Laura Earnest, Author at Laura Earnest

Podcast Episode 81: My Weekly Review Questions

The weekly review, made popular by David Allen in Getting Things Done, is supposed to help you look back and assess the week as well as plan the next week. I have done various forms of the weekly review for years, but the “review” part of it always slid away in the face of planning for the next week. Recently I made a list of questions that will allow me to do a look back with intention, so that I can assess what happened in the past week – and more importantly, what is outstanding and why. I’m going to call this Episode 81: My New Weekly Review Questions.

by Laura Earnest•June 21, 2023April 9, 2025

Reclaiming Small Pieces of Time

A mindset shift and a timer can help us in reclaiming time in small pieces, yet most people will tell themselves that they can’t possibly get anything done of worth and will fritter it away.

A large part of managing time is to use the time that we have. Small chunks of time can be used effectively if we shift our mindsets and use tools to help us stay within the bounds.

by Laura Earnest•June 19, 2023April 19, 2024

Podcast

Podcast Episode 80: The 5 Podcasts I Always Listen To

A reader wrote in, curious as to what podcasts I listen to. She was particularly interested in how many productivity podcasts I follow. Today I talk about the 5 podcasts I never miss…and there is only one productivity podcast on that list!

by Laura Earnest•June 17, 2023

General

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Me

One of the disadvantages of writing online is that people reading my content don’t know who I am. I am more than I present on the internet, and who I am colors everything I write. I’ve done a few “10 things you didn’t know” posts over the years, and with the discovery of my dyscalculia, I thought it would be good to update them.

by Laura Earnest•June 12, 2023

Dyscalculia

Learning From Dyscalculia

Finding out about a Learning Difference in the middle of your life is disorienting, especially when it’s one you’ve never heard of. Today we talk about dyscalculia and how it has affected me, and how I have found ways around it – and how it has fueled my need for productivity techniques.

by Laura Earnest•June 5, 2023

Podcast Episode 79: Lowering Resistance

One form of procrastination that I fight frequently is what I call Newton Procrastination: a body at rest will remain at rest. It’s the main reason I can’t get moving on things. And the key to fighting this is to make the barrier to motion so small that it takes almost no effort to get past it. We’ll talk about this today in Episode 79: Lowering Resistance.

by Laura Earnest•May 31, 2023

My Excel Billing System

I’ve gotten quite a few questions about how I translate my work notebook into my billing. Today I will show you how I use the OneNote notebook and an Excel spreadsheet to do my timecard, billing and status reports.

by Laura Earnest•May 29, 2023April 19, 2024

Productivity

Estimating Without Time

It’s really hard to estimate how longs things will take. When faced with a list of items and trying to figure out how long it will take to get through them, most of us will drastically overestimate or underestimate the time. It’s because humans are really not good at estimating time. But what if you could estimate without time?

by Laura Earnest•May 22, 2023

Productivity

The Ten Commandments Of Productivity

And the website opened up, and they were pleased to behold a new set of wisdom, shining before them. It shone forth on them, bathing them in a white glow from the screen. And thus it read:

by Laura Earnest•May 15, 2023•1

Productivity

How To Recognize and Avoid Extending Sunk Costs

According to Wikipedia, sunk costs are “past costs that have already been incurred and cannot be recovered.” Usually an economic term, it also applies to other areas of our lives. Failing to recognize them means we put time and energy into something simply because you already have. That is not necessarily wise.

by Laura Earnest•May 8, 2023