At 5 am I was lying in bed, awake, thinking. Actually, thinking is too generous a word for what I was doing. I was perseverating. I was about to buy a new bicycle, and I couldn't decide on the color. I tried to visualize the bike and imagine how I … [Read more...]

18 Minutes:
Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done."18 Minutes is an intensely smart, insanely readable, and eminently practical guide to boosting our effectiveness and deepening our satisfaction. I've already benefited from the ideas in this book in my own work. So will you." - Dan Pink, author of Drive
Named one of Publisher's Weekly Top 10 Business Books of Fall/Winter 2011
How to Start the Big Project You’ve Been Putting Off
I want to write a screenplay. I wanted to write one last year, but other work took more time than I expected, and I kept pushing "write screenplay" off my to-do list. I know I'm not alone in struggling to make incremental progress on long-term … [Read more...]
Find Your Sweet Spot–and Stay There
A young woman I know is a star. In her early thirties, she had an M.B.A. and was already running a small division of a successful fashion company. She had that rare combination of design sense and business savvy that makes a virtuoso fashion … [Read more...]
The Biggest Myth in Time Management
Brad* is as hard a worker as anyone I know. He's not just busy, he's keenly focused on getting the right things done. And it pays off — he is the largest single revenue generator at his well-known professional services firm. A few days before … [Read more...]
Keeping Resolutions: How to Focus on What’s Important: My ABC News Interview (watch past the commercial)
Do People Really Want You to Be Honest?
My wife Eleanor and I were walking up a mountain road, enjoying a rare moment of being alone together. As we rounded a bend, we saw a friend, Nancy,* not too far ahead. When we caught up with her she suggested we walk together. I've known Nancy … [Read more...]
Your Problem Isn’t Motivation
"Peter," my friend Byron emailed me a few days ago. "I haven't been diligent about working out over the past five years and I'm trying to get back in the gym and get myself into a healthier state. I've found that on my quest for a Mind, Body, Spirit … [Read more...]
The Power of Workplace Do-It-Yourself
Plural Investments*, a hedge fund started several years ago, had a problem. They needed art on the walls of their New York City offices. It was a small problem of no strategic importance, one that could be solved quickly and effortlessly by simply … [Read more...]
New York Post names “18 Minutes” a notable career book of 2011 (Virginia Backaitis)
Drawing on his popular blog for the Harvard Business Review, Bregman lays out a strategy for blocking out distractions and getting things done. The title refers to his daily prescription for time management: five minutes of computer-free time in the … [Read more...]















