Posts by Michael Earls
Time Management Tricks That Actually Work (Because Your Calendar is Lying to You)
Let’s be honest: your calendar isn’t managing your time — it’s just logging everyone else’s priorities. If your day looks like this: Then you’re not bad at time management. You’re just managing time in a world that’s rigged against it. Shift your mindset from “How much can I get done?” to “What’s worth doing?” Before we jump…
Read MoreBreaking Free from the Infinite Workday
I read a recent piece from Morning Brew titled Employees Are Imprisoned in an Infinite Workday, and it hit hard. The headline alone says it all:We’re not just working more—we’re working always. There’s no clear line between “on” and “off” anymore.Emails hit our phones at dinner. Teams pings interrupt workouts. Vacations come with disclaimers: “I’ll be offline… but reachable.” We…
Read MoreThe Morning Hour That Changed Everything
Over the past year, I’ve shared a lot about time management—from managing inbox chaos to owning your calendar, learning to say no, and most recently, reframing your week around the 168 hours we all get. That last one hit a nerve. People were surprised to realize that even with a full-time job, sleep, and family…
Read MoreYou Don’t Have 24 Hours. You Have 168.
I recently read this article by Jeff Haden, and it completely reframed how I think about time. We’re all given 168 hours each week. The difference isn’t who has more. It’s how we use it. Instead of thinking about my days, I’ve started thinking in weekly energy blocks: I didn’t believe it at first, either. But when…
Read MoreCleaning Up My Inbox Changed My Day
Email is where productivity goes to die + unless you build a system that works for you. As someone who toggles between Outlook/M365 and Apple Mail across devices, I lived in chaos. Emails would disappear, rules wouldn’t sync, and I never felt “caught up.” I knew something had to change. Here’s what helped: Now, I…
Read MoreTime Management Isn’t Just a Skill: It’s Survival
Working at Microsoft, especially in a customer-facing role, time is always in short supply. But over the past few months, I’ve been deliberately reshaping how I manage my time. It’s not about squeezing more into my calendar; it’s about doing fewer things better. I used to think multitasking was a strength. But I’ve learned that…
Read MoreMy first trip to the Paris
Far far away, behind the word mountains, far from the countries Vokalia and Consonantia, there live the blind texts. Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic…
Read MoreOhio Information Security Forum
I was asked to present on the following topic to the group on April 12th, 2007. My presentation will be posted online and also with OISF (www.ohioinfosec.org). The Ohio Information Security Forum is a group of enthusiasts and professionals involved in information security, networking, system administration, engineering, and other computing environments.
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