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“I’ve got that summertime, summertime sadness.”

If you’re blessed—or cursed, depending on who you ask—with unusually warm weather during your summers, you know how much of a strain the heat can put on the workplace (and, in turn, productivity). We’ve been programmed since childhood to have certain expectations for those times between early June and late August. We remember fondly the days of summer vacations with the family and the generally laziness that accompanied not having school to attend. It’s only natural to think that we, as adults, continue with that same mindset. Read more

Look, if you’re going to spend a considerable amount of your day at the office, then it stands to reason that it should be a nice place. No more rows of desks and drab off-white walls surrounding you—it’s time for a change. Obviously, productivity and results come first, but who’s to say that productivity and a nice office don’t go hand in hand? Read more

If your company is of an appropriate smaller size, you might consider setting up operations in a coworking space. For those growing businesses that can no longer successfully operate in a home or coffee shop and are beginning to need more space,coworking spaces like WeWork or General Assembly offer a pleasing middle ground for you to work out of before renting dedicated commercial office space. Read more

As a business leader, you no doubt find yourself making hundreds of small decisions a day, if not plenty of larger ones as well. Each one of these decisions, however minor, takes a small bite out of your willpower to remain a productive person that day. Experiments show that your personal willpower is a renewable resource—it is totally possible to develop more of it, but if you run out, it’s hard to get that magic back. Read more

“There are no longer any great jobs where someone tells you precisely what to do.” -Seth Godin

The nature of work (and satisfaction with that work) is changing. It’s only becoming more common for people to strike it off to go do their own thing for an income, and shun the conventional idea of being someone’s employee. Another quote that touches this same concept comes from Bob Dylan, in which he says “A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.” This represents a frictionless life, and as a job often constitutes a large part of one’s life, you can bet someone doing whatever he wants all day isn’t complaining about his work. Read more

We’re continuing our rundown of the personality traits that make up a good leader. Part one is here, and without further ado, here’s part two:

Strong leaders operate from a sense of purpose. Here’s an interesting test to give yourself: would you do your current job today if you didn’t have to? If your answer is no, then it’s likely that your job hardly lines up with what you consider your “purpose.” Be sure to plumb the depths of what you think is important so that you can have fleshed-out opinions on what it is you’d rather be doing. Then go do that instead, silly. Read more

Are you calm and measured like Abraham Lincoln? Are you obsessively committed like Steve Jobs?

While it’s important to be your genuine self as much as possible, this doesn’t mean you can’t learn a lesson or two (or three or seven) from those classic leaders recognized as being the best in their fields. These are people who respond with grace under fire, who motivate and inspire those around them, and make everyone feel a little better or optimistic when the fruits of their labor take shape. Read more

You’re not making a list of things to get done each day. Your memory is never as good as you think it is. Make it a habit to write down important tasks and ideas, and build a to-do list from them. A to-do list should be the foundation of your productive day. When you can see all the tasks you know are still yet to be done, it becomes that much easier to prioritize and reassess where you are and what’s next most important. Read more

The most effective leaders are the ones who relate to people in basic, sincere terms. It’s entirely too easy to get caught up in your head about whether or not you’re an effective manager. It’s much better to instead be a genuine leader who works closely with employees and makes them feel valued. Read more