Last week, I wrote a piece on my blog that discussed the benefits for you and your business in taking some time off work to enjoy summer. Naturally, part of the inspiration behind that piece was my own realization of the benefit I’ll gain from taking time off, not just from work, but also from writing new posts for this blog.

It’s for this reason I wanted to write a brief note to let my readers know that I’ll be taking a two-week break from writing new content for my site. At the same time though, I didn’t want to have my blog going quiet during this time even if I was taking a short break to recharge and relax.

As such, I’ve compiled a four-part series that focuses on personal development and productivity. Starting tomorrow and continuing over the next two weeks, I’ll be sharing ideas and tips that will help you address the following:

• Why negative self-talk sabotages our ability to succeed and what you can do about it

• Five steps you can take today to help you become more confident and self-aware

• Improving your overall productivity through some simple-and-straightforward strategies

• How you can use procrastination to make you more productive

As always, I welcome your comments and I hope you’ll enjoy the insights I’ll be sharing in these upcoming pieces.

A few days ago, my wife and I decided to take the kids to the beach, to take advantage of the beautiful summer weather that’s been absent in previous years. Admittedly, I did question whether I should bring along my laptop to use some of that lounging-around time to do some writing and such. It only took a moment’s consideration, though, for me to dispel the idea, preferring instead to use this time to watch my kids build sandcastles, or simply floating in the water while my mind drifted off. After all, spending time in such carefree pursuits is what we often associate with taking time off work to enjoy our lives.

Unfortunately, many people are either feeling guilty about taking time off work to go on vacation or worse still, forgoing it altogether in favour of staying ‘on the job’ in order to try and diminish the number of issues currently found on their plates. Many leaders have been very public about their decision to skip taking a vacation this year, rationalizing that it would be unwise to be away from the office given the problems arising from today’s economic climate.

And yet, the reality is that the only unwise thing about these situations is thinking that you’re helping your team by not taking time off from work, a decision that can prove to be more harmful than beneficial for you or your organization. To help prove my point, here are four reasons why you should be going on vacation this summer. Click here to continue reading »”Thinking Of Skipping Your Vacation This Summer? Think Again”

As the title of this piece infers, this will be my last blog post for the year (though I’m not actually going fishing, of course).  For this entry, I want to first thank all of you for visiting my blog, posting your thoughts on the various pieces I’ve written, and sharing this content on the various social networks for others to discover and enjoy.  It’s truly been a pleasure to have such an engaging audience and I look forward to continuing to build on those interactions in the new year.

As I won’t be publishing any new content until early January, I’d like to take this opportunity to invite you to check out my newly-revamped archives page.  The archives have been changed so that all my articles are now listed in alphabetical order, making it easier for you to browse to find some of the pieces you’ve enjoyed reading here, and possibly even finding a few you didn’t get the chance to read yet.  I’ve also made sure to include a section that will allow you to view my content in terms of what month the various pieces were published.

There are other changes I plan on rolling out onto my site in early January.  These changes will be relatively minor, as the goal behind them is simply to refine the focus of this site and blog, as well as ensuring some of the content provided over the last few months is easily accessible for reference for the regular readers, as well as being visible for new readers who may have missed their posting.  In other words, if you’ve been enjoying the pieces I’ve been writing over the last few months, you’ll be happy to hear that more of that kind of content will be offered here on my site.

And with that, I’d like to wish all of you the very best for the holiday season, have a Happy New Year, and I’ll see you back here the first week of January 2010.