In 2012, I got addicted to swiping to-dos off the super-minimalist Clear app, and when I got lazy about doing the stuff on it, imposed a 50/10 rule on myself. Tell us about the productivity hacks that you’ll be trying out in the New Year, and check out these (totally manageable!) tips from other successful, super-productive members of the Fast Company community here:

Keep Email From Crushing You With “OHIO”  That stands for “only handle it once”--a technique that’s espoused by productivity expert Bob Pozen and practiced by Huge CEO and Fast Company contributor Aaron Shapiro.

“No ‘I’ll respond later’ is allowed,” Shapiro says. “Responding later means you take three times longer to get through your email than taking care of it the first time, because responding later means you have to waste time finding and rereading that email... or even worse, the time wasted reminding yourself over and over to get to that message.” Full Story »

While playing the piano, meeting friends for a soccer game, and chopping wood could be spontaneous activities, for the busiest people, you have to make an appointment to go off the grid as surely as to go on it. If you have a three-year-old, for instance, and you wish to chop wood, you need to make sure someone else is dealing with the child so he doesn’t decide to “help” you. That requires thinking through your plan for the day and communicating it with your partner or someone else who might watch the child, or even just sticking him in front of the TV so he doesn’t stick himself anywhere near the axe. Playing the piano for hours means making a commitment not to call an equally busy client or look over endless project plans at that time. Eating dinner somewhere lovely often requires a reservation. Any parent knows it’s near impossible to get a Saturday night sitter on Saturday. Going to worship services often requires getting up and getting dressed at a certain time. Failing to think through what you wish to do on the weekend may make you succumb to the “I’m tired” excuse that keeps you locked in the house and not doing anything meaningful within it--even though we draw energy from meaningful things.

And so we come to the insight on weekends that I find people resist: a good weekend needs a plan. Not a minute-by-minute plan, not a spreadsheet full of details, but just a few fun anchor events sketched in ahead of time. Indeed, some research is finding that skipping the planning stage means cutting yourself off from the major mechanism via which weekends can deliver joy. Full Story »

This past weekend I had the opportunity to speak with my friend Mike Del Ponte, who resembles the character of Joe. Today he launches a Kickstarter campaign for his company Soma, which aims to revolutionize the water industry using sustainable design. (It’s awesome. Check it out.) Surprised by how cool, calm, and collected Mike was so close to launch, I asked him what his secret is.

“Every day I need physical energy, mental clarity, and emotional balance to tackle everything that comes my way,” Mike said. “Self-care is the secret to performing at the highest level.”

Here are the six simple rituals he uses to perform at his highest, which you too can begin implementing right away:

1. Drink a glass of water when you wake up. Your body loses water while you sleep, so you’re naturally dehydrated in the morning. A glass of water when you wake helps start your day fresh. When do you drink your first glass of water each day? Full Story »

The Cape Times, a newspaper in South Africa, demonstrates how close it is to the news as it happens, by showing the only way you could be closer.

Taking a self-picture, or in the regrettable parlance of our times, selfie, removes all distance between the subject and the person capturing it. It might not be the most obvious premise for a brand promise, but that’s where we are. In the same way that cameras couldn’t possibly get any closer to the sailor kissing his best girl on V-J Day unless he was snapping the picture himself, The Cape Times couldn’t be any closer to the news unless they were making it. (Actual physical proximity may vary.)

Created by agency Lowe Cape Town, the ads put a funny modern spin on visual history. Have a look through them all in the slide show above. Full Story »

Facebook & Too Many Meetings Top the List of Employee Time-Wasters

A Facebook status update here, a Tweet there and finding that perfect dinner recipe on Pinterest. In this day and age most jobs require a computer, most computers have the Internet and distractions to workers are plentiful. But how much time do employees waste visiting personal websites that aren’t work-related during the day? And on a more philosophical note, should that really be considered a “waste” of time?

We surveyed more than 3,200 people from February to March 2012 to find out.

