ticket....

1. Privacy still matters to people That definition is courtesy of Urban Dictionary. It’s a pretty good one for the name given to Google Glass wearers by the unimpressed, but it leaves out probably the number one reason people are opposed to Glass: it invades their privacy. A Google Glass Explorer, the descriptor for someone who purchased an early (and expensive) version of the hardware, described being harassed in February of 2014 for wearing her Glass....

It’s not the finished product that matters. It’s the process. The Art Therapy Association defines art therapy as, “a mental health profession in which clients, facilitated by the art therapist, use art media, the creative process, and the resulting artwork to explore their feelings, reconcile emotional conflicts, foster self-awareness, manage behavior and addictions, develop social skills, improve reality orientation, reduce anxiety, and increase self-esteem.” Art therapy is rooted in Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung’s theories of the subconscious and unconscious and based on the idea that visual symbols and images are the most readily accessible forms of communication....

1. They are better listeners than extroverts I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to sit through a seminar or meeting while listening to a couple people totally overpower the majority of the room. Sometimes, sitting back and assessing all of the information in a contemplative manner leads to better results than just blurting out every single thing that comes to mind. One thing that introverts are effective at is compiling everything that’s been said in a meeting or conversation between multiple people, and molding that into an idea or unique point that others didn’t have the time to think of....

Self Control This app for Mac gives you laser focus by taking away that which distracts you the very most on your computer. Rather than blocking out absolutely everything, Self Control lets you specify a blacklist of websites. Just set your list and a period of time, and crank through your to-do list. But be warned: once you’ve specified an amount of time, you will not have access to your blacklisted sites until time is up....

Take Manoj, who had no money and a passion for learning. Working selling scrap paper, he would read anything he could lay his hands on. It was his dream to learn and he made it happen, despite the odds. Sometimes it looks like there is no way towards our dreams or goals, no way out. But if we believe and follow our intuition, and if we do just one small thing a day to move us towards it, whatever we can manage, they are made possible....

Instead of a standard letter informing them of the grades, they received a heart-warming response from Ben’s assistant head teacher, Ruth Clarkson, acknowledging Ben’s attributes and achievements outside of the exam room. Ben, who has autism, was praised for his social qualities and creative abilities – skills and talents that were not measured in the standard exams taken by Ben, his friends and thousands of other children every year....

There are plethora of apps available to help you track your time, but you wouldn’t have seen something like ‘Timely’. This new app has reinvented the way we track out time. It lets you decide how much time to assign to yourself and to your co-workers. Simply put, it manages your time in most obvious way possible. It will also help you track if someone is efficiently utilizing the time you have allocated to them....

As we know, Stress is a normal part of the human condition—a part that most of us would rather eliminate. Some people are more prone to feeling stress than others, and stress impacts people differently due to temperament, inborn personality traits, and how we’ve been taught (directly and indirectly) how to respond to challenging situations. Some people are naturally more resilient, while others are more sensitive and reactive to stress....

Don’t Get Too Personal Image source It’s always a good idea to avoid Facebook after recent fall outs with people close to you. Whether it’s a failed friendship or a romantic relationship, posting too much about the break up is unprofessional. It’s good Facebook etiquette to keep certain private things, private. When In Doubt, Message Image source Similarly, it’s a good idea to remember what belongs on someone’s wall and what should be in a message....

1. Be humble. One of the greatest lessons we can learn from the example Gandhi set is how to be humble. Although he was from a powerful family, he sat with his fellow man and led people by example, inspiring great devotion from his followers. He pushed for real change, without violence, and successfully brought in sweeping changes. Often, egos get in the way of people with power and prevent them from realizing their full potential....