Last year I wrote about my Fitbit, which I had become very attached to. The impact the Fitbit had on me was a surprise: I went from being someone who already exercised a lot, to someone who exercised even more. A few months ago, I lost my Fitbit. It was…
During the time of year when the weather cooperates, I love eating breakfast in my backyard. For many years, I did so while reading the morning newspaper. A couple of years ago, I decided to stop reading while I was eating. I wrote them about that here. But, I allowed…
Explaining “Be Proactive,” the first of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey wrote about pushing the pause button between stimulus and response, in order to respond in a way guided by how you want to live your life, rather than reacting in a way not aligned with…
Here's another reason it's so hard to eat well. While people are more driven to avoid pain than they are driven to pursue pleasure, the pain of bad health is not immediately visible. So the pleasure of a eating a piece of cake is stronger than the idea of the…
In an episode of the TED Radio Hour, "The Food We Eat," I learned more about why watching our sugar intake is so important. One of the speakers was Robert Lustig, a professor at the University of California at San Francisco. When you consume fruit, such as an orange, you…
I was playing with words in my head earlier this year, as I often do, and the title of my book, Six Simple Rules for a Better Life, became "Six Better Rules for a Simple Life". (I wrote about it in my monthly newsletter.) Simple things of all types appeal…
My next door neighbor invited me over a few months ago to check out his "Alexa" (the electronic device from Amazon you can ask to do things for you). I had only heard a bit about Alexa at that point. He showed me the way he uses it to control…
Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, lost her husband to a tragic accident. Sandberg, who is quite famous for her book, Lean In, is writing a book with Adam Grant, the author of two of my favorite recent books, Give and Take and Originals. In a commencement speech at…
I've changed the way I eat in small, but important, ways once again this year. The changes began with my goal of eating more unprocessed whole grains. At first, I moved from cereal made from processed whole wheat (Grape Nuts, made from whole grain wheat flour) to granola, made from…
"Be Organized" is one of my Six Simple Rules for a Better Life. I felt very qualified to write about that subject because I'm about as organized as a person can be. That also makes me feel very qualified to review the new book, Super-Productive: 120 Strategies to Do More…
Back in December, I wrote about an extremely enjoyable and edifying discussion I had with Michelle Gielan. Michelle is the author of Broadcasting Happiness and, along with Shawn Achor (author of The Happiness Advantage, one of the great books I read during the last few years), has created Inspire Happiness,…
A few weeks ago, I wrote this post about all the things I've been clearing out of my house. For many years, I’ve been good about throwing out or donating things I don’t use. My house is not filled with clutter. We have very few toys from when our kids…