Once upon a time I wrote about the many uses of binder clips. My dad thought it was just about the dumbest thing ever, but it turned out that his opinion was the minority; it was one of the sleeper hits of that year. When you consider how thrilling it is to learn that an item you already have lying around your home has so many more applications than you previously realized, it's really no ...

If there's one small factor that can subtly bring a household or an office down it's charging cords. We might not be robots quite yet, but we might as well be, since our reliance on our devices makes them more like extensions of ourselves than tools. Like we humans need sleep, our robot pieces need the recharge. The busier the household, the more phones, computers, tablets, and e-readers there are, the more cords there are ...

"Dumb." I said. "I'm sorry; isn't that just kind of dumb?" We were discussing a documentary about a group of three climbers who had attempted, and come within two hundred feet of, the summit of Meru Peak. During the expedition, one climber fractured his neck and one climber nearly died in an avalanche. Despite that, and despite the main climber's best friend having died in the climber's arms on another expedition they went on together, ...

Let's talk about Tamara Magel, shall we? Tamara is a Hamptons based designer who once upon a time had a successful career in consulting. Lucky for the world, she left all that behind to launch a business in consulting--about flexible, seasonally-varying, worldly style in fashion and in the home. I love her work for its unabashed use of a neutral palette, inevitably enlivened thanks to sumptuous fabrics, intricate and interesting fixtures, and an art selection which, ...

1. Use a master notebook or scheduling and list-making system. Stop using a dozen different notebooks, scraps of napkins, a zillion post-its. 2. Eliminate the obvious distractions. Turn off email alerts on your phone. Utilize the Do Not Disturb feature during certain hours. 3. Make phone dates ahead of time with friends, family, and business contacts to avoid the annoyance of playing phone tag. 4. Prepare. The way to avoid feeling frenetic is to be ...