Before I explain why I run every day and the lesson you should take from doing so, I want to put things into context for you.

I'm 56 years young, and my 77-year-old mother has late-onset Alzheimer's. She's been suffering from it for over three years now. My mother's mother died of Alzheimer's.

Until about four or five years ago, I didn't take care of myself. I ate what I wanted and whether I exercised or not didn't matter to me.

And then Hurricane Harvey happened to the Houston...

When's the last time you didn't have your phone in your hand or within arm's reach?

Can you remember? Oh, I know I'm with you.

We use our technology so much that it's always with us.

I'm not psychic, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that you're reading this post on some device. Probably your phone, but it could also be a laptop, and I seriously doubt you printed it out.

Consider tech-free time.

For instance, I hope you are taking time to go on a...

I want to help you simplify your life.

There's a lot of information out on the worldwide web, on social media, from your family, friends, and colleagues, and sometimes you don't know who to listen to.

In this article, I will give you four ideas of things you should do every day and four ideas of things you shouldn't do at all.

Do this: smile.

Smiling doesn't cost you anything. And when I say smiling. I don't mean a creepy smile. I mean a genuine, pleased-to-see-you-today...

Sometimes life sucks.

The question becomes: what are you going to do about it?

There will be times when you want the best to happen, but the worst will happen.

For example, I'm a daily runner. I've run every day since August 29, 2017. Now is every day an incredible run? No. Some days my body says, "Hey, I don't want to run." But I still run.

I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been since I was fired from my job back in July of 2005. Is every day, despite my best intentions, super...

Five things you're doing wrong every day.

Number one, you've got the wrong attitude.

Let me ask you a question: when you wake up, what attitude do you have?

Do you wake up excited? Ready for the day? Like a kid on Christmas morning? So excited to see what the day will bring?

Or do you wake up and say, "<groan> It's morning already? Why'd the alarm clock go off? Oh, I don't want to get up yet!"

If you start it with a proper attitude, you're more likely to have a productive...

Got negativity?

That's not a rhetorical question.

Do you have negativity?

You may not want negativity, but negativity is everywhere if you're a human being on planet Earth. And you have to fight hard to avoid it. But while you can't altogether avoid it, you can minimize how much negativity is affecting you.

Here are four ideas on how you can dramatically reduce the amount of negativity you are experiencing.

Number one: reduce the amount of negativity you're consuming.

And not just the...

Stress. It's everywhere in our world today. And I'm not just talking about the events of 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Stress is a part of your life, and stress is a part of my life.

The higher your level of stress, the lower your level of productivity.

In this article, I want to talk to you about some of the causes of stress? What is causing all this stress besides the news of the day? Let's address that right from the top.

Dramatically reduce your consumption of news, including social media. It's...

Is there a better way to plan your time?

I think there is.

I'm always telling you, "tell your time where to go, instead of wondering where it went."

You want to live proactively, live intentionally, and don't want to live reactively. But sadly, a lot of people are living reactively, and they're just saying, "Well, if I work on something, I work on something; if I don't, I don't." And it would be best if you didn't do that.

Please think of me like the crash test dummy when planning...

Your success is your responsibility. In this article, I share nine ways for you to ensure you're setting yourself up for success DAILY.

I mean Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, weekends, and holidays when I say daily. Daily.

Why should it be DAILY? You don't want to be successful just during the workday. You want to be successful seven days a week, 365 days a year, do you not?

Get up before the sun.

Make it a game that you're up before Mr. Sunshine—getting...

Preparing for and returning from vacation or holiday is essential for your productivity and your mental health.

You can control the amount of stress you experience if you are proactive as you prepare for and return from vacation.

BEFORE YOU LEAVE

As soon as you know you're going away on vacation, add this to your calendar.

Then, begin to think about the tasks you do and who you can delegate them. The chances are that you won't find a clone of yourself (wouldn't that be nice?), but...

Do you use the calendar in your everyday life?

What do you put on the calendar?

I want to share several ideas on how to best use the calendar with you.

As a productivity expert and coach, I cannot imagine not using a calendar. A calendar keeps me focused, and a calendar keeps me on task, which is pretty important when you want to be productive.

Don't just put "real events" (whatever that word means) on your calendar: calls with clients, doctor's appointments, interviews, etc. Anything...

A hotly debated topic among productivity experts such as myself is that of notifications.

Should you have any of them enabled? How about just a few? What is the correct answer?

The short answer is: it depends on you.

Here's the bottom line: do the notifications serve you? Or are they a distraction? Only you can make that determination.

I think some notifications absolutely should never be enabled on your phone: social media, email, and news/sports apps (if you even have a news...