Brick wall © Les ChatfieldWhy are Projects so hard? Why do we fail here so often, even in workplaces featuring thorough planning and highly disciplined execution?

We do not fail despite, but because of these. We believe that turning a project into a success is like baking a pizza, while in fact, it resembles much more creating a pizza recipe.

Why? In our projects, we're not into producing identical results from identical ingredients. Every project is unique - it is like research & development, not like production. In R & D, diversity of results is what we strive for. In production, diversity is our worst enemy. We should be aware of this, however, we're making the same 4 mistakes, over and over again:  » Read more

Cyril the squirrel up for a challenge © Brian SnelsonYou've been there, I bet! There's a problem that just refuses to be solved. As a matter of fact, your workarounds didn't really «work around» that problem. Sometimes, you're able to find a solution like a service or a product that will do the job. Alas, all of a sudden, the service or the product gets discontinued. Even worse: vendors and providers decide to split it up, into Scylla and Charybdis, oops: Classic and Premium. You've experienced the consequences: endless footnotes attached to suspiciously low prices, imposing limitation after limitation on you. All of that fine print tortures first your eyesight and in the second place your patience. Say goodbye to comparing offers and prices…

On this blog, I'm into discovering and describing timeless solutions for self-development problems. I've got some questions for you:

• What are your timeless self-development and organization problems?
• Did some solutions turn out to be Pyrrhic victories?
• What is your toughest nut to crack, that obnoxious problem you'd like to see covered by a blog posting, here?

Please answer in a comment - I'll pick the toughest challenges and turn them into postings on this blog!

No Entry sign 1 © Melodi TSaying No isn't as destructive as you may think. Actually, saying No means you've already said Yes to something else. By saying No, we're setting limits, to protect that something. But even when you're willing to protect your interests: for many people, No (not Sorry) seems to be the hardest word.

So you finally said No… and … oh my, somebody becomes manipulative and tries to undermine your decision. It's time to act in self-defense. Below, you'll find a toolbox for self assertion (not a weapons' arsenal, though): If you learn to set limits, how to stay polite and still get respect, you'll not just feel better but actually develop your self further. Plus, you'll gain more time for your interests. Let's have a look at 22 proven strategies how to say No:  » Read more

Wikipedia summarizes the Pareto Principle like this:

The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, 80% of the effects comes from 20% of the causes.

To some people, this seems to suggest:

20% efforts => 80, 90, 99% results! WOW!

It is easy to fool yourself into believing all that matters were those 20%. Once you believe that, however, the Pareto Principle becomes kind of a voodoo ritual:  » Read more

Isn't Getting Things Done (GTD) easy? Whether you're at home, in the office, on the phone - in every context, you pull out the respective list of next actions, pick one and…

…then you ponder what exactly you wanted yourself to do now. Obviously, the note wasn't as precise as you had imagined. What went wrong? Why is it so difficult to  » Read more