In this era of constant connectivity, the Internet is forever at our disposal via laptops, smartphones and tablets. Ideally, that’s fantastic news for employers because employees can take their work with them wherever they go. But the flip side is the constant temptation to slack off. Of the people we surveyed, 64 percent said they visit non-work related websites every day during work hours. However, that number is down nearly 10 percent from the last time we conducted this survey in 2008. With so many jobs lost in the last four years, it’s likely employees have less time to waste because they’re spending more time on their added job responsibilities. Full Article »

It’s hard to believe, but George Jetson, his boy Elroy, daughter Judy, Jane, his wife -- and Astro, everyone’s favorite space dog -- are now 50 years old.

The show was futuristic in its own right: When it bowed in the early 60’s, it was the first color show to ever air on ABC. But it was the quirky technological advances that the Hanna Barbera show imagined human beings using -- from robot maids to flying cars -- that really formed the backdrop of the show and kept viewers interested.

In honor of The Jetsons’ 50th anniversary, we decided to take a look to see how far we’ve come. And based on where we are so far, by 2062, the year the show is set in, we may just achieve all that the show’s writers envisioned and then some. One thing that’s massively important to us today and wasn’t reflected that way on the show is our powerful mobile phone technology and the importance to us of how small those devices have become, as well as what they permit -- constant access to the internet (not conceived back then) and a variety of useful apps. Full Article »

Business may be all about money, but the currency that’s traded inside every organization is respect. If you command respect, people listen when you talk and take action when asked. If you don’t command respect, well, everyone’s just laughing behind your back. Contrary to popular belief, a fancy job title never commands respect. In fact, there are six, and only six, ways to earn respect:

1. Be Authentic

People will not respect you when they know you’re pretending to be somebody or something you’re not. Human beings have a natural ability to detect fakery and see fakers as untrustworthy, insecure, and ultimately insignificant. On the other hand, humans are always drawn to individuals who truly are what they seem to be. Being yourself (and at your best) is therefore the foundation for earning respect. Full Article »

A post on Bodyform’s Facebook page led to this funny response video. A marketing move that smartly uses social media as the conversation starter.

Amusing never fails in advertising, since we all love to be entertained. The question is--will someone use the site to book travel after seeing it?

In an article for October’s Vanity Fair, author Michael Lewis explored some of these behind-the-scenes details of President Obama’s daily life. To prepare for the article, Lewis spent six months in close company of the president — playing in his high-energy basketball games, sitting up front in Air Force One, and chatting with him whenever the president had a free moment.

There was one particular question that Lewis asked repeatedly of President Obama. Lewis presented the president with the following scenario: “Assume that in thirty minutes you will stop being president. I will take your place. Prepare me. Teach me how to be president.”

The president first touted the necessity of daily exercise — a habit that I endorse wholeheartedly. But what he said next was even more interesting: “You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.” Full Article »

IN December 2008, Georgette Kaplan and her two daughters, Stephanie and Jamie, felt as if they were receiving a wonderful holiday gift.

Products from their personal-care company, Ms. & Mrs., were going to be showcased on “The View,” the ABC talk show, as part of its seasonal gift guide. Giddy with anticipation, the women huddled around a television in their Chicago office on the day of the broadcast as heavy snow fell outside.

Then it happened: their company, which makes cleverly packaged items like the Shemergency Kit, a brightly colored pouch containing breath freshener, earring backs, blotting tissues and other “emergency essentials” — was misidentified as Mr. & Mrs. on national television.  

“It was kind of like, ‘Ugh,’ ” said Stephanie Kaplan, the company’s creative director. “It was one of those moments when you realize, ‘Wow, this is really a problem.’ ” Full Article »

When Joel Simkhai came out of the closet at age 18, he was worried about what kind of professional future he could have as an openly gay man.

“One of my problems was I thought I couldn’t be as successful,” Simkhai says. “That’s partially because I didn’t have any gay role models who were very successful and in high-profile jobs.”

