This week we’ll talk about doing a meaningful reset as we head into the last quarter of the year and the coming holiday season. This year has gone fast! But there's still time to reflect on what's gone well, what needs improvement, and what you'd like to accomplish next year We are now into the 4th quarter of the year with just 3 months left of this year. The holidays are approaching quickly. This is a good time to do a reset and get ready to make the most of the last three months...

This week's episode is a refresher on the causes and effects of stress, as well as some techniques for minimizing its negative impact on our lives and our productivity. Stress is inevitable these days, but we can take steps to minimize its disruption of our daily lives or productivity Lately I’ve been feeling the effects of stress brought on by various personal and work situations, and I’ve been hearing from other women who’ve mentioned the same, especially as, here in the US, the...

This week we’re talking about evaluating the relative importance of quality versus quantity in various areas of our productive lives.   Which is better: quality or quantity? It depends on what our priorities are. Centuries ago, Seneca the Younger advised that “The wise man will always reflect concerning the quality, not the quantity, of life.”  According to one dictionary, "quality" means the degree of excellence of something. Quality is subjective, though. As we talk about...

There are many reasons why we put off doing certain things, and many times those reasons seem to make sense. This week I'm encouraging us all to rethink those reasons, and suggesting that maybe we don't wait. My advice this week to us all: don't wait But first: Follow-up from last week Last week I shared some questions we could ask ourselves regularly to boost our productivity. After I published the episode, I thought of another good question that I’ve been asking myself, and...

We can improve our productivity by asking the right questions of ourselves. What are some productive questions you can ask yourself? This week when searching for something on the internet, I came across a post called “The Power of Asking Yourself Questions.” The article itself is behind a paywall, so I couldn’t read the whole thing, but the “teaser” on the home page caught my attention. The writer said, “Humans have an incredible capacity to reflect on their own self--their...

This week I’m sharing 8 books I recommend and why I think they’re worth reading.   Sharing books I recommend, because as part of our lifelong learning and growth, reading can help us be the best, most productive version of ourselves I mentioned last week the idea that many successful people recommend setting aside an hour a day (or 5 hours a week) for learning. Lifelong learning is an important component of a meaningfully productive life. Whether learning about a job-specific...

This week we’ll talk about evaluating our personal productivity system to make sure it’s still working for us.   We as individuals change over time and so do our productivity needs Recently we talked about steps to take as we transition into the new school year or new season. One other thing we can do as we’re making that transition into fall (for those of us in the northern hemisphere) is to take a big-picture look at our personal productivity system, evaluating how it’s working...

Being a productive woman does not mean doing all the things all the time. This week we’ll talk about doing it all versus doing enough. What if doing it all is wearing us down? One thing I worry about sometimes in hosting a podcast about productivity is whether I’m contributing to something a lot of us as women struggle with, which is the feeling that to be productive women we have to be doing all the things, all the time. Even though we often talk about productivity being more than...

Whether or not you are in school -- or have kids who are -- the beginning of a new school year feels like a transition time to many of us. Let's talk about ways to prepare and plan to make that transition as smooth and stress-free as possible. Seasonal changes can be stressful and hectic, but proper planning can help ensure a smooth transition For a lot of us, summer is a more unstructured season. School is out of session, and longer days and warmer weather invite outdoor activities...

This week I’m sharing some of my favorite productivity advice and tools and how I use them to make the most of my time. Sharing favorite productivity advice and tools can help us all be more productive! This week I got to thinking about all the things I’ve heard and learned over the years of being a productivity nerd. Somebody asked me recently what’s the most important productivity advice or concept that I would share. If I had to boil it down to just the essentials, what would it...

This week we're discussing common productivity advice that might or might not work for you and ideas for how you can modify it to meet your needs. Even the best productivity advice doesn't work for everyone--but most can be adapted to work for you There's a lot of productivity advice out there, some of it good, some of it questionable. Whatever the source, each of us needs to evaluate any advice, tips, tools, etc., in light of her own life and priorities. Nothing works for...

No matter how much we love our life, sometimes our commitments and obligations (and our thoughts) can weigh us down. This week we're considering ways we can lighten our load and make our days more manageable and enjoyable. When our life feels burdensome, lightening the load can be a matter of a few intentional choices Even when we’re making a life we love, the day-to-day can sometimes feel like a burden--too much to do; too high expectations (of ourselves and of others, by ourselves...

