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Gallup conducted a workplace poll revealing that twenty percent of employees put in more than sixty hours a week, and nearly fifty percent of employees clock in at least fifty hours. Hooray. Americans are finally number one at something again. And yet, multiple psychological studies have shown that humans can only concentrate for about half of that amount of time, and only do real work for about a third…

Anytime we start complaining about something we can’t control, unhappiness awaits. But anytime we start weighing our options about the things we can control, empowerment ensues. Here’s an example that everyone should be able relate to: Have you ever listened to someone bemoan the price of gas, or the cost of the ticket for their daily commute? If so, did that ever improve their situation? Of course not. Because…

There’s a concept in the conservation world called the waste hierarchy. It’s the order of priority of actions to be taken to reduce the amount of waste generated, and to improve overall waste management processes and programs. You’ve probably heard it before. Reduce, reuse, recycle. This concept first poked its head out of the trash pile and seeped into the cultural consciousness in the early seventies. Vietnam caused citizens…

An allergy is a hypersensitivity to a specific substance. It’s a condition in where body’s immune system reacts abnormally to a foreign element, resulting in everything from hives to rashes to headaches to difficulty breathing. As someone who’s been allergic to cats, dogs, ragweed and dust for his whole life, this ain’t no joke. Allergies can be debilitating. Quick history lesson, the word allergy has been around only since…

According to the standard classification of mental disorders used by health professionals, workaholism is not included as a nonsubstance addiction. This distinction provoked a simmering debate in the therapeutic community. There are scores of mental health professionals and civilians alike who don’t recognize it as a problem. Because to them, workaholism no different than, say, caffeine addiction. In my opinion, the problem is that people are asking the wrong…

Think about how long most people hold onto the residue of negative or even mediocre experience. They prosecute themselves for crimes past and preoccupy themselves with next time, thinking about how it’s going to be different. Both of these ruminations cheat them out of the present moment, which is the only place joy and meaning are available. Take lunch at work. You grab a crappy sandwich and bring it…

Hypnotists, magicians and persuasion experts teach us that a confused person is in a trance of their own making. When someone can’t quite figure something out, their brain’s need for closure and resolution creates an activated expectation. That makes them much more suggestible without resistance, which explains all that dancing around like a chicken on a stage in front of thousands of strangers. But although the state of momentary…

Herding cats is a management term people use to describe the futile attempt to control and organize a class of entities which are inherently uncontrollable. The earliest available reference of this idiom dates back to an article about a software design company from the eighties. The phrase later popped up in the nineties in reference to dealing with writers, and has since become a catchall for managing anyone with a fiercely…

Mold on the walls is unsightly. Black and green spots don’t exactly make for a beautiful home. However, painting over that mold is not a viable solution. Sure, party guests won’t notice over the weekend. But although paint may hide the ugly signs of a mold outbreak cheaply and quickly, it won’t remediate our problem. Even if we buy several cans of that fancy water based fungicidal protective coating,…

It’s one thing to have a burning desire for individuality, but it’s another thing to have an insatiable need for an audience to applaud it. This is perhaps the most egregious emotional mistake we make at work. Unrealistically expecting recognition of our success from others. Because when we build our sense of security and value in finding acceptance and approval externally, we are setting ourselves up for disappointment and…