We are surrounded by opportunitis of how to use our time: watch TV, read, go for a walk, check social media, exercise, meet people, call people, engaging in some hobby, and the same number of options in our working life. This makes it hard to concentrate on a task and to finish longterm activities. Therefore a common advice is to avoid distractions.

Apart from the problem that this can be difficult, it may not even be the ultimate solution. This video discusses why constant avoidance of distractions is also a burden to our brain and how a mixed strategy that does allow distractions is more beneficial.

It seems to be a trend among time management coaches to decry time management tools such as to-do lists. When I start a discussion, they usually backtrack into an argument of well, if you use it correctly, the tool works, of course. Isn't that true for any tool? This video discusses some arguments that are often raised against to-do lists and why they don't hold.

Time management usually focuses on efficiency, how to get as much done as possible. But there are many things that we do without trying to achieve a result, we just do them because we enjoy them. Observing the difference between doing something versus getting something done, has at least two implications for time management: 1) we can make most tasks more enjoyable by focusing on the process rather than the result, 2) we should recognize the things we just do as just as important as those we get done and allocate time for them.

Wouldn't it be nice to have…
Can't we solve this wie AI?

Wishful thinking is a widespread disease among leaders, but in fact, all of us are doing it to some degree. We want everything and don't even know what we want.

This leads to stress, overwhelm, the feeling of not getting anything done.

Malicious people cause harm. But those are rare. Dreamers are abundant and they cause at least as much suffering.

This video discusses why uncontrolled whishful thinking causes harm and how you can deal with it as a decision-maker or as a victim.

A classical tip to boost creativity is to change your perspective. But what exactly does that mean? What is a perspective and how can you change it?

When we have to many things on our to-do list, a change of perspective helps as well. We have to get an overview and make choices.

This video shows how todoListo allows you to change your perspective quickly to better understand your own priorities, which will lead to more clarity and to achieving tasks, so that you can be proud of yourself at the end of each day.

Often we don't feel like starting on a task. This video analyzes three reasons, why we find it often hard to rouse ourselves. And once you become aware of those reasons, it becomes easier to counteract them and to find your way back into a smooth workflow.

At the end of a working day, we are often still deep in some task. By default, many people just work on to finish their task. But that comes with a cost: we sacrifice the time we spend with our families, with ourselves and that we need for self-care and regeneration of our body and mind. This video provides tips on how to avoid overtime work of unfinished tasks, even opening the way for better results by taking a well-deserved break.

When we take on a new task or job, we often tend to be cautious in approaching it. Unfortunately, this reaction is a recipe for failure. Only when we give it our all, can we hope to excel. This video discusses why you should always go for it and how you can train yourself to avoid the all-too-natural reaction of backing up.

todoListo is primarily made for managing tasks. Being able to store extensive notes on tasks, is one of its cool features. In this video you will see how you can even use todoListo as a simple note-taking tool that allows you to access your notes from different devices.

When we are overwhelmed by all our repsonsibilities, we get the well-meant (but useless) advice to do less. The problem is not the insight to do less, but the question of what exactly to omit. This video discusses why a naive just do less doesn't help and provides some real advice of how to deal with too much workload.

People are coming to us with tasks and errands that they want us to do for them (it may even be their job to do this). This becomes a problem when the requests are more then we can achieve in our available time. In this video I give you one simple question that will directly reduce your workload without offending anyone.

You may have found yourself in situations when you felt a lack of time, money, success or other parameters. This video offers a thought experiment to turn the situation around: what if you had a lot of time, money, success or whichever parameter your are low on? Would that really be perfect happiness? The video is intended to let you think about, explore, and help dealing with difficult situations.

As a celebration of todoListo's first and third birthday, I take a look back at the development of todoListo and how it helped to create itself. The categories in todoListo are my main tool to organize my priorities and they reflect the different phases of the software development process. Join me on a little time travel and learn how you can achieve your goals by knowing your priorities and staying focussed.

At first glance, checklists and todo-lists seem to be the same thing: a list of items with boxes to check. But their use cases and the way they are developed and maintained differ fundamentally. Only if you are conscious about the type of list you are creating or using, you can choose the most appropriate tools and design the lists in a way that they fulfill their purpose. This video explains the difference between check lists and to-do lists and provides tips about how to create and use them.