This week features the next installment in our recurring “Productive Reading” series, this time talking about key takeaways from Life Makeover, written by longtime Houston television news anchor Dominique Sachse. Productive reading: It's never too late to make a bold move (or 2) order to make our life more meaningful This week we are continuing our Productive Reading recurring series. In the past, we’ve talked about the lessons and key takeaways I found in books such as Gary...

This week we discuss the importance of taking time for an effective mid-year review and how it can benefit us throughout the rest of 2022. July is a good time to take stock of our goals and how we are doing so far in 2022 Believe it or not, we’ve passed the halfway mark of 2022. Time feels like it’s flying by. We've just passed the summer solstice for those of us in the northern hemisphere; it’s summer-hot here in Texas. For our friends in the southern hemisphere, it’s wintertime. I...

A key component of making a life that matters is taking action in small ways in our home, our workplace, and our local community. This week we discuss ways we can give back and make a difference in the lives of others. Giving back to others can make a big difference in their lives and can change our lives for the better too In the TPW community, we often talk about making a life that matters, and what that means for each of us. To me, part of a life that matters--a meaningfully...

Planning is an important part of a productive life and a frequent topic of discussion on this podcast. This week, though, we’ll talk about another perspective on living a meaningfully productive life.   Planning matters, but sometimes you just have to do the next thing It's hard for me to fathom that I’ve reached episode 400 of this podcast. That's 400 times I’ve sat down to plan, outline, record, and publish my thoughts about productivity and a meaningful life, or talked with...

This week we're looking at ways to break up the monotony of our everyday routines, reframe our thinking, and develop new ways of making each day something we look forward to. Re-engaging our minds and looking at our routines differently can help us get past monotony and improve our productivity As I was making the bed the other morning I started thinking about the fact that I do it every day, exactly the same way. That led me to thoughts about how much of my day consists of...

This week we discuss ways we can use our time productively and make more time for what matters most. Making the best use of our time can help to increase productivity, reduce stress, and challenge our minds Time management is a traditional component of how we think about productivity. Although we can’t “manage” time in the sense of creating more of it or banking it or moving it around, we can manage how we use our time--what we do with the 24 hours we have in each day--and we can...

In this week's episode of The Productive Woman, we talk about a way we can use words to refocus our thinking in more productive directions--by developing personal mantras. Having personal mantras can help us get through the tougher days and also increase our productivity In last week's episode we discussed manifestos for a life that matters and this week we're talking about mantras. Specifically, devoloping mantra's for personal productivity. What is a mantra?  ...

This week I'm sharing some things I believe with respect to living a meaningfully productive life--a life that matters as I define it. The productive exercise of creating a manifesto for making a life that matters A manifesto is defined as “a public declaration of policy and aims”. It's most often used in the context of organizations or even political campaigns. For me, this is a statement of some of the things I believe are crucial components of a life that matters.  Notice that...

What do we do when life feels monotonous and predictable and our work becomes drudgery? This week we talk about ways to re-inspire yourself, perk things up a bit, and reapproach your life with renewed interest and enthusiasm. Life may not always be fun but there are things we can do to renew our energy and enthusiasm Nothing is fun all the time. Even when everything about our life is just the way we want it to be, life can begin to feel like a monotonous, repetitive cycle: Get up,...

There are a lot of lessons we can learn from all the different women in our lives. This week I'm sharing a few lessons I've learned from my own daughters and how they've changed my perspective on life.   We can learn from our daughters (and other women in our lives) about qualities needed to make a life that matters Lately, I've been thinking about the lessons I’ve learned from my adult daughters about the qualities that contribute to making a life that matters. I wanted to take...

We all have the same amount of hours in the day and the right to choose what to do with our time. But the results of our choices determine how productive we are. This week we're considering some important productivity-related numbers. Considering productivity by the numbers This week I've been thinking about important numbers when it comes to productivity, whether we're talking about getting things done or making a life that matters. I did a bit of research and thought I'd share...

Unexpected disruptions can have a big effect on our routine and schedule, but we can adjust without sacrificing our health or productivity. This week we talk about how to manage life when an unexpected monkey wrench is thrown into your routines. Give yourself some grace when life throws a monkey wrench into your plans When you care about being productive, when you take the time to plan, to organize, and to develop, on purpose, routines that work for you, it can be discouraging when...

It can be challenging to keep track of everything that needs to get done. This week we look at ways to create a practical and realistic to-do list that works for you and helps you manage your busy life. How can we make our to-do list function well? This week we’re talking about creating a to-do list that works for us. I was inspired to think about this topic from a chapter in Laura Vanderkam’s book, The New Corner Office), which I listened to during a long drive last week.  A...