One of my favorite organizations in the world is the Institute for Humane Studies. This isn’t because I do contract work for them or because I won their 2013 Alum of the Year Award. I do contract work for them because they’re one of my favorite organizations.

The latest projects with which I’m involved are on time management and workplace performance. There are people out there who are just great at setting priorities and Making Great Decisions in Business and Life. The rest of us need a lot of help and a lot of work. Hence, I’m doing two new things for IHS that should help people (grad students especially) emulate some of my good decisions and avoid some of my errors:

1. A summer workplace performance course with Jason Womack, my favorite thinker on workplace performance, a collaborator on at least one other ongoing project, and the author of Your Best Just Got Better. If you’re a grad student, you’re eligible. If you’re eligible, you should apply because no matter where you are in the process, this will help you clear out distractions and focus on what you really need to be doing.

2. An ongoing series of posts for the IHS Kosmos Online blog titled “My Productivity Bookshelf.” Every Friday will feature a post about one of my favorite books in the “personal productivity” genre. We begin by working through Jason Womack’s Your Best Just Got Better. The first post in the series went live today, and there are a few questions at the end to get us started.

I’m interested in this stuff because there’s a lot I want to do but don’t, and there are a lot of goals out there that I’ve set and failed to achieve. This isn’t to say that every day is disappointment, but rather that there’s always room for improvement. I hope you’ll join us.