Hate doing the laundry? Detest washing the dishes? Do you often put off taking the dog for a walk because you'd rather be cozy in bed watching Law and Order reruns? We've all been there. When it comes to chores and other stuff on our To Do Lists that we loathe doing, we may find ourselves procrastinating -- so much so that we may come home to find the electricity has been shut off due to unpaid bills, we barely have any clean clothes to wear, or the leak we left unattended for weeks now poses a flood risk. While we may never actually grow to like these tasks, here's a valuable tip for helping you carry them out quicker and make them more bearable: With task enhancement, you add a positive stimulus/distraction to the mix so as to give your mind something more enjoyable to focus on while you complete the task. For example, I hate doing exercise after work, but I remind myself that it goes a long way toward keeping the pounds off. If I didn't have my iPod wit...

I went to the doctor's office today for a follow-up. While there, I couldn't help but notice how chaotic the environment was. All three ladies at reception seemed to be tending to three things at once, leaving me to wonder when I was finally going to be attended. We try to adjust our working style and personality  to fit the nature and pressures of our job, sometimes with no success. Some of us work in fast-paced environments where having to meet multiple deadlines within a short time frame is par for the course. Others might work in, say, a government agency where the tempo is much slower, people have the breathing room to tackle one thing at a time, and projects might take weeks if not months to be finalized. I find myself in the latter camp. While my job tends to get boring sometimes because of endless red tape slowing things to a crawl, I prefer this to a position where I feel overwhelmed -- with too much work but too little of me to go around. I've been in th...