1: “All of the machines hooked up to the child showed that her vitals were within normal ranges,”  Charles Duhigg writes in Smarter Faster Better.

The nurse looking after the baby in the NICU, or neonatal intensive care unit, didn’t seem worried.

But to Darlene, something seemed off.

She alerted the attending doctor, who then ordered several tests.

“When the labs came back, they showed that the baby was … continue reading

1: Darlene worked as a nurse in a neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU, near Dayton, Ohio.

One day as she walked past an incubator, she sensed something was wrong.

“All of the machines hooked up to the child showed that her vitals were within normal ranges,” Charles Duhigg writes in Smarter Faster Better.

The nurse caring for the baby didn’t seem worried.

But to Darlene, something seemed off.… continue reading

1: What’s the best way to make your to-do list?

There’s something satisfying about writing down a task and then crossing it off your list.

“That’s exactly the wrong way to create a to-do list. That signals you’re using it for mood repair, rather than to become productive,” says Carleton University psychologist Timothy Pychyl in Charles Duhigg‘s book Smarter Faster Better.

Writing down a series of short-term objectives … continue reading

1: Jack Welch returned from his trip to Japan in 1993 on fire about the power of stretch goals.

As GE’s CEO, the story of the Japanese bullet train inspired him to rethink his approach to goal-setting, according to Charles Duhigg in Smarter Faster Better.

Within six months, every GE division had a stretch goal.

But there was a catch.

Jack and the division leaders didn’t always agree on … continue reading

1: The year was 1993.  GE CEO Jack Welch was in Japan when he heard a story about the country’s railway system.

After World War II, Japan’s economy had been decimated.

“A large portion of the country’s population lived in or between the cities of Tokyo and Osaka, which were separated by just 320 miles of train track,” Charles Duhigg writes in Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real … continue reading

1: A GE worker had an idea.

He suggested to his managers that they stop outsourcing the construction of protective shields for their grinding machines, as Charles Duhigg explains in Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity.

This employee was taking part in what GE called a “Work-Out” within a struggling division that made jet engine parts.

Yesterday, we looked at a potential trap with SMART … continue reading

1: “It was the late 1980s and GE was the second most valuable company in America,” Charles Duhigg writes in Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity.

“GE manufactured everything from lightbulbs to jet engines, refrigerators to railway cars,” Charles notes.

It was a massive enterprise employing more than 220,000 people.

The company’s leaders thought their formal goal-setting system was one of the keys to their success.… continue reading

1: The year was 1975.

Psychologists Edwin Locke and Gary Latham measured how fast forty-five of the fastest typists at a large company were able to generate text.

“The typists knew they were among the best in the company, but they had never measured how quickly they typed,” Charles Duhigg writes in Smarter Faster Better.

On average, each typist generated ninety-five lines of output per hour, setting a clear … continue reading

1: Google’s People Analytics group wanted to understand how to build the perfect team.

Google has consistently been ranked by Fortune magazine as one of America’s top workplaces.

This result was no accident. “Even as it had grown to fifty-three thousand employees, Google had devoted enormous resources to studying workers’ happiness and productivity,” Charles Duhigg writes in Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity.

The People Analytics … continue reading

1: “Julia Rozovsky was twenty-five years old and uncertain what to do with her life when she decided it was time for a change,” Charles Duhigg writes in Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity.

After graduating from Tufts, Julia worked for a consulting firm, but she didn’t find it satisfying. She then worked as a researcher for two professors at Harvard, which Julia enjoyed, but wasn’t … continue reading