1. Look at problems as challenges
2. Get up 15 minutes early
3. Avoid negative people
4. Prepare for your morning the night before
5. Use time wisely
6. Don’t worry about the things you cannot control
7. Reduce your caffeine intake
8. Unclutter your life
9. Smile more often
10. Anticipate your day
11. Talk to someone who is always positive
12. Set goals for yourself
13. Practice breathing slowly
14. Listen to classical music
15. Take a bath
16. Exercise
17. Become a better listener
18. Take a different route to work
19. Keep a journal
20. Get enough sleep
21. Praise people around you

There are a lot of people who are great at “activity,” but you need to reward and focus on productivity. ‘Activity’ doesn’t build a multimillion dollar business, close the sale on the next big contract, or create a killer website. Focus your efforts on improving productivity and quit being so concerned about the hours someone puts in. Are the hours paying off?

1. Be nice to people
2. Create your own luck
3. Look for the silver lining
4. Be original
5. Be grateful to the people you interact with
6. Be gracious
7. Do something new
8. Affirm yourself
9. Believe in yourself
10. Don’t just be good – be OUTSTANDING
11. Have a sense of humor
12. Be humble
13. Be accessible and communicate
14. Compliment people
15. Be a listener
16. Don’t accept “good enough”
17. Have integrity
18. Be full of energy
19. Think big: aim for the stars
20. Don’t give up
21. Take time to relax
22. Instill confidence in those around you
23. Read books from successful people
24. Enjoy the journey
25. DO NOT EVER GIVE UP
26. Find a mentor
27. Send gifts to people
28. Ask for what you want from people
29. Hold people accountable
30. Know when it’s time to shut up
31. Learn how to deliver a great speech
32. Have patience
33. Help someone out

• Your kids
• A new business
• Time with your mate
• Volunteering

Turn off your TV and find some time to spend engaged in your life, not some celebrity’s.

- Edwin Land (inventor of instant photography)

This post was submitted by Jennica.

I had a professor in MBA school frequently say, “the market can remain illogical longer than you can remain solvent.” Things in your company can remain illogical longer than you can remain in the firm.

Once you understand that there are those around you who are smarter than you and learn how to work well with them, you will be quite successful at what you do.

This post was submitted by Jeremy Reis.

1) Create a few folders:

• @Action – Used to put emails that require a timely response
• @Someday – Used to put emails that require your attention, but timing is not an issue
• @Follow Up – You put emails here that you’ve replied to, but it requires that you follow up with someone about the status of the email
• Archive – This is where all of your processed email will reside. When it’s here, you’re done.

2) Survey your inbox and look for emails that you know require a response. Don’t forget to separate them into what kind of response is required. Drag those into your @Action, @Someday or @Follow Up folders so you can process them later.

3) All emails that remain, select them all and move them to your Archive folder.

Now, if you have a lot of emails in your inbox, this is sure to bring a certain level of anxiety—of which will probably make you second guess if you can really do this. You can. If you need to recall a particular email, that’s what your email programs search function is for. Get to know it because it will be your friend.

If you’re one of those people who has a 100 different folders—one for each client, project, person, idea, thought, receipt, etc., I highly recommend that you rid of them all and focus your efforts on using the Archive folder. Why? What makes this system work is your ability to trust your own system. If you can’t remember what folder it’s in, then how will you find it? Sure, you can use your email search function, but then why have the extra folders to comb through? Throw all processed email into your Archive folder and be done with it. Trust me on this one. It’s theraputic.

Now that you have cleaned out your inbox, take a moment to enjoy the mental relief. Go on. Sit back. Take a screenshot and TwitPic it to your friends, family…even your mom would love to see what you accomplished.

The beauty of this system is that you know exactly where the emails are that require your response and when so your worry of missing an email are gone. You will be amazed at how much mental energy will be freed up because of zero-inbox.

Before I go, here are some keys to remember:

• Your inbox is a place to process and sort email. It’s not where you store it.
• When an email comes in, if you can reply in under two minutes, do it immediately. If not, sort it.
• Empty your inbox every day. Yes, that means that when you shut down for the day, your inbox is empty.
• Set aside one day a week to go through your @Someday and @Follow Up folders to make sure out-dated items aren’t piling up. In doing this, you’ll be surprised at how on top of things you’ll feel.
• DON’T GIVE UP! Even if you get behind, spend an hour and process your inbox accordingly.

Bonus: If you keep email open all day long, that’s what you’ll do all day long. In my experience, when you process offline, you stop the leak of new emails which gives you the time to focus on the emails sitting in your @Action and @Someday folders.

Visit KyleChowning.com to learn how to eliminate to-do list anxiety.

This post was submitted by Kyle Chowning.

This saying works well for everything you do. When you must absolutely, absolutely have it right, always check everything multiple times before committing.

By most measures, Tom’s mistake was a costly one. However, even in small projects, doing it right will cost less than doing the project over. When you are working on a project and what appears to be a small issue can just be glossed over, fight the urge to hide the error and make sure it’s done right.