We all want to achieve many things in a short time, while delivering high-quality results. Unfortunately, perfectionism and efficiency don't go well together. Advice like the 80/20 rule or time boxing sounds good, but it doesn't really help. In this video you will learn how to get both: impressive results without wasting time. The trick is to change your way of working during the creation process. With some practice, this will improve your results and your time management.

Pondering is a normal process, but sometimes it becomes too much. In this video we ponder together about what is happening in the brain when we are pondering. It also contains some ideas about how to deal with pondering, but the main point is the curiosity about our thought processes.

We often deprive ourselves of the joy of work by concentrating too much on the result and our own efficiency. At the end of the day, we should invest our life energy into things that bring us a maximum of joy. In many cases all we have to do is to become aware of what makes a task interesting so that we can enjoy work rather than seeing it as a necessary evil. And this awareness also helps us to prioritize our tasks, so that we take the time for things that are important to us.

Change is a normal part of life. Still we are often stressed by changes. In this video we discuss the implications of change for our brain to help you figure our your personal strategy for dealing with change.

A common promise of book authors or to-do list tools is that you can achieve anything. But this is not true. A day has 24 hours and no matter how efficiently we work, there is always a limit. In this video we discuss how you can use this limitation to your advantage, being more conscious about how you spend your time and enjoying those activities more.

A team can achieve more than each member alone. But is that always true? Sometimes we spend more time in meetings than on doing the actual work. But there are also areas where teamwork does lead to outstanding results. One such example is dancing. In this video we look at what we can take from dancing to improve teamwork in an everyday work setting.

Many software tools offer collaboration features, such as content sharing, collaborative editing or commenting. This has obvious benefits for team work such as everybody being informed and adding their points of view. But it also has downsides. To work efficiently with such tools, a team should be clear about the mode of working, the rules of interaction and the individual responsibilities. And I recommend to supplement team tools with individual tools. We discuss the example of task management on a team level and an individual level.

Deadlines are a tool for collaboration, helping us to plan our work. But many people are stressed by deadlines and find it hard to deliver on time. This video discusses why it is not always easy to meet deadlines and how you can organize yourself in a way that you will always be recognized as a reliable collaborator. It also includes tips of when to break deadlines deliberately.

Many people are afraid to forget things in our complex world. Reminders and notifications are a way to reduce cognitive load and provide peace of mind. But they also have downsides: they can be a significant distraction. This video discusses digital notifications and less intrusive alternatives of how not to forget, while keeping control over one's attention.

Have you ever struggled with a new task, not even knowing where to start? You are not alone. Many people (and organizations) can easily imagine a bright future at the end of a project, but they often don't know how to start. This video explains why the first step is so important and gives tips of how to find it.

Do you know this feeling on Sunday evening being almost glad that the stressful weekend is over and you can get back to the more relaxed work week? What is the difference between work and leisure? Is it the fun? Is it getting paid? And what are the implications of defining something as work or leisure? At the end of the day, we want to be happy and healthy. Thinking about work, leisure and how we allocate our time can help to reduce stress and to make us more conscious of what we want from life.

Vor allem am Jahresanfang setzen wir uns gern Ziele, egal ob persönliche oder im Rahmen von Organisationen: Abnehmen, mehr Sport machen, eine Sprache lernen, ein Buch schreiben, den Gewinn steigern, die Mitarbeiterbindung erhöhen, den Marktanteil steigern oder das Produktportfolio vereinfachen. Das Internet ist voll von Tipps wie man Ziele als Sollzustände formuliert. Bei genauerem Hinsehen muss man feststellen, dass derartige Ziele im echten Leben nicht funktionieren können. In diesem Video betrachten wir verschiedene Varianten wie man Ziele setzen kann. Der Hauptfehler bei der traditionellen Sichtweise ist eine naive Vorstellung über die Realität und die eigenen Möglichkeiten. Durch ein besseres Bewusstsein, dass Ziele immer in Konkurrenz zueinander stehen, bekommen wir mehr Kontrolle über unsere Prioritäten und können dadurch die Dinge erreichen, die uns am wichtigsten sind.