About Michael Hyatt

Recently, my wife bought me a Labradoodle puppy. I had wanted one ever since my daughter got hers. My grandson named him “Charlie Brown,” since his fur was a beautiful chocolate brown color. Though he was born in January, we didn’t get to meet Charlie until last week. He spent the first eleven weeks at […]

Several years ago, we had an English Setter named Nelson. He was gentle and patient. He let our grandchildren pull his tail and climb all over him. He only had one real fault. Whenever the door would open, he would bolt like a convict, drunk with his new-found freedom. It would often take twenty or […]

Evernote is one of those rare apps I can’t seem to outgrow. I am always finding new uses for it. In this post, I share twelve ways to use Evernote you might find useful, and perhaps, even surprising.

We’re about 50 percent short of our goal, Dad.” My oldest daughter, Megan, had just called to brief me on our recent new membership campaign for Platform University. It was day four of an eight-day promotion. My heart sank. I don’t like missing goals. Our campaign target was to add one thousand new members to […]

When I was young, a boy could get a copy of D.C. Beard’s American Boy’s Handy Book, and girls could get The American Girl’s Handy Book (though I knew less about that one for obvious reasons). Books like these and many others, including the more recent Dangerous Book for Boys, provide tons of information on […]

When I left the corporate suite at Thomas Nelson I planned to write and speak full time. And that’s exactly what I did at first. One year in fact I gave over 40 keynotes. It felt great! It also felt totally, utterly, completely exhausting. I had come to the realization that, even as an executive […]

[guestpost]Matt Perman is the former director of strategy at Desiring God and is now an author, consultant, and speaker on productivity and leadership from a faith-based perspective. He is the author of the recently released What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done. He blogs What’s Best Next and you […]

The foundation of effective leadership is character. Nothing else has more impact. Nothing else has greater reach. And nothing else can make up for its lack—not education, experience, talent, or contacts. Every now and then you hear a story about someone’s character that brings this principle into sharp focus. Gail and had this experience when […]

I have been making to-do lists since college. In terms of physical systems, I started with the Seven Star Diary, graduated to a Day-Timer, and then landed on the Franklin Planner. At the time, it was state of the art. After reading David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done, I decided to go digital. I did […]

Today is Valentine’s Day. At the Hyatt household it is the third most important holiday of the year, right after Easter and Christmas. When our five daughters were at home, Gail always made a big deal out of it. We ate breakfast on special valentine plates, and exchanged candy and cards.

Last November, I launched my most recent Reader Survey. This is the fourth year I have gone through this exercise. I have benefited enormously each time. Ultimately, I think it also benefits you, because it helps me improve the content I create, whether on this blog, my podcast, or elsewhere. More than twenty-eight hundred people […]

Over the last few months, I have had three young leaders come to me for advice on hiring and firing. In each case, they had made a big mistake in recruiting the wrong person. They were trying to remedy the situation and avoid it happening again. I have made my share of hiring mistakes, too. […]

Several years ago, when I was the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, I was presiding over our monthly business review meeting. One by one, each of our divisional managers would appear before the executive team and review their operating results for the previous month. At the first break, one of my business consultants who was […]

If you are anything like me, you’re already thinking about the year ahead. How will it be different than this one? What might be possible? What do I want to accomplish? It’s time to begin thinking about goal-setting for 2014.

It’s easy to get lost in the moment when hiking through a place like the Colorado Rockies. It happened to me recently. After following a winding trail up a flower-covered slope, I returned down the same trail—or so I thought. It was several minutes before I realized that I was in the wrong place. Things […]

The older I get, the more I believe that gratitude is the answer to almost every problem we face. I recently watched this short video that reminded me of its importance.

Maybe your boss is a jerk. Maybe he is just incompetent. Regardless, few of us get to work for great leaders. Here are five ways to cope.

I am a productivity geek. I want to get more done in less time. I’m always looking for that edge that will make me more efficient. But the last week has been tremendously unproductive. Though I had big plans, I’ve not accomplished much of anything.

When you experience an involuntary emotional response, whether positive or negative, it is often a clue. You have stumbled onto something that will lead you toward or away from your destiny. It’s important to pay attention. For example, not many people know I majored in music for my first two years of college. I played […]

Almost everyone has some important project they can’t seem to get to. Maybe it’s starting a blog, writing a book, or launching a new business initiative. You just can’t seem to find the time to tackle it. Whenever I speak on the topic of Platform, the first question I always get in the Q&A is […]

When I speak publicly, I often ask how many people believe in the power of written goals. Every hand shoots up. Yet when I ask how many of them have written goals for this year, very few hands go up. This always surprises me, given the fact most people know intuitively (and research has proved) […]

According to psychologists, most people have a greater fear of public speaking than of death. As someone who trains speakers professionally, I can attest this is true. It certainly was for me. Even after I had been speaking publicly for years, I still struggled with fear. Even when I was well-prepared. This happened nearly every […]

How many times has this happened to you? You go to bed after a long, unproductive day with the intention that tomorrow is going to be different. Then you wake up the next day and fall right back into the same old trap. It feels like you’re trapped inside your own private version of Groundhog […]

I’ve had my share of pain and setbacks. I’ve experienced a catastrophic business failure. I’ve been fired by clients. I’ve struggled in my marriage. I’ve had children with chronic and debilitating diseases. And I’ve had my own health crises. Fortunately, right now things are going well (knock on wood). But I do struggle with one […]