Now, as founder and CEO of the location-based gay social network, Grindr, which has more than 4 million users in 192 countries, Simkhai has become the very example of success that he says he never had.

The fact is: Sexuality remains a sensitive subject in big corporate environments, especially among C-suite executives. Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that there’s not a single openly gay CEO on the Fortune 1000 list. Even those who are widely reported to be gay, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, have never publicly admitted it, a phenomenon often referred to as “the glass closet.” Full Article »

Are you a night owl? If so, you’re probably less happy and less productive than morning people.

In a recent study published in the American Psychological Association journal Emotion finds that “larks”—people who wake up early—have a more positive affect than “owls”--those who prefer staying up late at night. Additionally, the study revealed that morning people reported feeling healthier than night owls. Full Article »

In the months before a US Presidential election, the quality of political discourse hits new lows. Blue State/Red State tropes dominate the news cycle as the media gins up outrage over perceived injustices in the culture wars. It’s all about our differences. So I started wondering, how do Americans really think about “those people” in other states? What are the most common stereotypes? For each of the fifty states and DC, I asked Google: “Why is [State] so ” and let it autocomplete. It seemed like an ideal question to get at popular assumptions, since “Why is [State] so X?” presupposes that X is true. Full Article »

You’re ambitious, hardworking and smart. Your resume is polished, your cover letter is relevant and you’re networking. Yet, you’re still getting rejected from every job you apply for. Sound familiar? If so, you may be ignoring one of these unwritten rules of job searching.

1. Be organized  Use a label for all job-search-related emails. Use a program like SpringPad or Excel to track all the positions and organizations you’re interested in, all the resources you use and all the people you meet with. You can also get extra fancy and track other data such as date of application, date of interview and related contacts. Full Article »

Sounds Invisible to Me Design is all around us—from the clothes in our closets to the cities where we live and work—and some of the most interesting design stories around are being told on the amazing podcast 99% Invisible, which you can download on iTunes or at 99percentinvisible. Join host Roman Mars as he explores topics from great architectural failures (Bridges collapsing! Grandly conceived public spaces degrading into drug dens!) to intriguing creations (Monks crafting the world’s most desired beer! An invisible piece of statuary!) and much, much more.

August Experiments Each year, as September draws near, Paul Hagen becomes shockingly aware that he is about to be another year older. He usually attempts to ameliorate this by signing up for a bunch of projects that will make him feel he has accomplished something wild, weird or wonderful in the past year and this year is no exception. So, as part of the 31 Plays in 31 Days project, he’ll be writing a short play every day in August (or, potentially, 31 short plays on the last day of August). You, too, can join this ambitious project by visiting 31plays31days.com or follow Paul’s progress has he blogs about it at worldofhagen.wordpress. Or, if you’re in the New York area, on August 18 from 3:00 to 4:45pm, Paul will be participating in a “happening” called Write Out Front, in which playwrights write in the front window of the NYC’s famed Drama Book Shop with a live feed of their computer screens visible to passersby on the street. See writers of various levels of fame and misfortune take their turn from 11am to 7pm, Monday through Saturday from August 13th through September 1. More info at theaterspeak.blogspot.

Toronto’s Treasures August is your last chance to see Picasso: Treasures from the Musée National Picasso in North America, and it’s at the Art Gallery Ontario in Toronto. While you’re in town, take a day trip to see Niagara Falls, have a meal in a rotating restaurant atop one of the world’s tallest structures, go crazy snapping pictures at the Bata Shoe Museum, enjoy the variety of cuisines in the city rich with world cultures and visit the city’s famous Gay Village, which estimates that this year it surpassed San Francisco to host the world’s largest gay pride parade.

Much of the debate over legalizing gay marriage has focused on God and Scripture, the Constitution and equal protection.

But we see the world through the prism of money. And for years, we’ve heard from gay couples about all the extra health, legal and other costs they bear. So we set out to determine what they were and to come up with a round number—a couple’s lifetime cost of being gay. Full Article »