“Recession is in the air. It isn’t here for sure, but, damn, when you pay $50 for two coffees and a tart in Paris you know your economy isn’t healthy. Add in the latest energy prices and you see we’re almost definitely going to have a problem over the next year with inflation (compounded since many of our goods come from overseas and our dollar is buying less and less — dramatically less we found on our latest trip to Europe).

If recession and/or inflation is coming, now is the time to prepare. How?”

“Since my days are set to the sleeping patterns of a toddler and the biorhythms of a dog, I have to squeeze my ‘work,’ i.e. writing, interviews, blogging, etc, into naptime and the few hours after the boy goes to bed and before I collapse. I’m pretty good about getting the important, bill-paying stuff done, but unfortunately that means what suffers is Me Time, things like reading books or watching a ballgame on TV without a computer in my lap. When I just spent most of my day stressing out about what I wasn’t getting done because I was at the playground or reading Richard Scarry books 49 consecutive times, I can’t very well justify not doing my stuff when I’m back home and books are put away.”

Ben Stein: “About a week ago, I was swimming in my pool when I had serious difficulty breathing. ‘Uh-oh,’ I said to myself, ‘now I am about to die.’ My wife was upstairs reading, way out of earshot and, anyway, if I were about to have a lethal heart attack, I wouldn’t be able to scream. It turned out to be a nasty but short-lived bronchitis, and as I was lying in bed recovering, I thought, ‘I will die someday, and before I do, I would like to share with you the best possible thoughts I can, in gratitude for the many insightful letters I have received over the years from my readers.’”

“You promised your spouse that tonight was the night you’d be home by 6 p.m. After all, you haven’t even made it home for dinner since… come to think of it, you can’t remember the last time you were home before 10 p.m. or your dinner didn’t consist of processed vending machine fare.

But it’s not your fault, you tell yourself. If you don’t do it, who will? Putting in a little overtime is one thing, but how do you know when “enough” is too much? “

“The United States is the ‘no-vacation nation,’ the only advanced economy in the world that doesn’t guarantee its workers any paid vacation time, says a recent report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. In fact, 28 million Americans are no-vacation workers, receiving no paid time off, vacation or holidays. On the other hand, managers and professionals often get a good deal of vacation, says John Schmitt, a senior economist with the center and one of the authors of the report.”

“David Allen sits in his small office in a cottage behind his house in Ojai, Calif., talking business with a visitor. Suddenly he stops. “That reminds me,” he says. He scribbles the words ‘bird feed’ on a piece of blank notebook paper and tosses it into his inbox. It’s an ordinary moment in an ordinary day. But for Allen and his legion of followers, it holds the key to salvation. He has emptied his mind of a nagging task, placed it into a trusted system for processing, and casually returned to his conversation.”

“In many respects, changing careers is like dumping your significant other. It’s a lot easier to do than solving the problems you’re facing. But in so many cases, hard work and self-knowledge could solve most of the problems. And I have found — in both careers and relationships — that if I get through a tough spot, I learn way more about myself and the world than if I had left and started over.”

“Unclutterer is the website for home and office organization. It’s not just for the helplessly disorganized who would lose their head if it wasn’t attached to them, and pack rats looking to put their stashes on a diet, but also for obsessive compulsive neat freaks looking to squeeze even more order into their lives. We hope we can make getting and staying organized fun and informative.”

“For procrastination, I use the timed dash method if I really need to get something done. I set a timer for 15 minutes, work solidly through that time, then set the timer for 10 minutes and take a break. I prefer, though, to have projects that are so inherently interesting that I don’t need to use external motivation like that.”

“When it comes to vacation, Netflix has a simple policy: take as much as you’d like. Just make sure your work is done. Employees at the online movie retailer often leave for three, four, even five weeks at a time and never clock in or out. Vacation limits and face-time requirements, says Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings, are ‘a relic of the industrial age.’”

John Maeda: “This week is potentially the busiest week of my life. There’s good busy, and there’s bad busy. I think this week qualifies as worst busy. Within the storm, I sat within the eye for a few minutes yesterday. I was leading a session on how the tenure system works at MIT with my colleague Prof. David Mindell. At this meeting, David shared his three secrets to life:

1. Take 24 uninterrupted hours of rest per week.
2. Don’t travel as it wastes time.
3. Say ‘no’ to meetings often.”

“In a productive, well-ordered life two elements must be managed: time and work. Poor time-managers fail to recognize the difference between the two elements: Work is infinite; time is finite. Therefore, you must manage your time, not your work.”

“The reason I know so much about being late is because recently, I have been late a lot. So I have been telling myself that each time I am late I have to honestly think about what sort of behavior is causing me to be late, and write it down.”

“A form of intelligence relating to the emotional side of life, such as the ability to recognize and manage one’s own and others’ emotions, to motivate oneself and restrain impulses, and to handle interpersonal relationships effectively. Originated by Daniel Goldman, psychologist, denoting the cluster of traits/abilities relating to the emotional side of life.”

“Steve Murphy, CEO of publishing company Rodale, says, ‘A line in a William Blake poem inspired me to think differently about my day: ‘Think in the morning, act in the noon, read in the evening, and sleep at night.‘ This has made a huge difference in my life. Now, I take out a yellow pad every morning and write my thoughts for the day, which allows me to be much more strategic and proactive than reactive.’”