Let Your Fingers Do the Walking - Breathing Space Blog

A tip worth employing: Use Google to find a topic-specific search engine, then use that engine to locate the sites that are most applicable to your needs.

Six Sacred Cows that Need to Go - Breathing Space Blog

In my books and keynote speeches, I describe six "sacred cows"of time management that need to be forsaken.

The six "sacred cows" briefly listed below represent conventional time management wisdom. In contrast to each bit of "wisdom" are Breathing Space Principles that serve as action guides.

1. Handling Paper -- Wisdom: "Handle Each Piece of Paper Once."
2. Reducing Clutter -- Wisdom: "When in Doubt, Throw it Out."
3. Being More Efficient -- Wisdom: Speed Reading, Listening, Learning.

4. Beating the Competition -- Wisdom: "Work Smarter, not Harder."
5. Managing Your Schedule -- Wisdom: Use Sophisticated Scheduling Tools.
6. Staying Informed -- Wisdom: Read Key Executive Publications.

While time management was a set of rules that worked well in a relatively finite setting, Breathing Space principles will prove to be far more effective for the ever changing multi-variable situations that executives and managers face today.

Treacherous: No Breathing Space - Breathing Space Blog

2011 Study: Sleepy doctors a liability for hospitals

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (Reuters) -- “Overworked, sleepy doctors-in-training who hit the road after work are as much a hazard as drunk drivers, a finding that could unleash a wave of lawsuits against U.S. hospitals…”

According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, "medical interns who worked shifts lasting 24 hours or more were twice as likely to be involved in serious crashes after work than doctors who put in fewer hours. Just as bartenders are now being held liable for accidents caused by drunk customers, hospitals, which routinely schedule interns to work double, triple or quadruple shifts, may soon find themselves sued for motor vehicle accidents caused by exhausted staff, one of the researchers said.”

"The medical profession should be a leader in accident prevention, yet it's requiring its medical trainees to work marathon shifts and lets them drive home in this impaired condition in which they're unfit to drive," said Harvard Medical School's Charles Czeisler, a sleep expert. "That's akin to letting someone get behind the wheel when you know they're drunk."

Despite years of research showing sleep-deprived workers are more prone to errors, the U.S. medical community has been slow to cut back on trainees' hours. The European Union has imposed a 13-hour limit on daily shifts for physicians, with some exceptions.

The Teething Phone - Breathing Space Blog

Sitting in the park, I noticed an elderly lady with a baby. I assumed it was her grandchild. The baby was mouthing on a cell phone.

At first I thought this cell phone was a toy but a closer view confirmed that was an active cell phone with a brightly lit screen. What a tremendous metaphor for these times. Here is a baby whose life is likely to be intricate linked with a cell phone, but for now, he gets to bite into it.

The Daily Bombardment - Breathing Space Blog

The average person is bombarded daily by more information than he or she can even comprehend. With each passing second on Earth more than 200 years worth of information becomes newly available, based on average human viewing, reading and listening speeds.

Each time we open another magazine, turn on the TV, visit a website, receive an email, get today's mail, and engage in any other information or communication-related activity, we are adding to the heap of information and communication that we've already acquired. The onslaught is never-ending and the potential danger is insidious.

Too many people today represent vast warehouses of uncategorized and un-assessed information. We are virtually walking “incompletion units” with so much undone, and it is taking a toll on our psyches. Whether or not we understand the phenomenon, the mental strain of living in an era of unfettered information and communication flow is considerable. We must take comprehensive steps to gain or regain control, and to be able to make effective decisions, stay competitive and productive, finish our work on time, and have a life for the rest of the day.

Too Speedy for Our Own Good? - Breathing Space Blog

Is there any real value to your already hectic life to this development:  Google Fiber shows speeds 100 times faster than regular a cable Internet. "Bypassing the local cable and phone companies, Google has spent months and an unknown amount of money pulling its own optical fiber through the two-state Kansas City region."

Costly Distractions - Breathing Space Blog

Writer Marta Vogel tells us that early man examined his food to ensure it 1) was dead and 2) had no insects. 21st century man barely looks at his food; he's fixated on the package. Corporate giants figured out that consumers could become thoroughly hooked on "package literature."

Recognizing our craving for information, advertisers offer alluring product packaging. The average cereal box contains about 2,000 words, equal to eight pages of a book. Generic products, at the same basic quality as mid-level brands, were once sold by vendors who knew that people might not buy "wordless" cardboard and risk incurring "package deprivation."

Package deprivation? It's no surprise today that most of our population -- not just kids -- wears clothes or accessories with slogans and messages on them. Attraction to labeling and package copy robs you of breathing space. Minute bits of extraneous data have a cumulative impact.

Other symptoms of information overload abound. Do you attempt to think, converse, study, or even make love with distractions? Do you go through the motions of attempting to concentrate with office noise? Do you attempt to converse while on the Web or watching TV? Do you "need" to wind down before bed time in front of a screen? You deserve a break today. Eat healthy food and have no reading material or screens in sight.